Time to take control

camz2017

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 895
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 28
Electricity............................. 52
Gas..................................... 52
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 32
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 107 (I am assuming this is for you + the kids - if so not bad)
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 27.74 Who is this with and is it in contract? TalkTalk Black Friday Broadband is £19.95 for basic broadband, should be fine unless you live in the back of beyond with terrible speeds. We could watch netflix downstairs, and upstairs at once with it. For a speed boost, vodafone fibre is £20 black friday deal
Groceries etc. ......................... 320
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 200 Download Waze onto your phone, you can hit a petrol button and it will show you all the local petrol stations, and the fuel price. It usually saves me around 3p per litre
Road tax................................ 13.12
Car Insurance........................... 20.23
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20.36
Car parking............................. 0 Is this realistic? I am sure you will need to park at some stage
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 133
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 9.58 Yay - I think you didn't have this before?!
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 60
Haircuts................................ 30 All kids and your own haircuts only £30?!
Entertainment........................... 50 Seems a bit low
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 50
contact lenses.......................... 18
window cleaner.......................... 8
netflix + spotify....................... 23 Any of you got EE - 6 months free apple music. Also have you checked which netflix plan you have, 1 screen might do at £5.99?
Total monthly expenses.................. 2191.15


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 3000

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
very...........................1825.21...100...... .47.9 oh my god!
argos..........................698.02....10....... .29.9
barclay card...................352.9.....10........26.43
next...........................319.56....20....... .22.9
Total unsecured debts..........3195.69...140.......-

https://creditcards.moneysavingexpert.com/?money-transfers - fill this in - do any money transfer cards come back as eligible with 0%? The reason I ask, it would be amazing to clear that VERY store-card onto that.

Midgetgem82

Thanks for your comments camz2017 i have replied
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 895
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 28
Electricity............................. 52
Gas..................................... 52
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 32
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 107 (I am assuming this is for you + the kids - if so not bad)This is for 4 contracts,
it will go down in jan as eldest will be 18 and taking out her own so i can cancel one
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 27.74 Who is this with and is it in contract? TalkTalk Black Friday Broadband is £19.95 for basic broadband, should be fine unless you live in the back of beyond with terrible speeds. We could watch netflix downstairs, and upstairs at once with it. For a speed boost, vodafone fibre is £20 black friday dealUnfortunately we do live in a little village with awful reception and even with fibre broadband we struggle with a good connection
Groceries etc. ......................... 320
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 200 Download Waze onto your phone, you can hit a petrol button and it will show you all the local petrol stations, and the fuel price. It usually saves me around 3p per litreliving where i do there isnt much option for petrol stations so i tend to use tesco as its usually cheapest
Road tax................................ 13.12
Car Insurance........................... 20.23
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20.36
Car parking............................. 0 Is this realistic? I am sure you will need to park at some stageWhere i live there is no pay for parking and in the closest town its the same. I very rarely go into the city and cant remember when i last paid for parking
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 133
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 9.58 Yay - I think you didn't have this before?!You are correct, this is a new addition after being told it was a must! Thank you
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 60
Haircuts................................ 30 All kids and your own haircuts only £30?!I am a hairdresser so this covers my trim and one of my sons who wont let me cut his hair as he thinks only men should cut mens hair lol
Entertainment........................... 50 Seems a bit lowMy boys spend a lot of free time with their dad so he tends to spend on entertainment and i prefer the great outdoors so when they are with me we spend a lot of time at the beach
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 50
contact lenses.......................... 18
window cleaner.......................... 8
netflix + spotify....................... 23 Any of you got EE - 6 months free apple music. Also have you checked which netflix plan you have, 1 screen might do at £5.99? We are all with EE howerever i have the family account with spotify so we all have our separate accounts and everyone is happy, Netflix we have 2 screens as with 4 kids you can guarentee that more than one child wants to watch it at the same time, we dont have sky or anything else so its just netflix
Total monthly expenses.................. 2191.15


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 3000

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
very...........................1825.21...100...... .47.9 oh my god!I know this freaked me out when i looked at my statement, which i never do. I tend to just pay the minimum when the email comes in
argos..........................698.02....10....... .29.9
barclay card...................352.9.....10........26.43
next...........................319.56....20....... .22.9
Total unsecured debts..........3195.69...140.......-

https://creditcards.moneysavingexpert.com/?money-transfers - fill this in - do any money transfer cards come back as eligible with 0%? The reason I ask, it would be amazing to clear that VERY store-card onto that.Ive tried this any cant get one unfortunately

Yesterday i managed to pay £200 off the very account and whilst it made me feel good im eager to get it below 1500 as soon as possible.
Ive also added £150 to my emergency fund. ive cut up my credit card and argos card so i can no longer spend on them. Dealing with cash has also been helping as its scary seeing it disappear

camz2017

I think overall great job! My finances are much worse than yours but I'm plodding and will get there. Being a guy myself I was so surprised to hear the son only lets his hair be cut by another guy, out here in London we pay a premium for a female hair dresser at my salon! I've had a woman cutting my hair from being 16 now!! In your shoes I'd tell him to deal with it, but I'm a harsh personality lol, so perhaps don't listen to me.

All the best!

Midgetgem82

my son has special need so this is why i let him off and allow him to have his hair cut by someone other than myself.

Im not feeling too bad about my budget at the moment just wish i could find a way to cut back further but with 2 teenagers and 2 smalls this is proving tricky. Im meal planning and have been good with sticking to it but feel like my £80 a week food budget is massive when ive seen some people managing on as low as £40. Not had much interest on my recent fb listings so will maybe try gumtree or if not they will be headed to the charity shop as its annoying me cluttering up the house.
Hoping for a no spend day today, fridge and freezer are full and currently nothing else needs paying

DebtFreeDuo

You mentioned you don't have sky, just Netflix, do you actually watch any live TV? I only watch Netflix and Prime and therefore don't require a TV licence.

Midgetgem82

occasionally live tv is watched so wont get rid of the tv license just yet but definitely food for thought

camz2017

Im meal planning and have been good with sticking to it but feel like my £80 a week food budget is massive when ive seen some people managing on as low as £40.

Everyone has different priorities, some people are happy to go source ingredients at a bunch of places like markets + lidl + aldi + home bargains etc, use and collect coupons, batch cook for a full day and freeze meals for the family, cook things from the very scratch and bake things to also make in batches and freeze. Other people, that is not something they prioritise or value.

I think £80 is great for all of you guys, I am budgeting around £40 a week for just myself (and hit £50 last week). In my case I work long hours, try to squeeze in gym also, so don't have a bunch of time. I also really enjoy good food that gives me the right macros and nutrients (when eating at home not out), so it's something I budget for. Also things like protein rich food is pricey, and I take enjoyment cooking and eating stuff I enjoy, so for me it's worth figuring out my budget and sacrificing elsewhere.

Do what works for you, budget for it and plan for it, but be realistic. When I lived at home around 7/8 years back now, for 4 of us my mum would get through £150 every approx 10 days, so £80 all those years later feels like a good number to me!

I always say make your money work for you, and part of that is spending on things that make sense to you, and sacrificing the other things to make the priorities work.

Not had much interest on my recent fb listings so will maybe try gumtree or if not they will be headed to the charity shop as its annoying me cluttering up the house.

Seriously why not use eBay? Bundle up a whole bunch of things at once, some things might make a loss, some make a nice gain, overall you should make a profit - you can go on eBay and search for the item, then view completed and sold listings to see how much it has gone for previously. If it's not looking like a good number, just don't list it and donate it. If it's a good number, get it listed.

RE TV license, for me with a family it's too far to cut that off, especially given when debt busting the TV is often the main source of entertainment e.g. x factor or whatever.

Midgetgem82

Your comment about the food budget makes total sense, i know that either kids would complain about lack of food or lack of variety or i would be annoyed at myself for not sticking to budget so for now will leave it at £80 and find savings elsewhere.

The reason i dont fleebay is i begrudge paying all the fees involved, listing fees, selling fees and then paypal fees gggrrr

I agree, i,d never get away with cutting the tv license as one or another would complain and it is such a small part of my budget.

On another note, saved a little over the past 2 weeks from my fuel budget so made a payment of £38.26 on a bnpl plan on my argos card before that runs out next week.
Ended up paying for my daughters coffee from my coffee allowance so that need to be tightened for the rest of the month, i,m currently allowing 2 takeout coffees a wee. last week i managed 0, this week so far just one for me and dd today.
Have to return some underwear that i ordered online for DD as it was too big so when the refund arrives i'll have to send her in to town to get fitted properly.
Today i have also signed up to 2 survey sites, see if i get anywhere before getting bored of them lol
I really must make a start on my business and admin course either tonight or tomorrow, procrastinating won't get it done

Well what a load of waffle...needed to get it all down and not floating around in my head

Midgetgem82

Evening All
So today i discovered that although i cancelled my sons trampoline course back in july i have still been paying for it so sent a few emails and rather than refund me they are deducting the amount from his gymnastics fees. Its not a great deal, only £47.73. I'm going to wait until the 1st to make sure that the direct debit has been amended correctly then ill throw that money at my very account.
Started an online course today, which i got funding for but needed to install microsoft office on my laptop to complete the course. £9.90 spent unbudgeted.
Picked the boys up from school and treated them to a magazine each £7.74 but took that from the groceries budget as thats going well this week.
Starting to miss the social aspect of going for a coffee, must find another way to get out and socialise
Have done quite a few surveys today and the totals are building nicely, points will be saved until i need birthday gifts then i will convert the points to vouchers to purchase said gift, saving me money.

Midgetgem82

Nothing much to report today, a spend on food shopping £19.98. No other spends today, im feeling rough and in pain and have spent most of he day sat on the sofa. Luckily both ds' have been well behaved and been looking after me