Old hand needs a fresh pair of eyes on SOA

Spirit_2

Two years ago as a newbie I posted an SOA and had lot of advice on how to cut spending. We now have a clear budgets, however I can see relative to many other DFW's that we could do better. We are still clearing debts so all advice welcome. Our daughter is a fulltime student and lives at home,she has a part-time job but we pay for some of her car costs (live in the sticks miles from the nearest bus stop) and her tuition fees loan. We also pay for a mortgage for a flat for my mum. The reason for the review now is I need to reduce my working hours for health reasons.


TV licence 13
cesspit 27
Field rent 21
Boiler servicing 21
road tax x 2 (1/12) 22
Insurance - hatchback and 2 classic veh 38
MOT 1/12 25
Tennis26shooting 50
SWINTON house 1/12 40
car Insurance Daughter 1/12 25
MOT Daughter 1/12 15
B/CARD PLAT VISA 250 Gardener80
O/DRAFT INTEREST 17
O/DRAFT INTEREST 59
Council tax197
WATER 8
SCOTTISHPOWER PLC Elec 41
Oil 112
CONNECT TELECOM UK 11
BT DIRECT DEBITS 50
SCOTTISH WIDOWS life 24
Nat West life !!!29
ZURICH ASSURANCE life OH47
ABBEY MORTGAGE (mums flat)196
NATIONWIDE (our house)1159
Food300
Petrol 2 cars250
Hair52
Chicken Feed24
ACCOUNT CHARGE 17
RBS PERSONAL LOANS 272
Dentist Daughter18
STUDENT LOAN CO Daughter 250
INVESTMENT Club 100
Total spending 3886

Me 3792
Mr Spirit 2375
Total earnings 6167
Surplus2281

Debts
Credit card BC £3000
Loan £8000
Overdraft (end of month) £6000

From the surplus we are currently reducing debts by about an extra £1200 per month

Thanks

Spirit

NGlady

Sounds to me like you spend an awful lot on petrol - are all of these journeys necessary? Any chance of gettting smaller cars?

£71 on life insurance, have you shopped around?

£80 each month for a Gardener? Is that a real necceary expence?

Is your daughter able to do any more hours at work to take a few pounds of your commitment to her away?

savingmummy

Spirit wrote: »

TV licence 13
cesspit 27
Field rent 21
Boiler servicing 21
road tax x 2 (1/12) 22
Insurance - hatchback and 2 classic veh 38
MOT 1/12 25
Tennis26 are there any free courts about in your local area for public use?
shooting 50 is this nessesary? can it be reduced
SWINTON house 1/12 40
car Insurance Daughter 1/12 25
MOT Daughter 1/12 15
B/CARD PLAT VISA 250
Gardener80 can you get it done by family/friends
O/DRAFT INTEREST 17
O/DRAFT INTEREST 59
Council tax197 is this over 12 months?
WATER 8
SCOTTISHPOWER PLC Elec 41
Oil 112
CONNECT TELECOM UK 11
BT DIRECT DEBITS 50
SCOTTISH WIDOWS life 24
Nat West life !!!29
ZURICH ASSURANCE life OH47
ABBEY MORTGAGE (mums flat)196
NATIONWIDE (our house)1159
Food300 reduce this
Petrol 2 cars250:eek:
Hair52 this is very high!!
Chicken Feed24
ACCOUNT CHARGE 17
RBS PERSONAL LOANS 272
Dentist Daughter18
STUDENT LOAN CO Daughter 250
INVESTMENT Club 100
Total spending 3886

Me 3792
Mr Spirit 2375
Total earnings 6167
Surplus2281 what happens with the rest after debt extras??

Debts
Credit card BC £3000
Loan £8000
Overdraft (end of month) £6000

From the surplus we are currently reducing debts by about an extra £1200 per month:T

Thanks

Spirit

you need to do a full SOA really, this will be clearer and more accurate http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

WASHER

Spirit wrote: »

Two years ago as a newbie I posted an SOA and had lot of advice on how to cut spending. We now have a clear budgets, however I can see relative to many other DFW's that we could do better. We are still clearing debts so all advice welcome. Our daughter is a fulltime student and lives at home,she has a part-time job but we pay for some of her car costs (live in the sticks miles from the nearest bus stop) and her tuition fees loan. We also pay for a mortgage for a flat for my mum. The reason for the review now is I need to reduce my working hours for health reasons.


TV licence 13
cesspit 27
Field rent 21
Boiler servicing 21 - iS THIS REALLY ESSENTIAL, HOW OLD IS YOUR BOILER
road tax x 2 (1/12) 22
Insurance - hatchback and 2 classic veh 38
MOT 1/12 25
Tennis26shooting 50
SWINTON house 1/12 40
car Insurance Daughter 1/12 25
MOT Daughter 1/12 15
B/CARD PLAT VISA 250
Gardener80:eek:
O/DRAFT INTEREST 17
O/DRAFT INTEREST 59
Council tax197
WATER 8
SCOTTISHPOWER PLC Elec 41
Oil 112
CONNECT TELECOM UK 11
BT DIRECT DEBITS 50
SCOTTISH WIDOWS life 24
Nat West life !!!29
ZURICH ASSURANCE life OH47
ABBEY MORTGAGE (mums flat)196
NATIONWIDE (our house)1159
Food300
Petrol 2 cars250
Hair52
Chicken Feed24
ACCOUNT CHARGE 17
RBS PERSONAL LOANS 272
Dentist Daughter18
STUDENT LOAN CO Daughter 250
INVESTMENT Club 100
Total spending 3886

Me 3792
Mr Spirit 2375
Total earnings 6167
Surplus2281

Debts
Credit card BC £3000
Loan £8000
Overdraft (end of month) £6000

From the surplus we are currently reducing debts by about an extra £1200 per month

Thanks

Spirit

You have a really good income, so £300 for food is very good, also I would keep the gardener at £80 per month.

You seem to have a lot of life insurance, do you or your OH not get life insurance as a perk of the job?

You seem to pay an awful lot of money to your overdraft interest each month, are your cards 0%, if so, reduce that overdraft, its costing you a fortune.

niccatw

Hi Spirit

I agree with Savingmummy's comments really. Though appreciate living in the sticks it can be difficult to cut that petrol down - especially with prices at the moment!

It might be time to start that spending diary back up to track where your surplus is going! (Though, again, you have my sympathies there; currently finding it hard to keep my spending diary up to speed - think it's bacaue I'm scared of what I might find out!)

And maybe see if there's any suitable challenges on the forum you could join? Any that could bring your groceries down? I'm assuming, from what's on your SOA, you'd be in a position to try growing your own veg, if you're not already doing so? (Apologies if that's a completely off track assumption.)

Good luck

savingmummy

WASHER wrote: »

You have a really good income, so £300 for food is very good, also I would keep the gardener at £80 per month.

.

Reasons for this? OP wants to save money each month to be DF these can be reduced!!

WASHER

savingmummy wrote: »

Reasons for this? OP wants to save money each month to be DF these can be reduced!!

Compared to most people on this board, the OP has an excellent income and £300 for food per month isn't alot, the OP has other things she could reduce like the overdraft charges/account charges, hair etc and according to her SOA has a large surplus after repaying her debts each month, she could use the surplus to repay some of the overdraft and still spend £300 on food per month. Its not the average SOA this one, usually I would recommend dropping a brand, but not in this case, £50 or so saving per month isn't going to make a difference.

I suspect the OP has a stressful and time consuming career earning over £3700K per month, maybe she doesn't have the time to do the gardening and again £80 isn't going to make a huge difference. As I said above, its not the usual SOA we see on here.

Spirit_2

Thanks for all the replies so far - I will do a 'proper SOA'.

Some words of explanation:

Boiler servicing - An Aga type cooking/heating/hotwater - has cost us £450 in repairs since December - we had a 'friend' maintaining it but have had to move to a proper engineer

Life Assurance - mine - longstanding provider - new insurance for me is massive (if offered at all).

Mr Spirits - hangover from closed pension - we will see if this is worth continuing

Gardener £20 per week summer £10 per week winter - Mr Spirit works abroad a lot - we have 3/4 acre and I cannot manage it. All neighbours 60+ and help us in many other ways!

Veg growing - I have a largely unsucessful veg patch . Mostly grow slugs. If well enough I do like doing this.

Council tax - over 10 months - we have the smallest cottage but the biggest charge amongst our neighbours -we have appealed but failed - everyone else has lived here for 35 years+ we a mere 15 years.

Tennis and shooting - Mr Spirits hobbies/social life

Petrol - getting to work for me 300 miles per week - will check what Mr Spirit is using - we have reduced this - in our first SOA this was £484


Food £300 - I cook from scratch and am doing the grocery challenge feed 3 adults and 2 cats.

Hair - Mine & Mr Spirits - been using same hair dresser fro 15 years - maybe time for a change

Miss Spirit will graduate this summer - but may do a masters - she has a really well paid pt job which she has held since she was 17 - but should not do 'more' until the summer now.


The surplus not used for debt reduction goes on Christmas, Birthdays, holidays, Gifts, social events. We need to set a budget for these things as I think we could do less without being mean. A plan and a spending diary would help.

I see threads saying 'live on £4000 a year' and wonder what else we could do as I am not proud that we are almost spending that each month.

Please keep challenging me - I will discuss all of tehs eideas with Mr Spirit

WASHER

I certainly think having a budget for holidays/christmas etc will help greatly.

I would suggest a spending diary - it will enable you to see where the surplus is going, if you are any good with computers, you do one on Excel. Try it for a month or so.

Another thing I found, when I totalled up the cash withdrawals from the ATM each month, I almost fell off my chair, I was withdrawing £10 per day and so was my husband, £600 per month spend on rubbish, I soon stopped that, I give him an allowance each month now in cash.

LilacPixie

I thnk petrol is reasonable and TBH the gardener too. As you daughter has a 'well paid' part time job could she start to take responsibility for some of her own personal bills like her dentist of car insurance??

I would say you could probably cut £50 off groceries, have another go at the veg patch,

I guess it all depends on how much you want to reduce debt because according to your SOA after putting £1200 to your debt you still have 1k surplus spend on gifts holidays socialising etc which is huge.

What does your £17 account charge give you??is it worth it? Does it really cost £180 a year to MOT your daughters car?

You have an SOA like mine (but twice the income) I want to reduce debt but still have a semblance of normality so I am just making smaller saving on everything rather than sweeping cuts.

Spirit_2

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 3
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 3
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 3792
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2375
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 6167
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1159
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 196
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 197
Electricity............................. 41
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 112
Water rates............................. 8
Telephone (land line)................... 39
Mobile phone............................ 0
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 22
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 70
Petrol/diesel........................... 250
Road tax................................ 22
Car Insurance........................... 63
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 40
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..................... 40
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 100
Other insurance......................... 18
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 120
Haircuts................................ 52
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 200
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Savings................................. 100
bank fee................................ 15
Bank Interest........................... 76
Gardener................................ 80
Boiler servicing........................ 21
Sports clubs............................ 76
Field Rental............................ 21
Cesspit................................. 27
Total monthly expenses.................. 3578

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 375000
Shares and bonds........................ 3000
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 65000
Total Assets............................ 446000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 72847....(1159).....2.5<
Mortgage (mum).................50000....(196)......3.99
Total secured & HP debts...... 122847....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
barclaycard....................2946......35........10.9
Overdaft 1.....................2000......17........18.9
Loan...........................8338......222.......7.9
Overdarft 2....................4000......59........12.9
Total unsecured debts..........17284.....333.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 6,167
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,578
Available for debt repayments........... 2,589
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 333
Amount left after debt repayments....... 2,256
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 446,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -122,847
Total Unsecured debt.................... -17,284
Net Assets.............................. 305,869
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.