Posted for Lovestoshop! SOA

skintchick

It's not me! This is Lovestoshop!'s SOA, posted on another thread but will get more replies on its own.



Here is my SOA, I am shocked as I haven't done this before!

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1,392
Partners salary - £1,050


Total - £2,442

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £655
Council Tax - £107
Gas - £29
Electric - £25.00
TV License - £10.99
Sky £35.99
Phone - £30
Mobile - £22
Food - £200
Car Insurance - £27.06
Petrol - £80
Gas Care - £15.49
Water – £20.00
Life Ins – £11.27
House Ins – £20.23
Total payments on debt - £737

Total: £2,681.03

OH MY GOD! How do I live each month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!

Natwest CC – Balance £4,357 (limit £4,400) APR 16.9%

Natwest Loan – Balance £9,000 (roughly) APR 7.4% Length of term 60 months, 48 months to go

Overdraft - £950 (limit £950) APR 17.69%

Capital One CC – Balance £4,758 (Limit £4,800) APR 15.9%

Halifax CC – Balance £1,930 (Limit £1,950) APR 15.9%

Virgin CC – Balance £4,900 (Limit £4,900) APR 15.9%

Next Catalogue – Balance £384.25 APR 26%

Additions Catalgue – Balance £550.77 APR 29.8%

I also have an interest free loan which is paid off in September, £92 per month.

HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP!

miseter

eerrm i think i will leave this one to the big boys

skintchick

I'm no help with the loans side of things, but here's my thoughts on the SOA

Gas - £29
Electric - £25.00
These seem high. Have you checked about switching?

Sky £35.99
:eek: how much! It's only TV - cancel it. You can't afford it.

Phone - £30
Mobile - £22
This is too much on phones. Cut down usage or switch to a better supplier.

Food - £200
Way too high! Check out the Old Style boards to see how to cut that down. You should be able to get it down to £100-120.

Car Insurance - £27.06
Hard to say if this is good value, but I am 31 and pay £209 a year.

Gas Care - £15.49
Do you really need this? You could just save it for when you might need it. I think these things are a wast of money personally.

Life Ins – £11.27
Do you need this?

House Ins – £20.23
Reckon you can get this cheaper. Try CIS - they insure me for £120 a year.

Hope that helps a bit

Just worked out that if you do cut out all those things I suggest, you have nearly found your shortfall.

Also consider getting second jobs, and maybe a lodger if you have a spare room.

tattooed_lady

I make your outgoings £2026.03

I notice that you haven't included things like road tax/mot/service- do you budget for those?

I would seriously consider ditching Sky and using the box for freeview - you really can't afford it!

climbgirl

skintchick wrote:

It's not me! This is Lovestoshop!'s SOA, posted on another thread but will get more replies on its own.



Here is my SOA, I am shocked as I haven't done this before!

Monthly Incomings:

My salary - £1,392
Partners salary - £1,050


Total - £2,442

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent - £655
Council Tax - £107
Gas - £29
Electric - £25.00
TV License - £10.99
Sky £35.99
Phone - £30
Mobile - £22
Food - £200
Car Insurance - £27.06
Petrol - £80
Gas Care - £15.49
Water – £20.00
Life Ins – £11.27
House Ins – £20.23
Total payments on debt - £737

Total: £2,681.03

OH MY GOD! How do I live each month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!

Natwest CC – Balance £4,357 (limit £4,400) APR 16.9%

Natwest Loan – Balance £9,000 (roughly) APR 7.4% Length of term 60 months, 48 months to go

Overdraft - £950 (limit £950) APR 17.69%

Capital One CC – Balance £4,758 (Limit £4,800) APR 15.9%

Halifax CC – Balance £1,930 (Limit £1,950) APR 15.9%

Virgin CC – Balance £4,900 (Limit £4,900) APR 15.9%

Next Catalogue – Balance £384.25 APR 26%

Additions Catalgue – Balance £550.77 APR 29.8%

I also have an interest free loan which is paid off in September, £92 per month.

HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP HELP!

You're not too far over your incomings each month, so you could probably cut back to bring this under again - sky has to go, you just can't afford it right now! Switch the mobile to pre-pay, the food is very high for two people, this amount can come way down. Check out Old Style to see how to do this. Life insurance can probably go until your debts are repaid. What's gas care, is this necessary?

Making cut-backs will bring you back under your incomings, most likely. But with HUGE aprs like that, your minimum repayments aren't really going to dent your debt very much. If your credit rating is good, apply for 0% cards, or low life-of-balance cards to bring these down.

You also need to look at increasing your income to throw at the debts - take on a second job or ebay/carboot to earn more cash. You don't seem to be overspending outrageously, but you desperately need to free up more cash to throw at these debts before the interest piles up even more!

village_life

crikey! - i'll confess i dont often respond to the SOA threads, but givent that noone else has i'll give it a go

firstly WOW you are max'd out on credit cards etc- you need to do the snowball calculator to get yourself a strategy for paying them off- in particular if there are any 0% balance transfer cards left (that you havent got ) i'd suggest get one and move your highest interest rate ones (Store cards) Across.

your paying off a good chunk of your debts each month, but the snowball calculator will help you prioritise those payments

from your list of expenses - your sky is a luxury i am sure you can live without (if you can cancel or postpone the contract); and your phone bill of £30 could be cut -do you get freee minutes etc with your mobile that you can use instead of your landline?

in addition, not knowing your circumstances, can you make any cut backs to:
- food bills
- petrol (walk to work etc)

and do you really need your gas care policy? what does it provide?

just my initial thoughtrs...............

ms_london

Monthly Incomings:
My salary - £1,392
Partners salary - £1,050
Total - £2,442

Monthly Outgoings:
Mortgage/Rent - £655
Council Tax - £107
Gas - £29
Electric - £25.00
TV License - £10.99
Car Insurance - £27.06
Petrol - £80
Gas Care - £15.49
Water – £20.00
Life Ins – £11.27
House Ins – £20.23
Phone - £30
Mobile - 22
Total - £1,053.04

Surplus - £1,388.96

Obviously with this "surplus" you will need to budget for your debt repayments, food and then work out if you want to or can afford to keep the Sky @ £35.99 each month - as to be honest, this is NOT an essential.

If you do budget for the current £200 per month for food (which is pretty high for just the 2 of you!), and after your (what I assume are minimum payments)£747 for debt repayments, this leaves you with £451.96 each month.

Before you looking at throwing part of this at your debt, you need to make sure that everything else is budgeted for. You have a car, so you need to put some money away each month to go towards the TAX/MOT/SERVICE, so work out the amount this costs annually & divide by 12 - this is what you need to be paying into a savings account each month. What about Christmas/Birthdays? And an emergency fund? Even if its £20 per month to start with - its something.

Once you have decided what else you need to budget for, then you can decide how much you have left over to throw at your debts.

I suggest that for the time being and the next few months you pay whatever you have spare to clear off your Next & Additions cards and then CLOSE them ((you can do it!!)) :0) At least that will be motivating as you will have then knocked 2 creditors off your list - whoo!!

I then suggest that you try and clear your overdraft. In order to do this you will need to call your bank and ask them to reduce your overdraft by £X each month (whichever amount you can afford).. Gradually it will get lower and lower, and soon you will be overdraft free. Another creditor off your list.

Next I would clear your Halifax CC and then either your Cap One CC, Natwest CC, or Virgin CC (it doesnt matter too much in which order as they have similiar balances and APR's)

Come Sep you will be £92 better off since you will have repaid your loan, so this will leave you with a further £92 a month to throw at your debts.

7. Natwest CC – Balance £4,357 (limit £4,400) APR 16.9%

3. Overdraft - £950 (limit £950) APR 17.69%

5. Capital One CC – Balance £4,758 (Limit £4,800) APR 15.9%

4. Halifax CC – Balance £1,930 (Limit £1,950) APR 15.9%

6. Virgin CC – Balance £4,900 (Limit £4,900) APR 15.9%

1. Next Catalogue – Balance £384.25 APR 26%

2. Additions Catalgue – Balance £550.77 APR 29.8%

Interest Free Loan - £92 per month - last payment Sep.

8. Natwest Loan – Balance £9,000 (roughly) APR 7.4% Length of term 60 months, 48 months to go

This is what is known as "snowballing" - and it soon builds momentum as one by one the creditors are knocked off the list. And if you get a bonus/payrise, this will be more money to throw at your debts!!

To be honest, it could take a few months to learn to live within your wages rather than on credit - but at least you are not spending money that isnt yours - thats the main thing & you have got to remember that!!

The best of luck, let us know how you get on.

xx

JAMIEDODGER

hi there, as probably already suggested.....ditch sky get freeview, phone - have line rental with bt and look into reducing calls with whoever is cheapest at mo....mobile phone switch to PAYG, food can be done for less, check out the OS board for feeding for less, gas care....ditch it.

what are your minimum payments on each of your debts? throw all the info into the highest APR debt and you have a plan to pay them off, sell what you can on ebay, amazon etc and throw that at highest APR debt too and you will find you can bring forward you DFD (debt free date)

wish you the best of luck!

CLAPTON

Firstly, you have of course stopped buying things from the two catalogues, the APRs are shocking.

You have a nominal short fall of about £240 per month

in additional to comments already made about gas&electictiy (could you simply use less?) and sky (has to go), food (far too much).. could save about £145

Phone ...use BT and all calls through https://www.call1899.com and/or https://www.call18185.co.uk should be able save £15 and still talk for hours
Mobile replace by PAYG and only use very sparingly saving £17
Gas care is more difficult but at £15.49 its very expensive but I've cancelled mine

so that would total to about £190 which is still short
also your budget lacks lots of items...do you buy lunches at work, snacks, newpapers, get haircuts, dentist/ optical costs etc etc. It would greatly help you if you started doing a spending diary to see exactly where the money goes.

really your best bet is to increase your incomes, could you work overtime or do a part time job so you could begin to throw money at the more expensive debts?

Lovestoshop!

Whats snowballing?

ms_london

Lovestoshop! wrote:

Whats snowballing?

I am sure someone will be along to explain it better than me, but snowballing is the term used when one by one you clear a debt but throw the spare money at another debt - so gradually it builds momentum and your debts are cleared faster.