Popping prosecco while saving for champagne 🍾

Chrystal

Think you definitely need to check it again as according to what you've got down you don't have any TV, internet, clothes to buy, no birthdays, Christmas or holidays. Road tax or car maintenance?

If it IS correct will you please tell me the secret?

[Deleted User]

Chrystal wrote: »

Think you definitely need to check it again as according to what you've got down you don't have any TV, internet, clothes to buy, no birthdays, Christmas or holidays. Road tax or car maintenance?

If it IS correct will you please tell me the secret?

Ditto (I'd also want your secret ) It doesn't look like your mortgage payment or the minimum monthly payments on the 2 CCs is included either. Took me at least 3 attempts to get mine done, so don't worry too much about editing your first attempt! You're on the right track.

Champagnemummy

I knew I would get bits wrong �� I was copying it from my hand written one that I have. I didn’t add any birthdays or Christmas because I already have these saved for and it’s not something we actually save for properly each month so this is something we need to now do. I also shop ahead of time so I don’t have a set pot for clothes .. by ahead of time I mean I’ve already kitted all three kids out for winter, so won’t need to buy them anything until next year should I budget for this? I always do next sales from vouchers we get for Christmas normally I get about £300/400 and kit the kids out and then re do this in summer if that makes sense? Do I still need a pot? My mum also always buys them clothes and I kit myself out from birthday money

We also do our car tax in one hit and don’t pay it monthly didn’t know if I needed to budget that?


Oh now I feel very frazzled off to re look now thank you all for your help I definitely need it.

[Deleted User]

You can look at stuff annually, but car tax will need to be paid for next year too, so whilst it might be a bit overwhelming to include that just now, it will save you some hassle in the months to come if you include it monthly too

I'd probably include a bit for clothes anyway, just to make sure you're covered, but that's fab you're all sorted for this year

You've done a great job getting this far with it, so please don't beat yourself up too much - it's one of the benefits of being on here, people always find things you hadn't thought of, it's all a learning process

Champagnemummy

[Deleted User] wrote:

You can look at stuff annually, but car tax will need to be paid for next year too, so whilst it might be a bit overwhelming to include that just now, it will save you some hassle in the months to come if you include it monthly too

I'd probably include a bit for clothes anyway, just to make sure you're covered, but that's fab you're all sorted for this year

You've done a great job getting this far with it, so please don't beat yourself up too much - it's one of the benefits of being on here, people always find things you hadn't thought of, it's all a learning process

Thank you, one of the reasons I put it on here was for the help I know people can give and as this is my first time tackling anything like this I need all the help I can get.

One of the saving pots I want to have is for yearly bills so I’ll put that in to my soa, as I don’t want to be worrying about it when it all comes background next year!

Thank you for your help x

enthusiasticsaver

Champagnemummy wrote: »

font=courier new]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................ 0
Partners monthly income after tax....... 3100
Benefits................................ 190
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3290

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 691.6
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 156
Electricity............................. 72.5
Gas..................................... 72.5
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 50
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 120
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 400
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 136.6
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 160
Other child related expenses............ 20
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 44
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 36.6
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 200
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2259.8


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 270000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 15000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 285000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 204000...(691.6)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 204000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit card....................5000......0.........0
Credit carbs ..................300.......0.........0
Loan...........................11000.....243.9.....0
Total unsecured debts..........16300.....243.9.....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,290
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,259.8
Available for debt repayments........... 1,030.2
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 243.9
Amount left after debt repayments....... 786.3

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 285,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -204,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -16,300
Net Assets.............................. 64,700

The biggest item that jumps out at me is £120 for mobile phones is huge and yet you have nothing down for internet services at home. Do you just use the mobiles? If so those are really expensive. Are they on contract?

Annual costs like insurance for the cars and savings pots for presents, clothing etc are essential in helping you budget and stay out of debt. You need something for car maintenance as you have 2 cars. Even if your kids are kitted out for the winter you will need to consider next summer for things like shoes, etc so I would put something away even if mainly you use vouchers from birthdays or xmas.

Your buildings (and contents presumably) insurance is really high. That would be better bought annually as much cheaper (as is car insurance). Do you use comparison sites? What about TV licence?

You have not put the credit card repayments or interest rates down but if that soa is correct then you have a lot of free money to throw at them or the loan. What interest rate are you paying on that? Do you really have almost £800 spare each month? I am guessing not as otherwise you would have no debt so there are spends you have missed off your soa.

First and foremost you need an emergency savings fund to stop your debt reduction programme from being derailed if you have any unexpected bills which cannot be avoided.

Chrystal

Firstly don't Panic!

It's a case of realising that from an annual income EVERYTHING has to be covered. The hard part can be remembering what 'everything' is. This includes things like school trips, friends parties that the kids take presents to, kids pocket money, clubs they go to etc etc. Do you use a hairdresser/barber> If so you need a 'pot'
Your cars will need servicing and insuring, and where does the money come from if there is a household emergency and the washer and hoover both decide to pack in at once? For this you need to save an Emergency Fund that is actually used ONLY for Emergencies.
People have different sums in these but the smallest needs to be £500 and most are happier with minimum £1000. Unless you've got some money stashed away this obviously also has to be saved monthly (assuming you get paid monthly)
Food budgets can sometimes throw things out - some months have 5 weeks in them! Work out what you have to spend on food monthly, times it by 12 then divide by 52, 'This will give you your weekly food budget.

You may have winter covered this year but where is the money going to come from next year for shoes uniforms etc, especially when they start to grow like bean poles and things have to be replaced before they've had any wear from them! :eek:

Most people find it easier to save in individual 'pots' either real ones (envelopes?) or virtual ones using bank accounts. Don't know if you've looked at YNAB- (You Need A Budget) but many people on here swear by it. You can get a months free trial and there are UTube videos to help you understand how it works. (I've also heard of people asking for another months free extension while getting to grips with it)

It may take you a few goes to get it right, but you will get there. You may also find yourself surprised at where the money is actually going when everything is written down properly! :eek: :cool:

Champagnemummy

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

The biggest item that jumps out at me is £120 for mobile phones is huge and yet you have nothing down for internet services at home. Do you just use the mobiles? If so those are really expensive. Are they on contract?

Annual costs like insurance for the cars and savings pots for presents, clothing etc are essential in helping you budget and stay out of debt. You need something for car maintenance as you have 2 cars. Even if your kids are kitted out for the winter you will need to consider next summer for things like shoes, etc so I would put something away even if mainly you use vouchers from birthdays or xmas.

Your buildings (and contents presumably) insurance is really high. That would be better bought annually as much cheaper (as is car insurance). Do you use comparison sites? What about TV licence?

You have not put the credit card repayments or interest rates down but if that soa is correct then you have a lot of free money to throw at them or the loan. What interest rate are you paying on that? Do you really have almost £800 spare each month? I am guessing not as otherwise you would have no debt so there are spends you have missed off your soa.

First and foremost you need an emergency savings fund to stop your debt reduction programme from being derailed if you have any unexpected bills which cannot be avoided.

Surprisingly we do have just under 800 a month left each month once everything is paid for but we don’t save so this is an issue one of the loans my partners work pays for as it’s for his car so I wrote it in but it’s technically paid for if that makes sense I guess I could have left it off not sure. But it’s in his now so I class it as our debt

I have missed off tv which includes internet and phone this is 48.00 I need to add this but I’m just in the process of lowering it or changing as it’s really high we pretty much watch Netflix and CBeebies and that’s it :rotfl:

I ALWAYS use comparison sites and top cash back im a bit addicted - the home insurance is quite high but we have only just changed it and this was the cheapest we could get - we did add on a few things tho as we have a few high end items we wanted covered but I don’t think it brought it up that much.


I’m going to make my partner go back through everything again tonight but when we did it on paper we had just under £800 left a month that we have been pretty much wasting! I know this is bad but we have been on a bit of autopilot the last few years with having three babies in less then a year we haven’t had a second to stop and think until recently and we still only get about 2 hours sleep a night I have no idea how my partner manages going to work on little sleep but he’s managed and completed uni at the same time!!

Thank you so much for your help I’m going to get this all sorted tonight it’s on my list, one of many lists lol I’m so ready to get this debt off and have an emergency fund which I have started saving for already

enthusiasticsaver

If you can locate the missing money, start saving for things and make a debt reduction plan you can sort this easily. The lack of sleep cannot make life easy but hopefully as your twins get older this will get better. I am guessing you don't get free childcare until January 2021?

Hopefully you can start to earn some money from your makeup business in the New Year. Do you have a plan of how to start this? It is a niche business but I guess you need to be near some TV studios ideally or are you aiming for private clients?