My SOA - your thought please

Welshlassie

Hi all
I'm not actually in debt, this post is more of a preventative measure really.
I am due back in work in a few weeks after having a baby, and next week my husband finishes work to look after our son. I have completed Martins budget planner to ensure we can afford this and found we are just under £400 a month short. My DH is self employed now, but won't be bringing an really money in until the summer. We have savings to carry us through until then, but don't want to have to dip into them too much if we can help it. I've been through Martins articles and think I have cut back and saved money where I can, without compromising our lifestyle too much, but I'm sure you fab people will find somewhere I've missed.
So here it is my first SOA.

Income (per month)
£2,080 salary
£ 172 Child benefit and tax credits

Expenditure (per month)
£1,028 mortgage (IO)
£ 200 savings for mortgage repayment
£ 137 Council Tax
£ 34 Water rates
£ 38 Gas
£ 32 Electric
£ 32 Home phone, internet and TV
£ 35 Mobile phones (3 phones 2 PAYG, 1 contract for DH business)
£ 9 Window cleaner
£ 9.28 Pet insurance
£ 19.77 Life insurance
£ 260 Groceries (including pet and baby food & nappies)
£ 70 Going out
£ 20 parking costs
£ 80 Fuel
£ 180 DH pension
£ 11.61 TV licence
£ 25 Entertainment (big days out, music, films purchases etc)
£ 70 savings for christmas/birthday etc
£ 30 optical bills
£ 72 new clothes for all family

Annual costs
£ 225 Buildings and contents insurance
£ 110 RAC (although looking to to this with Tesco deals in a few weeks when it expires
£ 500 Car maintenance (2 vehicles)
£ 900 Car insurance
£ 300 Car tax
£ 100 Pet costs (jabs etc)
£ 100 Dentistry
£ 290 Haircuts

I work it out to be just short of £400 per month difference between what we're brining in and what's going out.
I know there are areas that we can cut back further (going out), but we wanted to realistic about what we were spending and then see how we went.
Any comments great fully received.

seven-day-weekend

I'm not very experienced with these but I would say:
1. Drop the window cleaner
2. Cut Christmas down
3. Drop clothes down(in the nicest possible way :rotfl:! ) Buy from charity shops/jumble sales
4. £900 seems a lot for car insurances? Do you need two cars? Can you downgrade them?

sunshine_shell

Well i'd get rid of the window cleaner,

If your OH isn't working he won't need the contract phone,

I'd also look at the £70 going out fund, if you haven't got the money you can't go out - plus your baby will knacker you! You won't want to go out!

I'd stop being so generous for christmas and birthdays do pigsback and Quidco to earn the vouchers and Tesco vouchers - you can save these up for christmas food and gifts

and £290 pounds on haircuts a year!!!!! You'll have to find a new cheaper hairdresser :rotfl:

Good luck :beer:

Welshlassie

sunshine_shell wrote: »

Well i'd get rid of the window cleaner, I've thought the same, will talk to DH.

If your OH isn't working he won't need the contract phone, This is for his self-employed business and is needed

I'd also look at the £70 going out fund, if you haven't got the money you can't go out - plus your baby will knacker you! You won't want to go out! Baby is 6 months old, we doubt we are going to use all of it, but wanted something thing there just in case for the first few months.

I'd stop being so generous for christmas and birthdays do pigsback and Quidco to earn the vouchers and Tesco vouchers - you can save these up for christmas food and gifts We have cut down for Christmas and birthdays and do use Quidco when we can, along with Tesco vouchers. Hopefully we can cut down a bit further.

and £290 pounds on haircuts a year!!!!! You'll have to find a new cheaper hairdresser :rotfl: This is for both of us, includes me getting my hair done 4 times a year, which I have recently had vouchers bought for me for Christmas, but wanted to keep it all in just in case I don't get any more. I need my hair done properly for work, maybe I can drag it out to 3 times a year.

Good luck :beer:

Thanks for your comments.

Welshlassie

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I'm not very experienced with these but I would say:
1. Drop the window cleaner need to speak to DH about this as it will mean him doing them otherwise
2. Cut Christmas down did alot last year, will see if we can cut any furter.
3. Drop clothes down(in the nicest possible way :rotfl:! ) Buy from charity shops/jumble sales am hoping that I can make the new clothes I'm about to buy (change of shape since having baby) last me until we are a bit better off. Still need to buy for baby, do tend to get in the sale though so hopefully won't be this much.
4. £900 seems a lot for car insurances? Do you need two cars? Can you downgrade them? have claim and 6 points between us (although these drop off very soon), I need a car for my job and DH needs his van for his self-employed work, although some of this will be reclaimed through the business. Hopefully some of this will be covered through my expenses in work, but can't count on it.

Thanks for your comments.

Merlot

Welshlassie wrote: »

Hi all
I'm not actually in debt, this post is more of a preventative measure really.
I am due back in work in a few weeks after having a baby, and next week my husband finishes work to look after our son. I have completed Martins budget planner to ensure we can afford this and found we are just under £400 a month short. My DH is self employed now, but won't be bringing an really money in until the summer. We have savings to carry us through until then, but don't want to have to dip into them too much if we can help it. I've been through Martins articles and think I have cut back and saved money where I can, without compromising our lifestyle too much, but I'm sure you fab people will find somewhere I've missed.
So here it is my first SOA.

Income (per month)
£2,080 salary
£ 172 Child benefit and tax credits

Expenditure (per month)
£1,028 mortgage (IO)
£ 200 savings for mortgage repayment
£ 137 Council Tax - Spread you payments over 12 months instead of 10
£ 34 Water rates
£ 38 Gas
£ 32 Electric
£ 32 Home phone, internet and TV
£ 35 Mobile phones (3 phones 2 PAYG, 1 contract for DH business) - the contract one needs to go - or get rid of the other two and have just one contract. What did people 10 years do without mobiles?
£ 9 Window cleaner - Great exercise - do them yourself
£ 9.28 Pet insurance
£ 19.77 Life insurance
£ 260 Groceries (including pet and baby food & nappies) - how many is this far? This is very reasonable if for four
£ 70 Going out - you need to reduce this
£ 20 parking costs
£ 80 Fuel
£ 180 DH pension
£ 11.61 TV licence
£ 25 Entertainment (big days out, music, films purchases etc)
£ 70 savings for christmas/birthday etc
£ 30 optical bills
£ 72 new clothes for all family - a month £72, too much

Annual costs
£ 225 Buildings and contents insurance
£ 110 RAC (although looking to to this with Tesco deals in a few weeks when it expires
£ 500 Car maintenance (2 vehicles)
£ 900 Car insurance - wow, far too high
£ 300 Car tax
£ 100 Pet costs (jabs etc)
£ 100 Dentistry
£ 290 Haircuts - too much, if this includes colouring, why not colour it yourself

I work it out to be just short of £400 per month difference between what we're brining in and what's going out.
I know there are areas that we can cut back further (going out), but we wanted to realistic about what we were spending and then see how we went.
Any comments great fully received.

Welcome to the board, I have put in a few comments in the above, I cannot work out why you are not in debt if you are £400 per month short, do you have any credit card/loan/overdraft debt? If you do, please post it.

I do think you can cut down on a few things quite easily, clothes, mobile phone,windowcleaner, going out bill and car insurance is really really high, do you have a sports car

Merlot.x.

Welshlassie

Merlot wrote: »

Welcome to the board, I have put in a few comments in the above, I cannot work out why you are not in debt if you are £400 per month short, do you have any credit card/loan/overdraft debt? If you do, please post it.

I do think you can cut down on a few things quite easily, clothes, mobile phone,windowcleaner, going out bill and car insurance is really really high, do you have a sports car

Merlot.x.

thanks for your comments

I'm not in debt because until the end of this month we have 2 salaries coming in, the salary listed above will be just one, and we have no debts at all (except the mortgage).

The car insurance is for 2 vehicles, both of which are needed. We also have 6 points between us and one claim, which pushes it up, also the van has commercial insurance and my car has business class 1 and a high mileage allowance.

The groceries are for 3, 2 adults and 1 baby and includes his extras.

The mobiles are a must, I do a lot of driving for work it's PAYG and put about £10-£15 per month on it, my DH needs his contract phone for his self-employed business, I'll have a chat with him about getting rid of his PAYG one.

After having a disaster colouring my own hair a few years ago, I really don't have the confidence to do it myself again.

ms_london

Hiya.

Is it possible to stop the savings for mortgage & OH's pension just for the time being? Perhaps until his business does start bringing money in - otherwise I dont think you will be able to cut your expenditure by 400 a month in all honesty with the other savings?!

The others had good suggestions too and covered everything else.

What will you do if you cant cover these shortcomings? Sounds like you need to be ruthless - have you shopped around for better insurance/mobile/utilities? Def get rid of the window cleaner!

Are your annual costs covered in your monthly expenses too?

xx

Welshlassie

ms_london wrote: »

Hiya.

Is it possible to stop the savings for mortgage & OH's pension just for the time being? Perhaps until his business does start bringing money in - otherwise I dont think you will be able to cut your expenditure by 400 a month in all honesty with the other savings?!

The others had good suggestions too and covered everything else.

What will you do if you cant cover these shortcomings? Sounds like you need to be ruthless - have you shopped around for better insurance/mobile/utilities? Def get rid of the window cleaner!

Are your annual costs covered in your monthly expenses too?

xx

I'm not expecting to be able to reduce things by £400 a month, but obviously everything I can bring it down by the better. It's not an option to stop paying the mortgage or pensions costs, we don't want to have to play catch up in a few years, when we want to start trying for a brother or sister for DS.

We have enough savings to cover ourselves for at least 18 months as things stand at the moment and without DH bringing in any money at all. Our tax credits will go up when he does finish work and his order book for the summer is looking really good so far so shouldn't have to worry about this £400 much past July with any luck. Our annual costs are separate to the monthly outgoings.

I've found the cheapest insurance, mobiles, utilities I can. I'll be having another look for car insurance in a few months, when our points drop off our licences, this should bring thing down a bit.

Merlot

Are you paying for nursery fees just now? cause if not I suspect you are being over paid in Tax credits for one child, our joint income isn't as much as your take home pay and we do not qualify for extra working tax credit except the basic of £10.48 a week everyone is entitled to up to £58,000.

Just a thought. I would hate for you to have to repay it next year. I would check.

merlot.x.

ms_london

Hiya.

Sorry, missed the part about you having savings! I think its sensible that you are looking at the bigger picture definately.

Since there is no urgency, you are doing the right thing with not touching the pension & mortgage repayments.

It would be better if your annual bills were budgeted for monthly too - as surely you dont pay out all of these bills in one fowl swoop? If so, where do you get the money from?

I am sure you dont want to run your savings dry if you dont have to - you can cut expenses, just a matter of if you want to or not. xx