Trying to save advice!

Clouds88

Hey guys I am just after some advice re my SOA and life going forward. I work part time in a good job and I probably will go back full time but when the children are older and my husband is more stable. My husband is out of work as currently suffering mental health problems (worked for 15 years before this and paid his taxes ect) so on top up benefits to help.

Obviously life throws these obstacles at us but I am not getting any younger (30 in a few years!) and I’d love to own my own house. Has anyone else on low income managed to save and do that? Feel free to move this post elsewhere if it’s not right for this board. At the moment I cannot work more due to my husband being my only childcare and his mental health is so up and down I can’t really rely on him to do more and I’m hoping obviously once he gets better he’ll be earning more again so it’ll be easier to save but I’m not sure when this will be? Any thoughts welcome.

Thanks!

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.................... 1
Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 1600
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 837
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2437

Monthly Expense Details[/b]
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 652
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 100
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 37
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 53
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 43
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 29
Groceries etc. ......................... 400
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 120
Road tax................................ 2
Car Insurance........................... 15
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 28
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 24
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 30
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 5
Life assurance ......................... 5
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 30

Total monthly expenses.................. 1783


Assets[/b]
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 1000

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...AP
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,437
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,783
Available for debt repayments........... 654
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 654

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 1,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 1,000

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

theoretica

How well does that match reality? If you are really spending this you should have £650 going into savings every month which is a great result. But you don't have cash savings showing, so I suspect this is an aspirational rather than real SOA. Keep a spending diary and/or look back at your past statements to see what you are really spending.

Karonher

As well as checking what you actually spend, I think the groceries budget can be reduced as it appears that the children are young.

Petrol seems high - do you have a long way to travel to work? If so could you use public transport sometimes or not use the car as much when not at work?

katsu

Can your husband do surveys online? He can do them when he feels like it and even a £10 voucher a month would all help with the family treats etc.

Maybe get him to look at your ideas on the up your income board here?

Well done for having no debt. That's great.

I would def agree with other people - where's the missing £654 a month? Are there things missing on your soa?

JayRitchie

Which part of the country are you in/ would you buy in? This makes a lot of difference.

Grumpelstiltskin

Water rates are high, do you live in the West Country?

Clouds88

Thanks for the replies we are in the south west of England so a 3 bed house is anywhere from £200-280,000.

I don’t deserve congratulating we have both had insolvencies so it will be another 5 years before I can buy but as we currently aren’t earning much I want to start ASAP.

I’ve only got £500 currently saved, prior to going on UC my husband was a student so we had his student income if £600 and were paying different debts before in to insolvency as they were more generous with amounts and with another car we had more expenses. I’ve since gone on to sim only and stopped paying sky and tv license so my other outgoings have reduced. I have also been paying £200 per month for private counselling for my husband but that’s stopped for now as hell hopefully be getting CBT next month.

We’re also going on a little holiday end of this month so I’ve put aside some spending money for that but I’ve said to OH when we come back we need to crack down.

Clouds88

Sorry I mean to before moving to UC we had his student money.

Grumpelstiltskin

OK so where you live explains your water rates.

£400 on food is enormous, do you have access to the cheap supermarkets?

Aldi. Lidl. Iceland, Heron, Home Bargains, B & M etc

Have you looked at the old style board on here for ideas on how to reduce that amount?

wjr4

I’d definitely try to meal plan and shop at Aldi if you don’t already. That’s a lot of money on groceries. Keep a spending diary if you can.

Clouds88

Groceries are something I’m conscious about that we spend too much on but the kids and the husband seem to eat massive amounts and I cannot seem to get it down much, but saying that it does include 2 x take away a month and a weekly McDonald’s. I love Aldi meat and cupboard stuff but not keen on their veg and fruit but I will try to get more stuff from there. Yes I’ll head over to the old style boards thank you