In our How I Manage My Money series, we aim to find out how people in the UK are spending, saving and investing money to meet their costs and achieve their goals.
This week we speak to Sarah Tallack, 41, who lives in Plymouth with her husband, Dave, 42, and their cat, Hera. Sarah once entered into a debt consolidation plan and is now looking to clear £5,000 worth of credit card debt. Sarah and Dave overpay their mortgage by £50 a month. Thanks to Dave’s parents, the couple will inherit trust funds and rental properties in future.
Monthly budget
Our monthly income: I work as a freelance document controller and personal assistant, making about £1,000 per month, but this is variable. My husband is doing a secondment in payroll, earning about £1,500 a month.
Our monthly outgoings: Mortgage on our flat, £480; separate mortgage for things like solar panels, £122; groceries, including supermarkets, the corner shop and Amazon, £370; gas and electric, £330 – we had a deficit and our bill will fall soon; water, £65; broadband, £28; my mobile, £5; husband’s mobile, £70; life insurance, £5; health insurance, £32; home insurance, £20; car and motorbike insurance, £95; dishwasher, fridge and freezer insurance, £15; car fuel, £85; Healthy Pet Club, £15; eating out and takeaways, £60; craft hobbies, £10; husband’s hobbies, including Warhammer and live action role play games, £60.
We had a council tax discount as I was studying, but this will soon rise to £130 a month again. We make a £50 overpayment on our house mortgage each month. I try to put £200 into savings each month.
I grew up near Dartmoor and although my family wasn’t wealthy, we never went without. I didn’t go to university and had no idea what I wanted to do as a career. It’s taken me 20 years to figure this out.
Up until recently, I worked as a compliance manager, earning £33,000 a year. I completed a free Chartered Management Degree Apprenticeship and left my job in May. I now work freelance at a small company as a document controller and personal assistant, making about £1,000 a month.
I wasn’t worried about money immediately after leaving my job to go freelance, but I’m getting concerned now as I’ve caught up with the backlog of work I had. In the future, I’d like to study environmental sciences and sustainability at university.
Although I try to save money, I just don’t know where it goes sometimes. I’m always dipping into my savings.
In 2011, I had to enter into a debt consolidation plan. Our debts were about £15,000 as we’d had an expensive kitchen fitted. A lot of the debt was interest-generated. This all happened during a three-year spell when Dave couldn’t work due to ill health. I wasn’t on a high income, but still didn’t qualify for any benefits.
Even after getting those debts paid off, we’ve now got about £5,000 worth of credit card debts. This is all on zero per cent credit cards. If we didn’t have these debts, we’d be overpaying the mortgage more, putting bigger amounts into pensions and saving for more holidays.
We purchased our two-bedroom flat in Plymouth for £93,000 in 2006. I used money my parents had been saving for me as a deposit. Initially, we got an £83,000 interest-only mortgage, so we weren’t paying off the mortgage itself. At the time I don’t think I fully understood the implications of not paying the repayments. In any event, I ended up needing the extra money when Dave was unable to work.
More recently, we’ve used five-year fixed-rate mortgage deals for the flat. However, our latest deal was a two-year fix, at 4.74 per cent, with the repayment totalling £480 per month. We’re hoping interest rates will fall soon.
We took out a separate £10,000 mortgage for solar panels and a battery, which has an interest rate of 5.21 per cent. For the two mortgages, we pay £602 per month.
We’re keen to get the mortgage on the flat paid off as soon as we can, so we use an app called Sprive to make monthly overpayments. Our overpayment is typically £50 per month. Our mortgage provider has a 10 per cent annual limit on overpayments.
We’ve outgrown our flat. In 2021 we were looking to buy a new house, but three potential purchases fell through. Interest rates and house prices increased, so we ended up staying put.
We won’t be looking to move again until property prices and the costs of living come down. If we did move, we’d want a double garage and five bedrooms. We’d use one bedroom as our bedroom and the others as an office, craft room, games room and guest room. We’d want a driveway so we don’t have to worry about on-street parking. Privacy from neighbours would also be great. When we looked for a new home in 2021, prices were about £300,000. Now they are about £350,000. We don’t want another big mortgage.
I add money to my savings account when I can. I’ve also got old work pensions, but have always been rather bamboozled by all the different pension options. My old pensions are now on PensionBee and I like to choose ethical investments.
Thanks to Dave’s parents, we’ll inherit trust funds and rental properties in future. This gives us reassurance for the future and I imagine we will sell the rental properties.
I’d like to retire by the time I am 65. Dave and I want to be able to enjoy later life. My mum worked an extra two years for a fantastic pension, but sadly died shortly after retiring. She didn’t get the chance to enjoy her retirement.
As long as we have enough money to pay the bills and a bit left over for ourselves, I’m happy. I wouldn’t object to having more though! If I won the lottery, I’d take care of our families and close friends. I’d pay some of their mortgages off and set up trust funds for their children. I’d also give money to local causes close to our hearts. Even if we don’t win the lottery, we’d like to move to a bigger property and go on motorbike tours all over Europe.
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