Hi new to board

kezz

Hi, Ive been lurking around for a while and have finally decided to post my soa. Here goes, This is the revised budget and not what we have been spending otherwise we wouldnt be over £3000 in debt, but I suppose that is pretty obvious

MORTGAGE £273.71
ELECTRIC £50
FLAT MAINTAINANCE AND REPAIRS £120
GARAGE RENT £40
CAR MAINTAINANCE £30
PETROL £50
CAR INSURANCE £28.77
COUNCIL TAX £86
WATER RATES £32
FOOD £250 3 ADULTS 1 CHILD
TV/TELEPHONE/BROADBAND £95
CLOTHES £20
TV LICENCE £11
SWIMMING £30
BIRTHDAYS £20
CHRISTMAS £20
HOLIDAY £50
INTEREST £30
FAMILY FUN £30

TOTAL OUT £1266.48
INCOME £1569

OVERDRAFT £3200 9.9% £4950 LIMIT

Should I be piggybanking for birthdays etc or just throwing it at the debt?
The garage is for storage, not the car. We are in a 2 bedroom flat and need to have it clear when we put it on the market next year.
I am aiming to spend £200 on food not £250 but thought it better to over estimate.

My partner will be doing his HGV licence in a months time which will cost us £750. He will then be changing his job and will probably have a drop in income for about 6 months. I plan to get an evening and weekend job (fingers crossed) to make up the difference.But I must admit Im finding the unknown a bit scarey. We have a teenage soon who will be in college and receiving EMA.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Kezz

Mrs_Sparkle

I'm not very good at advising on SOAs- other people on here are much more clued up, but just wanted to say welcome and well done for posting. It's natural that you're scared of the unknown but honestly, we all survive and you will find plenty of support on here.

**purpleprincess**

First of all, :hello: hullo and welcome to MSE!!!

You've taken the first step and we are a pretty friendly bunch!!!:D

kezz wrote:

Hi, Ive been lurking around for a while and have finally decided to post my soa. Here goes, This is the revised budget and not what we have been spending otherwise we wouldnt be over £3000 in debt, but I suppose that is pretty obvious

MORTGAGE £273.71
ELECTRIC £50
FLAT MAINTAINANCE AND REPAIRS £120
GARAGE RENT £40
CAR MAINTAINANCE £30
PETROL £50
CAR INSURANCE £28.77
COUNCIL TAX £86
WATER RATES £32
FOOD £250 3 ADULTS 1 CHILD This could be reduced, check out the Old Style board for ideas and possibly do a storecupboard challenge
TV/TELEPHONE/BROADBAND £95 This is a lot isn't it? Could this be cut down at all?
TV LICENCE £11
CLOTHES £20
SWIMMING £30
BIRTHDAYS £20
CHRISTMAS £20
HOLIDAY £50
INTEREST £30
FAMILY FUN £30 These all total £200, quite a lot, perhaps you need to take a look at what you're actually using this money for

TOTAL OUT £1266.48
INCOME £1569

There is a difference here of £302.52

OVERDRAFT £3200 9.9% £4950 LIMIT

Should I be piggybanking for birthdays etc or just throwing it at the debt?
The garage is for storage, not the car. We are in a 2 bedroom flat and need to have it clear when we put it on the market next year.
I am aiming to spend £200 on food not £250 but thought it better to over estimate.

My partner will be doing his HGV licence in a months time which will cost us £750. He will then be changing his job and will probably have a drop in income for about 6 months. I plan to get an evening and weekend job (fingers crossed) to make up the difference.But I must admit Im finding the unknown a bit scarey. We have a teenage soon who will be in college and receiving EMA.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Kezz

A good idea is to start a spending diary to see what you're spending your money on. You could clear your debt in 10 months or less by this. A lot less if you tweaked your outgoings a bit.

Just my tuppenny's worth!!:p

kwisstan

Hi, welcome to the board, I'm new myself, but on reading through other posts here's my thoughts!

kezz wrote:

MORTGAGE £273.71
ELECTRIC £50
FLAT MAINTAINANCE AND REPAIRS £120 I take it this is a set charge?
GARAGE RENT £40
CAR MAINTAINANCE £30
PETROL £50
CAR INSURANCE £28.77 When was the last time you shopped around? Quidco would get some cashback for changing
COUNCIL TAX £86
WATER RATES £32 are you on a meter?
FOOD £250 3 ADULTS 1 CHILD
TV/TELEPHONE/BROADBAND £95 This seems a lot, can you break it down across the three items?
CLOTHES £20
TV LICENCE £11
SWIMMING £30 what's this for?
BIRTHDAYS £20
CHRISTMAS £20
HOLIDAY £50
INTEREST £30
FAMILY FUN £30 Do you use Tesco? the clubcard deals could see this reduced.

TOTAL OUT £1266.48
INCOME £1569

OVERDRAFT £3200 9.9% £4950 LIMIT
Kezz

Does your husband have a job lined up? or is he going self employed? Do you have any Credit Cards, have you thought about transferring the debt to a 0%? That would save £30 per month. Do you have any relatives you could "borrow" a garage from or some storage space?

Welcome again and I'll let the experts pick over it now!

calleyw

Hello

I reckon you can get £50 off your food I feed two hungry adults (in my case read big fat piggy) for between £70-£100 a month.

TV/TELEPHONE/BROADBAND £95 :eek: I don't have a tv. But my phone and broadband cost me about £26 a month before call charges but I use someone else for that as they charge less. I reckon you can get this down to about £35-£40 a month so massive saving there.

You should have just over £300 a month left do you. If not then you need to know where it is going. Start a spending diary.

All the best.


Yours


Calley

kezz

Thanks everyone. Those little bits here and there all mount up dont they. We used to be on £800 more than this last year so god only knows where that all went.


I will write down everything we spend in the next month to see where it all goes.
The TV/TELEPHONE/INTERNET THING is actually
Telephone line rental £12.50
TV package £17.50 I will cancel when years contract is up.
broadband £17.99
That actually comes to £47.99
Calls usually come to around £40, I could reduce this by not using the phone.:o

My partner does not have a job lined up at the moment and will probably have to temp for a while to gain experience. We have no other option really as his job is looking extremely dodgy and he really has to get out now.

calleyw

kezz wrote:

Calls usually come to around £40, I could reduce this by not using the phone.:o

My partner does not have a job lined up at the moment and will probably have to temp for a while to gain experience. We have no other option really as his job is looking extremely dodgy and he really has to get out now.

Who are you calling to rack those sort of call charges. That is nearly £500 a year just to talk to people.

Use someone else for your calls I use 1899 they charge cable users 3p connection charge and then 0.5p a min. Cost me about £2 month in calls using them. I only use my own provider for things like 0845 numbers.


Yours


Calley

kezz

calleyw wrote:

Hello

I reckon you can get £50 off your food I feed two hungry adults (in my case read big fat piggy) for between £70-£100 a month.

TV/TELEPHONE/BROADBAND £95 :eek: I don't have a tv. But my phone and broadband cost me about £26 a month before call charges but I use someone else for that as they charge less. I reckon you can get this down to about £35-£40 a month so massive saving there.

You should have just over £300 a month left do you. If not then you need to know where it is going. Start a spending diary.

All the best.


Yours


Calley

Thanks. My soa shows what I will be spending from now on, not what I have been spending, but the diary is a great Idea as It looks like we have a lot of spare money when in reality we cant have or we wouldnt be in this mess.

calleyw

kezz wrote:

Thanks. My soa shows what I will be spending from now on, not what I have been spending, but the diary is a great Idea as It looks like we have a lot of spare money when in reality we cant have or we wouldnt be in this mess.

If you can treat the overdraft like a loan where you have to make regular payments of say a £100 a month. I did this when I had a overdraft and it worked better than going I will it off next month or the month after.


Your still need to keep a spending diary as you need to see what you are acutally spending. Don't forget it will take a while to tweak and get it right. You just need to keep chipping away at the edges to save money.

For food help pop over to the moneysaving old style they have plenty of hints and tips to help save you money.


All the best you will get here in the end I promise.


Yours


Calley

kezz

Thanks Calley, I will start the diary tomorrow. I will also treat the overdraft as a loan as you suggest and make a regular payment of £100 plus. I want to get debt free as soon as possible, but more importantly I dont want it to increase if we do have a drop in income.
Thanks again
Kezz

calleyw

kezz wrote:

Thanks Calley, I will start the diary tomorrow. I will also treat the overdraft as a loan as you suggest and make a regular payment of £100 plus. I want to get debt free as soon as possible, but more importantly I dont want it to increase if we do have a drop in income.
Thanks again
Kezz

Good luck.

We have a daily thread of what did you spend today. It helps you see you are not the only one spending money


Yours


Calley