Ok.... time to really get down to business :0)

Scared1980

Right... I have posted on here a few times and then started being really good but it usually only lasts about a week so I am having another lbm and this time the light is staying on.... :0) (with your help if thats ok) so heres my latest SOA... I am sure I am missing stuff though....

Income
Child Benefit £118.70
Tax Credit £50
Wages £1,450.00
Driving £1,100

Total £2,718.70

Expenditure
o2 Mobile £35.00
Gas & Electric £60.00
His Life Insurance £13.67
My Life Insurance £10.10
Water Board £18.00
Virgin (TV, Phone and B/Band) £40.00
Rent £1,000.00
Council Tax £158.00
TV License £11.37
Car Insurance £28.63
Contents Insurance £20.00
Food Shopping £200.00
My Petrol £120.00
My Car Tax £15.00
My Car Service and MOT £20.00
My Tyres W&T £15.00
Childcare £600.00
Clothing £15.00
Birthdays and Christmas Pot £30.00

Total £2,409.77

Total Income £2,718.70

Total Expenditure £2,409.77

Disposable Income £308.93


and heres our debts :mad:

Robinson Way £2,700.00 Mine
Blair Oliver £5,212.00 Mine
Rockwell £1,734.09 His
Rockwell £17,490.90 His
Buchanan Clark £1,551.15 His
Geoffrey Leaver £1,421.87 Mine

I am desperate to get these paid off over the next 2 years. We are currently paying them every month in a self managed dmp and they are all being scarily reasonable... touch wood! all of them have frozen the interest for us.

Please if you have any suggestions or if I have missed anything off of my expenditure please let me know... I am determined not to fall off the wagon this time :0) I even have my spending diary at the ready..(lovingly decorated by my 4 year old!!!)

Thanks in advance

Lyns
x

Pooky

Have you tried applying for housing ben. towards your rent?

I was quite surprised to find that we could claim as although our income was good - the rent was high.

Have a look on your local councils web site to see if there's a calculator to help you work it out.

I'm sure someone more experienced will be along to help with the SOA.

:T Well done for your LBM though

Bismarck

Hi. well done for posting....I'm sure others will be here soon with their great observations but my first impression was that the Tax Credit is very low and Childcare very high...are you sure you're getting everything you can - more Child Tax Credit and childcare vouchers...

Also, sounds odd but people usually mention haircuts!

Scared1980

Thanks for the reply.....

Unfortunately we are not entitled to any housing benefit which I am not suprised about really.

I had to put petrol in the car today... £36 :mad: hoping to try and make it last at least a week... if not a bit more!

Any more suggestions are greatfully recieved....

Lyns
x

Welshlassie

Scared1980 wrote: »

Right... I have posted on here a few times and then started being really good but it usually only lasts about a week so I am having another lbm and this time the light is staying on.... :0) (with your help if thats ok) so heres my latest SOA... I am sure I am missing stuff though....

Income
Child Benefit £118.70
Tax Credit £50
Wages £1,450.00
Driving £1,100

Total £2,718.70

Expenditure
o2 Mobile £35.00 can you cut this at all (I was paying this and went payg and am now putting less than £10 per month on)
Gas & Electric £60.00 have you checked these are the lowest you can get them lately?
His Life Insurance £13.67
My Life Insurance £10.10
Water Board £18.00
Virgin (TV, Phone and B/Band) £40.00 Can you cut this at all? Do you need the TV can you use freeview?
Rent £1,000.00
Council Tax £158.00 Is this paid over 12 months?
TV License £11.37
Car Insurance £28.63 Have you shopped around for this?
Contents Insurance £20.00
Food Shopping £200.00 This is very good, but you may be able to slice a little bit more off without noticing, head over to the old style board.
My Petrol £120.00 Can you cut this by walking places?
My Car Tax £15.00
My Car Service and MOT £20.00
My Tyres W&T £15.00
Childcare £600.00 this is huge, check you are not entitled to more from tax credits or childcare vouchers through work?
Clothing £15.00
Birthdays and Christmas Pot £30.00

Total £2,409.77

Total Income £2,718.70

Total Expenditure £2,409.77

Disposable Income £308.93


and heres our debts :mad:

Robinson Way £2,700.00 Mine what are the APRs and minimum payments on these??
Blair Oliver £5,212.00 Mine
Rockwell £1,734.09 His
Rockwell £17,490.90 His
Buchanan Clark £1,551.15 His
Geoffrey Leaver £1,421.87 Mine

I am desperate to get these paid off over the next 2 years. We are currently paying them every month in a self managed dmp and they are all being scarily reasonable... touch wood! all of them have frozen the interest for us.

Please if you have any suggestions or if I have missed anything off of my expenditure please let me know... I am determined not to fall off the wagon this time :0) I even have my spending diary at the ready..(lovingly decorated by my 4 year old!!!)

Thanks in advance

Lyns
x

Well done you'll get there, just need to direct your payments in the right way, have you filled in the snowball calculator on http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

Scared1980

I am very lucky that my mum is an ex hairdresser :j so I don't have to pay for my hair or my girls hair... I don't colour my hair either... so my hair is a no spend item!!! my other half shaves his off so no spending there (apart from a razor!!!)

I always think my tax credits are low... but I always give them accurate figures and this is what I get given.... my chilcare is actually REALLY cheap... its for my two girls (4 and 1) and that includes all food etc. my childminder is the most fantastic woman ever and I would be paying closer to £1200p/m for a nursery type place to do the same hours and they don't do school runs!!! so I am not too worried about my childcare costs.

I am going to spend this weekend putting things on ebay :0) that will be fun!!

Lyns
x

Snafflepants

Even though your childcare is really reasonable I would ask your child minder if she would accept vouchers and if she says no ask her is she wouldn't mind registering.

By using vouchers we save approximately £80 a month which is nearly £1000 over a year!!! Each of you can claim up to £267 a month (I think)

Anyway, congrats on your LBM and best of luck :T

Scared1980

Unfortunately my work don't offer childcare vouchers, my childminder does accept them though! apparently they are looking into offering them next year... so will have to wait and see!!!

Just called 02 and my contract doesn't cease until September so can't do anything about that yet!

My Virgin package seems alot, but my work pay for the broadband and the phone as I work from home sometimes... so I only have to pay £10 for that.

I have checked my utilities and my insurances and they are the lowest I could get this year... I intend to check again before renewal though!

Council tax is over 10 months, which is ideal as the 2 "free" months are a god send after christmas and I used to use the money against my mortgage, but this time I intend to use it to pay my car insurance in full as that falls in March!

I walk wherever possible, but for taking the girls to the childminders and getting to work its not an option... I have local shops at my new place so I always walk there... and theres a library as well which is great cos I love reading and the cookery books come in handy for the old style money saving!

Thanks everyone for your comments and suggestions.... it really is helping me to realise that I can do this :0)

Lyns
x

duchy

I notice you have seperate life insurance policies. At the risk of sounding incredibly gloomy-have you looked into a joint life policy that pays out once if anything happens to one partner (eg remaining partner is left with no cover but mortgage is paid off so is the need for cover essential then anyway).

Scared1980

I am going to sit down with my stepdad at the weekend and sort the life insurance out... I am wondering if I personally need it at present as my company pays 4* my salary if anything happens to me... what do you think?? maybe it would be better to just cover my partner and save a few quid??

We are renting now, so paying off a mortgage is not a necessity, but if something did happen to him (horrible thought), I expect I would be the one they would chase the debts in his name.....???

What a morbid post... sorry

Lyns
x

Verbatim

If the debts are in a person's sole name they are paid out of his/her estate after death. If there isn't enough money to pay them the debts die with the deceased and are not inherited by anyone. If you have joint debts you'll be jointly and severally liable which means that creditors can demand payment from both or either of you at their discretion.