Hit me with your best advice (please!)

beautiful_ravens

hello, new here.
Although Im not quite thousands of pounds in debt, Im worried.
Im getting near my overdraft limit of 2,250. Im about £1,900 overdrawn.
Small potatoes.
But, when I get to the limit, thats it because I will have zero money.

Ive got 3 kids, age 8, 4 and 3; my partner works, earns alot in summer, may-september, but much less in winter. (400 a week summer, 200 a week winter)
I pay the 'small' bills, he pays the rent (650) and council tax (140) and his own bills (car, bike, his sons child maintenence) he usually buys the heating oil aswell.
I recieve child benefit and child tax credits.

We already live fairly frugally on value food and car boot clothes and until I can work (next spring), I dont know what steps to take to try and sort everything out. Even when I am working, I'll still need some sort of plan.

My money got this way since I passed my driving test 2 years ago, when I was in the black.

Ive heard alot of people say to sort these things out before they get out of hand, so thats what Im trying to do!

Sorry if this post seems a bit vague!

98jdougl

you could try posting up your SOA so the people here can have a look at it you could also look at things like cashback and paid to click sites to get some extra pennies?

beautiful_ravens

What does SOA stand for?

Waspeze

Statement of Accounts (Affairs)

Basically a list of Income and Expenditure

Numpty_Monkey

Hi

SOA stands for statement of affairs, its a list of all your income and expences
use this link
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

beautiful_ravens

Ok, after a long while, heres my SOA using that tool, but I havent included my partners ins and outs, because we allocated ourselves seperate things to pay and hes not the one in debt, he just breaks even every month.
Looks like the left over amount won't even cover the £25 pcm charge on my overdraft

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 3
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 670.16
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 670.16
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 15
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 100
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 66
Water rates............................. 22
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 4
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 240
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 56
Road tax................................ 10.05
Car Insurance........................... 33
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 12.5
Car parking............................. 1
Other travel............................ 10
Childcare/nursery....................... 15
Other child related expenses............ 5
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 7
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 2
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 650.55

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 4000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Secured Debt.................. 0........(15).......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 0.........-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 670.16
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 650.55
Available for debt repayments........... 19.61
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 19.61
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 4,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 4,000
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

bunny999

Do you need 3 cars ?

beautiful_ravens

Well, its 2 cars and a motorbike(there was no motorbike option!!)....but my partner pays for his car and his bike, so included in these sums is just my car running costs, its a little citroen saxo.

misspoppy

Hi wouldn't it be better to look at your income and expenditure as whole I'm sure you didn't get into debt by lavishing things soley on yourself. There is very little room for you play with other than the electricity and your car (is it really necessary?)

TotallyBroke

Doing soa's split is never going to be easy to do. You say OH is breaking even with what he has to pay for. So in the summer he should have more than enough money or does he then use your money.

beautiful_ravens wrote: »

Ok, after a long while, heres my SOA using that tool, but I havent included my partners ins and outs, because we allocated ourselves seperate things to pay and hes not the one in debt, he just breaks even every month.
Looks like the left over amount won't even cover the £25 pcm charge on my overdraft

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 3
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 670.16
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 670.16
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 15
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 100 Try reducing this by turning everything off at the plug when not in use
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 66
Water rates............................. 22
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 4 Is this a typo, only most top ups = £5 bundles
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 240 Meal plan and use basics and this can be cut back by atleast £50, make sure you have no waste at all on any day.
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 56
Road tax................................ 10.05
Car Insurance........................... 33
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 12.5
Car parking............................. 1
Other travel............................ 10
Childcare/nursery....................... 15
Other child related expenses............ 5
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 7
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 2 You only spent £24 on christmas and birthday last year!
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 650.55

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 4000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Secured Debt.................. 0........(15).......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 0.........-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 670.16
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 650.55
Available for debt repayments........... 19.61
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 19.61
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 4,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 4,000
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

We can only give you limited advice because you have only given us a limited soa.
If you can convince your OH to look at the bigger picture with you then we could advise better.
One thing I would advise with doing a joint soa in your OH's circumstances is to work out his yearly wage and divide it by 12. Then when living through a soa it's easy to know each month what is coming in and what is going out.
We can then help you cut back in areas that will benefit all of you as a family. Maybe take a payment holiday on the mortgage and then clear one or two smaller debts. Leaving you with spare income to pay off another debt and so on.

Jesthar

Hi ravens

Well, the good news is you don't have to find all that much to cover the overdraft charge, but you need to find a little more to start bringing the overdraft down. Do you only get charged for going OVER your overdraft limit, or is that a regular charge (don't know about overdrafts, never had one!)

If you haven't already, head over to the Money Saving Old Style boards and join in some of the grocery/cooking challenges - you'll be amazed how far some of them can help you make your pennies stretch! £280 a month isn't too bad for a family of five, but with care I suspect you could knock some more off and start making inroads into your overdraft.

You electricity is viciously high - do you use electric heating, perhaps? If you have a 'cold' house that's a real money eater, are there any ways you can cut back a little on the heating? I just put on a nice warm jumper and an extra pair of socks, and my central heating only goes on for a couple of hours a day normally. Then again, I am out all day at work (and I grew up in a house with no central heating ), but even when I am in the theormostat is only set to 12 degrees C, so if I do need it on more to dry laundry in the winter or because it is cold (like last week, brrrr!), it's not going to use too much. If push comes to shove, I make myself a cuppa, grab a spare duvet, and snuggle on the sofa - or do something like the washing up, or having a good tidy, which keeps me warm.

Oh, and I'm also pathalogical about turning everthing off at the wall when not in use, even the toaster! :rotfl:

One great way to conserve heat is draught excluders - I have one across the bottom of my living room door, and it really makes a difference! Mine is a 'proper' one, but you can make them easily enough from a few old pairs of tights - pull all the legs over one another to make a sturdy tube then stuff with old rags, cloth scraps or more old pairs of tights, even shredded paper or tissue and sew it up.

Aside from that, your petrol use is another possible target - can you reduce the number of journeys you do, perhaps do one less supermarket/shopping trip a week? Every little helps

~Jes