Old hand needs a fresh pair of eyes on SOA

savingmummy

Spirit wrote: »

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 a car each is this nessesary if hubby works away alot?
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 3792 Amazing what do you do?!
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 do this over 12 months
Electricity............................. 41
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 112
Water rates............................. 8
Telephone (land line)................... 39 try reducing this
Mobile phone............................ 0
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 22
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 i shop for 2 adults, 2 children and a cat on £150 - it can be done cheaper if needed but well done cutting from 666!
Clothing................................ 70 use what you have for now, you must have loads
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:eek: this is far too much!!
Haircuts................................ 52 i pay £26-28 every 8 weeks so look around.
Entertainment........................... 100 try and reduce this
Holiday................................. 200 eek!! any chance of finding cheaper holidays??
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Savings................................. 100 pay debt first
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 huge amount left throw at your debts!!! they would be gone before you knew it!
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.

WOW i wish i had your SOA
You have a lot of luxuries going on and a huge surplus - plus savings!!
You need to start throwing your savings at the debt, once they are cleared you can then start saving.

misscousinitt

It sounds like you work very hard and I for one think you are entitled to the luxuries that are in your SOA, holidays, clothes, haircuts, gardener etc...

However, even after you have 'spent' all this money on day to day living, you still have a massive surplus...

Personnally I would start a spending diary and find out where the surplus is going. Concentrate on getting rid of your overdrafts first, they are costing you the most.

You mentioned earlier that you already overpaid on debts by £1200...is this included in this SOA? If it is then you still have £2k spare per month you could clear them both in 3 months and get rid of those nasty charges too. If not then you have £1k left over and you could clear your Overdrafts in 6 months instead of 3 - either way they will be gone well before Christmas.

You are doing really well and with very little effort you can really make a hole in your debts.

Good Luck.

vandanfc

Personally I think the key here is the monthly surplus. You need to find out were it goes. As it stands on paper you can afford to pay out £2000 + per month off your debts. This should mean that in 8 months all your debts should be gone.

How soon are you looking at reducing your hours and by how many, what will your take home pay be then ?

zarazara

What about selling the house and moving to a smaller one. That would cut costs.

vandanfc

Your BT bill should be this high. Line rental is just under £12 per month, anytime plan is another £5, what is the rest made up of ? Is the call override number you use the cheapest ? Check out Martins article and compare the costs.

What benefits do you get from paying for your bank account are they really worth it ?

Both clothing and groceries can be cut down a little or a lot (especially when oh is abroad).

You should be able to get cheaper broadband even in the sticks, have a look at plus net maybe.

Shave something off birthdays/xmas fund, and hair cuts.

If your daughter has such a well paid pt job, why are you paying a lot of her costs ? Can she start to take responsibility for some of them again.

the_cat

I guess the big question is how much will your income be reducing by when you become part time.

As you obviously know, there are many areas which you 'could' reduce but you need to balance having a nice life whilst relatively healthy (sorry if I'm wrong, reading between the lines here re retirement comments) and being financially secure

Perhaps do a second SOA with your income/costs etc as if you were already part time? Easier then for us to make suggestions

beanielou

I just want to say that I hope it all works out as you wish.
Your health is your most important asset & I think you are right to look after it as much as you can
Take care x

niccatw

WASHER wrote: »

Another thing I found, when I totalled up the cash withdrawals from the ATM each month, I almost fell off my chair.

So true! I did the same! I only figured it out doing my spending diary and going through my bank statements with a fine tooth comb! I definitely think a spending diary will help you figure out where the most practical cut backs can be made for your family Spirit. Though have to say, I can't work excel, so mine is a manual affair - and one I find tedious at that, but it definitely helps me think twice before spending!

I was going to suggest the crazy clothes challenge, but perhaps not pracitcal when needing to look the part! How are you with a sewing machine? (Had mine for two years and still can't work out the tension, much less sew a straight line!)

I think, if you put your minds to it, you could make quite drastic cut backs for a relatively short period of time and have your debt paid off by the end of the year. You need to weigh up what you are willing to pay in interest charges with what you are willing to cut down or out at the moment

Good luck. Making these decisions are never easy

Spirit_2

Thanks every one - lots of challenging truths in what you say.

As I said in the earlier posts we do not have a budgte for xmas, holidays, gifts and that is an area I am going to make a plan for. I did a 'best guess' on what we spend in order to complete the proper SOA.

the cat and Vandan fc - DD's well paid job is pt - so the hourly rate is excellent but she works a limited number of hours in term time. We want to pay her tuition fees as we do not want her to start out in life with debts. It is a really good suggestion about looking at it from the perspective of pt earnings. I was coming from it from the other route - as in how much can I afford to lose if I have a tighter hold spending.

Mr Spirit sold his 4x4 to go towards our debt busting (we have cleared about £50,000 in 2 years) and now drives my 35 year old sports car when he is home - it is mechanically simple and he can maintain it - I won't part with it as he bought it for me when we married (1983:eek:). We live 3 miles from the nearest bus stop or shop and 15 miles from his UK base so two cars are essential.

savingmummy - you can have my SOA if I can have your heart, arteries and one or two other organs (not sure that is legal though).

Zarazara - I was'nt sure if you were being helpful or facetious, but like most people we love our home. It is modest but in an expensive part of the UK and we have made friends of our longstanding neighbours and get a lot out of being part of our village community. I am fearful that we will have to move if my health deteriorates further and I am no longer allowed to drive but that is not something I allow myself do dwell on.

beowulf

misscousinitt wrote: »

It sounds like you work very hard and I for one think you are entitled to the luxuries that are in your SOA, holidays, clothes, haircuts, gardener etc...

Doesn't that apply to all (or most) of us?

If I put the same percentage down for things like haircuts, presents to other people (we too have a large family), clothing (£70 can get you a suit these days, surely one every few months would do), they would just laugh at me.

I completed an SOA myself a few times. The first time I did, I put everything up to the maximum I think we would ever spend. Then I tried a more realistic one that we could live on. The less I put down for myself, the more I had to pay off my debts with and the sooner I would be able to sleep at night.

At the end of the day, if it's justified, that's fine, I'm not having a go, just trying to say that the more you help yourself, the better it is.