The light is well and truly on!'

kazwookie wrote: »

Hello

Well done so far, you mentioned

I found out that as a local council employee, I can have a sports centre membership for £28.50 a month.

Where is this showing in your soa?

Good luck

I don't think my SOA posted properly! I did it on my phone and copied and pasted, somehow I must have missed some out. When I do my budgeting on the computer, I'll redo my SOA the same time, and hopefully it'll be a little more accurate - although it won't account for the black hole our money seems to be falling into

Right, I've done another SOA and again, there is absolutely no reason why we are struggling, so a spending diary is definitely the way to go. I've tried to be as accurate as possible, although haven't accounted for clothes/haircuts etc as they are random purchases and for now I want to see what we have left after we pay the things we need to. That, has given me a right kick up the bum to sort this.

Currently, DH gets paid on 28th, and on that day, £1600 gets transferred to another account (Lloyds) where our bills come out, groceries are paid out of our living account as are credit card payments. However, we have a few DD's that have crept into our 'daily living' account. I want to move those 3 DD's over to the Lloyds account so that we can see even clearer where our money is going.

We located the insurance policy we were unsure about - it is the caravan insurance which has jumped up considerably. Policy renewal is in October, so we will be looking around, and using Quidco, in September.
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 4
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2900
Partners monthly income after tax....... 901
Benefits................................ 192.4
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3993.4

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 290.6
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 125
Electricity............................. 60
Gas..................................... 60
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 36.5
Telephone (land line)................... 32.99
Mobile phone............................ 73.98
TV Licence.............................. 12.67
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 50
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 400
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 150
Road tax................................ 21
Car Insurance........................... 28.56
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 35
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 34.47
Buildings insurance..................... 19.37
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 91.25
Other insurance......................... 38.97
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 100
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 16
Holiday................................. 130
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Birchbox................................ 12.95
Council Sports Centre Fees.............. 28.5
Professional Body Fees.................. 21.6
Unite Union............................. 14.06
Caravan Storage......................... 41
Total monthly expenses.................. 1924.47


Assets
Cash.................................... 882
House value (Gross)..................... 120000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 7000
Other assets............................ 10000
Total Assets............................ 137882


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 27000....(290.6)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 27000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Next...........................1370......79........22.9
Littlewoods....................400.......36.12.....0
Sainsburys Loan................5260......219.2.....4.2
MBNA 2.........................2700......65........0
MBNA 1.........................10800.....169.......6.9
Barclaycard....................8500......191.......0
MotoNovo (car).................6628......165.7.....4.7
Tesco Loan.....................3900.5....134.5.....3.9
Total unsecured debts..........39558.5...1059.52...-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,993.4
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,924.47
Available for debt repayments........... 2,068.93
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 1,059.52
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1,009.41

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 137,882
Total HP & Secured debt................. -27,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -39,558.5
Net Assets.............................. 71,323.5

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Thankfully, dh was on board whilst I was still burying my head in the sand!

Today's plans are to contact the mobile phone companies and get the DD's changed to the Lloyds account. The DD into the Lloyds will need to be increased to reflect this.

My daughter is due home from her school trip today, so it'll be lots of washing to do! It's a sunny day so no tumble dryer needed.

Our main meal is going to be spaghetti bolognese which is a batch cook from the freezer.

I want to finish the skirt I'm making as I am out for food this evening with friends. I am hesitant to put that here for fear of judgement! To justify, it's a pub meal that will be relatively cheap. I still have £20 from the cushion I sold a few days back and that'll more than cover it!

Check bank account.

I need to contact Next, I tried to log in to do my usual PADding, there is a tick by my username and password to say they're correct but I keep getting an incorrect details message. Not sure what's going on there but I want to sort that today too.

Meal plan for next week and do shopping list!

Clean!!

Have a good day everyone, I'll be posting on here through the day!

Thank you! I've had the pattern and fabric here for a while! It would have been cheaper to buy from a cheap clothing chain I'm sure, but, I can feel proud that I made it and no one else will have one!!!

If I can work out how to add a photo then I might just add one here!

I've managed to move one direct debit so far, 2 more to do, but I can't seem to log in to EE at the moment! I'll keep trying though.

I just did a snowball calculator, and our credit cards and catalogue bills could be paid off in 16 months, that is a real eye opener! I'm nervous though as at the moment we can't account for all our outgoings, although, having just picked up my daughter from a school skiing trip, maybe we can account for them... I've no more school trips to pay for, so from here on in, it should be easier to see, especially as the DD's are being moved to the bill account, it'll be even clearer to account for our spending.

One question, my daughter has come back with 60 swiss francs in notes. We've no plans to go to Switzerland in the near (or long term) future, so I'm thinking of changing them back to pounds. I know we'll lose money, but at the moment, they're worth nothing! What do you think? And is there a best way to go about it?