[Closed] Now this is moneytrackworld - what are your 'fixed' outgoings...??

£1650

Do I include my £100 a month SKY package! 😯

£1500

Do I include my £100 a month SKY package!

Can do.
I've a super calculator that will allow me to equate what the figure would be if you didn't, though...

DrP - £2,300

£400 pcm. Life is very cheap at the moment.

just shy of 1300 quid

didnt count pensions/student loans as if we lost our jobs our pension/loan payments would also stop.....

£1200 for 2 houses when we have tenants in going up to £1600 when without.
Please stay in, please stay in...........

its around 1300-1400 i think off the top of my head, that doesn't include if i worked out the pet insurance, car insurance etc as a monthly cost instead of a lump sum once a year

Best part of $3000. *gulp*

wouldnt have said cars running costs were fixed tbh.... i view them as the first things to be cut if things got tight ... your milage may vary.

£2,021 which will drop to £1,711 next month. If I stripped out a few "luxury" spends, (sky, gym membership etc) I could get the £1,711 down to £1,527

228pm - lovefilm/phone contract/car insurance & petrol/car tax & break down cover/rent, well board

Currently under £900 - gawd bless the low interest rates!

wouldnt have said cars running costs were fixed tbh.... i view them as the first things to be cut if things got tight ... your milage may vary.

It would probably reduce considerably if you sold your car!

£468 pcm approx

Long may debt free life continue

Looks like we are about to buy a 2-3yr old Transporter as well...with cash. (must start yet another new thread)

Who'd have thunk it, you can save up to buy things.

(That's not a commentary on other peoples outgoings, more a reflection on my early adulthood debt issues)

Mine is around 1k, but I don't run a car or pay childcare as my wife looks after the nipper

council tax, house ins, gas, electric, phone, mobile, bband, tv = 220

Ours doesn't include childcare, or petrol... :-/

My insurance in case I go kerazy at work is several 'undred per month - I tried promising I'd be careful, but they were having none of it.....
(refrains from starting a "what does it cost you, simply to be at work" thread..)

DrP

£2120

Edit: that's allowing for our food budget. Which we set a fixed amount for but others may not be including.

My insurance in case I go kerazy at work

😆 😯

no debt, car bought with cash but can't hide from rent, council tax, gas/elec bills, water, insurance, tv licence etc etc!

Wife deals with all the finances, We are mortgage free, don't have credit cards or loans.I think our fixed out going are quite small compared to most. TBH i coldn't even tell you how much we pay in council tax, gas or electric.

A lot.

Exactly how much would require me and Mrs North discussing finances without rapidly descending into a blazing row.

No idea. That's quite bad isn't it? I should probably do some sums but no-one's shouted at me about owing them money for a while now so I just sort of assume it's all ok.

£800 ish but need to sit down and work it out again..

About £1000 at the moment. If i was mortgage free it would still cost me about £500 a month just to live in my house!

Our outgoings seem to be fixed at 'what we earn'

(refrains from starting a "what does it cost you, simply to be at work" thread..)

We have spent over £40k on childcare since our first kid was born. 2 at school now and one in funded sessions so light at the end of the tunnel..

My DDs are:

Council Tax £120.68
Gas £61.00
Elec £39.00
House Insurance £18.34
Water £38.19
Charities £160.00
Spotify £4.99
Virgin Media £24.40

No mortgage and pension comes out of payroll.

Charities £160.00

Good work.

£615 is the basic outgoing, not including virgin media
But spend another £650 on childcare.

So childcare is bigger than all other outgoings put together :-O

Mine doesnt include food. Or a pension 🙁

Cake obviously has its own 3D spreadsheet 🙂

how much are folk spending on food, cos these total must be without food shopping.

£35~ phone contract (unlimited internet so use it for everything)
£29 for kit & contents insurance (includes £4k of bikes)
£173 for car, thankfully only for another 11 payments.
£150 monthly donation to my dad to help out.

Car insurance is a yearly payment of £220.
CILOCT is £20 a month as I don't pay council tax.

After that, disposable income is ~£1200 & I still seem to waste it o.O

Edit to add; Less than £20 a week on food.

Just to pay for living; about £700. ( that's all utillities, food, c tax, phone and housing etc) ontop of that is car, at around £250 a month, but a large part of that is expensed.

50 quid a week on food and household "crap" - cleaning stuff and bog roll etc etc for 2 - was more but decided the canteen at work was just taking the piss both cost and nutrition and filling me with preservatives.

council tax 198 ( pcm)
gas 42 (pcm)
leccy 41 (pcm)
hse ins 235 (pa)
water 40 (pcm)
tv license.. whatever that is..

non essentials..

sky 52(pcm)
bt/ inteweb/ phone calls 70 (pcm)
various club memberships ( football/ motorcycle/car) 45 (pcm)
car insurance 365 (pa)
M/c insurances 800 (pa)
road tax 700 (pa)
kids after school clubs 64(pcm)
kids tuition fees 100 (pcm)

and thats before i take a step out of the door..

Budget planner anyone..
Rent/Mortgage (including any service charges)
Council Tax
Water and sewerage
Gas/Electric/Oil/Wood
Basic House repairs
Life insurance
Household Insurance
Pension
Medical/Dental care
Phones and Broadband (landline and mobiles)
Tv license and Sky/Virgin/other subscriptions
Car Insurance/Tax/Servicing and MOT's
Minimum fuel required
Loans and Credit card repayments
Child maintenance
Charity payments
Basic food & essentials budget (include washingpowder and washing up liquid and anything else you need)
Basic clothing and beauty budget (include hairdressing and other things you need to do)
Savings
Holidays
If your Self employed remember your Tax payments or to remove the approx amount from your income.
Anything else you might see as a monthly need. (Be realistic.)

Well worth doing IMO whether your flush or feeling the pinch;
Seems daunting if your having money troubles but it will help in the long run.

£1800 is a basic monthly for us.

Two of us, no kids, no pets, 4 bedroom house, one '04 vaxhall Astra 1.7CDTI, 13 and 20 mile commutes.

Fixed about £1300 on:

Professional Fees
Council Tax
TV Licence
Mortgage + cover
Home Insurance
Mobiles
Lovefilm
Monitored Alarm
Gas/Elec
Phone/Broadband

Plus We take monthly fuel, transport and food shopping from a £600 a month budget.

£100 a month goes into a car fund, which gets used to pay servicing/repairs/MOT/insurance/VED and a surplus for the next car we need to buy.

£400 a month goes into a 'wants' account which gets used for anything we don't need to buy right now. From a meal out, to decorating, to holidays.

£350 a month to an emergency fund, which is almost at its target, at which point it will switch to overpaying the mortgage.

We both keep £500 each pocket money to spend on whatever we want.

We've been doing our own version of the 50/30/20 budget for the last couple of years. It really works for us, really lets you see where you stand, without having to watch every penny/transaction.

http://money.msn.com/how-to-budget/how-much-should-you-spend-on-weston.aspx

somewhere between £2500 and £3000 depending on what you classify as a fixed cost

About £2300 inc. mortgage and all utilities, phones etc. Another £500/month for the cars, and we set a rough budget of around £1500 a month for living, food, petrol blah blah sometimes go over, sometimes can be way under. The rest goes into savings or for holidays/whatever. We could reign it in a lot if we needed to, but thankfully we both do OK wage wise and have (relatively)secure jobs.

Averaged over the last 13 years, our total outgoings has exactly equalled our total income :)/:(

I really have no idea.

Just working this out. I reckon about £1200 a month including £320 a month childcare but no mortgage. Shamefully I never work it out to the last few pounds since we're financially in a good place at the moment. Just check the money left over at the end of the month. Which is the important number if you are lucky enough to have it.

Mine are £1173.77 including childcare at £440 a month and a mortgage of £230 a month so * hopefully* in two years time they will be £503 a month.

I really have no idea.

snap

Just whacked £75 off my monthly outgoings. Between O2 broadband and the full Sky package I was paying £107 a month.

Switched to BT Vision with Infinity broadband and got that down to £32.50 a month including ESPN.

So long Mr Murdoch!

£1379 from my income (OH earns approx £100pm) which covers pretty much everything every month, might actually be able to start saving some money this year.

for me and my wife 2500 a month, inc. all food car, bills, life insurance, mortgage, childcare etc etc.

If I'm honest it's really getting me down at the moment. How can we save anything when our outgoings are that large, it's ****ing ridiculous.

working hard for a promotion at the moment, if that comes this year, as it should, things will be easier, but not by much. looking to really cut spending these coming months...

If I'm honest it's really getting me down at the moment. [b]How can we save anything when our outgoings are that large[/b], it's **** ridiculous.

Cut your outgoings?

From the 50/30/20 budget plan:

You may think it's your income, rather than your expenses, that's the problem. That could be true, and if you can boost your income, go for it. But people can balance their budgets and save money on virtually any income.

Have a look at it ([url= http://money.msn.com/how-to-budget/how-much-should-you-spend-on-weston.aspx ]50/30/20 budget[/url]), it makes loads of sense to me, cut your essential outgoungs (needs) to 50% of your income, keep your "wants" to 30%, and pay off debt/save the remaining 20%.

Also the [url= http://money.msn.com/how-to-budget/a-simpler-way-to-save-the-60-percent-solution-jenkins.aspx ]60% solution[/url]. Same idea but slicing up slightly differently

Feenster - I got that 50/30/20 plan when you linked it up - printed it out, and will sit down with the wifey over the weekend, and go through it (I know how to show a lady a good time...).
Seems a good target to stick to in order to 'realise' available cash.

Good work sir!

DrP

DrP. Nice one 🙂 - hope it works for you - really works for us. We've found that we can keep really good control of our money without having to go watch every penny. It comes close to running itself once you get to grips with it.

Takes a bit of thought to get it up and running, and a slight change in mind set, and maybe even some tough decisions if you really want to stick to 50/30/20, but I promise it's worth it.

It did take a bit of selling to the Mrs initially - she hates budgetting and all that kind of things, but she likes it now.

A bottle of wine usually helps when we sit down to talk about money.

Genuinely, let me know how you get on with it.

Cheers Feenster I'll take a look at that, but cutting needs to 50% when mortgage and childcare are £1000 a month will be tricky, but we need to do something...

don't really know, as Mrs Freeagent does most of it but here goes - all are PCM

Mortgage £1150
Childcare - varies but something like £800
Water £90 (don't ever move to a house with a water meter)
Gas/Electric £75
Mobile phone (2 @£15 PCM) £30
Dancing lessons/Rainbows/swimming for daughter £70ish
Virgin Media - £41
Insurance - don't know
Council tax - think its about £150
Car - have company car but costs me >£370 for lease/tax

I know exactly what it is, but writing it down never does anything other than depress me.

We are slaves to ourselves 🙂

Currently at my parent for a few months while I buy a house, not even discussed money yet so it will be X amount?

Other than that i have very little

No Accomodation to pay for as mentioned so none of the add ons
Free work Phone
Car paid for
Car insurance paid upfront (would be £95 pcm)
currently riding to work

So the cost of lunch everyday?

everything else is a luxury, seems strange actually.

It did take a bit of selling to the Mrs initially - she hates budgetting and all that kind of things, but she likes it now.

Fully understood, and in the same boat!!

It seemed to produce fits of giggles when I explained "this is serious" - she kept asking me to say it again and again, but I don't think she was looking for me to drive home the content of the statement, more to laugh at my face when I say it....

DrP 😕

Cheers Feenster I'll take a look at that, but cutting needs to 50% when mortgage and childcare are £1000 a month will be tricky, but we need to do something...

I'm sure it will be. Some pertinent bits from the article:

You may be discouraged by how far you are from the ideal. But running the numbers can help you understand why your money isn't working for you. If basic overhead consumes so much of your paycheck, it's no wonder you have trouble saving, paying off debt and living the rest of your life.

and:

Remember that the 50/30/20 plan is a goal to work toward, not something you'll necessarily achieve overnight. And if you're already in financial crisis -- you're unemployed, for example, or suffering through a disability -- true balance may have to wait until the crisis has passed.

Good luck

I just read that. The more I read, the more I like. and doing a few sums, we won't be that far off, if we lose a few 'essentials'

about £850-900 to 'run my life'
thankfully i usually have more than double that left over. amazed at how many people sail close to wind but would never give up the sky/gym/love film/bigger car than their salary payments

One benefit we are getting from it is an objective answer to "can we afford it"?

E.g if we're thinking of a sky package on a twelve month contract, it becomes a "Need", so the question is "do we have space in the 50% part?"

A holiday in Iceland? Is there money in the wants account?

A new kitchen? If we remortgage/take a loan, is there space in the 50% for the repayments.

When we bought our first house, we ran the numbers based on needs = 50%, and out came how much we could afford.

Can't recommend it enough.

It did take a bit of selling to the Mrs initially - she hates budgetting and all that kind of things, but she likes it now.

Part of the reason she likes it now is that we never have to sit down with receipts and statements any more.

Should also mention, that we run a few different joint accounts to support this. Basically a Billing account (direct debits/standing orders only), a needs cash account (fuel, transport and food mainly), a wants cash account (anything we don't need to buy now), a car fund account, and a savings account, plus our own personal accounts for our pocket money.

£1073.17

That doesn't include childcare though. That's about £900 a month 🙁

~£733.172

seems we are running on a 64/18/18

I've had to work this out in the last few weeks and it was around £2000.00 but in that I've included food, clothes, children's tutors/clubs/sports and so on. Biggest expense is the mortgage which is just ahead of food.

I've been able to cut around £200PM just by switching supermarkets, negotiating better deals with utility suppliers and reworking my insurances/pensions.

I am a proper miser , and wont include food as its not a fixed cost, Its massively variable , so roughly £350. In decending cost order.-
Pension Payments
Council tax
House and car insurance
Electricity
Gas
Communications
Water
TV licence

Flat paid for , Car paid for. Monthly food approx £200, Monthly fuel £250.

I've been following the 80:10:10 rule:

80% goes on Workshop
10% on essential living costs
10% also goes on the Workshop 😉

Around £1100, but that includes Sky and pension payments. £900 without.

Don't run a car either.

london living makes it too embarrassing to post up 😳

EDIT: but I still have pretty good disposable income each month. 🙂

I know exactly what ours is including food, MOT and variable kids stuff, it's £2490
On top of that is monthly pensions and savings contributions