Can I post my SOA?

KittyKate

Hi all, I love reading this thread you're all so great I was wondering - could I post my SOA for you all to examine - I'm not in any major debt, more like I can't work out why I'm not saving as much as I need to be. I'm by no means extravagant, but I'm saving for a car, and want to be more sensible with money to afford it and accomodate for the added costs of having one (which I need for work and visiting family). Cheers! :beer:

Littlemiss-lotsofdebt

Hi KK :hello:

Welcome to MSE. We'd love to see your SOA and see if we can help.

xx

Plutos_2

Welcome! I'm also a newbie and am in the process of being SOAed (I still don't know what it stands for!) and it is fascinating. There's so much you don't realise you are spending on...

Fun in some ways (you find yourself thinking up different ways to save more money), but also scary as I really hope I stick to the moneysaving and don't just spend more on other stuff....

spud30

Hi Kitty and welcome !!!

If you've been lurking for a while, you'll know that there's nothing this lot like more than a fresh SOA (statement of account) to have a look at.

KittyKate

Ok here goes (I hope I am doing this right lol)

Incoming
My monthly wage: £1300
Partner's monthly wage: £1300 (same exact job)
Ebay: roughly £50 a month
Shares in company we work: £2000 (can't cash in till end July)

Outgoing (shared)
Rent: £550 a month (includes water and service charge)
Electricity: £70 a month (ish)
Council Tax: £113 a month
Food @ Tesco: £60 a month
Restaurants/Takeaways: up to £100 a month inc daily meal deal at Boots
Clothes/Shoes: £50 a month
My Driving Lessons (4hr a week) £88 a week (not shared and over soon!)
Internet: £30 a month
Mobile: £20 a month (£10 per month each)
OH's cc is about £300 in, £5 ish a month?

...obviously the places to cut the spending are eating out and at Boots at work and on clothes - I just want to be a proper DFW as since I left uni, moved house and got a job I feel I've been really wasteful - I have a lot of material posessions but only about £1500 in savings. I know I'm not badly in debt but I need to be more money sensible because I don't want to be in bad habits for when I do get a car/house/have a baby because when your circumstances change and your income doesn't increase that's how you get in trouble (I'm not preaching, I'm just having a pre-lightbulb moment!):rotfl:

EDIT: I do owe the council £13,000 for my student fees, they set the amount at £50 a month (I forgot as it comes straight off my wage!) - they won't let you pay more as and when though, unfortunately, as I'd like to get it cleared sooner.

spud30

Internet seems a bit dear - can you shop around?

£50 per month for clothes and shoes - I'm lucky to get that a year !!!

Driving lessons - make sure you pass as soon as poss.

Electric is more than mine, and I thought mine was v.bad at £52 per month. Can you change supplier?

You already know you spend too much on takeaways etc.

iwanttosave_2

OK lets have a play with this

KittyKate wrote:

Ok here goes (I hope I am doing this right lol)

Incoming
My monthly wage: £1300
Partner's monthly wage: £1300 (same exact job)
Ebay: roughly £50 a month
Shares in company we work: £2000 (can't cash in till end July)

Outgoing (shared)
Rent: £550 a month (includes water and service charge)
Electricity: £70 a month (ish)This is a lot, even if its for gas and elec, I have a 3 bed house and it only costs me £30 in the winter
Council Tax: £113 a month
Food @ Tesco: £60 a monthThats cheap well done
Restaurants/Takeaways: up to £100 a month inc daily meal deal at Boots Do I really need to point this out? You can do home made lunches for the week for what it costs for one day at boots. And how about just one takeaway a month as a treat for being so good
Clothes/Shoes: £50 a month Well a girl has to have her shoes, but maybe shop around or try to cut this down to £30
My Driving Lessons (4hr a week) £88 a week (not shared and over soon!)Hope you pass :T
Internet: £30 a month I pay £12.99 for 1mg, shop around and see what you can get in your area
Mobile: £20 a month (£10 per month each)
OH's cc is about £300 in, £5 ish a month?All the money you save from above can be thrown at this, you should never just pay the minimum amount as it takes years to pay off (without the interest alon that will take 60 months to pay off

KittyKate

Thanks all. Sadly we can't change our internet supplier as we live in an apartment and it's prewired. Ironically we work for a major internet/corporate phone supplier but the discount we would get is offset by the need to have a BT line installed at a cost of £60 and that's if we're allowed (and then the monthly line rental). I do save on calls by having a prepay SIM and making calls to 0870 etc numbers from work (free calls, perk of the job).

As for the Boots dinner every day, I am ashamed and my only defences are that I don't eat bread or much meat and I find it so much easier to buy a fruit salad daily than struggle with keeping fruit fresh at home etc as we only do the monthly shop for food. But I have started to juice oranges and other fruits (20p a bottle equivalent) rather than buy tropicana (99p a bottle!) - I need to start making chilli or veggie casserole in the slow cooker then taking it to work to microwave, and remembering to take my own fruit (it's 40p an apple at work!!)

Deff will cut down on clothes as I have too many anyway it's just when you both work a 40hr week you feel you want to treat yourself! Same for the takeaways, I'm addicted to hoi sin duck! - but I do collect lesiure vouchers from Pigsback so the cost is falling as we always get between £10 and £20 off per meal.

I feel I should be saving loads but the money's going somewhere, lol! I'm with a lot of people in thinking there's a hole in my bank account!!

spud30

Keep a note of every penny you spend for a month or two.

It certainly helps a lot of us on here realise where the cash goes.

CLAPTON

If i understand you properly then adding up your expenditure and leaving out your driving lessons it adds up to £998 which presumably you pay half each which is approx 500 each per month.

so your income is 1,300 and you spend 500 on bills plus your driving lesson of 352 per month leaving you £449 per month.
your other half has income of 1300 and costs of 500 so should have 800 spare per month.

am i misunderstanding this? where does the other money go?

wishingonastar_3

sharwoods do a hoi sin sauce ina jar thats yummy, much cheaper than a takeaway, and you won't feel like your missing out. its one of my fav meals too.