If At First You Don't Succeed

Pink_Giraffe

It looks like I started one of these quite some time ago but my entire life changed not long after with a surprise pregnancy.  Since then my partner has stopped working due to his mental health and I've improved my earnings (a bit), but I have also discovered that he has significantly more debt than I was led to believe.  So I have an all new SOA and any feedback would be helpful; as you can see we're cutting things quite close at the moment.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information

Number of adults in household........... 2

Number of children in household......... 1

Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details

Monthly income after tax................ 1909.64

Partners monthly income after tax....... 0

Benefits................................ 84.2

Other income............................ 0

Total monthly income.................... 1993.84

Monthly Expense Details

Mortgage................................ 383

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0

Rent.................................... 0

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 113

Electricity............................. 57.15 (elec & gas are dual fuel)

Gas..................................... 50

Oil..................................... 0

Water rates............................. 20.14

Telephone (land line)................... 0

Mobile phone............................ 108 (2 phones with about a year left each on contract)

TV Licence.............................. 0

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0

Internet Services....................... 36

Groceries etc. ......................... 400

Clothing................................ 0

Petrol/diesel........................... 60

Road tax................................ 0

Car Insurance........................... 20

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10

Car parking............................. 0

Other travel............................ 50 (train)

Childcare/nursery....................... 180

Other child related expenses............ 22 (swimming lessons)

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 21.2

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0

Buildings insurance..................... 43.05

Contents insurance...................... 0

Life assurance ......................... 5.28

Other insurance......................... 0

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20

Haircuts................................ 0

Entertainment........................... 50 (Netflix, Prime, swimming)

Holiday................................. 0

Emergency fund.......................... 10

Total monthly expenses.................. 1658.82

Assets

Cash.................................... 0

House value (Gross)..................... 115000

Shares and bonds........................ 0

Car(s).................................. 2000

Other assets............................ 0

Total Assets............................ 117000

Secured & HP Debts

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Mortgage...................... 67000....(383)......3.5

Total secured & HP debts...... 67000.....-.........-   

Unsecured Debts

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Via Stepchange.................33170.....150.......0 (not yet agreed)

Capital One....................1597.68...100.......24.1

Aqua...........................1564.04...79.02.....22

Total unsecured debts..........36331.72..329.02....-

Monthly Budget Summary

Total monthly income.................... 1,993.84

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,658.82

Available for debt repayments........... 335.02

Monthly Unsecured debt repayments....... 329.02

Amount left after debt repayments....... 6

Personal Balance Sheet Summary

Total assets (things you own)........... 117,000

Total HP & Secured debt................. -67,000

Total Unsecured debt.................... -36,331.72

Net Assets.............................. 13,668.28

Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com. 

Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

I'm meal planning at the moment to see where we can cut our grocery bills, and little one should be out of nappies very soon which will save us some money.  When the shops reopen I'll be supplementing occasionally with mystery shops, and I already do surveys for Amazon vouchers which I try to save for Christmas.  I do also use Quidco but I don't get much from it, I should probably have more of a look on there to see how I can get more.)

WinterWarrior

Hi Pink, welcome to your shiny new diary. My first diary post was today too.
have you tried Prolific for surveys? I also have top cash back, but don’t get much from that...you have to spend to save, which defeats the object!
Good luck with everything. 

elbree

Hi @Pink_Giraffe 👋 well done on getting it done and down and getting started. It's a tough step. Just having a look at your SOA - is that gas and electric £50 each? Is there anything you can do about your phone's? £100 a month is pretty massive. My mobile is £8 a month and I bought the handset for £100 (it's not especially fancy obvs!) Could you phone them and if there's a different package or something to reduce the cost? Tbh I would phone everyone you can think of utility wise and just ask to reduce costs - it's amazing what companies will offer if you ask nicely! Are you getting free nursery hours yet?

Pink_Giraffe

Thanks for the welcomes

The gas and electric is £107 between the two, we shopped around and this is the cheapest we could get - it used to be £141!!  It's a 3 bed terrace, how much would you say is normal?  It's quite an old house so heating is a bit of a nightmare, blankets are our favourite things!
Mobiles we are unfortunately tied in until next year, after which we're both planning to go onto SIM only.

We get 15 free hours for nursery, which we spread through the full year so comes out to about 11 hours a week, he has another day and a half on top of that.  Anything for my son is at the bottom of the list to change, as he's had a lot of upheaval in the last year or so so ideally I'd like to keep him in the routine he finally has.

CRANKY40

Definitely register for prolific for surveys. I think the full title is prolific academic. Is your buildings insurance buildings and contents? It still seems a bit high unless you live in a flat and there's some sort of management charge? 

Pink_Giraffe

CRANKY40 said:

Definitely register for prolific for surveys. I think the full title is prolific academic. Is your buildings insurance buildings and contents? It still seems a bit high unless you live in a flat and there's some sort of management charge? 

I will definitely have a look!
It is buildings and contents but I must admit we’ve let it roll on so I’ll set my other half on looking for a cheaper option.

Four_Seasons

Welcome, I will be following and cheering you on.

elbree

Pink_Giraffe said:

Thanks for the welcomes

The gas and electric is £107 between the two, we shopped around and this is the cheapest we could get - it used to be £141!!  It's a 3 bed terrace, how much would you say is normal?  It's quite an old house so heating is a bit of a nightmare, blankets are our favourite things!
Mobiles we are unfortunately tied in until next year, after which we're both planning to go onto SIM only.

We get 15 free hours for nursery, which we spread through the full year so comes out to about 11 hours a week, he has another day and a half on top of that.  Anything for my son is at the bottom of the list to change, as he's had a lot of upheaval in the last year or so so ideally I'd like to keep him in the routine he finally has.

It does seem high to me but I'm no expert and of course we've had a lot of cold weather since Christmas. Mine is around £80 in the winter. I would be scrupulous about meter readings to see if you can save anything in another 6 months maybe. The 15 hours is a great start, can you get/have you got tax free childcare or vouchers? I'd never suggest changing anything that works for a little one! You mentioned your partner not working at the moment. Have you investigated Child Tax Credits or any rebates/refunds you might be owed? Sorry for the barrage of questions, just trying to think how you can get your outgoings down a bit and have more left over!

Pink_Giraffe

We've tried applying to see if we are eligible for anything, but nothing.  I can't even get tax free childcare as my partner isn't working - it's annoying as I swapped from childcare vouchers when we were both working as if was better for us, but now of course I can't swap back.

Anyway, onwards and upwards.  Well, not the debt, that's meant to go downwards.  Today I have agreed with Mr Pink what we will add an extra bank account (or similar) for our monthly grocery spend, so we can restrict ourselves more easily and make things simpler.  I like the look of the TSB spend and save, but it seems I need to find a branch to set up a joint account.  Also quite interested in Starling Bank, so more research required.

I have tried to sign up for Profilic but I've been rejected and I can't work out why.  It was all going well until I provided my ID and then they told me they couldn't offer me an account.  My driving license is due for renewal, so maybe I just look too old compared with my photo 

elbree

Grr, two steps forward sometimes isn't it! Sw@gbucks is OK - I get £5 quite often which is always appreciated! If you're moving banks quite a few are offering cash bribes or monthly payments...or both!

anita55

Welcome punk I started my diary today too. Will subscribe if I can find out how to do it in on my kindle and it seems different to before. X