My SOA

kjmtidea

Hi I am new and was after a bit of advice. I included Child benefits in our income by mistake but it all adds up right, our landlord pays our council tax. The only debt I have is my overdraft which is £500, at the moment I am right in it down to the last few pence and I would really like to pay it off sooner rather than later, I am with Nationwide and the apr is 17.90%. According to this soa we should have 367.94 left every month but it does not seem like that at all, so I guess writing down everything that we spend for a month would be a good start? Here is my SOA:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 4
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2174
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2174

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 0
Rent.................................... 750
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 135
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 46.94
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 35
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 22
Internet Services....................... 17.99
Groceries etc. ......................... 500
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 86.6
Childcare/nursery....................... 25.98
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 151.55
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1806.06


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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,174
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,806.06
Available for debt repayments........... 367.94
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 367.94

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 0

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

bank_of_slate

Don't you get any child benefit at all?
...Linda xx

EDIT - just read your opening statement, that'll teach me!!!!

bank_of_slate

kjmtidea wrote: »

Hi I am new and was after a bit of advice. I included Child benefits in our income by mistake but it all adds up right, our landlord pays our council tax. The only debt I have is my overdraft which is £500, at the moment I am right in it down to the last few pence and I would really like to pay it off sooner rather than later, I am with Nationwide and the apr is 17.90%. According to this soa we should have 367.94 left every month but it does not seem like that at all, so I guess writing down everything that we spend for a month would be a good start? Here is my SOA:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 4
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2174
Benefits................................ 0 no child benefit?
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2174

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Hire Purchase (HP) repayments........... 0
Rent.................................... 750
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 135 see if you can get this cheaper
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 46.94
Telephone (land line)................... 15 see if you can get phone, internet and TV cheaper from one supplier
Mobile phone............................ 35
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 22
Internet Services....................... 17.99
Groceries etc. ......................... 500 make shopping lists and plan meals to try to cut this down
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 86.6
Childcare/nursery....................... 25.98
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0 ???
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 151.55 Is this every month?
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1806.06


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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,174
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,806.06
Available for debt repayments........... 367.94
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 367.94

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 0

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

Hope this helps

...Linda xx

kjmtidea

I included child benefit in the income part. I can't get our electricity any cheaper, we are paying off a past debt with British Gas. I make sure that everything is switched off at the plug when not being used etc. We recently cut our Sky tv down from £48 ish to £22. I do try to plan our food shopping as much as possible, I do it online but with 2 adults and 4 children it is hard! My food shopping also includes nappies, cleaning stuff etc. The holiday money is every month, that is for spending money aswell. We don't have contents insurance but I really must sort it out. Thanks for the reply.

moo2moo

£10 a month on clothes for 6 people? Thats nowhere near enough.

No other child related expenses? No brownies, scouts, swimming lessons and no entertainment?

kjmtidea

I spend hardly anything on clothes these days, I have 4 boys so plenty of hand me downs. I also get clothes from other school mums occasionly. I have too many clothes and so does my partner. They go swimming with their great nan who also pays for it. If we ever go to softplay or anywhere else, it comes from my partners tip money.

trina2010

i only have just the one question....why if you arent working do you need childcare?

and surely you must be able to reduce that grocery bill, once a week, get the kids involved as well to make it fun and easier, make a meal plan for the week.
Work out your budget, go down a brand (finest - normal, normal - value etc) there are many good threads on the old style board, and theres a thread about somewhere by people who have posted verdicts on the cheapest range foods to find out what is worth buying cheap, and what to spend a little extra on.

You dont have much debt, small things will make a dent, and as I can see it groceries will be your best area to make savings without a drop in quality of life.

Hope this helps

kathrynrobson1011

Just to re-iterate what the others have said around planning your meals for the week. My grocery bill is 450 a month. I am a Money Saving Newbie so have just planned our meals for this week and been shopping. Instead of the 100+ I would have spent we only spent 47.49. That is to feed 2 adults, 2 children and 2 cats. I didn't believe it could be done.

Took our list with us. Only bought what was on this list and added cost up on my phone as we went round.

These boards are great for encouragement and finding ideas. Try the Old Style Money Saving Boards. They are great at ideas to cut that grocery bill. 500 seems very high. How many are you feeding?

Kat x

UncleBuck

Hi Kjmtidea

Welcome to the DFW forum. I know it's been said before but you can really slash you food bill by looking at the Money Saving Old-style forum, particularly Black-Saturns postings ( for e.g.see http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=1648750#post1648750). You're also putting away £151 for holidays, you should use that money to pay off the O/D first otherwise you're just throwing your hard earned money away.

Good luck.

Cheers
UB

becky2011

What about your TV licence?

Wickedkitten

If you really want to cut down, get rid of the Sky and watch terrestrial, switch your mobiles to PAYG, and start doing your shopping on a weekly basis using a meal plan and a shopping list.