My Soa thingymajig

sdt1986

Advice needed, Ill try to be receptive with regards to the advice but dont take it the wrong way if i throw up alot of negatives, its a very bad habit (specially in my final bank balance)

Cheers

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1104.33
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1104.33
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 400
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 0
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 10
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 26
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 100
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 44
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 200
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 830

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Main Loan......................0.........165.......0
Mother.........................500.......20........0
Total unsecured debts..........500.......185.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,104.33
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 830
Available for debt repayments........... 274.33
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 185
Amount left after debt repayments....... 89.33
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -500
Net Assets.............................. -500
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

I guess in reality im spending more than the £200 i am budgeting for entertainment......

tyllwyd

What kind of advice are you looking for? I guess you are living at home? I think you already know the answer to managing your money better - you are going to have to keep a much tighter track on where what you spend on, and how much you are allowing for things like entertainment.

NB Is £10 on your mobile every month a realistic figure or just a guess? It could easily be a lot more if you use it a lot.

Jesthar

Hi sdt, let's have a look at this for you:

sdt1986 wrote: »

Advice needed, Ill try to be receptive with regards to the advice but dont take it the wrong way if i throw up alot of negatives, its a very bad habit (specially in my final bank balance)

Cheers

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1104.33
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1104.33
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 400
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0- you don't pay this?
Electricity............................. 0 - no utility bills?
Gas..................................... 0 - no utility bills?
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0 - no utility bills?
Telephone (land line)................... 10
Mobile phone............................ 10
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 26
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 100 - not bad, but could be lowered by £20 - 40 based on my average month
Clothing................................ 30 - you could go essentials only for a while
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 44
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 200 - I suspect you know what is coming here - that is my entertainment budget for about four months, not one! :eek:
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 830

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Main Loan......................0.........165.......0 - how much is this load for, and there should be an interest rate on the staments somewhere?
Mother.........................500.......20........0
Total unsecured debts..........500.......185.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,104.33
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 830
Available for debt repayments........... 274.33
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 185
Amount left after debt repayments....... 89.33 - well, on paper you have a surplus! But can you actually find it most months?
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -500
Net Assets.............................. -500
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

I guess in reality im spending more than the £200 i am budgeting for entertainment......

I would guess you are, too - and £200 is pretty steep anyway!

First things first, you need to start keeping a spending diary ASAP - if possible, go over all your bank statements for the past few months and work out where all of your money has been going.

Secondly, a few questions - no utility bills? Are they included in your rent? You do have telecoms bills though.

Finally, back to that £200 on entertainment - be honest with yourself, where does this go? If you have an expensive hobby (I ride horses, for example), then some of that may be justified. If the answer is simply 'going out and this and that' though, then just seeing that amount in print should be enough to shock you into taking some action to reduce that - the only time I have ever spent anything approaching that amount of money on going out is on my sister in laws hen weekend last year!

The good news is you are not really in a serious amount of trouble at the moment, if your figures are accurate, as on paper you even have a surplus each month. However, if you keep going, thinsg will be getting pretty serious soon enough...

So, yes - get that spending diary going, and if possible re-do your SOA with accurate average figires from the last few months.

Hope that helps,

~Jes

sdt1986

tyllwyd wrote: »

What kind of advice are you looking for? I guess you are living at home? I think you already know the answer to managing your money better - you are going to have to keep a much tighter track on where what you spend on, and how much you are allowing for things like entertainment.

NB Is £10 on your mobile every month a realistic figure or just a guess? It could easily be a lot more if you use it a lot.

What do you mean living at home?

£10 is realistic because i cancelled the contract and its just pay as you go, i sometimes dont even top it up and rely on the home phone, however like a prat this month ive gone and topped it up although cant for the life in me remember when :o

tyllwyd

sdt1986 wrote: »

What do you mean living at home?

£10 is realistic because i cancelled the contract and its just pay as you go, i sometimes dont even top it up and rely on the home phone, however like a prat this month ive gone and topped it up although cant for the life in me remember when :o

Sorry, 'living at home' doesn't make much sense now I read it back. What I meant was 'living with your parents', which I assumed because you are paying rent but no utility bills, council tax, tv licence etc.

Great if £10 is realistic for your mobile bill!

Jesthar

sdt1986 wrote: »

What do you mean living at home?

We mean 'living with parents', and I suspect it was assumed you were because you don't have any gas, electric or water bills listed. Usually that is only the case when someone is still living at home but paying a rent to their parents. Our apologies if this is not the case!

~Jes

gfplux

Hello std1986,

Well done and brave of you to post your SOA. A very good step. Everyone should have an up to date one.

Start a spending diary TODAY to find out exactly where your money goes. That knowledge will shock you but also give you power.
If you don't I will understand this is one of the negative reactions you refer to in your original post.


What do you think


Good Luck

sdt1986

Jesthar wrote: »

Hi sdt, let's have a look at this for you:


I would guess you are, too - and £200 is pretty steep anyway!

First things first, you need to start keeping a spending diary ASAP - if possible, go over all your bank statements for the past few months and work out where all of your money has been going.

Secondly, a few questions - no utility bills? Are they included in your rent? You do have telecoms bills though.

Finally, back to that £200 on entertainment - be honest with yourself, where does this go? If you have an expensive hobby (I ride horses, for example), then some of that may be justified. If the answer is simply 'going out and this and that' though, then just seeing that amount in print should be enough to shock you into taking some action to reduce that - the only time I have ever spent anything approaching that amount of money on going out is on my sister in laws hen weekend last year!

The good news is you are not really in a serious amount of trouble at the moment, if your figures are accurate, as on paper you even have a surplus each month. However, if you keep going, thinsg will be getting pretty serious soon enough...

So, yes - get that spending diary going, and if possible re-do your SOA with accurate average figires from the last few months.

Hope that helps,

~Jes

Well that soa thing definitely made things look better than i feel about things if im honest. Bills are in with the rent (fortunate on that account)

I know exactly what my problem is but i just dont know how to sort it.

I am 22, single and if i dont go out then whats the point in life?

Every month i aim to go out fridays only because thats the cheaper night of the weekend and budget myself £40 - £50 for that night. But that dont help the occassional drink with female company, not that that really ever costs me much but it all adds up.

This month where things have gone disastorous is because of stupidity, the day after payday i went out for a few after work (the friday) but i had a stag do the saturday so planned on going home after the few, but of course that didnt happen and i strolled in at 2am, (no idea the final figure of spend that night, probably about £60-£65, which seems excessive but to lads my age thats how much a night on the town costs nowadays, unless a student in student bars, or someone that isnt a big drinker, lucky sods)
Saturday came, i didnt really want to go on the stag do but the whole thing was a bit of a shambles and i would have felt really horrible had i not gone, went to town about 1ish, bought some new jeans and a top £30 total, then payed for the comedy club ticket £20, but then the most annoying part came next, £15.40 return ticket as i thought we would be getting last train home at 3am then a taxi the rest of the way, now £15 is way too expensive in my eyes and i do normally fare dodge (yes im the devil) on the trains but the woman was a stickler.

Had the night, drank the night away, not entirely sure how much i spent, but then they all going home at 2 didnt fancy having to get the train, so i said stuff that ill get the train (after a few more drinks with some other mates), ive paid for a ticket im not seeing it go to waste (in my infinite wisdom i forgot that if they werent coming back with me the taxi from the train station would be a rip off) I realised this so ended up staying on the train through to a few more stops where it would be easier for me to get home the next day, slept the next couple of hours in york station and had to purchase a ticket to my home town which cost another £14.60 (bleeding joke these fares)

So that was two expensive nights on the first weekend of payday. Now that all being said could have still meant i have £200 left and if im careful id have been okay, but oh no not me, thursday night there was something on at the theatre that i wanted to see so i went to that £10 in plus then afterwards i made the mistake of going for a few drinks, which meant that i had a few lock ins before getting home. not sure how much i spent overall but it wasnt cheap.

Friday night, had no choice to go out as it was a work 6 month award ceremony, now i dont think i spent much on friday as it was a relatively early finish (midnight) and there was some free drinks on (however i did go out at five of course)

Saturday came and my mates didnt go out like normal on friday as they were going saturday, now this is a rare treat since we now only go out fridays which are cheaper but very much quiter and more boring, saturdays is a much better night with a much higher chance of pulling :j so i thought stuff it im already screwed this month lets do it, off the couch i fall to go and get ready, straight back out, had £40 that lasted me from 6 till 12:30 then my mates decided that the one nightclub that we had been in an hour and paid £5 into was not enough so lets go over to the other, £7 in, so i went to the cash machine and withdrew my final £30 couldnt seem to get drunk or that merry either so it was pointless and everyone by this time was hammered or typsy and being around drunk people whilst sober isnt fun so i made my way home a skint hungry lad.

I think just by reading my problem is clear for all to see. oops

sdt1986

tyllwyd wrote: »

Sorry, 'living at home' doesn't make much sense now I read it back. What I meant was 'living with your parents', which I assumed because you are paying rent but no utility bills, council tax, tv licence etc.

Great if £10 is realistic for your mobile bill!

the bills are included in the rent, im living on my own but its my parents old house (they moved abroad) I pay £400 and that includes council tax gas and electric etc, i think they still pay some more to their mortgage although im not 100% on that.

sdt1986

Good news is on the 25th i will be back with extra money in the old wage which i will hopefully budget wiser, plenty of overtime on now for a couple of months which ive been granted permission to rinse and burn myself out with.

euronorris

OK, wow, I identify with the above sooo much! The drinking/going out spending spiral.

But....you can change it!

I suddenly realised, a couple of years ago, that I was going out and getting drunk very regularly, spending far too much and not keeping track of anything. It was during my single days and a big part of wanting to go out was to try and meet someone (all my friends were in relationships at the time and it's hard not to feel lonely when it's like that).

So, first of all, I tried sticking to 'just one or two' when I went out. You can imagine how succesful that one was! The best was getting home at 1am on a work night, dressed like a Xmas tree!

OK, so that didn't work. Right, time for drastic action. So.....I simply stopped drinking altogether! For 3 months (including over Xmas and New Year's), I didn't touch alcohol at all! I felt great, very quickly, and I saved a small fortune!

I found that my social habits changed also. It's hard to justify staying out so late on a work night, when you're still sober! Plus, when you're not drinking you don't want to spend all your time in a pub. So, I started inviting friends round for dinner/nights in and rediscovered the cinema, days out at weekends etc. I also found that I simply didn't have a lot in common with most of the people I was drinking with, and without that connection, we drifted apart pretty quickly.

On the plus side, the friends who were still there, are still here now and they are great. They are the ones I can REALLY talk to and rely on for help and support etc.

Perhaps you could try the same, just stop the drinking and watch your social habits change for the better.

As for the ladies....well...I hate to admit it, but if you offer us a free drink, we'll accept. Most of us will accept, regardless of whether we fancy you or not! So...I don't think you should offer the drinks out, at least not so often.

Also, from my experience. I found talking to a guy, say at the Sunday pub quiz, a lot easier and better, than on a Friday/Saturday night when both of us awould be drunk. I also found them more attractive when they are sober (personality wise).

I think you would benefit immensely from a budget and spending diary. I really, really do.

Good luck!