My SOA - Much starker than I ever dreamt possible

mrbalsawood

I have recently discovered this forum. For years I had been quite reckless with money, and have been inspired by the hard work and supportiveness I have seen on this forum to final tackle my debt and spending problems. I'm not quite sure where to start, as the debt repayments in particular are crippling me! I can't wait for the day I can actually start living outside my overdraft, and as it's been nagging away at me for a while, to actually start saving money and contributing to a pension scheme. I would greatly appreciate help and advice from my fellow DFW's.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,383.59
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.25
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.19
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46.40
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
Buildings & Contents Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.53
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242.04
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.44
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.90
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.99
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192.75
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Train Tickets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00

Debt Repayments

Credit Card Minimum Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91.46
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229.41
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Savings & Investments

Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Family

Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Rapidshare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.09
Internet Football . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.65
Lottery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.70
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33

Education & Courses

University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One Offs

Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.83
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00

Odds & Sods

Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86.67
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73.33


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,383.59


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,614.75

Unsecured Debts
Virgin Credit Card - Balance £1999.92 - Monthly £66 Min.
MINT Credit Card - Balance £2500 - Monthly £58 Min.
Co-Op Personal Loan - Balance £2291 - Monthly. £229.41
Co-Op Overdraft - £660

tealady

Hi there are some obvious ones there such as cinema and lottery. For cinema can you change your phone and do Orange Wednesdays. Do you need a mobile and lanline or could you get them as a bundle?
If you have a look on the Old Style boards there are some great cheap meal ideas.
Hope this helps.
Oh and keep a spending diary it is a real eye opener.

DisgruntledGoat

That's a thorough SOA, but i'd second the idea of a spending diary, because that catches a few things that otherwise get missed out.

What are the APRs on the debts?

But, at the risk of being a bit blunt, at the moment you're spending £230 more each month than you're bringing in, so to even stabilise you're going to need to cut back quite hard. The better news is that there look to be ten months left on the Co-op loan, so if you can keep going until then, things will start to fall into shape.

Looking at individual items:

Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86.67
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73.33

Make sandwiches, take a thermos of coffee, cut out snacks. You're spending more than 10% of your income here (and the spending diary may show more items in this area).

Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.83
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00

Make home made cards, tell people you can't afford presents this year - you can get good gifts for children for under a pound if you look around the charity shops

Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.70

Can you cancel this? Jogging, cycling -if the local roads are safe- or the local council leisure center are all much cheaper

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Rapidshare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.09
Internet Football . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.65
Lottery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00

Can you cut back here? Switch to freeview, eat out rarely/not at all, don't play the lottery? Sounds harsh, but you're not making ends meet and you need to keep on top of things until that loan ends.

Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00

Electricity and gas are expensive, I pay less than £60 for a 3-bed semi. Shop around.

Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.25
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.19

Again, you can't afford £70 a month here. Switch the phone to PAYG, cheaper home phone packages are available too that include internet.

Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.44

Is this providing value for money?


Now that may all sound harsh, but you need to trim at least £230 a month of your outgoings for the next ten months, while keeping going with the overdraft and cards. Then the loan ends, and you can really start to 'snowball' the credit cards (when the loan goes, the o/d will go within three months).

tallyhoh

£352.75 a month in food for one person? Try looking at the old style money saving board. Theres a saving here of at least £200.

Sandrock

mrbalsawood wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,383.59
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34.25 This seems high. I pay under £10 for 100m/unlimited texts.
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.19 Seems high.
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44.00 High for 1 person
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00 High for 1 person
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46.40 High for 1 person
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00 What is this?
Buildings & Contents Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.53
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242.04
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.44 Do you need this??
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.90 Seems high compared to your mortgage payments.
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.99
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192.75 Very high for one person.
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Train Tickets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00

Debt Repayments

Credit Card Minimum Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91.46
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229.41
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Savings & Investments

Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Family

Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39.00 Do you need this... really?
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 This could go.
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Rapidshare. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.09 What is this????
Internet Football . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.65 This can go.
Lottery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 This can go.

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33 Cut your own!
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.00 Don't need this, use the NHS.
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.70 Don't need this, you can do all gym excercises out and about for free.
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33

Education & Courses

University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One Offs

Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.83
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00

Odds & Sods

Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00 Use newspaper websites for news instead.
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86.67 Wow. Make your own food, this is silly.
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73.33 As above, buy snacks when you do your grocery shopping and take to work - much cheaper.


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,383.59


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,614.75

Unsecured Debts
Virgin Credit Card - Balance £1999.92 - Monthly £66 Min.
MINT Credit Card - Balance £2500 - Monthly £58 Min.
Co-Op Personal Loan - Balance £2291 - Monthly. £229.41
Co-Op Overdraft - £660

I've added my comments above.

By cancelling things you don't need (and cannot afford), looking at switching or cutting down your utility bills and being more thrifty with others - shopping, meals at work etc I think you could save £450 - £500 a month.

You'll be able to then meet your credit repayments and have a bit spare to overpay them and get the debt cleared sooner.

mrbalsawood

Thanks to everyone who has provided suggestions so far. I already feel that I have started the long road to recovery by completing the budget planner and realising, and making public the true state of my finances.

I have stopped all spending on trivialities such as coffee, work lunches and cinema and am currenltly working my escape plan from the various direct debits. Newspaper and gym subscriptions are a goner with immediate effect, i'm considering the possibility of cycling the 6 miles to work rather than taking the bus (my current fitness being the one major doubt!) , I intend to drop the Sky subscription down to he most basic package and losing my landline altogether. I am under contract with O2 for my mobile until July, but will then be reverting to a PAYG from that point.

Just to clarify a couple of things, my income actually covers myself and my girlfriend, who is a full time-student who stays with me at weekends and term breaks. Items like shopping are actually for two people for these days rather than one. In your informed opinions does my spend in these areas still seem high? Water rates are unfortunately fixed in this area.


Can you advise how/where I would find the APR's on my credit cards/Loans?

Thanks again for all your help.

System

mrbalsawood wrote: »

Thanks to everyone who has provided suggestions so far. I already feel that I have started the long road to recovery by completing the budget planner and realising, and making public the true state of my finances.

I have stopped all spending on trivialities such as coffee, work lunches and cinema and am currenltly working my escape plan from the various direct debits. Newspaper and gym subscriptions are a goner with immediate effect, i'm considering the possibility of cycling the 6 miles to work rather than taking the bus (my current fitness being the one major doubt!) , I intend to drop the Sky subscription down to he most basic package and losing my landline altogether. I am under contract with O2 for my mobile until July, but will then be reverting to a PAYG from that point.

Just to clarify a couple of things, my income actually covers myself and my girlfriend, who is a full time-student who stays with me at weekends and term breaks. Items like shopping are actually for two people for these days rather than one. In your informed opinions does my spend in these areas still seem high? Water rates are unfortunately fixed in this area.


Can you advise how/where I would find the APR's on my credit cards/Loans?

Thanks again for all your help.

Good for you for making changes! Swapping to packed lunches was the biggest saving I ever made, I reckon, so you will soon see the difference.

Perhaps you could ask you girlfriend to contribute to food on the days she stays? I know she is a student, but she should still have some kind of income (student loan, part-time job) for basic living costs. You could alternate weekends to buy all the food, so she will have control of what she spends on her allocated weekends.

Good luck with the cycling. I attempted it myself a year ago, but failed miserably, but then my journey is a hilly 10 miles each way so I was doomed from the start. 6 miles is far more manageable. Perhaps start out by cycling twice or three times a week until you get your fitness levels up? Just a thought.

Horace

I agree with what others have said. With regard to water rates, see if you can have a water meter fitted or failing that see if you can have single occupancy rate (I know that Severn Trent Water offer this option for folks that can't have a water meter fitted).

Ask your g/f to contribute too on weekends when she stays over.

Walking is free - so why not walk so far to work and then take the bus the rest of the way and when you get fitter then you can cycle.

focae

If your fitness levels are too low to cycle 6 miles each way to work then you are obviously not using your gym - £35.70 pm = £428.40 pa. Cancel your membership - why pay for something you are not using.

Why pay £13 a month for a fee paying bank account. That's £156 pa. Ask your bank to revert to a free account or change banks. The 'benefits' you get with fee based accounts are not worth it AND you can't afford it.

Just doing these two things saves you £584 per annum.

Why have Sky at all? You can watch much the same drivel as you get on their basic package on Freeview - which does what it says on the tin - it's free. If your TV won't receive digital signals then get a set top box - they are very cheap and are a one off expense.

Finally - go through your list again and write NEED next to everything you think you need to keep on your list of outgoings. Then go through it again and decide did you really mean NEED or did you mean WANT. Those items that are WANT should only be kept on your list if you can actually afford them.