SOA - How?

Compulsive

Also the holiday is booked and paid for but is self catering so we need the spending money for July.
The cash assets is the remainder of the most recent money transfer to clear the OD. We transferred extra as at the point we didn’t even know what a mess we were in so just assumed the worst.

datlex

Compulsive wrote: »

My next issue is I want to do the 7 steps thing. Even though it says to save £1000 before anything else how do I do this while in my OD? Do I just start cutting spending and prioritising saving it over the OD?

When it comes to the £1000 it is a tad misleading. The figure is 1000USD on the Dave Ramsey plan. Which is actually less than £800. Folk chose to stick to the £1000 figure. What you need to think on is worst case unexpected pay out - for myself these would be a kitchen appliances needing replacing - e.g. Oven £160, Washing machine £160 or having to pay my insurance excess £350. Put the worst case amount for you away.

theoretica

Are you in the right council tax band? Worth running through the checks here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/council-tax-bands-change/


No-one has queried the window cleaner - couldn't they be cleaned much less often?

Compulsive

Definitely right council tax band. I never really thought about the windows. I’ll try and get my husband to catch them next time as ask for a clean every second month.

EssexHebridean

More comments in red...

Compulsive wrote: »

Thanks so much to all who have replied. To clear a couple of things up.
Dog is epileptic on every medication going and rescue meds. No other insurance would touch him and at the moment his monthly premium is still cheaper than his meds would be. definitely worth sticking where you are then - correct!
Appreciate points about car money. Second car is newer so no MOT etc but wasn’t thinking of tyres etc. the second car WILL need an MOT at some stage though - best to budget for that from the start really, and will certainly need all the other stuff, as well as regular servicing. If you're tied to main dealer servicing for warranty then that will bump the costs as well. Also you show a value of £3000 for both cars///? That doesn't tally up with one being inside three years old!
In Scotland and unfortunately that council tax is correct! We are second highest band. Water is included. Yes, having worked out where you are, I realised which band you were in.
Life insurance is joint for both me and my husband but does need reviewed.
Home insurance is buildings and contents combined.
Cleaner is absolutely a luxury but my husband is a beekeeper working across various locations so on the two days he’s not at work he’s doing that in the mornings and looking after both kids in the afternoons. We have 4 bathrooms and a huge kitchen so the cleaner comes once a fortnight for 2 hours to do them. We do everything else.
Entertainment is high. Could definitely be reduced. First thing to work on, and an easy win, potentially.
1;1 swimming lessons for my 4 year old and gymnastics is for both him and the 2 year old. 2 year old not yet entitled to any free childcare. 4 year old is half day at nursery. We pay for a childminder on a Friday and playgroup 2 days a week for the wee one. The childminder costs are a necessary evil until both qualify for free hours of childcare - there are ways of reducing what you pay though - hopefully someone with better knowledge than me in that area will be able to enlarge on that. Used to be childcare vouchers but I believe that's changed. I'd suggest that the costs for the swimming and gymnastics are perhaps a little high for such young children though - that seems like quite a lot of structured activity for such little ones!

OK - the cash you currently have, put safely away as the foundation of your Emergency fund - that helps bridge that gap and will stop you reaching for credit if something genuinely unexpected comes up.

As for the holiday spending money, I'd have a long hard think about how much you really need to take, if I were you. Myself and MrEH set aside around £750 for spending during a fortnight away in the UK - that covers all our food and drink, and always a fair amount of eating out in there. We have no debt whatsoever (a 0% card but with the money to pay off sitting in savings earning interest so effectively stoozing) however - not even a mortgage, so our situation is different. Remember that your basic food for self catering while you're away doesn't need to cost much above what it would at home - think about setting a degree of structure ahead of time - if you want to eat out then doing that for lunches rather than evening meals works out better value. Equally sandwiches made at "home" and eaten on a picnic always taste better on holiday! write a list for your holiday "first shop" in the same way that you might if you were at home - and don't be too tempted into adding extras on the "but we're on holiday" mentality. If wanting things like crisps or icecreams when out and about think about finding a supermarket and buying multipacks - rather than buying single packets in a corner shop or garage for example. Food taken for the journey can often help avoid pricey motorway service snack-attacks too! there are so many small ways of saving on holiday without in any way sucking the joy out of things!

Compulsive

Thanks. That all makes a lot of sense. Will review the kids activities although the swimming one is important from a safety point of view.
Holiday is to Tenerife. Just checked it’s actually bed and breakfast. Will definitely stock up at breakfast time for the rest of the day.
Second car is actually on a short term lease from a friend who is working off shore. We pay them £100 a month but will need to return it in July. Hence the lack of MOT cost/value of cars.

EssexHebridean

Agree absolutely about the swimming & safety - maybe cut the lessons back a bit and factor in a visit to the pool to "bridge the gap" with one or other of you, assuming you can both swim?

Good plan to fill up well at breakfast on holiday to allow for a smaller lunch at least.

As for the car - I take it that you have insurance on this in your own names? It's the sort of arrangement that can invalidate the owner's insurance, is the reason for asking. Will you be able to manage with just the one car when the current one is returned to its owner in July? If so then an obvious way of saving money is to park one of the two up currently, and just use the other - if you use the one you've got on loan from the friend, it would save depreciation on your own, too.

Compulsive

Yes it’s a formal arrangement and has all relevant insurance. We could manage yes. It would be a lot harder but could be done!
The lessons are 1:1 so I’m hoping being intensive means cheaper in long run as quicker success?

katsu

Hi Compulsive

Step 1 is to work out how realistic that SOA is. Do you have money left over at the end of the month? As you have not been saving an emergency fund before now and I'm assuming you did not have money left over either, I assume you have either decided not to spend some money that you were spending, or that you have missed things in your SOA?

I would use cards not cash for everything for this month so that you can look at the bank and see where the money is really going.

becominganobsessivesaver

Personally the biggest waste of money for my son was swimming lessons before he turned 5. He didn’t listen and achieved much more from spending time in the water with us. Group lessons at 5 years old have been much more successful and cheaper (only £5 per lesson).