my SOA, any comments/advice?

gizmomum

Hi everyone
Here's my first stab at an SOA having acceoted that we need to do something about or debts but really can't get to grips with doing a DMP.I've put everything I can think of in what I think are the right places although there are a couple of things I must point out. The littlewoods and m&s haven't been paid for a while and the m&s has gone to an agency. There's also an outstanding vets bill of 180 (from when my cat got run over) which I've been avoiding. We're just about covering most of our otugoings although a couple of things have been in arrears.
Any comments will help as I've looked at my numbers so much that I don't really know what I'm seeing any more! thanks everyone
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1730
Partners monthly income after tax....... 880
Benefits................................ 162
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2772

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 653
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 90
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 44
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35
Telephone (land line)................... 65
Mobile phone............................ 45
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 240
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 24
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 365
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 44
Other insurance......................... 19
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 19
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1815

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 110000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 110000

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 88000....(653)......7
Total secured debts........... 88000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
egg............................3300......65........18
lloyds loan....................8000......182.......5.5
lloyds cc......................4000......80........18
car............................5000......102.......
littlewoods....................1300......600.......
m&s............................2000......80........
overdraft .....................4700......90........
Total unsecured debts..........28300.....1199......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,772
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 1,815
Available for debt repayments........... 957
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 1,199
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -242

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 110,000
Total Secured debt...................... -88,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -28,300
Net Assets.............................. -6,300

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission.

======== Enter any other useful information below ========

e.g. the number of adults & children in the household, the number

of cars included in the SOA or anything else that may be useful.

DebtFreeDan

Hi there and well done for posting your numbers up! I'm not expert in offering advice but I'd say both your phone costs look far too high! You should be able to cut these amounts dramatically!

Dan

~Beanie~

gizmomum wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Expense Details
Telephone (land line)................... 65 - Way too high. £110 per month on phone calls?
Mobile phone............................ 45 - see above

Groceries etc. ......................... 240 - How many people? You could probably cut this.

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 - Should be something here?

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0 - Need to either get insurance or budget for Vets bills
Buildings insurance..................... 0 - Should have house insurance!
Contents insurance...................... 0 - as above
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 - Need to budget for these
Haircuts................................ 0 - as above

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
egg............................3300......65........18
lloyds loan....................8000......182.......5.5
lloyds cc......................4000......80........18
car............................5000......102.......
littlewoods....................1300......600....... - £600 per month repayment??
m&s............................2000......80........
overdraft .....................4700......90........
Total unsecured debts..........28300.....1199......-

You seem to actualy have quite a bit of stuff missing from your SOA that you need to include - see comments above.

Have you tried completing the Debt Remedy on the CCCS website to see what it suggests for you? In your circumstances though, a DMP possibly would be a good idea.

Wookey

Hello, I'm no expert either but your littlewoods debt at 600 a month, if you had that cleared that would free up a considerable sum to chuck at the other debts and at only 1300 owed on it then it is possible to clear it quite quickly.

gizmomum

thanks for the quick responses..that's great.
I forgot to put in my comments that the 65 landline phone is actually phone, TV and broadband. My mobile does eem a bit high still, I changed the tarriff a couple of months back because I was going over my allowed miuntes so it has come down a bit but mabe could do more
The Littlewoods minimum amount is what shows on our account on the website and is probably because it hasn't been paid for a while
Yes I do need to budget for house insurance!
There's me, my hubby and my 7 month old carpet commando....how much do others allow for groceries?
Have done the debt remedy and it does suggest a DMP but I wonder if I can get a better budget togehter before I dive into one?

Burlesque_Babe

what is the £19 for 'other insurance'?

Your gas and electricity are also incredibly high.

When I was paying back my debts and had the belt pulled in tight, I spent £120 for 2 adults on supermarket shopping in total, although I know some do it for even less. Not sure how much a little rug rat costs for nappies etc to add on top of that as a starting point.

paybacktime2008

Re Groceries try the Old style money saving board for heaps of tips/recipies etc...A great Place.

Are you receiving childcare vouchers from your employer? These save you money.

Gas/elec looks high as I'm presuming you are all out of the house a fair bit with work etc.

TV/broadband/internet.... I pay £22 a month with virgin

Thats all i can think of for now

Good Luck

~Beanie~

If you are not actually paying £600 per month to Littlewoods and you haven't paid the £80 to M&S for a while, then you are actually showing a surplus in your budget of £438. Where has this been going?

Maybe you should start to keep a spending diary and keep track of every penny that you spend, magazines, chocolate, treats, lunch at work etc. It will soon show where your money is going!

gizmomum

to be honest I'm not sure what it is, I think it may be an old life policy...........it's on my list of ones to cancel if I can't track it down.
I've started lurking on the Old style board and have already picked up lots of good tips for decreasing the budget.
Well the gas and electric does seem high, although we are clearing a little bit of arrears. I'll have to do a reading and phone them up.
I already get childcare vouchers, that 365 is on top of that!
22 a month with virgin sounds great, I'll have to get on to them, that would be a huge saving!
This is so good, I'm getting a nice list of things to sort out and check, which is always good for the soul :T

gizmomum

I'm embarrassed to say I don't know where it's been going, there have been a couple of months where we have had huge bank charges but apart from that............:o

Next on my list then, a diary of everything we spend........am I being too optimistic to think that we could avoid a DMP after all or are the missed payments and debts with the agencies a step too far. I suppose at the end of the day there's little chance of us making up a large sum of cash to give these peole but it'll just be a case of doing trhe best we can

dancingfairy

o.k well the answer to that is your budget is showing that you are 242 pounds away from balancing. Therefore if you can find 242 a month in a combination of savings and increasing your income then yes perhaps you could avoid a dmp. However a dmp will as you know ruin your redit rating for some years (6?) but you do need to act as otherwise the situation will only get worse for you.
Have you got things you could sell? Car boot/ebay?
As the OP said it should only take you 2 months to pay off Littlewoods if you are paying that much a month - is that really correct? Which should really help your budget a lot.
df