can anyone help?????????

Jaffa_2

I have been looking at the forum for a while and have finally plucked up the courage to post a SOA. Please can anyone help.
Income

Salaries 2541.00
Tax credits 37.87
Child benefit 68.00

Expenses
Mortgage 571.68
Foolishly took out a 10yr fixed rate @ 6.4%, 5 yrs to go, if pull out early have to pay ½ a years interest.
Gas 70.50 pm
With British Gas but am trying to pay off an underpayment and so can’t transfer at present. Currently in credit by £225 but due a bill in April which will be approx £300
Electricity 85.15 pm
With Powergen but same as gas trying to pay off underpayment outstanding balance £400.00 – I have had a lot of trouble with Powergen and my bills seem very excessive. Had a new meter fitted last year but bills still seem high.
Telephone 48.50 pm
With BT outstanding balance of
Have never changed providers
Council Tax 130.00 pm for 10 months per year
Water Rates 18.00 pm
Insurances/pension 200.00 pm
Broadband 17.99 pm AOL
Dinner money 80.00 pm
Pocket money 20.00 pm
Shopping at least 400.00 pm married 2 teenagers
Petrol 200.00 pm but I can sometimes claim some back
Natwest Loan 102.70 pm taken out June 2005, £5k loan over a
5yr term interest Rate 8.9%
Britannia Loan 348.88 pm owe £16k 57 months to go interest
Rate of 7.75%
Natwest Credit Card 2607.68 outstanding balance interest 1.456% pm
Mint 34.95 outstanding balance interest 1.094% pm
will be paid off this month.
Have an advantage gold account with an overdraft of £500 which I usually use, monthly charge of £12.00 plus interest of around £30.00 per month interest rate 1.25% pm don’t use any of the benefits. If I changed back to a current account I would pay and interest rate of 1.36% per month but no monthly charge – should I do this?

Now the thing is I have got a CCJ – didn’t know until I did a credit check. This is for library books – which I had forgotten I had as we moved and the charge is £242 pounds. I have returned the library books which brings the outstanding amount to £120. 2 years remaining on CCJ.

Clothes/car tax etc not shown here as and when

Help is desperately needed :eek:

mintymoneysaver

My first thought would be to change your current account.I have one with First Direct and for a £700 overdraft I usually pay £3.
I think Alliance and Leicester will be your best bet, although I am sure other people know more than me.If you get someone here to refer you I am sure you get cashback and you can go through Quidco and get more back.
-Dinner money £80 - give them packed lunches!
- shopping, far too high.There are 4 of us here, I am not cutting down on shopping and I still only spend £70 a week tops ( with packed lunches!)
-When you finish your mint card could you see if they will offer you a etter rate than your other credit card and transfer some money over?

Hope that helps, I am sure someone with far more knowledge than me will be along soon to help out further...

Bossyboots

Having had a quick look through, my first thoughts are that your telephone and food bills are too high.

Who is the dinner money for? You are effectively adding £80 per month to your food bill. I fed two adults and two teenagers on less then £300 per month when they were both at home and we didn't scrimp on anything. It might be worth you looking at the Old Style Board to see where you can cut back on your food budget.

Clasics

Bossyboots wrote:

Having had a quick look through, my first thoughts are that your telephone and food bills are too high.

Who is the dinner money for? You are effectively adding £80 per month to your food bill. I fed two adults and two teenagers on less then £300 per month when they were both at home and we didn't scrimp on anything. It might be worth you looking at the Old Style Board to see where you can cut back on your food budger.

Hi, I've seen mention of thid Old Style board but I can't find it! Could anybody give me a link to it, please? TIA!

kar

Just keep scrolling down a bit on the main page:

Old Style Board

Jaffa_2

sorry dinner money £40 per month - teenage boy who won't have a pack up

Lydia.42

Ouch!! I didn't know you could get a CCJ on library books, how harse is that?? :eek:
Better have a look, OH is terrible!!!

I agree with OP about the food. The Old style board is jam packed with useful info, not only on food but cleaning and everything else you could possibly think of. Even cutting down on bills, by energy saving/saving water, etc if you are on a meter.

Definitely speak to Mint, when you have cleared your balance. How much is the limit on this one?

Is there any way you might be able to freeze your pension payments for a couple of months until you are a little clearer?? I know you shouldn't stop these completely, but even just a couple of months would help you get straight with your overdraft. (A & L are good for O'D's. They usually give 1 year free interest with Premier account, as OP said. But your CCJ may go against you.)

Could you ask for your council tax to be spread over 12 months instead of 10? Some authorities allow this, and it would free up a little extra each month.

Do you have PPI on your loans? If so, cancel this insurance. It's a rip off, and if you really want/need it, you can get it with a different company much cheaper.

Will post again if think of anything else.

Good luck, and Welcome to the gang!!

L

vyvyan_2

Re teenage son & dinner money. I do undertand it is very uncool to have a homemade packed lunch at that age (mine's a bit older now) . My compromise was to give him £2 a day to spend in the school canteen and he would refill a bottle of water from home and take in a packet of crisps which is from any of the multipacks/ bogofs that are in the house at the time. £2 a day is not much (his friends were getting probably double that amount) but the canteen is subsidised but he got very clever at how best to spend it. He didn't starve! HTH

Jaffa_2

have spoken to mint and they said no transfer offers at present will let me know when there are - balance available £4600.

As the interest rate is cheaper anyway I thought it might be better to swap!! does anyone agree.

Would it be cheaper for me to cancel the advantage gold a/c and just have the normal current a/c. I know the interest rate is more but I would save £12pm

Also getting a pay rise in april of £120

Am cutting down on the shopping and have looked at the old style board which is really good.

kar

Definately cut out the 'gold' bit its a waste of money at the moment

CLAPTON

Can I make a few suggestions for making the SoA a little clearer for everyone
to read.
Can you use the EDIT feature to do the following

a. after your income add a line 'total income = whatever' ..

b. separate your spending into two parts
firstly your normal spending without the unsecured loans or CCs but include mortgage and also add a line saying 'total spending = whatever'

secondly all your (non mortgage) debts with an extra line with
'the total debt and total monthly repayments'

c. can you separate pensions/insurances into different lines and say what type of insurance and whether the pension is work related with/without employer contribution

d. its absolutely essential when working out where the money actually goes to try to include everything in the budget, otherwise the budget often shows everything is OK but in fact everymonth spending is more than income. So do try to include guess for clothing and car tax , car insurance MOT, RAC cover (divide by 12 if necessary) and also other costs ....going out, present, christmas, holidays? basically everything you actually spend on