Childcare, Single-Income Family & Monitoring Cashflow

Shoxt3r

Hi all,

I've now been through the SOA calculator which I did find to be quite complex since we have such a mix of payment schedules (some are annual, every 6 months or so, bimonthly as well as monthly too). However, here are the results with some additional notes added:

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................ 2232.18

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

Benefits................................ 84.6

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

Total monthly income.................... 2316.78

Monthly Expense Details

Mortgage................................ 540.5

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

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

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 169

Electricity............................. 40

Gas..................................... 40

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

Water rates............................. 25

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

Mobile phone............................ 14

TV Licence.............................. 13.25

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

Internet Services....................... 40.17

Groceries etc. ......................... 460

Clothing................................ 15

Petrol/diesel........................... 40

Road tax................................ 13.56

Car Insurance........................... 28.56

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 58.33

Car parking............................. 10

Other travel............................ 243.6

Childcare/nursery....................... 0

Other child related expenses............ 54

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 9.24 (only regular prescription is Opticians every 2 years so amount divided by 24)

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 39.16

Buildings insurance..................... 10.2

Contents insurance...................... 10.21

Life assurance ......................... 56.4 (Mortgage-related Life Assurance)

Other insurance......................... 22 (Boiler Cover)

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 69.16

Haircuts................................ 13.33

Entertainment........................... 80

Holiday................................. 41.66

Emergency fund.......................... 0

Total monthly expenses.................. 2156.33

Assets

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

House value (Gross)..................... 0

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

Car(s).................................. 0

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

Total Assets............................ 0

Secured & HP Debts

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

Mortgage...................... 103777...(540.5)....1.69

Total secured & HP debts...... 103777....-.........- 

Unsecured Debts

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

Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-  

Monthly Budget Summary

Total monthly income.................... 2,316.78

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2156.33

Available for debt repayments........... 160.45

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0

Amount left after debt repayments....... 160.45

Personal Balance Sheet Summary

Total assets (things you own)........... 0

Total HP & Secured debt................. -103,777

Total Unsecured debt.................... -0

Net Assets.............................. -103,777

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

Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Some notes to bear in mind:

• The travel expenses are not as high at the moment as I'm full-time Working From Home but this is unlikely to be the case in the next month when I will be expected to be in the office at least once a month.
  
• Internet Services takes into account a personal domain name, email services and website hosting as well as Fibre Broadband.
  
• As per my previous posts we're looking to budget much more on our groceries - the above is based on £90.00 a week plus an average of £100.00 additional to cover high street shopping for essentials which aren't available in our online shopping.
  
• All insurances, vet bills and car maintainance costs are paid annually for the most part so I have divided these by 12 to fill in the monthly cost. We avoid monthly costs where possible to ensure we're not paying for interest (and also for peace of mind that we are covered no matter what)
  
• Electricity & Gas is based on £80.00 Direct Debit a month since we are on the Vari-Fair Tariff with Bulb. This reduces to £60.00 a month on average during the Summer months.
  
• As previously stated we will be looking to take our child to nursery from January 2023 but using the free hours available to us from that point
  
• We have some savings available to us but I didn't feel this was worth entering into Assets since we're also unclear on the house and car value (car was last valued when I looked into getting an alternative 2 years ago so is probably very inaccurate now).
  
• Unsecured Debts is blank as we use Credit Cards but pay them off in-full at the end of each month via Direct Debit to avoid interest being payable.

Please let me know if anything is unclear.

EDIT: Error made on Satellite/Cable TV as TV Licence was already covered - that'll teach me for doing it late!

mumtoomany

Well done on filling out the soa. Looks like no money left each month. If you are trying to cut your expenditure you could look at the following. 
1. Groceries. £460 is a lot for only three of you. I realise that the little one possibly needs nappies etc out off this, but they also eat less. I know this is an area you have said you will be visiting. 
2. Satellite/cable tv. A huge amount to be paying, in my opinion, but then i remember when the choice was only two channels and both of those were black and white. Do you use all of this? Have you rung and threatened to leave, they may cut the cost. Many people on here have found they do.
3. Life assurance. This seems very high. Have you looked around for a better quote?
Well done also on having the whole debt section missing. Normally on these soas 
there is a long list of credit cards and loans. You obviously know how to live within your means. The trick now is to live under them. Fuel is on the rise, as is food. Having some money behind you would also be useful for of the worst happens. 
Good luck with this. Mumtoomany.xx

Shoxt3r

mumtoomany said:

Well done on filling out the soa. Looks like no money left each month. If you are trying to cut your expenditure you could look at the following. 
1. Groceries. £460 is a lot for only three of you. I realise that the little one possibly needs nappies etc out off this, but they also eat less. I know this is an area you have said you will be visiting. 
2. Satellite/cable tv. A huge amount to be paying, in my opinion, but then i remember when the choice was only two channels and both of those were black and white. Do you use all of this? Have you rung and threatened to leave, they may cut the cost. Many people on here have found they do.
3. Life assurance. This seems very high. Have you looked around for a better quote?
Well done also on having the whole debt section missing. Normally on these soas 
there is a long list of credit cards and loans. You obviously know how to live within your means. The trick now is to live under them. Fuel is on the rise, as is food. Having some money behind you would also be useful for of the worst happens. 
Good luck with this. Mumtoomany.xx

Thanks!

1. Yes that's the thing really - our food bills can be quite low but it's the addition of nappies that drives the bills up. We used to get our cat litter from Sainsburys too but realised we could save quite a lot by sourcing it from the pet shop down the road (a lot of this was due to convenience during the height of the pandemic).

2. Apologies - I made quite a serious error on the SOA and included the TV Licence twice! I've corrected this now and updated all of the values. We have thought about cutting the TV Licence in favour of getting a Netflix subscription but iPlayer comes in useful and it's good to catch up with live news.

3. Unfortunately due to health investigations which are ongoing there isn't any wiggle room with the quote. The Life Assurance company have stated quite clearly that we need clear evidence before they will reduce the cost. We're working with a financial advisor on this as it's part of our mortgage setup (we don't pay them anything though unless they offer a service).

Yes we used to have a loan which is how we purchased our car but I try to avoid them at all costs normally, likewise regarding the Credit Cards.

Floss

I'm a little concerned that there is no wriggle room for increases in your gas & electricity and council tax, and no emergency fund at all. I appreciate that your wife has been on maternity leave, but could she pick up any private tutoring in the evenings you're at home & not commuting?

jennystarpepper

I think you  do well based on what you have said.  

I know you mentioned S@insburys.... have you tried @ldi or Lid1, I buy things from S@ins but these as a rule are only things on offer and to change the points I get into Airmiles?

As others have said if you wife can get a little side hustle, even if is only say £50 per month, a bit of bay selling, snapping receipts and a few surveys while the little one naps.  Even £25 pm put into Prem. Bonds will give you a little fall back money after 12 mths.  

I think about those people you mentioned, and having worked in finance in the past I can confirm most of them are in debt.  Some of the new cars they have may be company cars and most of the friends I know have bought houses with deposits / cars bought by parents.  People are always quick to point out the good things, I always think the grass is often re mortgaged, 

Maybe if your wife could think about going back to work in a year, I think the 'C' situation will improve, I understand about child care costs, but working as a teacher will give her access to a work pension and paid maternity leave if 2nd child comes along.  Long term pensions are one of the main reasons for working.

A few things I also so to save a few £, I don't have a mobile contract, sim or PAYG phone last bought 2017 (unless you need it for work).  Marks do pizza / curry / dine in offers for about £10, I get one of these rather than a takeaway, it's still a treat and I can put it in the freezer if I need to.  Make friends with a good local garage, the guys at mine look after us as I am loyal, (I do give them a tenner in their Xmas fund when the MOT goes through without any extra cost and last time a bulb went they changed it when I called in for nothing).  I also have a front door with big glazed windows either side, curtains at the front door lock in a lot of heat, don't know how your house is for energy but maybe look at ways to lock in more heat?  I use a halogen oven for cooking, main oven gets used on only a few occasions.  I also joined the mortgage free and 3 - 6 mth saving clubs on this site to help motivate me and they really do work.  I bulk buy when something is on offer, so long as it does not expire for a long time.... toilet paper, meat for the freezer and buy only buy a few branded things... I've managed to train Mr Pepper off HP, HZ beans! 

One thing I did with my step children ( maybe this is for the future, but ok for us adults)  when they asked for things or as reward for helping with shopping, I didn't say no all of the time but we agreed they would look for cheap alternatives, so pack of 6 ice creams V expensive vans (they had more to eat for later so they loved it), look for a reward whilst helping shopping, it has to be half price or a £1 and have a look in the what we call 'cheap' shops ( Her0n, Ice l@nd and so on) If they had a £1 each as a treat it goes further.  

Shoxt3r

Floss said:

I'm a little concerned that there is no wriggle room for increases in your gas & electricity and council tax, and no emergency fund at all. I appreciate that your wife has been on maternity leave, but could she pick up any private tutoring in the evenings you're at home & not commuting?

Likewise we're concerned about increases for energy bills and council tax - hence why I started looking into our finances much more closely to be honest. I imagine the £160.45 that we "save" per month will quickly get swallowed up by the increases.

I should point out that we do have money in the bank and have been dipping into that to have work done on our house recently to hopefully boost the value (nothing major, just plastering and a bit of tiling to our bathroom rather than a full re-fit). Our balances (for the moment at least) seem to sit at the same level each month - they neither increase or decrease unless we get a particularly large bill.

Agreed though - my wife has considered taking up private tutoring and is considering part-time work. It's just how we balance that while caring for our child unless my wife worked nights which I don't think would be practical for either of us. It doesn't feel like there are any easy options really - I'm just hoping a pay review is accepted but I doubt that will cover much more...

jennystarpepper said:

I think you  do well based on what you have said.  

I know you mentioned S@insburys.... have you tried @ldi or Lid1, I buy things from S@ins but these as a rule are only things on offer and to change the points I get into Airmiles?

As others have said if you wife can get a little side hustle, even if is only say £50 per month, a bit of bay selling, snapping receipts and a few surveys while the little one naps.  Even £25 pm put into Prem. Bonds will give you a little fall back money after 12 mths.  

I think about those people you mentioned, and having worked in finance in the past I can confirm most of them are in debt.  Some of the new cars they have may be company cars and most of the friends I know have bought houses with deposits / cars bought by parents.  People are always quick to point out the good things, I always think the grass is often re mortgaged, 

Maybe if your wife could think about going back to work in a year, I think the 'C' situation will improve, I understand about child care costs, but working as a teacher will give her access to a work pension and paid maternity leave if 2nd child comes along.  Long term pensions are one of the main reasons for working.

A few things I also so to save a few £, I don't have a mobile contract, sim or PAYG phone last bought 2017 (unless you need it for work).  Marks do pizza / curry / dine in offers for about £10, I get one of these rather than a takeaway, it's still a treat and I can put it in the freezer if I need to.  Make friends with a good local garage, the guys at mine look after us as I am loyal, (I do give them a tenner in their Xmas fund when the MOT goes through without any extra cost and last time a bulb went they changed it when I called in for nothing).  I also have a front door with big glazed windows either side, curtains at the front door lock in a lot of heat, don't know how your house is for energy but maybe look at ways to lock in more heat?  I use a halogen oven for cooking, main oven gets used on only a few occasions.  I also joined the mortgage free and 3 - 6 mth saving clubs on this site to help motivate me and they really do work.  I bulk buy when something is on offer, so long as it does not expire for a long time.... toilet paper, meat for the freezer and buy only buy a few branded things... I've managed to train Mr Pepper off HP, HZ beans! 

One thing I did with my step children ( maybe this is for the future, but ok for us adults)  when they asked for things or as reward for helping with shopping, I didn't say no all of the time but we agreed they would look for cheap alternatives, so pack of 6 ice creams V expensive vans (they had more to eat for later so they loved it), look for a reward whilst helping shopping, it has to be half price or a £1 and have a look in the what we call 'cheap' shops ( Her0n, Ice l@nd and so on) If they had a £1 each as a treat it goes further.  

Yes we try our best to shop around when possible - I even priced up getting shopping delivered by other supermarkets but it was coming out at roughly the same price. My wife doesn't drive so it unfortunately isn't practical for her to go food shopping during the day to hunt out the bargains. I think we'll just have to try and tighten the Sainos bill as best we can.

I've previously done surveys and snapping receipts but never saw much of a return - I would regularly do surveys on my commute and although we did get a few things from Amazon out of it, it did impact our evenings and became a little obsessive. We've explored the idea of selling on eBay but again am unsure how to get into it as a regular income.

I'm really not surprised about those that appear to live a comfortable life on the face of it - I worry that more and more of the country will fall into this trap and end up paying dearly for it.

I think it really will be a case that either my wife does some private tutoring, part-time work or considers going back into working as a full-time teacher in time. I struggle to imagine how she could go into part-time or full-time work though in our current situation with no free childcare available (and with COVID still hanging around).

Great money-saving tips - thank you! We decided to ditch our contracts  once they expired last year. We were both on £30+ a month contracts and we're now SIM-only with Giffgaff which works out on average £12-16 a month depending on the level of usage needed (we regularly switch between the £6 and £8 tariffs depending on our needs). I couldn't imagine going back to a long-term contract!

We try as much as possible to keep "ready" meals to a minimum - nearly everything we cook is from scratch and if it isn't then it's maybe 1-2 freezer-based meals a week maximum. Good tip on the local garage - I've been going to the same one for several years now and they've always treated me well...unfortunately it didn't reduce the service bill much last year.

Yes there is a noticeable draught in our front room but we haven't been able to source where it's coming from - I suspect we're losing quite a bit of heat through it but I'm concerned it's going to cost a lot of money to have it investigated.

We have a fairly recent oven so it's pretty energy efficient and a vast majority of our cooking is done on the hob anyway so is gas-based. Bulb were going to offer a smart meter for us so we could monitor usage but I haven't heard anything for a long time - unsure how much that would benefit us anyway?

Good tips on the saving and bulk-buying. We personally save a lot of money buying clothing and toys for our child second-hand in charity shops though it's quite difficult to source them regularly.

I did start the 1p Savings Challenge but have a lot of catching up to do now!

Great ideas with the rewards for children!

KxMx

I'd suggest posting on the debt free wannabe board with your circumstances and soa- it's not just for those in debt and there are some very knowledgeable posters who help on there. 

Shoxt3r

KxMx said:

I'd suggest posting on the debt free wannabe board with your circumstances and soa- it's not just for those in debt and there are some very knowledgeable posters who help on there. 

Thanks for the suggestion! I'll post that across there now

mumtoomany

Another thing you may not have thought about. If your wife is not working, I'm sure you can claim some of her tax allowance. Not sure how it works, but a few more hundred pounds a year. Mumtoomany.xx

Shoxt3r

mumtoomany said:

Another thing you may not have thought about. If your wife is not working, I'm sure you can claim some of her tax allowance. Not sure how it works, but a few more hundred pounds a year. Mumtoomany.xx

Ah yes great tip - we managed to do this and then get back payments for the last 3 years which has helped a great deal!