Help with creating a sensible budget

LilacPixie

Can someone please look at our SOA please:

The history around this is basically we are not living within our means. We desperatly want to move home but cannot get a decent sized mortgage offer until some of our debt is shifted. We do manage to make every payment on time but often just the bare minimum.

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1,217
Partners salary - £1000 (249 per week)
Benefits - £116

Total - £2,333

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent – 404 fixed until may 2010
Council Tax - £108 band A
Gas - £8 at the moment because we are in credit, winter usage around 25
Electric - £40
TV Licence - £11.61
TV/BB/Phone £47.25
2 x mobile £80
Food - £400+ two adults a toddler and 3 cats
Car Insurance me - £46.55 renewal July 08
Car Insurance him - £36.24 renewal April 08
Home insurance £ 34.24
Petrol - £160
Life Insurance me £22.26
Life Assurance him £19.96

£1418.11

Debt

Sofa HP £20.20 0% until jan 2009 £680 outstanding 29.9% after jan 09
TV HP £16.14 29.9% £160 ish outstanding
RBS Loan £134.34 9.8% ends April 2010
Welcome car finance £276 34.4% :eek: :eek: ends July 2009 5k approx outstanding.
Next store card £865 o/s apr unknown probably 29.9ish 5% min per month
Littlewoods £ 400 ish 34.9% apr 5% minimums per month try pay £20
Additions £300 o/s 34.4% apr 5% min per month try pay £20
Capital one Mastercard £180 16.9% try pay £20
GE Money home loan 13.4% apr £140 per month ends October 2017

Total: £ 646 pm

Total 2064.11

The way I see it is we are paying too much for house insurance (2 bed flat) and probably both car insurances too. We both work in opposite directions and both need our cars. Mobile phones are a nessesity for work and both works actually pay for them but as that month is factored into our wages i have included them here.

Our food bill is massive that needs to be lower but i don't know what is a realistic figure should be for a family of 3 plus pets.

All feedback gratefully recieved

Thanks

P

Gemmzie

Food - try cutting it down gradually, knock £20 off every couple of weeks, see what's right for you. Head over to the Old Style board for tips!

Your home insurance does seem very high! :eek: Try a couple of comparison sites and if you can go through a cash back site, you can often reduce it a further chunk.

Sorry can't comment further, gotta run, but the calvary will be along shortly I'm sure

LilacPixie

Thanks Gemmzie.

I've been lurking on old style and s a result i've already aquired a bread maker. Having a look at the comparison sites it looks like around £20-22 is a reasonable amount for home insurance but renewal isn't until may time and I refuse to switch early and lose a years no claims KWIM. Still 2 more payments at the higher rate won't kill us I guess

mum2one

LilacPixie wrote: »

Can someone please look at our SOA please:

The history around this is basically we are not living within our means. We desperatly want to move home but cannot get a decent sized mortgage offer until some of our debt is shifted. We do manage to make every payment on time but often just the bare minimum.

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1,217
Partners salary - £1000 (249 per week)
Benefits - £116

Total - £2,333

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent – 404 fixed until may 2010 - no budge there
Council Tax - £108 band A - could you look at 12 mths rather than 10 mths
Gas - £8 at the moment because we are in credit, winter usage around 25 - try to balance equal amounts over 12mths,- bear i n mind most gas are going up by 10%
Electric - £40 - thats high, start checking all lights turned off, get out of the habit using standyby still uses 90% of the elec as working, if your on desktop try unplugging what you dont need, eg printer, speakers, as they usuallt all come on. Dont leave phone chargers on overnight - charge in day - keep an eye on the time on charge.
TV Licence - £11.61- thats fixed
TV/BB/Phone £47.25 - are you in the best package availble?
2 x mobile £80 - there a luxury you cant afford, are you tied into contracts - gd deals on pay + go, or look at contract sim, 30 day roll over
Food - £400+ two adults a toddler and 3 cats - bulk meals, downgrade a level of shopping, look for vouchers
Car Insurance me - £46.55 renewal July 08 - really need to shop around, try quidco, greasy palm, cash back sites, as well as sites recommend on here
Car Insurance him - £36.24 renewal April 08 - same suggestions as yours
Home insurance £ 34.24 - if that is just contents very expensive we pay £60 a yr, (AA), shop around, also assess each rm, you may be over insured, again cash back sites, try to pay in 1 go, better deal, then the sum paid divide by 11, so you can put that money up for nxt yrs policy
Petrol - £160 - is there any chance of car share, cycle to work?, reduce the milegae
Life Insurance me £22.26 - may be worth looking around
Life Assurance him £19.96 -ditto

£1418.11

Debt

Sofa HP £20.20 0% until jan 2009 £680 outstanding 29.9% after jan 09
TV HP £16.14 29.9% £160 ish outstanding
RBS Loan £134.34 9.8% ends April 2010
Welcome car finance £276 34.4% :eek: :eek: ends July 2009 5k approx outstanding.
Next store card £865 o/s apr unknown probably 29.9ish 5% min per month
Littlewoods £ 400 ish 34.9% apr 5% minimums per month try pay £20
Additions £300 o/s 34.4% apr 5% min per month try pay £20
Capital one Mastercard £180 16.9% try pay £20
GE Money home loan 13.4% apr £140 per month ends October 2017

Total: £ 646 pm
some debts are fixed, but would suggest using th snowball link (on side panel0, put the amount oweing, the apr and the total amount you can pay, it works out all your figs to get you thr best deal

Total 2064.11

The way I see it is we are paying too much for house insurance (2 bed flat) and probably both car insurances too. We both work in opposite directions and both need our cars. Mobile phones are a nessesity for work and both works actually pay for them but as that month is factored into our wages i have included them here.

Our food bill is massive that needs to be lower but i don't know what is a realistic figure should be for a family of 3 plus pets.

All feedback gratefully recieved

Thanks

P

Hope you dont mind me asking, but you have made no allocation for car tax, MOT, presents etc, they may need to be looked at and added in.

sorry tried not to be horrible, I know when I did my SOA, you feel a bit vunerable. x

LilacPixie

mum2one wrote: »

Hope you dont mind me asking, but you have made no allocation for car tax, MOT, presents etc, they may need to be looked at and added in.

sorry tried not to be horrible, I know when I did my SOA, you feel a bit vunerable. x

Thanks Mum2one.

Car tax mots repairs present etc we pay when they come up hence why is sometimes just the bare minimum to the cc and store card debt. We have tried putting away a lump each month but usually end up touching it was nonsence items.

Mobiles are fixed and our employers actually meet that cost but its added into our wages. We do tend to use just below the max for txts and minutes anyway and while the employers are happy to pay the contract amount i'm happy KWIM.

CT is already over 12 months, we missed a few payments earlier this year and thats our repayment amount. One of the fall backs of living in scotland reasonable housing prices but sky high CT.

No room to on the petrol, we live in a semi rural location, i work day shift 15 miles away and collect child from fmily childcare, Hubby works back shift 8 miles away and drops child off at familly childcare.

TV BB Phone is with virgin we do get hit with a £5 'payment handing charge#' because we don't pay by direct debit :mad: We have basic TV medium BB and phone with talk unlimited. No BT line in this property and they want a small fortune to install one so its pretty much our only option.

Home insurance is for Buildings and contents. semi rural scotland no risk of flooding 2 years no claims soon to be 3.

Electric i must admit we are bad at leaving cd player and tv on standby. will need to look at that.

Food is a nightmare, we spend far too much, i've posted over on old style for some guiidence. I'm sure we could half it with out too many issues just by shopping clever but I just dunno where to start.

tealady

Hi re food try the store cupboard challenge. And menu plan, I find if I don't I go WAY over budget and I buy things that dont go together (like curry and parsnips!)

MissEyre

A sure that OS will have given you some great advice on reducing your food budget-meal planning is a great way, as is 'downshifting' your shopping-if you usually buy branded stuff, just switch it to stores own brand, then down again to value brands-some will be great and you won't notice the difference, some not so great, so you can just go back up to stores own. Think Martin does this on his show, and usually saves about 1/3 of a standard shopping bill-a good place to start.
Get a slow cooker-freecycle is a good place to start for this, and start making all your odds and ends into soup!
Keep a spending diary-you have actually got a fair bit of money left over each month, so if you can see where it's going, you can start making changes to get the money going towards your debt and not down the drain

LilacPixie

Thank you all for the advice.

I have had a quick look at the comparison sites from work and it looks like we can half our car insurance premiums if we shop around. a company i wont mention wants just under £300 for me compared to the just over £500 i'm currently paying (plus quidco offer £100 cashback) and DH's is coming in at about £80 less a year (plus £45 from quidco). A home insurance provider is also coming in at a fraction less (£100 back from quidco). I am starting to think that simply by switching insurance not taking into consideration what we would save only cashbacks then we could simply clear one of the cataloge/store cards :eek: :eek: That is quite scary how easy it is.

Anyone

LilacPixie

Thank you all for the advice.

I have had a quick look at the comparison sites from work and it looks like we can half our car insurance premiums if we shop around. a company i wont mention wants just under £300 for me compared to the just over £500 i'm currently paying (plus quidco offer £100 cashback) and DH's is coming in at about £80 less a year (plus £45 from quidco). A home insurance provider is also coming in at a fraction less (£100 back from quidco). I am starting to think that simply by switching insurance not taking into consideration what we would save only cashbacks then we could simply clear one of the cataloge/store cards :eek: :eek: That is quite scary how easy it is.

Anyone have any othersuggestions?? if i called up virgin and threatened to leave do you think they would do a special deal??

tifnstav

probably... have a go!

Madcatgirl

Virgin knocked off £10 a month when we threatened to leave, and upgraded us. I just got my home insurance (for a 2 bed ex council flat in an inner city) for £68 plus £80 cash back through quidco, so definitely worth doing (-£12 per year). The premium on my old insurer was £260 for the year!!!!! Good luck.