MY SOA - little help please..

danieljamie

Thankyou all for all of your help!
I am trying to cut back in all the areas you have mentioned to save as much cash as possible to pay off some debt.
I know one big loan could be a bad move, but I am really starting to struggle. I have just gone past my overdraft limit £1000 because of my car insurance direct debit! So now I have no money for the week at all. What does someone do in this situation?

Thanks, Dan

Fortheloveofmoney

Ok what do you still need to buy and when do you get paid?

TotallyBroke

danieljamie wrote: »

Thankyou all for all of your help!
I am trying to cut back in all the areas you have mentioned to save as much cash as possible to pay off some debt.
I know one big loan could be a bad move, but I am really starting to struggle. I have just gone past my overdraft limit £1000 because of my car insurance direct debit! So now I have no money for the week at all. What does someone do in this situation?

Thanks, Dan

If you have gone over your overdraft then you are spending the surplus £150 that is on your soa. You need to find out where that money is going.
If you have access to excel or similar, write down your bank account balance as it is now. Then write down what is coming out and in over the next month. Look through your bank statements etc to get a rough idea of the date things come out of the account. If you total up the account you can see what money you have by the end of the month. It will show you that you may not be able to go out until the end of June because you will have no money before then.
Check out how much your overdraft is costing you and if it is less than the other debts use it to it's maximum BUT DO NOT go over it. Do not carry cash as this just incourages spending. If you do have to take cash out then you need to write on your sheet everything that you bought. You'll soon find that missing money. (If you would like an example of the spreadsheet I used then pm me)

danieljamie

I think my surplus money ends up being spent on wasted things like food if I'm out somewhere. So I am cracking down and not buying ANYTHING I dont need to. My overdraft costs me around £10 a month interest, and my current account costs £7 a month. So its about £17. This week I may need some petrol to get to work, possibly around £20, and also money to get my overdraft back inside its limit (I dont know how much over I am, because my online banking with TSB says (Nil) on available funds. From looking at what I should pay out next week (I am paid weekly), I should end up with £130 after paying my overdraft charges and barclaycard minimum payment. I have just come to realize from checking online, that my capital one is now overlimit by £5. This is hammering my credit rating, even my own bank won't give me a loan because im such "high risk". Any more advice is welcome.

Thanks, Dan

TotallyBroke

When you say out somewhere, does that mean in a socialising environment. If you are meeting up with friends make sure you eat before going even if it means meeting up with them an hour later.

The first thing I think you need to do is to learn to live over the next few months with paying minimum amounts and budgetting so you don't go over your overdraft. Then you can start to reduce it down.
What benefits do you get with the current account? if you do not make use of them ask to be put onto a basic account that has no fee.
I'm not sure with tsb but with Barclays online banking I can see after each transaction what the balance is. I use this to match upto my excel sheet to see that my sheet is on track. By doing the sheet I can also cut back on a 4 week month to balance out a 5 week one.
If your Cap1 is £5 over I suggest you pay £10 onto it once you get your wages to bring it back down.
Please do pm me and I will send you the sheet I use (click on my username then send a pm all I will need is an email address. I can't post it here as it does not sit correctly), it will show at the end of the month what you spare to overpay the debts with.
I suggest you overpay on the CAP1 debt first, by the time you have paid this off a lot of your other debts will either be paid or nearly finished.

danieljamie

Thanks for the spreadsheet its great..
I get phone insurance, holiday insurance (european) and my overdraft comes with it. Dont think I could downgrade account without clearing overdraft (Been trying for months and still no luck)..

Thanks, Dan

TotallyBroke

That's ok.

Adapt it for yourself and your incomings and outgoings. You can see where you should be at the end of the month.
Cancel experian you don't need it, not for at least a year now anyway.
Look through old statements in the hope that you don't miss anything that needs paying.
You'll get the hang of living within your budget soon enough