My First SOA!

louisemarie1760

Hey everyone!

Ok below is my first SOA, be gentle!

I can already see that I overspend a lot, and I try not to every month, but somehow....

Any advice/ideas would be very much appreciated

Lou's SOA

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £956

Total: £956

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £300/£375 for 5 week month
Mobile Phone - £38.00
Gym Membership - £28
Travel - £61.90
Clothes - £40
Toiletries - £30
Hair Cut/Colour - £20
Household Items - £20
Magazines - £10
Alcohol - £80
Nights out/lunches out/cinema etc - £120
Lunch at work - £10
Driving lessons - £44
Current Debt Repayments - £200


Total: £1001.90

Debts:

RBS Mastercard: £ 955.69 (limit £1250) 16.9% APR

Overdraft 1: £ 846.44 (limit £1000) 19.24% APR

Graduate Overdraft: £ 1776.28 (limit £2000) 0% APR until June 2009, then 19.24%

Capital One: £ 880 (limit £1100) 34.9% APR

Total: £4458.41

kindofagilr

louisemarie1760 wrote: »

Hey everyone!

Ok below is my first SOA, be gentle!

I can already see that I overspend a lot, and I try not to every month, but somehow....

Any advice/ideas would be very much appreciated

Lou's SOA

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £956

Total: £956

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £300/£375 for 5 week month
Mobile Phone - £38.00 - can you get this tariff lowered?
Gym Membership - £28 - Is this totally necessary
Travel - £61.90
Clothes - £40 - Try and lower this a bit each month
Toiletries - £30
Hair Cut/Colour - £20
Household Items - £20
Magazines - £10 Can do without these
Alcohol - £80 Def can bring this down a bit?
Nights out/lunches out/cinema etc - £120 far too much money going on this
Lunch at work - £10
Driving lessons - £44
Current Debt Repayments - £200


Total: £1001.90

Debts:

RBS Mastercard: £ 955.69 (limit £1250) 16.9% APR

Overdraft 1: £ 846.44 (limit £1000) 19.24% APR

Graduate Overdraft: £ 1776.28 (limit £2000) 0% APR until June 2009, then 19.24%

Capital One: £ 880 (limit £1100) 34.9% APR

Total: £4458.41

I am no expert at all but those are the things that jumped out at me

Good Luck, someone with more knowledge will be along soon

Tixy

Hi, welcome and well done for posting it up.

Just a few quick thoughts -

Does the £300 Mortgage/Rent include council tax, gas, elec and water?

What is the travel money on? Can you get a season ticket to make it any cheaper?

Clothes - if you've been spending £40 per month you should be able to cut to almost 0 for say 6 months.

Toiletries - every month £30, keep an eye out for bargains - use shop own brand or look in £shops / home bargains / wilkos type shops.

Magazines - you can read many online for free.

Alcohol and other entertainment - £200 per month, set yourself a budget of £100 per month and when its gone stop going out.

You don't seem to have any grocery food costs? internet? contents insurance?

I would recommend you pay the minimum on all debts except for the Capital one debt, throw as much as possible off this. If you save £100 from entertainment and £50 from the rest of your costs and pay this in addition to your minimum your capital one debt could be gone in around 7months.

Best bit of advice I would give is to keep a spending diary to record every single penny you spend. Take it with you whenever you go shopping - you'll soon see how much you spend on unnecessary costs.

Also enter your information into one of the snowball calculators (makesenseofcards.com or whatsthecost) once you see the difference an extra £100 per month can make to your debt free date it is really motivating.

Good luck.

saver03

louisemarie1760 wrote: »

Hey everyone!

Ok below is my first SOA, be gentle!

I can already see that I overspend a lot, and I try not to every month, but somehow....

Any advice/ideas would be very much appreciated

Lou's SOA

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £956

Total: £956

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £300/£375 for 5 week month
Mobile Phone - £38. is this contract? can you reduce your tariff?
Gym Membership - £28 Do you use it enough to get money's worth?
Travel - £61.90 Is this public transport?
Clothes - £40 Too much to spend every month!
Toiletries - £30 Too much to spend every month!
Hair Cut/Colour - £20 Maybe try your local college or dye it yourself
Household Items - £20 What is this??
Magazines - £10 Read the news online
Alcohol - £80 Can easilt be cut down
Nights out/lunches out/cinema etc - £120 Needs reducing. Orange Wednesday at Cinema. Look out for vouchers when dining out
Lunch at work - £10 Take a packed lunch
Driving lessons - £44
Current Debt Repayments - £200


Total: £1001.90

Debts:

RBS Mastercard: £ 955.69 (limit £1250) 16.9% APR

Overdraft 1: £ 846.44 (limit £1000) 19.24% APR

Graduate Overdraft: £ 1776.28 (limit £2000) 0% APR until June 2009, then 19.24%

Capital One: £ 880 (limit £1100) 34.9% APR APR :eek: pay this ASAP!!

Total: £4458.41

My comments are in red

Sorry if I seem a bit harsh. Are you sure you have included everything as there are no bills etc. on there? If you go to http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html
there is an excellent SOA planner.

GlennyNat

Im going to guess OP lives with parents and pays £75/week which covers all bills and food?


As for the other things..

Clothes and mags can be cut out completely for a while so thats £50 saved, and id limit alcohol and going out/lunches to £50 a month.

Thats £200 saved already. It may mean not being out as much with your mates for a while but you could arrange cheap nights and you will be better for it once its paid off.

[Deleted User]

louisemarie1760 wrote: »

Mortgage/Rent - £300/£375 for 5 week month

I'd say this was too much. Mine is 23% of my net. Could you move somewhere cheaper? Share with more people?

louisemarie1760 wrote: »

Mobile Phone - £38.00

This is crazy. Look on o2.com, maybe consider the simplicity tarrifs.

louisemarie1760 wrote: »

Gym Membership - £28

This can go. Buy a skipping rope. Run round the local park. Buy a swiss ball off amazon. You can't afford this.

louisemarie1760 wrote: »

Travel - £61.90

Would monthly tickets be cheaper? Rail cards any use?

louisemarie1760 wrote: »

Clothes - £40

This can go. You can't afford this. Go to oxfam for now. There's no shame there.

louisemarie1760 wrote: »

Toiletries - £30

I hope this is from somewhere like Wilkos? Own brand?

louisemarie1760 wrote: »

Hair Cut/Colour - £20

Seems reasonable

louisemarie1760 wrote: »

Household Items - £20

Unsure what this covers. Again from wilkos?

louisemarie1760 wrote: »

Magazines - £10

Cut it in half.

louisemarie1760 wrote: »

Alcohol - £80

Good girl! Haha. Buy in bulk maybe? Get more when deals are on?

louisemarie1760 wrote: »

Nights out/lunches out/cinema etc -
£120

Limit the lunches, nights out and only go to orange wednesday cinemas. Just cut back, maybe half it and have more nights in with a flick, bottle of wine, friends round? They bring the pizza, you bring the booze from above ?

louisemarie1760 wrote: »

Lunch at work - £10

Buying some bread, ham, cheese and lettuce and make your own.

louisemarie1760 wrote: »

Driving lessons - £44

Do you really need a car? Can you afford a car? £120 tax a year? Insurance of maybe £700 - £1000 for your first year. MOT of £40 a year assuming it passes? Petrol too...

louisemarie1760 wrote: »

Debts:

RBS Mastercard: £ 955.69 (limit £1250) 16.9% APR

Move the credit card debt to a 0% free one - guide here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cards/balance-transfer-credit-cards

louisemarie1760 wrote: »

Overdraft 1: £ 846.44 (limit £1000) 19.24% APR

Graduate Overdraft: £ 1776.28 (limit £2000) 0% APR until June 2009, then 19.24%

Capital One: £ 880 (limit £1100) 34.9% APR

Total: £4458.41

These APRs seem very high. Have you applied for many cards / loans recently? If not then maybe consider paying them all off and getting one loan at a hopefully smaller APR. Guide here: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/loans/cut-existing-loan-costs

If this isn't an option then remember one thing - always pay of debts with the highest APR first and don't bother saving until all debts are paid off (apart from a small emergency fund). You may find http://www.whatsthecost.com useful when working out loans, debts, repayments and how much it'll all cost.

One final thing - make sure you keep tabs on every pound. When you know where it really all goes you'll then be able to tweak and tweak some more. Some people like a pen and paper, others a spreadsheet or two. Whatever works for you and make sure you update it every day or two always keeping tabs on what you've spent. Personally I like to take money out at the start of a month. This also aids working out if you're on track and if you're spreadsheet is correct as you can say I start with x, I take away y, so I should have z. How much do you really have?

theoretica

I think £10 a month is really good for lunches at work- I probably wouldn't make sandwiches for less, though could if I had to. However, surely you must have a lot of unused toiletries which can last you for months?

louisemarie1760

Hey everyone, thanks for your replies some useful advice!

A few points tho:

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £300/£375 for 5 week month - live with parents, have done since moved done from uni a year ago and this amount is really non negotiable

Mobile Phone - £38.00 - have called my provider who cant offer me tariffs that suit: the next tariff down isn't enough minutes, and im only half way thru my contract!

Gym Membership - £28 - really do need this, I suffer from depression and anxiety and this really helps and is part of my plan with my counsellor, would be paying a hell of a lot more if I paid each time I went!


Travel - £61.90 - this is my monthly season pass to get to work, have tried many ways to get it cheaper, but afraid is a no go!


Clothes - £40 - will defo cut this down


Toiletries - £30 - likewise on the toiletries! though wot is wilkos? are there any in scotland??


Hair Cut/Colour - £20 - hairdresser comes to house and does our hair colour v cheap, wouldnt chance it myself as I have tried that before...disaster!


Household Items - £20 - this is for things that I need that I don't have i.e lamp for my room, bedding etc, still trying to pull my life together as when moved home from uni had also split from partner and lost a lot of belongings


Magazines - £10 - again will cut down


Alcohol - £80 - will defo cut down/look for deals


Nights out/lunches out/cinema etc - £120 - nights in ahoy!


Lunch at work - £10 - this is £2.50 once a week but I will defo try cut this out


Driving lessons - £44 - this is a must have, I have a degree in journalism and to get a job in my field, I really need to have a licence!


Thank you to everyone, I suppose I kinda knew I needed to cut back, but sometimes it takes an outsider to make u realise!

Lou

Horace

Lou Wilkos is short for Wilkinsons. You could always look in a shop called Home Bargains for cheaper toiletries, in fact cheaper everything (they do other stuff too).

Making your own sandwiches or even a salad would be easier cheaper and nicer than something you could get at work. So when you have pasta, cook a bit extra and use the extra in a salad with other things. It all helps.

Have a look on the freebies board elsewhere on this forum and see what freebies you can get sometimes you can get magazines. Sign up for Martin's email as that often has meal deals in it so that you can use these when you go out with your friends so it could be a BOGOF or something else. Don't ever be afraid to use vouchers.

louisemarie1760

Thanks Horace, much appreciated

firesidemaid

have you discovered the cashback sites yet? eg. quidco?

you can sign up to get 3 mags for £1 or £3 and then get £5 cashback! there are threads on here re. just that;).

re.toiletries. do you have set products that you use? i like good stuff but i make sure i get them really cheap - home bargains, savers, supermarket BOGOFS etc

go to the gym more (which you are paying for) and go out/drink less.

re. cheaper clothes - if you have got the time to look you can get some fab bargains (new/nearly new incl. designer, vintage, retro, good quality etc) from charity shops, car boot sales and tk maxx.

can you get an interest-free annual season ticket loan from work at all?

your card rates are really high - use some of your interest-free loan to pay off the capital one card and then go all out to paying this off