sammy115 SOA - Gulp!

sammy115

Okay this has taken me ages and there is still a lot of work to do but here comes the first attempt:

My salary £1384.00
OH Salary £2404.00
Maintenance £ 76.00
Child Benefit £ 225.00

Total £4089.00

(so far so good, that bit was easy and looks quite good so far!)

Outgoings

Mortgage No 1 £1312.50
Mortgage No 2 £326.50
Internet & Phone combination £19.99
Car Insurance £59.00
Orange mobile £90.00
Sky £46.50
TV Licence £11.00
Boiler/plumbing/electric cover £24.00
Water rates £33.00
Electric/Gas £90.00
Council tax £206.00
Mortgage protection £33.00
Gym membership £106.00
Home Insurance £23.00
child minder £323.75
Housekeeping £434.00
Petrol £175.00
Train fare monthly ticket £80.00
Childrens dinner money £170.00
2nd property insurance £23.00

Total outgoings £3585.00

left to throw at debts £504.00

Scottish power (old utility provider) £671.00
BT (old telecoms provider) £496.00
3 (Old mobile provider) £120.00 - in dispute
Family loan £400.00
Black horse personal loan £1600.00
Capital One (CC) £650.00
GE Capital (Store card) £716.00
GE Capital (Store card) £137.00
Barclaycard (CC) £1699.00
Barclays personal loan £3500.00
Bank of Scotland (CC) £3055.00
La Redoute (Catalogue) £377.00
Goldfish (CC) £2024.00
Chantry collections £1081.00
NatWest (CC) £1873.00
Next £450.00
Overdraft £6200.00
Argos additions £600.00 - in dispute

Total Outstanding £25,649.00

I haven't put APR's on my debts as I am going to have to make offers on them all for the moment and so i hope that they will stop charges and interest - some already have.

Before some of you start shouting 2nd mortgage is on property that I bought off my mother for half price (investment for the future). Orange mobile is for three phones, mine OH and mother. Stupidly signed for 18 month contract and is not up until December. I have done most things recommended on this site. Changed utility providers, looked for cheaper motor insurance, downgraded sky, cancelled PPI and I am currently looking into claiming back bank charges.

I sometimes pick up freelance work and I will be earning a £1,000 at the end of this month in addition to my normal take home pay.

I have also just filed my dispute with my former employer in the Employment Tribunal court last Thursday and I am hopefulll that one day in the future I will not only get the £5,000 salary owed to me, but compensation for the way I have been treated.

Advice please!!!!!! :eek:

Locana

Hi,

Welcome to MSE!!! More experienced people will be along to help out but just a few q's first.....

If you have downgraded sky, why is it still £45? Do u use the gym?? Why is the kids dinner money so high? How many children do u have? What about packed lunches? Why are u paying mums mobile? Why is housekeeping so high?? Sorry for all the questions, but if we are going to help, we need this kind of info..
Thanks!!

Snich

Hi Sammy - Very brave posting. Congratulations on getting it all out...

My gut instincts are as follows (and I'm sure the 'grown ups' will come along to help better...)
Do you find you have 500 pounds left for the debts? Is your budget accurate?

1. The Sky. I appreciate you may be paying less than you were... but it is still almost 50 quid a month. That's an extra 10% of your debt repayments...

2. Gym membership. That's David Lloyd kindof money. Is this really necessary? Can you do free sports or join something substantially cheaper?

3. Housekeeping... Is this food/groceries/cleaning products? This could be halved at a guess. Would recommend the Old Style board for suggestions and much wiser but tastier advice than mine...

4. The phones. I appreciate that they are on a contract but is 30quid each really the cheapest way? Will orange downgrade your contract as you have been with them a while. I'm sure they must do a 20quid one... especially if you ring them up and explain that you will default as you have debt problems and can they help...

Good luck with everything. It sounds like you are working hard. Definitely pay off the highest APR debts first with your extra money.

Keep going and here are some virtual cheers to start:
Go Sammy! Go Go Go!

Hugs, Snich x

Tabs_2

Hello and well done for taking the time to calculate and post your SOA.

The first things that stand out to me on your SOA are:

sammy115 wrote:

Orange mobile £90.00

I know you have mentioned you are paying for three phones but why are you paying your Mother's phone bill?

sammy115 wrote:

Sky £46.50

Have you considered reducing the package? You say at the end of your post that you have already reduced but the minimum package is only around £20ish.

sammy115 wrote:

Boiler/plumbing/electric cover £24.00

How long have you been paying this for? Have you ever claimed on it? Do you honestly believe it's worthwhile? (not having a go, I promise, just wondering!)

sammy115 wrote:

Gym membership £106.00

Wow, that's so high! Can you cancel or reduce to a cheaper package? You could rent out fitness DVD's on free trials (and get cashback via QuidCo) and go running around your local area for free!

sammy115 wrote:

Housekeeping £434.00

Check out the Moneysaving Oldstyle board for help on how to reduce this.

sammy115 wrote:

Petrol £175.00

Is this for business purposes? Are there any ways in which you could cut down on the amount of travel in the car to reduce petrol costs?

sammy115 wrote:

Childrens dinner money £170.00

I don't have any children so I've no idea what 'normal' costs are ... but this seems very high to me. Can they take packed lunches instead, or even every other day?

Just a start but I hope this helps.

sammy115

Don't worry I expected the questions.

In answer:

Sky used to be £62 and now downgraded to entertainment and sports with sky +. Don't drink, smoke or go out so my one vice is TV.

I did use the gym up until recently. DH does use gym every day. With pressures of going back to work full time, extra work etc, I find I haven't been going recently. I have to give three months notice, so I may do that.

I have four children. DS -17 (eats me out of house and home, probably answers the housekeeping question) DD -16 DD-12 and new DD - 6 months. The housekeeping is for all food, cleaning products, nappies, baby milk etc. Is probably too high but I have to get out of the habit of going round supermarket when tired and just grabbing first thing to hand. Its something I can work on.

Am paying mums mobile because once upon a time I could afford to. My mother is a pensioner with no money and its the least I can do. Obviously I wouldn't pay for it if i couldn't afford it, and she wouldn't want me to either, but I am locked into a contract.

Childrens dinner money is only for two of the children, both refuse to take sandwiches, one daughter has £2.00 a day for lunch and the other greedier one takes £2.50 per day.

Walnut_whipp

Hi can I ask what child care you use for your children? nanny or nursery.... or child minder... can you not cut the cost?

sammy115

I appreciate the comments about the sky, gym and the phones. I knew they would be the first to be queried.

I will re look into my sky package again, I may be able to reduce further. I will probably cancel my gym membership but it is about the only thing outside of the house that DH and I do together and its lovely in summer (yes it is david lloyd with a nice outdoor pool and everything).

My attempt at the free DVD's went badly wrong! forgot to cancel my membership and got stumped with a £17.99 bill for something I forgot to use!

I need a couple more people to tell me how stupid I am and I will probably cancel!

Housekeeping - could probably get this down, need to practice!

Petrol - this is just for normal everyday use, but with four children I do tend to act as a taxi service.

Dinner money - fussy spoilt kids who don't eat sandwiches. I fume every time I pay dinner money for them to eat the crap at school. Can't really do much about this one.

sammy115

Walnut_whipp wrote:

Hi can I ask what child care you use for your children? nanny or nursery.... or child minder... can you not cut the cost?

This is for a childminder who I have used for all of my children, going on for seventeen years. My lovely little baby goes full time and the cost works out at £1.75 an hour. I can't really grumble at that.

My other children help out so this figure is the extreme. Any savings I make will go straight to the debts.

Walnut_whipp

Do you recieve wftc and ctc? if not I would apply for them!!! you can claim back up to 70% of your child care costs....

nelly_2

Mortgage number one is a bit heavy

sammy115

Walnut_whipp wrote:

Do you recieve wftc and ctc? if not I would apply for them!!! you can claim back up to 70% of your child care costs....

I get CTC at the moment, but is likely to be withdrawn now that we are both working so I haven't included that income. I will ring later about child care costs thanks.

Mortgage one is a bit heavy but we are tied in at the moment. I can't even think about moving it at the moment as the last few months with no money at all have done nothing to help my credit score. I am going to leave it six months and reapply somewhere else. (It is a big mortgage!)