An income and expenditure statement is really just a budget. It sets out your household costs on one page, so you can see at a glance where your money goes.
Sometimes tenants will experience money problems. You may have difficulty paying your water bill, or maybe you have had an emergency, which has led to you falling into rent arrears.
Money problems are almost inevitable these days and you should not feel ashamed. But you will have a better chance of solving money problems if you can clearly see where your money is going.
If you need to pay something off, it is better to make an arrangement that you are going to be able to keep.
An income and expenditure statement may help you to reach an agreement about payments with the owner of your rental premises (particularly Homeswest). It can also be a help if the owner is taking you to court - you will be able to show you are having genuine difficulty as well as what you can afford to pay.
Follow these simple steps. If you are having any difficulty at all, ring a financial counsellor. You can find your nearest financial counsellor by ringing . A financial counsellor may also be able to lend extra weight to your proposal to pay off a tenancy debt by providing a letter of support.
Get other members of the houshold to help - call a meeting! Get your kids to help - it will give them a better understanding of why you have to be careful with money. Kids also have a pretty good idea of basic maths.
Food and Groceries: This may be difficult to work out in one go unless you have kept a few of your recent dockets. You really need to look at dockets over a few weeks. This is because some weeks you have bigger expenses, like shampoo and detergent, that you might not be buying every week. You will probably have to take a bit of a guess with this one. Remember to include those daily costs like milk, bread. and takeaways.
Clothing and Manchester: Again, you might not have kept all your receipts to get an exact cost but you will probably have an idea of the cost of things. If not, you can go to a store like Target or Kmart and check out prices. Think about things like - how many pairs of socks or undies do you or your kids each go through in a year? How many pairs of shoes? Think about rain jackets, school uniforms, bathers, shorts, track pants or jeans, t-shirts, long sleeved shirts and so on. Note everything down and add it all up, then divide the total into fortnights. Don't forget sheets, doonas, bath and beach towels if you are likely to need them.
Chemist/ Prescriptions: Include in this item things like cough mixtures, band-aids, antiseptics and sunscreen as well as prescriptions. Also if you have kids, remember things like nit wash.
School: Remember to include here school fees, swimming lessons, stationery, excursions, raffles and school photos (the list goes on?).
Education: If you are studying make a note of your costs including books, stationery, photocopying and so on.
Haircuts: Think about how often your household members have to go to the hairdresser. For example, do the kids get their hair cut once each term? That's about four times a year. How many kids and how much does it cost for each. Work out the total for the year and divide it into fortnights.
Sport/ Recreation: Remember membership costs, uniforms, game fees etc.
Once you have entered all your figures you can add up your totals. If you are having any trouble working out your income and expenditure statement ring or make an appointment to see a financial counsellor.
Don't be surprised if it turns out that you are spending more money than you have. It just shows how easy it is to get into difficulty! But having everything set out in front of you helps to show where you might be able to cut down. It will also warn you if you are heading for difficulties.
You may like to use your income and expenditure statement to help avoid money problems. Your statement can help you work out a yearly plan - get a piece of paper and divide it into columns, one for each month. Note in each month when big bills are due. You can see if you are coming up to a month of big bills and plan for it by preparing in the weeks before.
Tenants Advice Service acknowledges the Financial Counsellors' Resource Project for their help and advice in producing this information sheet.
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