My Money Just Seems to Disappear. Here's my SOA

ginormousflares

Hiya all, I have noticed that our disposable income seems to be frittering away but we don't seem to be living lavishsly or anything. I'm on a DMP and have been for almost 2 years and it is in my name and OH's income is not taken into account. I will be increasing this £100 in Apr. Grateful if you could all cast your expert eye over my SOA and make suggestions to how I could refine it. I find that I am unable to put money away for things such as servicing, car tax etc, because once I put it to one side we end up breaking into it to use. One thing to consider is that I get paid calendar monthly and OH gets paid weekly. Here it is:

Incomings

My Wage 2080 (Net)
OHs Wage 154 (weekly) (616 4 weekly)
CTax Credits 42.83
Child Benefit 72.40

Total 2811.23

Outgoings

Rent 280 per month (No water charges and CTax is included)
Shopping 184
Fuel 80
House
Insurance 10
Tv Licence 11.29
Child Trust
Fund 20
Gas 34
Electricity 37
Sky (incl
BB) 74.23 (I know but we dont do or have any other form of entertainment. Personally I would go madif I didnt have it)
DMP 774
Car Ins 35.84
Car Ins 2 31.13
Sky Repair 8.25
OHs Loan 220
BT 35
Mobile 35
Childcare 410
OHs Next 50
Contact
Lenses 15.50

Total

Now this leaves us with £450 ish per month but it just seems to go. Car repairs etc. I think we need to look at rearranging timings of DDs and SOs and somehow split how we spend our money. What does everyone think??
GF

Keeping_Positive

I have a simliar problem in budgeting for the yearly spends and birthdays etc. I have started to use this http://www.spendingdiary.com/ to see where the money is going/wasted.

How about a 30 day notice savings account so you cant just spend on a whim?

PS have you tried Martins budget planner. It makes me think of other places money goes.

jackieb

Do you have a separate account for your direct debits? We do - and my OH gets paid on the 25th of each month - on the same day £1250 is transferred by SO into our bill paying account. So it doesn't matter what day any of our direct debits come out, we know it's been taken care of. I used to get charges all the time because i'd forget I had a direct debit due, and wouldn't have enough money in my current account. Now, I know that what's left in the current account, after the £1250 has been transferred into the bill paying account, is ours to play with. We've done this for quite a few years now and we've not had a charge since. We pay everything out of that account - mortgage/council tax/tv licence/sky/insurances/phones/gas/electric,etc

Spendaholic_Chick

Can you get you gas/elec/sky any cheaper? Check out if you're on the best tariff and if you can get it cheaper, go via quidco for cashback. I know you don't want to get rid of they Sky but could you reduce the package you have? I only pay £26 for Broadband, TV and Phone with Sky, and I have about 6 mixes

Spendaholic_Chick

Oh, and also, do you need the Sky repair? If you're past your tied in date and in breaks you can just phone them up, threaten to cancel saying ycan't afford it, and they'll fix it for free - that's what I did!

Benthosboy

jackieb wrote: »

Do you have a separate account for your direct debits? We do - and my OH gets paid on the 25th of each month - on the same day £1250 is transferred by SO into our bill paying account. So it doesn't matter what day any of our direct debits come out, we know it's been taken care of. I used to get charges all the time because i'd forget I had a direct debit due, and wouldn't have enough money in my current account. Now, I know that what's left in the current account, after the £1250 has been transferred into the bill paying account, is ours to play with. We've done this for quite a few years now and we've not had a charge since. We pay everything out of that account - mortgage/council tax/tv licence/sky/insurances/phones/gas/electric,etc

(please excuse, Billy-no-mates on a hijack)

What a fabulously simple but brilliant idea.

Martyn.

(Billy-no-mates has now left the building )

newmoneysaver_2

I agree with whats been said above. Can you get your sky package to work better for you? Can you move your telephone to sky and get the speak, see surf package?
You don't have any other car related spends budgeted other than insurance and petrol. What about tax, MOT, sevicing?
What's sky repair?

Wow! Your rent is really good and you food budget is fantastic- Well done hun!

In_Search_Of_Me

ok here goes!! & welcome

ginormousflares wrote: »

Incomings

My Wage 2080 (Net)
OHs Wage 154 (weekly) (616 4 weekly)any way of increasing this?
CTax Credits 42.83have you checked youre getting all youre eligible for?
Child Benefit 72.40

Total 2811.23

Outgoings

Rent 280 per month (No water charges and CTax is included)fab!
Shopping 184
Fuel 80cheapest? - all those with * same!
House
Insurance 10
Tv Licence 11.29
Child Trust
Fund 20can you stop this until debts paid?
Gas 34*
Electricity 37*
Sky (incl
BB) 74.23 (I know but we dont do or have any other form of entertainment. Personally I would go madif I didnt have it)ok. I know its hard. I kep on mine for over a year before going to the freeview and actually cried when they switched it off BUT I actually cope without it plus knowing I really AM doing all I can to shift this !!!!!!! debt helps. Why not chance & if you REALLY REALLY hate not having it then get it back on....At the end of the day its costing you over £80 a month which is an awful lot....put that into snowball & see what impact it could have on your DFD!
DMP 774
Car Ins 35.84
Car Ins 2 31.13
Sky Repair 8.25
OHs Loan 220
BT 35
Mobile 35can you go PAYG & use for the abxolute mins only?
Childcare 410
OHs Next 50
Contact
Lenses 15.50*

Total

Now this leaves us with £450 ish per month but it just seems to go. Start a spending diary & oreoare to be amazed!! Car repairs etc. I think we need to look at rearranging timings of DDs and SOs and somehow split how we spend our money. What does everyone think?? I have a separate DDM account & money goes straight in on pay day so I dont have to worry about bills & when they go out - makes a HUGE difference to my stress levels!
There are some great things on your soa - food & rent etc is great but you maybe able to make savings elsewhere....I also doubt you would actually go insane without sky but if you did at least you'll be spending less money eh!
GF

Bunnyinthelights

I agree with ISOM,
You need to do a spending diary.
What is your clothing budget? And entertainment? The money is being spent so you need to find out where!

I think the transferring the bills money into a different account would work and help. Are you sure that is really how much you spend on food? And also think you need to save for car tax, repairs etc because once you start taking that out of the £450 a month you won't lose a huge chunk out of it when these things arise-if that makes sense?

SarahNeedle1872

ginormousflares wrote: »

Hiya all, I have noticed that our disposable income seems to be frittering away but we don't seem to be living lavishsly or anything. I'm on a DMP and have been for almost 2 years and it is in my name and OH's income is not taken into account. I will be increasing this £100 in Apr. Grateful if you could all cast your expert eye over my SOA and make suggestions to how I could refine it. I find that I am unable to put money away for things such as servicing, car tax etc, because once I put it to one side we end up breaking into it to use. One thing to consider is that I get paid calendar monthly and OH gets paid weekly. Here it is:

Incomings

My Wage 2080 (Net)
OHs Wage 154 (weekly) (616 4 weekly) Can thios be increased?
CTax Credits 42.83 Is this all ur entitled to?
Child Benefit 72.40

Total 2811.23

Outgoings

Rent 280 per month (No water charges and CTax is included)
Shopping 184
Fuel 80
House
Insurance 10
Tv Licence 11.29
Child Trust
Fund 20 Can u stop this for a while?
Gas 34
Electricity 37
Sky (incl
BB) 74.23 (I know but we dont do or have any other form of entertainment. Personally I would go madif I didnt have it) Can u reduce the package down? IKWYM about not wanting to get rid tho!
DMP 774 :eek:
Car Ins 35.84 Seems quite high.... try to get cheaper
Car Ins 2 31.13 Ditto
Sky Repair 8.25 Get rid.... the box has 12 month warrantee anyways, and after 12 months u can cancel then OH join up!:D
OHs Loan 220
BT 35 Bundle into Sky.....
Mobile 35 Can u go PAYG or reduce package?
Childcare 410 Should u be getting tax credits towards this? Or can u/OH get childcare vouchers?
OHs Next 50
Contact
Lenses 15.50

Total

Now this leaves us with £450 ish per month but it just seems to go. Car repairs etc. I think we need to look at rearranging timings of DDs and SOs and somehow split how we spend our money. What does everyone think??
GF

Hi GF :hello:

Can add much more than anyone else really..... Spending Diary definately is the key for you I think.... one for eachof you to see where the extra money goes.

I use a seperate acc for all the DDs, and OH and I both pay into it... we know roughly how much the bills are gonna be and the money isn't touched till all the bills come out of it....

Sarah x

hypno06

Wise words from the DFW peeps, as always!

Get that spending diary started...xx