Can i ask this???

Oakdene

katie4 wrote: »

Hi I would say they are affordable now as I became Full time in December I think i just need to learn how to budget and find out where my money is going.
I have cut down our spending especially on take aways, and we have set a grocery budget, we always find we have no luck as soon as we have a bit extra money something always seems to happen, like we had a flat tyre last week, then school trips to pay for

Great news that you have more money coming in, though as others have mentioned you should post a statement of affairs & people will be able to help you

katie4

SOA


I am aware we have enough money left over to put towards our debts
We have only recently started having this extra money as I became full time in December I have not yet managed to figure out how best to manage this




Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1100
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1400
Benefits................................ 137
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2637
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 362
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 123
Electricity............................. 44
Gas..................................... 44
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 46
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 90
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 30
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 300
Road tax................................ 40
Car Insurance........................... 90
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 18
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1520

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 85000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 86000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 56500....(362)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 56500.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Aqua CC........................4000......160.......42
Barclaycard....................1200......30........18
Tesco CC.......................3300......60........0
Sainsburys Loan................2000......201.......0
Natwest Loan...................360.......46........0
CU Loan........................300.......46........0
Total unsecured debts..........11160.....543.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,637
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,520
Available for debt repayments........... 1,117
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 543
Amount left after debt repayments....... 574
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 86,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -56,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -11,160
Net Assets.............................. 18,340
Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

fatbelly

That looks pretty realistic for the most part. So it's just a case of throwing what you can at Aqua until it's gone.

I suspect you will be averaging more that £10 a month on car maintenance and MOT as you appear to have 2 older cars and very high mileage.

Council Tax - is that over 10 or 12 months? Going to 12 next year should make a difference.

I would put something in for clothing and also consider a basic contents insurance policy - maybe getting some cashback from Quidco/topcashback.

But overall if you stick to this I can see you being debt-free within 3 years.

katie4

fatbelly wrote: »

That looks pretty realistic for the most part. So it's just a case of throwing what you can at Aqua until it's gone.

I suspect you will be averaging more that £10 a month on car maintenance and MOT as you appear to have 2 older cars and very high mileage.

Council Tax - is that over 10 or 12 months? Going to 12 next year should make a difference.

I would put something in for clothing and also consider a basic contents insurance policy - maybe getting some cashback from Quidco/topcashback.

But overall if you stick to this I can see you being debt-free within 3 years.

Thanks for your reply
Yes we have two older cars plus one is a 2.4 which doesnt help on the petrol cost, we both work full time and we both work out of the city in which we live which isn't ideal either


Not sure about council tax but we do get two free months a year


although we have the income now, we still find ourselves struggling to reach eat pay day so im assuming we're overspending somewhere i just need to find out where

Pixie5740

Try keeping a spending diary to see where your money is going. You are home owners yet have no emergency fund so if anything needs maintained or repaired it isn't being budgeted anywhere. Likewise you have nothing budgeted for entertainment. These things will be coming out of the £574 the SOA above shows you should have left each month. Those are just a couple of examples, a spending diary will probably throw up more.

£90 a month is a lot to spend on mobile phones. How many phones are you paying for?

katie4

Pixie5740 wrote: »

Try keeping a spending diary to see where your money is going. You are home owners yet have no emergency fund so if anything needs maintained or repaired it isn't being budgeted anywhere. Likewise you have nothing budgeted for entertainment. These things will be coming out of the £574 the SOA above shows you should have left each month. Those are just a couple of examples, a spending diary will probably throw up more.

£90 a month is a lot to spend on mobile phones. How many phones are you paying for?

thanks yes i might start doing that, we have two mobiles in contract though

Pixie5740

katie4 wrote: »

thanks yes i might start doing that, we have two mobiles in contract though

£90 a month for two phones is still high. Maybe have a look at MSE's tips for cutting the costs of phones and/or see what your current provider(s) can offer you.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/phones/mobile-phone-cost-cutting