Trying to keep on top of it all.Busy,crazy ,life!

Catty89

So after all our bills we should be left with £556. But OH puts £300 away and £100 into a shares thing he has that is what we have our savings in an ISA and something called Vanguard..... so after that we only have £156 to use. 
Before summer I worked a second job and took in another 300-500pm but unfortunately it was a bank position and due to a sudden health problem over summer I cannot work this job anymore, they are very understanding and keeping it open for me to go back when I can but it does mean that I am entitled to nothing so to lose 300+ in one go we've really been feeling the pinch. 

Where this money goes is anyone's guess..... pound shops, trips to sains for a look and come out with kids clothes, I have been much better with this since I came out of hospital though, don't want to waste my time at the shops.  Wedding gifts (only recently started that again) new baby gifts etc. I do gift too much I think so Id like to increase the amount I save for Xmas, Bdays but at the same time reduce how much I spend on people and that way it will definately cover it. 
Other things like kids school clothes id like to start saving for that aswell as find it such an outgoing all at once. 

Catty89

greenbee said:

Is there a play area near the dance class? If so, go there, take your own drinks/snacks. Much more fun for the kids, cheaper for you. Just wrap up warm We used to do this, and it was a lot less stressful than trying to get them to sit still/be quiet/not knock their drinks over, plus they used up some energy... 

There is actually, the youngest she is only in for 30 mins so this when we do the costa, then we've 2 hours to wait for the next one and that's when they go to the park etc. But iv decided already that this is going to be stopping, just writing it down I see how much it costs and tbh they don't even care about it, its all me. 

Catty89

When I was putting details into the SOA  I totally guessed that our car was worth around £3000 it's a 2016 pretty basic SUV. Anyway webuyanycr suggests it's £6655! It won't really be worth that as has some scrapes but wow shows I know nothing about how much things cost is about double! 

TheAble

BellaLasagna2018 said:

Catty89 said:

Crazy when you look add it up like that!! 

I used to do that for myself when I was in debt. I still do it, multiply to get the amount spent over a year. It can be an eye opener! 

It's worse when you compound it (i.e. the same expense invested instead of spent). Over a decade, a £7 weekly expense adds up to £5,264.

The following lines of your SOA can be optimized (achievable rates in brackets):

Mobile phone (10 - assuming you already own the phones outright)
Satellite/Cable TV (6 - Netflix basic)
Internet Services (20)
Bank Charges (0)
Amazon Music (0 - not when you're in debt)
Entertainment (0 - not when you're in debt. Get creative and look for free options)
Life assurance (depends on circumstances but worth a review)

No water rates or buildings insurance?

But on the whole it's not a bad SOA. Try and get some money in your emergency fund though  - you shouldn't operate on less than £1000.

Catty89

TheAble said:

BellaLasagna2018 said:

Catty89 said:

Crazy when you look add it up like that!! 

I used to do that for myself when I was in debt. I still do it, multiply to get the amount spent over a year. It can be an eye opener! 

It's worse when you compound it (i.e. the same expense invested instead of spent). Over a decade, a £7 weekly expense adds up to £5,264.

The following lines of your SOA can be optimized (achievable rates in brackets):

Mobile phone (10 - assuming you already own the phones outright)
Satellite/Cable TV (6 - Netflix basic)
Internet Services (20)
Bank Charges (0)
Amazon Music (0 - not when you're in debt)
Entertainment (0 - not when you're in debt. Get creative and look for free options)
Life assurance (depends on circumstances but worth a review)

No water rates or buildings insurance?

But on the whole it's not a bad SOA. Try and get some money in your emergency fund though  - you shouldn't operate on less than £1000.

I need to get in touch with my bank as I have been paying for this account 10 years and barely used any of it. I used the phone insurance once I think and AA a few times but not really enough to justify. We rarely go on holiday either. 
Water rates is included in council tax here and the buildings is building and contents....theres a potential iv mixed up the life insurance with that if they look a bit off?
So we have £3200 saved and out of that £2000 I'm not allowed to touch at all the other amount we dip in if necessary for example paying the excess for a vet bill. 
I need to get the entertainment down...we don't really do any entertaining but I guess it's the things like Coffee, McD's etc. Not necessary when we've a house brimming with food! 

I do really like my Alexa....il struggle to give that up haha!! 

Phones we need to have a look at, my phone is actually broken I'm using a very old phone and still paying the contract think iv another year or so to go. Then unsure what to do, do people buy phones outright iv never looked into it as bad as it sounds. 

Catty89

Today was a no spend day. Had Ds football game in the morning, got home for lunch and the older 2 went out to play with friends whilst I got some cleaning done then went to mil for dinner. I'm just away to get all the kids showered then start my ironing pile. DH making a pot of soup for my lunch this week. Managed to stay away from shops which was very easy, I won't spend anything until Wednesday when I go to asda of all places with my friend for a coffee it's so cheap there and get it after our walk. 

enthusiasticsaver

On the plus side you have a decent emergency fund.  The soa is not bad but at the age your children are I would question whether all the activities are needed? Definitely lose the packaged bank accounts.  They are really poor value and it would be cheaper for your DH to pay for the AA separately or together with insurance when you often get discount on breakdown cover. 

EssexHebridean

A couple of things on the SOA - you say about keeping one chargeable bank account for AA etc, but make sure that it is actually financially viable for what you get. Personally we switched away from the big name breakdown providers several years ago - we now go with AXA for breakdown cover, get a full package including homestart, recovery etc (everything apart from European cover really) and pay under £100 a year to cover two cars. Their service is absolutely second to none as well - by far the best we've found. 

You're showing mortgage payments but no buildings insurance? I hope that's just something you've missed, but if not, sort it!  (OK - now seen your note elsewhere about this bit). Also, I'd budget for the car insurance in cash if I were you. All well and good saying it comes from TCB money but remember cashback is a bonus not a definite, and as you spend less (because you ARE cutting down on your spending, right? ;-) ) you'll also get less cashback. Budget for it as a monthly sum, set that money aside into the same account as you pay the maintenance money into, then if you reach insurance time and don't need it you can either pay that year's insurance money towards a debt, or stick it into the EF.

Your mobile phone costs are high-ish at the moment - diarise for when the contracts finish and switch to cheap SIM only deals. you can then set aside the money you're no longer paying on contracts towards the point when phones need replacing. (rather than upgrading from habit when the contract ends, even when the phones are still perfectly functional!)

On the entertainment spend, I'd lose Amazon music - or if you "must" have music streaming switch to Prime which also gives you a lot of music options included as well as Prime video of course, then also downgrade the netflix to the more basic option. That could take your combined spend for TV/Music from £42 a month down to under £15 - a saving of over £300 a year.  I'd also set aside £20 a month to do "something" with - and if you're cutting back the kids activities a bit too then perhaps aim to make whatever that £20 is spent on aimed at them. There are SO many free options though and particularly younger children really don't care whether what they're having fun doing has cost you nothing or a fortune! 

The last thing I'd comment on specifically right now is that council tax - you say you pay over 10 months so what do you do with the two months of the year where there is nothing to pay? Does that money get transferred straight off against debt? 

Catty89

Hi thanks for having a look.
So this year we used topcashback for the car normally I do u money from somewhere to pay the car. I don't save the council tax I feel there's something that always seems to crop up around then surprise surprise, I'm sure we could save it away really as don't normally have that money.
I told OH about Netflix and he's not too keen as he has his sister and someone else on it and would rather just leave that so going to leave Netflix but il definately look into the bank accounts. 
I have an overdraft on mine so I guess il need that paid before I get a different account, it's not much so wouldn't take long to get out of 
My main thing is the activities and I agree at this age it's a bit much. Think just got a bit caught up in these things and add more classes when in reality they'd be happy with anything really they like walks, scooter, bikes etc. 
From my life a few years ago iv MASSIVELY cut down, we were at trampolining or softplay every week. Farms, activity days every weekend and eating out. Since lockdown iv really scaled back but I guess what iv done in the past still has to be paid for! 

Catty89

No spend day today. Was working until school pick up and then took the kids to there club. Only £1 each but I already have that as a 'bill' 
Sausage, mash and gravy for dinner and choc chip ice cream. Should be another NSD tomorrow.