*sigh* this may take a while

Yellow_mango

Child 3 residential school trip is PGL, I hadn't realised until recently that you could book them in yourself, I always thought it was just schools need to investigate further

If you do look into this it’s worth clubbing together with a few other mums. They do 2:1 offers regularly over the summer, and the kids get to share rooms with their friends. It’s not awful value for a weeks all inclusive childcare. And they take childcare vouchers!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

One of my colleagues has left to become a locum radiographer. I do wonder sometimes if I'm not missing a trick not doing the same. My current hourly rate is £19.20 with the NHS, she's getting £34 per hour, which is standard for our level.
Obviously, she won't get sickness, pension or holiday pay, but she's going to save some into an account so she could pay herself 6 weeks holiday and cover up to 6 months off for illness which is what the NHS would cover. They've been whittling away at our pensions, so although still decent, they're nowhere near as good as they used to be. Food for thought!

mark55man

although I understand that the NHS pensions have decreased in the benefits they provide, I believe they are still far superior to most of what is offer outside of public service. so they may not be solid gold anymore, they are at least gold plated - and probably worth (irrespective of whatever you contribute) 30% extra on your salary. you should ask on the pensions forum where some very knowledgeable and helpful posters hang out. only mentioning it as it could be a big mistake. pensions are an area where mistakes are hard if not impossible to undo

ohdearhowdidthathappen

mark88man wrote: »

although I understand that the NHS pensions have decreased in the benefits they provide, I believe they are still far superior to most of what is offer outside of public service. so they may not be solid gold anymore, they are at least gold plated - and probably worth (irrespective of whatever you contribute) 30% extra on your salary. you should ask on the pensions forum where some very knowledgeable and helpful posters hang out. only mentioning it as it could be a big mistake. pensions are an area where mistakes are hard if not impossible to undo

Yes, very true. I must admit to being a bit clueless about pensions, but I've been looking at it over the last couple of days. 9.3% of my pretax salary gets deducted for pension, since earlier this year NHS contributions have gone up to 20% (it was 14% before).

They definitely tinkered with them though, they've changed retirement age to be in line with the state one. Can't imagine lugging heavy equipment (and patients) around until I'm 68 :eek: I guess it makes the financial incentive greater to be better with our money, so we can retire early! They've also changed it to career average, whereas before you could pick your 3 best years out of the last 10 and your pension was based on that. Not great for part timers like me! My manager, for example, has just retired. She worked part time as a radiographer most of her career.... 5 years ago, she accepted a management role full time. Her entire pension will be based on her £55k full time salary. Nice! I guess that's what this career averaging change stops, must cost the pension pot a fortune

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Just agreed for my son to go on a scout camp in the summer hols, £200. It's 8 days, so very good value and he'll love it (and it gets him off his screens!). They don't mollycoddle them and I think it's very good for them.... we can absorb the cost, but I think I need to adjust our budget a bit, all these trips are not covered by the amount we're putting aside.
Have been pretty good at avoiding the sales this month, we don't need anything, so I haven't looked! Progress.
I'm starting to put together some ideas for the summer hols, I think if I plan some low budget days and days close to home, it'll stop me mindlessly taking them to expensive places. I'm thinking of setting a budget for the school holidays too, keep us in line! It's a long stretch of time to fill and as the children are aged 3-16, it makes finding activities they all like tricky.

mark55man

With a mixed gang like yours I can only imagine how difficult days out are. However, can I recommend (weather permitting) a focus on walking/hiking. A bit of organisation, possibly even a few spends on kit, but one of my few regrets is not doing much more of that when ours were growing up.

picnics or an ice cream at the end can be a cheap treat (especially a 6 pack of cornettos from a corner shop if you can find one near somewhere nice to walk.

canal walks are nice - although with a 3 year old possibly not yet. even a walk around the park with a ball or too can use a lot of energy and be fun

trips to the beach can likewise be good if you can find somewhere cheap to park

katsu

I've gone through your SOA and tried to give you some ideas to think about.

ohshithowdidthathappen wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 5
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1670
Partners monthly income after tax....... 4400
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 6070

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1620
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 200
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 228
Electricity............................. 80
Gas..................................... 80 checked your tariff recently? Worth checking you are on the best deal and then considering whether you could reduce your usage at all?
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 40
Telephone (land line)................... 40 includes broadband Virgin now offer broadband without a telephone. As you all have mobiles do you use the landline? Might be worth looking at?
Mobile phone............................ 40 5 x SIM only plans Looks a great price
TV Licence.............................. 10
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 10 Now TV and Netflix
Internet Services....................... 0 included with phone
Groceries etc. ......................... 700 high! includes booze and toiletries Some store cupboard challenges? Try and use up what you have at home? Shopping at Aldi/Lidl?
I love their food and people rate their wine/COLOR]
Clothing................................ 250 high, but for 7 people even for 7 people, £3k a year seems a lot on clothes, but I guess work wear and school go through clothes
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 24
Car Insurance........................... 50 We use AutoAid breakdown cover,
Only £60 a year for 2 people so might be worth a look depending on where you budget for your breakdown cover?
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20 Are you now saving this?
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 300
Other child related expenses............ 200 pocket money and clubs
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 22
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 30
Buildings insurance..................... 20
Contents insurance...................... 16 Seems a good price for both
Life assurance ......................... 35 recently updated to cover increased mortgage
Other insurance......................... 25 professional indemnity
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 200 sounds a lot, but covers Xmas too Any way to reduce this? It depends how you want everything to be in your life but you've got the clubs, the entertainment, the holidays plus presents all taking a fair chunk of your disposable income
Haircuts................................ 50
Entertainment........................... 150
Holiday................................. 200
Emergency fund.......................... 100
Boiler cover ........................... 32 only until Dec 2019, cheapest way to get boiler fixed
Total monthly expenses.................. 4972


Assets
Cash.................................... 0 I guess the savings for presents, christmas, etc above are a new habit you are starting?
House value (Gross)..................... 725000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 15000 1 car is on finance (HP) other is very old
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 740000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 350000...(1620).....1.89
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 15000....(200)......2.9
Total secured & HP debts...... 365000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Folks..........................8500......0.........0 no minimum - as and when
Total unsecured debts..........8500......0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 6,070
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 4,972
Available for debt repayments........... 1,098
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,098 Does the bank match up to this?

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 740,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -365,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -8,500
Net Assets.............................. 366,500

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

ohdearhowdidthathappen

mark88man wrote: »

With a mixed gang like yours I can only imagine how difficult days out are. However, can I recommend (weather permitting) a focus on walking/hiking. A bit of organisation, possibly even a few spends on kit, but one of my few regrets is not doing much more of that when ours were growing up.

picnics or an ice cream at the end can be a cheap treat (especially a 6 pack of cornettos from a corner shop if you can find one near somewhere nice to walk.

canal walks are nice - although with a 3 year old possibly not yet. even a walk around the park with a ball or too can use a lot of energy and be fun

trips to the beach can likewise be good if you can find somewhere cheap to park

All great ideas, thank you. I like the walking idea, my husband and I were avid hikers before we had the children, would be lovely to make it a family activity.

I asked them at the weekend to come up with an idea each that they'd love to do.
Seaside, aquarium, zoo and trampolining were the outcomes.

I'm thinking if I do one of those ideas each week of the summer hols as the 'big' days out, then the other days, I can mix it up with park trips, National Trust visits and visiting friends (or them coming to us)

I bought my older 2 season passes to Thorpe Park ack in March as we live within 30 mins of it. They were £50 each, but they use them loads and the deal is they pay for their lunches out of their pocket money. They're saying they'll go once a week in the summer I could use those days to do activities that suit the littler ones

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Thanks Katsu, I've had a look at your suggestions

- I have looked at our tariffs and couldn't find cheaper. It's our usage that's the problem; heating always on in winter, lights always left on, dishwasher, tumble dryer, washing machine always on the go. Kids all have multiple gadgets plugged in
- Virgin is rubbish in our area, which is a shame, as deals look fab. We're with BT and for the SIM only deals on our mobiles too.
-Food shopping is definitely an area I need to look at. I like to get it delivered as hate shopping, but means Aldi/Lidl is more tricky. I have been to both for a nose and was very impressed with prices etc, but been too lazy to work harder for my shopping
-I switched to Autoaid earlier this year, so much cheaper! Not listed on SOA, oops.
-clothes, definitely another area to trim back. Although school uniform, clothes, shoes for 5 kids plus work gear for husband (I have a uniform) does seem to add up! I need to get firmer with older 2... they don't mind some cheap stuff, but trainers, hoodies etc tend to be designer (although I do go to outlets, never full price)
- presents are another weakness; we like to spoil the kids at Christmas and on their birthdays and we buy for quite a lot of family too. I changed it a few years back to kids only, which helped. Parties through the year add up, the kids can go to 8 parties a month. I used to do £10 per present, but have got into sale buying, multi buys etc and stockpiling when I see a good deal on lego etc... means it looks like I spent £10, wheras more like £5!

We do seem to have around £1k spare to play with but we do have a tendency to still be a bit spendy. We're also still decorating/furnishing and find that that absorbs our cash.

I'm aware that although we're living within our means, we haven't really got our spending habits under control. It's just the healthy income keeping us out of mischief. Definitely a work in progress

ohdearhowdidthathappen

We had a relatively low spend weekend... I worked Saturday, hubby took kids round to his mums and then the park. We made homemade pizzas for dinner, all ingredients from our cupboards.

Sunday was a DIY day, took most of it to fit 3 blinds! We had quotes for made to measure roman blinds, £750!! Ouch. Instead, we bought ready made roller blinds for £100. Obviously still money spent, but a massive saving to what we'd usually do. We took kids swimming (£10) and then I cooked dinner from meat we had in the freezer, big stew and made dumplings too.

So today's spends....

£16 for child 3 school trip
£10 for picnic stuff for school sports day tomorrow - bought from Lidl, money went along way!

I'll be decorating today, but everything I need already bought in, so no more spending required for the day as made lunchboxes for the other 6 out of what we hd in the fridge