Form E and living costs - what should I include on it?

[skyebluesapphire]

My solicitor said that I should put down all my living expense on part of Form E. I understand mortgage, utilities, life insurance, food, car running etc, but what else should I put down? Should I put down:

holidays, haircuts, clothing/shoes (me and DD), tv licence, Sky tv (basic), entertainment for DD (ie trips out, swimming, local fetes etc), lottery, nights out for myself (few and far between!),

also am I supposed to put a monthly figure or an annual figure? Ie car insurance paid once a year, so should I divide it by 12, or times monthly expenses by 12 to give annual total?

My solicitor said that my expenses shouldnt wildly exceed my income as I dont have any debts, but if I put down everything then the expenses will go over the income, especially as the income shown on the form doesnt include the maintenance from STBXH.

Thanks in advance for any help and replies

[Bossybritches22]

Difficult one as like all LP's you probably juggle things + do haircut one month, shoes the next.
Make sure you do add in something every month to cover all the kids stuff, plus a little for you own.
There's a good budget calculator on the Moneysaver website, sorry can't link om Phone.
Glad things are moving forward for you, I remember your original thread.

[Bossybritches22]

Oh and yes break it down to monthly amounts for ease of calculation asyour income is likely to be monthly.

[skyebluesapphire]

thanks. I signed the decree nisi on Tuesday. Cant believe how fast its all moving, but its my choice to divorce. If i waited for him to do it, it would never happen.... even though it was his choice to leave!

just got to sort out all this financial stuff and get him off the mortgage and then I can start to move on with the rest of my life!

[skyebluesapphire]

I will look at that budget calculator, thanks for that.

[Bossybritches22]

Found the link.....

you don't have to sign up to the newsletter just download the planner

[skyebluesapphire]

thanks for that link, I have downloaded that many moons ago and totally forgot about it! It is just what I am looking for as it makes you look at all expenditure through the year, stuff that you forget about.

thanks

[MOSagain]

You need to include everything that you would normally spend money on. Make it a monthly figure so if you have haircuts every 4 months you need to adjust the figure to a monthly average. Same with things like shoes, clothes etc.

People always tend for forget things like magazine subscriptions, postage, dentists etc. Have a look back through the last 6 months bank statements and see where you've spent money.

[skyebluesapphire]

Thanks. I've been working it out and I don't live a wild life by any means but it comes to nearly £20000 a year! Mind you my mortgage is nearly £9000 a year. I've put down a couple of hundred for Christmas presents and a couple of hundred for clothes, it's so difficult working out what you spend!