SOA & saving to get married - advice needed please :)

jenyjenjen990

Hiya,

This is really long!!! Any advice is totally appreciated. Not sure what the best options for me are. Have been trying to get a real handle on my finances, as I'm getting married in ten months, and will have the added cost of my fiance's immigration to the UK (he's American but works in Russia, which is kinda crap!!)

SOA as follows:
Just me in my household. Fiance lives abroad, where all living costs except food and socialising are covered by his company.
Don't drive and mostly walk everywhere, so no transport costs.

Income:
Monthly income after tax - 993
Fiance's income from USA army pension - approx 500 at current exchange rates
Fiance's income from Russian job - 800 (half goes to him in cash in Russia, he spends pretty much all of that every month, half goes to my account)
Total: 2293

Expenses:
Rent - 450
Council Tax/Water - 164 (Band A, but due to the Council not issuing a bill for months am paying more each month, through no fault of my own - grrrr!!!!)
Electricity - 20
Gas - 30
Mobile - 30
No TV or landline
Internet - 15
Food/toiletries etc - 100
Clothing/makeup - 25
Gifts - 15
Entertainment - 20
Fiance's spends in Russia - 400

Debts
Fiance - NONE! Clever boy
My overdraft - £2000 currently. By the end of Feb hopefully £1700. No idea what the APR on this is, can't find the info?? But basically they charge me £30 a month. All my wages and the 400 go into this account.
Credit card - 795. 21.9% APR. Just changed payment to pay off £80 a month.

Total income - 2293
Expenses - 1379

Total left for debt repayment - 914. Hope I've worked this out correctly.

Other things happening are:
1.All of fiance's American income stays in the States. He has a US savings account that is being used solely for the 500 a month, so he is essentially saving that money every month.

2. Because we're getting married in 10 months time, he wants me to open a savings account and stick 500 quid in there each month (ie 400 which is half of his pay, which goes direct to my account, plus 100 of my wages). Ie we "pay ourselves" and save for the wedding before paying off my overdraft/credit card... is this a bad plan.... ??? He is also going to try and cut down on the money he is spending in Russia and just try and spend 200 - 250 a month there and save the rest. Most of his money goes on eating/drinking out - there's not much else to do where he is...

3. Fiance has just been promoted and as of end Feb will be getting another 150, which will be going into my account. I'm apply for jobs at higher salaries, having realised am totally over-worked and underpaid!

4. Council Tax bill will decrease in April to hopefully around 65 a month with the 25% single person discount applied.

Umm thats about it!!! I applied yesterday for a post office 0% credit card to transfer to, did it online and came back as I will get a decision in 5 days, whcih I assume means no. I checked moneyextra.com, and because I've only been in this flat for 9 months, its a pretty dodgy area, (does that make a difference??) it came back with a card that had 39% interest on it!!!! So I think I am stuck with my current credit card.

We need to save £2500 for our wedding, and at least another £1000 for his immigration, which will probably be more. My dad is also giving us £2k to put towards the wedding.

What should I be doing to get out of debt and start saving... Would appreciate any help!!!!!!!!

Thanks in advance xx

GeorgeUK

Hi Jen

Not sure if there are things missing from the SOA - insurance, holidays, clothes, dentist/prescriptions etc. Can you have a look at the SOA calculator and see if you have everthing covered?
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Are you lsited on the electoral roll at your current address?

Don't assume that you won't get the card - it may just take a few days to go through the system. I'm waiting on seeing if i can get a BoS card again.

If you haven't already done so it may be worth taking a look at your credit report to make sure all the info on it is correct and all the previous addresses are correct. You can do this free on experian (as long as you cancel within 30 days).

1666hby

Hi Jen, congratulations on the upcoming wedding and your decision to become debt free. You will get great (tough) advice from the experts on here.

Read southernscouser's sticky thread at the top of the page with advice for new members - includes links to the SOA and snowball.

Start a spending diary to see where your money is really going every month.

You need to do a Statement of Affairs, format it for MSE and post it here. Setting it out this way will make it much easier for people to advise you. Do this properly but either just for you or for both you and your OH.

Use the famous Snowball site which will show you how long it will take to pay off your debts, depending on what payments you make to them. E.g. it says your cc bill will take 11 months to pay off at £80pm including £75 interest. Amazing how quickly extra payments bring down debts.

The experts will be along shortly but things that stand out are;
£25 on clothing and makeup - needs to be cut right down. You must have loads already. Spend an evening going through your wardrobe and all your toiletries and makeup - you probably won't need to buy any more for ages. What you no longer want/need can be sold on ebay or at a carboot.

Mobile £30 - way too high. Call them for a better deal or go PAYG.

£15 on gifts - cut this down by buying only for children, making deals with friends not to buy each other expensive presents and also making interesting presents - crafting or baking. The MSE Old Style Forum is full of good ideas on this as well as grocery budgetting.

Overdraft - this equals two months of your salary! Call the bank tomorrow to find out the APR/charges so you can work out what it is costing you on the Snowball.

CC - 21.9% is high. You need to make higher payments. You could also call them to see if they will offer you a better rate or look around for a new card at a lower rate that you can BT the debt to.

It would be much better for you to throw extra money at these debts every month instead of putting £100 into a savings account as your OH suggests. The interest you are paying on the debts is way higher than what you will earn in savings at the moment. You need to tell him this and about the debts in general, it's only fair. The quicker you bring down the debts, the sooner you can be saving for the wedding and immigration costs.

Good luck - and do tell us how come a woman in Inverness has hooked up with an American in Russia!

jenyjenjen990

Hiya George and 1666hby,

Thank you both for the advice, its really really helpful!!!

Am definitely on the electoral roll at this address. Will check out the credit report this week on Experian. Started a spending diary today, that will help a lot to see where all the small amounts, which add up to big amounts, are going.

Will cut out the clothes/gifts costs totally. £30 a month is roughly what I spend on my phone, sometimes its less - it is PAYG, calling Russia when Skype is down is what bumps it up!! But again thats something I can be very strict with.

Thanks for the advice about the CC and the overdraft, will definitely do that.

I have done a revised SOA only for my own account, and just ignored the other income, as that will be saved up anyway. My fiance is fully aware of the debts, and they are partly his (we have done a TON of travelling in various places this year, and unfortunately thats where most of the money went)

So here is the revised SOA for my income/outgoings only:

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 933
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 933


Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 450
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 164
Electricity............................. 20
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 100
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
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)...... 15
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 869

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
CC.............................795.......0.........21.9
Overdraft......................2000......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........2795......0........

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 933
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 869
Available for debt repayments........... 64
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 64

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -2,795
Net Assets.............................. -2,795


And we met while we were both living abroad! Its very random! x

Horace

Congrats on the engagement.

Dont buy any more clothes - shop from your wardrobe instead and as its just you at home you can possibly shave a bit off your grocery bill too and still be able to eat well.

Join in one of the challenges on here too - The Make £10 a Day Challenge is a good one.

Opening a savings account is a good idea - a cash ISA could be a good bet, you put money in but dont take it out and its tax free.