Saving for maternity leave - SOA feedback pls
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rainbow_wishes
Posts: 13 Forumite
Hi All, me & DH are currently trying for our second baby. If we are lucky enough to conceive after a blighted ovum in December, I am hoping to take 9 months maternity leave and my employer only pays full pay for 6 weeks, 12 weeks at half pay then SMP only so I will need around £5-6k in savings to see us through. I have set up a standing order for £200 per month into savings but we are finding this leaves us tight each month so I was hoping some of you lovely people would comment on our SOA (below) to see if we can save anything off our outgoings to make this savings target more comfortable. Also my husband is very unhappy in his current job and hopes to change careers which will involve a drop in income by £400 pm so we need to see if this is affordable.
Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1 (plus I have a stepdaughter - see child maintenance below)
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 1913.77
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1804.33 (this is 4 weekly)
Benefits................................ 82.8 (child benefit)
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3800.9
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 849.5
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 12.04
Council tax............................. 146 (over 12 months)
Electricity............................. 82 (includes gas)
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35.11 (metered and over 12 months)
Telephone (land line)................... 37.01 (includes internet)
Mobile phone............................ 87.81 (2 phones)
TV Licence.............................. 12.54
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 29.56
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 550 (includes pet food)
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 450 (2 x long commutes)
Road tax................................ 38.33
Car Insurance........................... 44.78
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 128
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0 (covered by childcare vouchers)
Other child related expenses............ 60.67 (swimming lessons)
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 25
Buildings insurance..................... 10.08
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 89.42
Other insurance......................... 74.8
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 125
Haircuts................................ 56.7
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 18
Gym..................................... 15.99
Course Fees............................. 73.6
Bank Account Fee........................ 25
Savings................................. 260 (includes child savings accounts x 2)
Child Maintenance....................... 250
Total monthly expenses.................. 3596.94
Total monthly income.................... 3,800.9
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,596.94
Available for debt repayments........... 203.96
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 203.96 (doing spending diary as this is never left over)
Total assets (things you own)........... 258,140
Total HP & Secured debt................. -201,039
Total Unsecured debt.................... -123.61
Net Assets.............................. 56,977.39
Happy to answer any questions. Thanks in advance
Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1 (plus I have a stepdaughter - see child maintenance below)
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 1913.77
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1804.33 (this is 4 weekly)
Benefits................................ 82.8 (child benefit)
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3800.9
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 849.5
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 12.04
Council tax............................. 146 (over 12 months)
Electricity............................. 82 (includes gas)
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35.11 (metered and over 12 months)
Telephone (land line)................... 37.01 (includes internet)
Mobile phone............................ 87.81 (2 phones)
TV Licence.............................. 12.54
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 29.56
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 550 (includes pet food)
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 450 (2 x long commutes)
Road tax................................ 38.33
Car Insurance........................... 44.78
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 128
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0 (covered by childcare vouchers)
Other child related expenses............ 60.67 (swimming lessons)
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 25
Buildings insurance..................... 10.08
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 89.42
Other insurance......................... 74.8
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 125
Haircuts................................ 56.7
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 18
Gym..................................... 15.99
Course Fees............................. 73.6
Bank Account Fee........................ 25
Savings................................. 260 (includes child savings accounts x 2)
Child Maintenance....................... 250
Total monthly expenses.................. 3596.94
Total monthly income.................... 3,800.9
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,596.94
Available for debt repayments........... 203.96
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 203.96 (doing spending diary as this is never left over)
Total assets (things you own)........... 258,140
Total HP & Secured debt................. -201,039
Total Unsecured debt.................... -123.61
Net Assets.............................. 56,977.39
Happy to answer any questions. Thanks in advance
0
Comments
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You might find you get more answers in the Debt-free Wannabe forum, even though you're trying to save rather than reduce debt.
Two big things that stuck out to me;
Phones - £87, that's quite a lot for two phones! I assume they're contracts, have you considered going sim-only? Me and DH pay £25 between us to EE and for that we get free texts, a certain amount of minutes and data. I'd definitely be shopping around, or phoning your provider to see if you can swap to a cheaper plan (especially if you don't use all your data or minutes as it is).
Presents (birthday, christmas etc) - £125, that's a lot of money to be saving up for gifts. Do you both have very large extended families, or are you used to splurging a lot for Christmas? Finding a way to halve this, at the very least, would help you a lot. Lots of great cheaper ideas for gifts on places like Pinterest, and if you plan ahead you might be able to get things cheaper during sales or in places like TK Maxx, or even charity shops (you can get plenty of good quality items in them).
Also £550 a month for food seems high but then I don't have pets or a child, but there must be some savings you can make there. Do you meal plan? Have you done a cupboard and freezer inventory recently? How often do you pop out for a pint of milk and come back with a lot of extra stuff you don't really need?"You won't bloom until you're planted" - Graffiti spotted in Newcastle.
Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind - Doctor Who
Total overpayments in 2021 - £901.28!0 -
We're in similar position - but on a lower income - we have about £2700 take home pay - but we have an average of £1000 a month left over after expenses. 2 working adults and a toddler with another baby on the way. But no pets
Remember that some of your costs will go down, like the fuel costs if you're not doing your long commute.
You car maintenance costs seem very high - is this because you're having to get them serviced more than once a year due to mileage or are you paying main dealer prices?
As above - main thing that stuck out for me was your present costs - way too high. That'll have to be cut drastically.
But also your phone cost - nearly £90 a month?
That's crazy - there are so many free ways to call/message using wifi and you can get payasyougo from companies like Three that charge you 1p a text
I think we only top up by £5 and that usually lasts a few months. OH has a cheap basic phone and I've got a good budget one.
Our grocerie bill (Aldi) is average £160-180 a month. So £550 does seem very high.
OH received the same OMP as you and we ended her first maternity leave with more money in the bank than at the start - she also had a few weeks unpaid at the end. We didn't save for it.
We didn't feel like we suffered through it either - you just have to cut back to basics - but we found a lot of that happened naturally due to being too exhausted to do anything! :laugh:Mortgage remaining: £42,260 of £77,000 (2.59% til 03/18 - 2.09% til 03/23)
Savings target June 18 - £22,281.99 / £25,0000 -
As others have pointed out, phones, food bill and presents seem quite high.
Other places to cut down- £29 a month for satellite tv is that necessary? Do you watch a lot of stuff that's not on freeview/catchup? Any chance you could replace it with netflix for 6.99?
Also wondering what your "other insurance" is for?0 -
Hi all. I posted on debt free wannabe and got a lot of the same comments. Our food spend was !!!8216;top ups!!!8217; from local expensive shops when deviating from healthy intentions. We now buy treats from Aldi and make sure they last lol week. Weekly spend last two weeks has been £65 and 4th week will be less as saving leftovers as we go along. With cat food and drynites on top it will be around £290 for the month which I!!!8217;m happier with.
Our phones are in contract but will try to get tariffs reduced.
Internet and landline are cheaper with now tv but I use the sky plus recording option for all my programmes and watch on a free evening. We are looking into options
Insurances need to be reviewed due to not using them both times I was made redundant. I think the idea was scary but in reality I would get temp work if worst happened.
Cars are older and this spend was for the last 12 months and my oh car had a £500 repair in April!!!! We need to get a newer car for him and will look at shopping around for cheapest Labour costs at garage. The one we use is walking distance so easy to drop off car etc with toddler.
Present costs are based on £100 per child (2) for birthday and Xmas and the same for oh and I (£800 per yr) and 43 other gifts the rest of year (budget ranges from £5-30 depending on family member/closeness of friend). There is extra built in for new baby gifts, kids birthday parties which ds now gets in its to etc. I don!!!8217;t think this is excessive but would be interested to know what others spend if anyone is willing to share0
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