Wednesday 21 September 2016

#33 Freesat

12 months ago we were able to sign up to a great Sky tv/phone/internet deal. £35 all inclusive per month, including line rental.

This month that deal ended and to stick with the same deal would have increased our monthly bill to over £100.

Obviously this wasn't an option.

Having looked around what we've plucked for is a Freesat box with HD and pause/record functionality + the cheapest internet we could find, which this month was PlusNet.

We have exchanged £184 up front for the Freesat box for no on-going monthly contract for TV.

Our internet and line rental is now £16.99 per month. TV = free.

Each month this means we'll be spending £18 less than with previously Sky.

After 10.2 months we'll have covered the cost of the Freesat box initial outlay and will be spending less money that if we hadn't made this decision.

It is a nice feeling to 1) reduce monthly expenditure and 2) remove ourselves from the dependency of a TV contract.





Friday 2 September 2016

#32 August 2016 Summary

So, did we stick to the budget?

No. Overspent by £760.



If not, why not?

£600~ spent on our holiday in Gloucester.

However, even when excluding this we'd have been £700 over budget.

Key items break down into;

  • £312 on one-off big things
    • £150 new laptop
    • £120 son football 12 week payment
  • £130 on Mrs shopping
  • £116 on home improvements
  • £90 on kids shoes

Any positives?

Using a new pay card for grocery shopping via work. Provides a discount an incentive to not spent more than budget. Set at £570 a month currently.

Lessons / thoughts?

Family holiday was a one-off and well deserved, in future would prefer for this to come out of savings rather than be added to the monthly budget.

Did have alot of one-off expensive items, the laptop, football sessions, shoes. These wont be repeated for quite some time. BUT, we do seem to have regularly had quite alot of one-off big items lately.


Expectations for next month?

September, we don't have any big plans for and currently no plans to spend on any big one-offs.

Potentially there is some work needed on the car but that's unknown at present.

Only four weekends and with new grocery cash card expecting to remain on target for the budget in Sept.


Effect on overall finances?

S    Student loan – Does not exist anymore.
·         House loan – £298 was paid off direct debit. Total remaining now is £6,845
·         Credit Card -  £49 was paid off. Total remaining now is £2,163
   

Total Debt = £9,008



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Savings

Paid for our foreign holiday to the Canary Islands so savings taken a beating.

Emergency savings / Savings for France 2017 family holiday

Currently this is just one account and needs to be split into two soon.
  • £112
Shares
  • Current value is £367.08 (increase of £14.50)


Total savings =  £429.08

Pension
  • Current value is £11,234.31