Here goes

hayley1471

I plan to halve these to £60 a month. I usually spend £250 on each child for their birthday and the same for Xmas. So that wil be half next year. Not sure how to organise a children's party on £125 but I expect I will find some money saving ideas on here.

tyllwyd

If you can't organise a party on the money you have to spend, then maybe the harsh reality is that they shouldn't have one? Still, £125 seems a lot of money to spend on a party to me - you could have three or four friends round to your house for a birthday tea, or a sleepover, and not spend anything like that much.

One thing I just realised is that you haven't included anything for clothes in your budget? And do you have a mobile phone?

tyllwyd

I've reorganised your SOA for you to help separate the important stuff from the lifestyle stuff. What worries me is that it still shows you overspending by £250 a month. If you don't manage to cut down, that money is going to go on your credit card, so your minimum payments will go up, so you will end up overspending even more ....


SOA

Income:
Salary: £905
Child benefit: £120
Tax credits: 370
Total: £1395

Outgoings (Some paid weekly but rounded up to a month)
Rent £ 258.00
British Telecom £ 36.00
NPower Gas £ 21.00
Electricity £ 43.00
Yorkshire Water £ 32.00
Council Tax £ 60.00
TV Licensing £ 11.37
Direct Line Car Insurance £ 25.56
Direct Line Home £ 28.54
Diesel £70
Parking £60
Breakdown Cover £ 9.83
Car Tax Savings £ 15.00
Childcare £ 24.00
Pension £ 31.00
Subtotal £725.30

Endowment £ 79.14
Christmas & Birthday Savings £ 60.00 (reduced from £120)
Holiday Savings £ 40.00
Hospital Fund £ 21.50
Subtotal £200.64

Credit cards minimum payments £ 150

Gardener £ 25.00
Brownies £6
Haircuts £28
Violin Lessons £10
Swimming Lessons £12
Subtotal £81

Food £360
Cigarettes £80
Clothes £50 (?)
Subtotal £490


Total: £1646.94


Income £1395
Expenditure £1647
Total = -£252

miss_corerupted

are thee violin lessons for your daughter and does she really want them?? just asking as i remember my mam making me do these type of things as she thought i would like it eventually and be grateful later (i'm not i hated it)

hayley1471

Wow, that SOA us much easier to understand. So if I can knock my outgoings down by £250 and reduce my food bill to £360 a month (Gulp) I should be able to stop spending on credit cards.
Re clothes, I have plenty and cut down on my clothes shopping a few months ago, and to be honest, I like charity shops so quite happy with that. I have to buy clothes for my eldest daughter, but my youngest manages on hand me downs - from friends and her sister.
The £125 birthday budget per child includes gift purchases.
I have a second hand mobile on pay as you go, I top up about £5 a month, if that.:T

hayley1471

Swimming lessons, could probably knock them on the head for the time being. My eldest has violin lessons and says she still wants to do them, but I could take a mummy decision to stop those for a while. Until the Dad starts paying maintenance.

hayley1471

Outgoings (Some paid weekly but rounded up to a month)
Rent £ 258.00
British Telecom £ 36.00
NPower Gas £ 21.00
Electricity £ 43.00
Yorkshire Water £ 32.00
Council Tax £ 60.00
TV Licensing £ 11.37
Direct Line Car Insurance £ 25.56
Direct Line Home £ 28.54
Diesel £70
Parking £60
Breakdown Cover £ 9.83
Car Tax Savings £ 15.00
Childcare £ 24.00
Pension £ 31.00
Subtotal £725.30

Endowment £ 79.14
Christmas & Birthday Savings £ 60.00 (reduced from £120)
Holiday Savings £ 40.00
Hospital Fund £ 21.50
Subtotal £200.64

Credit cards minimum payments £ 150

Gardener £ 25.00
Brownies £6
Haircuts £[strike]28[/strike] 21(reduce down to every 10 days instead of weekly)
[strike]Violin Lessons £10
[/strike][strike]Swimming Lessons £12
[/strike]Subtotal £[strike]81[/strike] £52

Food £360
Cigarettes £80
Clothes £[strike]50 [/strike]20
Subtotal £[strike]490[/strike] £460


Total: £[strike]1646.94
[/strike] £1587.94

Income £1395
Expenditure £[strike]1647
[/strike] 1587.94 Total = -£[strike]252[/strike] -£192.94

hayley1471

So if I cashed in and stopped paying my endowment. I could clear my debts and have a bit left over.

tigerfeet2006

Not critiscising (sp?) but could you cut down or give up on the smoking. You should be able to get help from your Dr if you decide to give up.

hayley1471

Just sold something for £20 on Ebay and my friend gave me another £10 for selling her old TV on Ebay - so I am tucking that away for next month's CC bills.