Hello! SOA from a newbie...why is it taking so long!?

CheshireCat

Hello everyone, I have been using this site for quite a while now, and thought it was about time I joined the forum.

Here is my S.O.A:

Monthly Income

Me - £1293
Hubby - £980

Monthly Outgoings

Housing -£822.34
Mortgage - £641.24
Service Charge - £65 (This includes building insurance)
Council Tax - £94
Contents Insurance - £8.47
Life Assurace - £13.63

Utilities - £187.50
Electricity - £80 (No gas connection)
BT Line Rental -£10.50
2 Mobile phones - £50
Internet and Phone - £15
Water Rates - £20
TV Licence - £12

Transport - £273(We run 2 cars)
Petrol - £180
Insurance - £63
MOT/maintenance - £30

Food and Health - £231.25
Denplan - £11.25
Groceries - £200
Clothing etc. - £20

Misc
Loan - £357.93 (:eek: ....and it was going so well up to this point!)


TOTAL OUTGOINGS: £1872 TOTAL INCOME: £2273

Credit Card Debt - £2350 (0% until March 09)
The loan was for £7000 over 2 years at 7.9% - £4653.09 inc. interest to pay

On paper it looks so simple....use the £400 left each month to clear the debt. But it never quite works out like that...and I don't know why Something always crops up...and some months we only pay £100 off the credit card.

We took out the loan to help renovate our flat that we bought last year (which was in an uninhabitable condition). We went for the 2 year repayment period as we thought it would be cheaper in the long term. That may be, but we are suffering in the short term! The repayments are crippling.

One of our cars is a real old banger, about 15 years old, and has been making some strange noises :eek:. I am petrified that it is going to die on us. Because of where we live, we have to run 2 cars (have tried just the one previously, and did not work). We have no savings to buy another car, and I am sick at the thought of having to borrow more money.

To make matters worse I desperately want to have a baby. But I would never do so until the debt is gone and we have a bit of savings.

I know deep down that my situation is not that bad, and there are lots of people who are much worse off. But it is keeping me awake at night, and I obsess about it at work. My parents were terrible with money and I have vivid childhood memories of my mother crying hysterically as repossesion loomed. I am terrified of ending up like them (they are still many many thousands of pounds of debt, but continue to spend regardless).


It feels good to have finally written that down. :rolleyes:

paybacktime2008

Well done and welcome. Have you ever looked at The old style board for help and ideas for getting your groceries down. It's amazing what they do there. Just the usual advice for you. Compare all bills using comparison sites to see if you can get anything cheaper. start filling in a spending diary at www.spendingdiary.com to see where your money goes. Take out a set amount of cash each week for your purse, leave the cards at home and when it's gone it's gone (stops you spending that odd £1 here £1 there) Also i have found the payment a day challenge fab for making you stay focussed on paying a little every day towards your debts.....be warned it's highly addictive!

Good luck

Burlesque_Babe

CheshireCat wrote: »

Hello everyone, I have been using this site for quite a while now, and thought it was about time I joined the forum.

Here is my S.O.A:

Monthly Income

Me - £1293
Hubby - £980

Monthly Outgoings

Housing -£822.34
Mortgage - £641.24
Service Charge - £65 (This includes building insurance)
Council Tax - £94
Contents Insurance - £8.47
Life Assurace - £13.63

Utilities - £187.50
Electricity - £80 (No gas connection) huge amount every month, even covering both gas and electric. Look at changing supplier and have a look at joining the cut your electricity by 50% thread on this board
BT Line Rental -£10.50
2 Mobile phones - £50 - again, a big payment each month, lok to swap tariff to the lowest one.
Internet and Phone - £15
Water Rates - £20
TV Licence - £12

Transport - £273(We run 2 cars)
Petrol - £180
Insurance - £63 - high, even for 2 cars. Check out Martin's article on using the comparison sites and then get some money back via Quidco.
MOT/maintenance - £30

Food and Health - £231.25
Denplan - £11.25
Groceries - £200 - for 2 of you, this can be cut by £50 a month easily. Meal plan, cook all from scratch and have a look at the Old Style board for help.
Clothing etc. - £20

Misc
Loan - £357.93 (:eek: ....and it was going so well up to this point!)


TOTAL OUTGOINGS: £1872 TOTAL INCOME: £2273

Credit Card Debt - £2350 (0% until March 09)
The loan was for £7000 over 2 years at 7.9% - £4653.09 inc. interest to pay

On paper it looks so simple....use the £400 left each month to clear the debt. But it never quite works out like that...and I don't know why Something always crops up...and some months we only pay £100 off the credit card.

We took out the loan to help renovate our flat that we bought last year (which was in an uninhabitable condition). We went for the 2 year repayment period as we thought it would be cheaper in the long term. That may be, but we are suffering in the short term! The repayments are crippling.

One of our cars is a real old banger, about 15 years old, and has been making some strange noises :eek:. I am petrified that it is going to die on us. Because of where we live, we have to run 2 cars (have tried just the one previously, and did not work). We have no savings to buy another car, and I am sick at the thought of having to borrow more money.

To make matters worse I desperately want to have a baby. But I would never do so until the debt is gone and we have a bit of savings.

I know deep down that my situation is not that bad, and there are lots of people who are much worse off. But it is keeping me awake at night, and I obsess about it at work. My parents were terrible with money and I have vivid childhood memories of my mother crying hysterically as repossesion loomed. I am terrified of ending up like them (they are still many many thousands of pounds of debt, but continue to spend regardless).


It feels good to have finally written that down. :rolleyes:

some suggestions for you in red. Hope they all help. I think with swapping providers on insurance and cutting right back on electricity as well as chopping your food budget, there is around £100 a month to be saved.

Also - start a spending diary to see where it all goes - the odd newspaper, magazine, coffee whilst out etc.

there's never a 'good' time to have a baby and whilst little they don't cost a huge amount - there are loads of excellent threads on MSE about having a baby and keeping the costs down.

I found that getting a plan of attack together really helps and should help you sleep easier as you know what you need to do and how to go about it.

fletch3163

Good morning and welcome to the brighter side of the world:D

I too had a rob-Peter-to-pay-Paul upbringing (leckie cut off for months, etc) and, although it hasn't stopped me overspending, it has kept me very wary of the levels of poverty that I can be dropped to if I'm not careful. In fact, I've only just a couple of minutes ago printed my bank statement to find out where all the cash went this month:rolleyes:

I wish you the very best of luck in your travels to financial freedom. I'm no use with the "what to do" but am definitely there with the :T when you do it.

doodledo_2

Hi and welcome to the forum you have definately come to the right place for support.

Nothing immediately jumps out to me from your SOA. The grocery bill could definately come down a bit if there is just the two of you. Take a look on the Oldstyle board and maybe join in their grocery challenge.

On paper like you say you have surplus each month which could be thrown at your debt so I think the first thing to do is find out where this money is going as this is obviously not on your SOA.

Try a spending diary for both of you for a couple of weeks and you should find out where its going. Mine was on diet coke and M&S sandwiches lol.

Good luck with your journey to being debt free.

firesidemaid

the good thing is that you have complete control of that missing £400 plus the ability to reduce your outgoings further.

have you discovered quidco etc and survey sites for making a bit of free extra cash? plus in the case of quidco etc you can get paid for entertainment such as dvd trials (£17).

definitiely give yourselves pocket money each week to cover everything and only allow the debit card to be used for petrol etc.

whatatwit

Hi, the only thing I noticed was that you don't appear to have any car tax.

Maybe try and separate the money that in itemised in your budget into a different account, then as the one off items arise....car servicing or MOT then the money is set aside.
Otherwise, it dwindles.

SarahShattered

Hi :wave:

Well done you for getting it written down. Some great suggestions from the the other posts.... My suggestion would be to use the snowball calculator tool, to work out the best way to pay everything. Perhaps part of the worry is not having a clearly defined plan?? It's just an idea, I know it's helped me to really see exactly what my 'payment plan' should be.

HTH

Good luck... you'll be fine. There's a huge difference between what happened when you were a child, and who you are now as an adult. You have the power to change things for you. :T :T

Numpty_Monkey

:hello: Hello and welcome

Af few things have been mentioned by the other posters:A
The spending diary is a must, it is scarey:eek: but you wil see where the money goes

If you use this link for an SOA calc
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html
it will show a lot more, things you haven't budgeted for
yes you are allowed money for entertainment:j and not all for bills

Have a look at Martins budget planner aswell
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/Budget-planning

As others have mentioned cashback sites, for insurance, switching utilities,general shopping


There are loads of things you can do on here, OS board, budgeting, planning, swaping, having a laugh, do surveys and daily clicks for a few extra pennies



HTH :A

CheshireCat

Thanks for the replies everyone. I shall definitely check out the spending diary, thanks! I am due to go food shopping tommorow, and have made a list of what we need...which I intend to stick to! Hopefully this will help to bring it down. I have already switched to SmartPrice teabags!

I'm off to compare Electricity providers now!

Thanks again.:rolleyes:

boredofbeingathome

Smart price teabags...well that is a good start. I do the value ones as well but also look out for the offers of cheap brand ones in Netto and whatnot.

Have you had the car looked at to see what is wrong?