my SOA (joint income/joint outgoings)

moremoneythansense

Hi - not sure how I'm meant to play this but I'll just waffle and I've attached my SOA....

I want to get my finances in order I am sick of the amount of debt I have. However, we do have savings which I know you will all say use in full to pay off the debt!

However, this is my safety net when my husband who is older than me retires so that I can maybe drop my hours down so that we have more time to spend together (he brought the capital to our relationship 10 years ago and clear my debt then but we have continued to spend - mainly on 0% cards but then not pay it off and even do the dreaded 'spending on a balance transfer card... aarrgghh!!'.

The Xmas and Hols figures are actually a £250 month overpayment we make on our mortgage but invariably I have recently ended up transferring back more than I am overpaying to top the current account back up owing to the deficit!!

Ideally, I'd like to maybe clear half our £13,500 credit card debts outright and then maybe shifting the rest of the debt in chunks onto 0% and clear. I have finally stopped spending on them (used to use them like debit cards) but haven't used one for well over a month!!!)

Any general advice or encouragement would be useful - and don't all shout the bleedin obvious at me - haha - I know-I know but at least I've now stopped spending!
I would have liked to get a loan so cleared in 3 or 4 years but realised could just repay savings in that time maybe... which would of course be interest free.
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,297.64
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) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.79
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.50
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.37
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443.27
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53.89
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.42
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.17
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.50
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326.85
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.58
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.50
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.25
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47.23
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.67
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.33
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.83
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91.25
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,297.64

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,333.18

Treacle1983

mobile phones and satelite/digital tv jump out at me as the obvious and easiest ones to cut back on.

i'm sure the experts will be here shortly.

slummymummyof3

Meals at work and coffees, sandwiches and snacks and then on top of that eating out (equates to £171.25 per month)

Pet food seems very expensive - what is it you are feeding?

Beauty treatments!

Just these few things add up to over £230 per month

Tixy

Hi

I'll put some comments on your costs, if they are obvious sorry. if they are in areas you don't want to reduce then thats fair enough - hopefully some will be of use though!

moremoneythansense wrote: »

Hi - not sure how I'm meant to play this but I'll just waffle and I've attached my SOA....

I want to get my finances in order I am sick of the amount of debt I have. However, we do have savings which I know you will all say use in full to pay off the debt!

However, this is my safety net when my husband who is older than me retires so that I can maybe drop my hours down so that we have more time to spend together (he brought the capital to our relationship 10 years ago and clear my debt then but we have continued to spend - mainly on 0% cards but then not pay it off and even do the dreaded 'spending on a balance transfer card... aarrgghh!!'. Yikes!! At least you know now!

The Xmas and Hols figures are actually a £250 month overpayment we make on our mortgage but invariably I have recently ended up transferring back more than I am overpaying to top the current account back up owing to the deficit!!

Ideally, I'd like to maybe clear half our £13,500 credit card debts outright and then maybe shifting the rest of the debt in chunks onto 0% and clear. I have finally stopped spending on them (used to use them like debit cards) but haven't used one for well over a month!!!) How much do you currently have in savings? Well done for finally stopping spending on them

Any general advice or encouragement would be useful - and don't all shout the bleedin obvious at me - haha - I know-I know but at least I've now stopped spending!
I would have liked to get a loan so cleared in 3 or 4 years but realised could just repay savings in that time maybe... which would of course be interest free.
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,297.64
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) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.79 Erm - this might be one of the obvious ones to you but wow this really is very high. How many phones is this for? can you switch to make serious reduction to this.
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.50
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.37
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443.27 is this the standard amount (not the overpayments?) what is the balance & APR?
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53.89 have you shopped around for this recently? may be able to get a bit cheaper.
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325.00 how many people for? £80 per person should be easily do-able, although many manage on less
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.42
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.17
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.50
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33 see if you can get cheaper cover
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326.85 so is this the minimums? what is the overall balance and the aprs? how much is on 0%?
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.58 consider stopping this and diverting to debts as you already have savings. (I know its tax-efficent but some of the interest rates paid are a pittance)
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.50
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.25
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47.23 do you use all the channels you pay for?
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.67

Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 look out for offers on the weekly email for buy one get one free type deals.
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 nothing ever?
Education & Courses
Big One Offs
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167.00 so you overpay each month and then borrow back the money for the holiday? how many holidays does the £2k buy? could you go on less holidays or a cheaper one for a couple of years whilst you tackle your debts?
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.33 seems high to me (but each to their own on this I think, depends on how quickly you want to pay off your debts)
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.83
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91.25 can you reduce, take a packed lunch at least some days
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,297.64

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,333.18

Well you need to cut back by at least a few pounds so that you balance each month. Especially now you have stopped spending on cards. Without knowing the balances and how soon you expect your hours and earnings to drop its difficult to know how much you need to cut back to make real inroads into your debts. -

Good luck with it all though

moremoneythansense

Thanks girls - I take your points....

Sky TV is Sky but includes sky sports (not sky movies or kids programmes - can't get hubby to give up sky sports!!) I AM, however, working on OH reducing the amount he spends on his iphone! Don't think mine is too bad at £20pm but OH has been a bit ridiculous a couple of months - I THINK it is MEANT to be £45 pm!!

Only feeding a cat - that cost is just 2 boxes of cat pouches per week.

Yeah - the meals at work and extra coffees etc is actually £2 each for lunch with an extra £2 on a Friday for a hot butty (I know that can be cut out)

The eating out is more going to the chippy 2 or 3 times a month (lazy when comes to cooking after working all day and studying all night (and now spending time on money saving forums!! LOL) and maybe one meal out as a treat!!
Thanks for taking trouble to reply - all food for thought. :-)

moremoneythansense

Hey Tixy - really - thanks for that - too late to tackle tonight but please come back - I will respond to most of those points but really, really is past my bedtime.
Spaghetti hoops on toast for lunch tomorrow!!
Thanks to each of you........ :-)))

katsu

Breakdown cover can go as low as £37pa if you go for Autoaid - look at Martin's motoring tab for options. We've saved loads from buying Autoaid cover - if you have CC's and a fairly reliable car then Autoaid is great (it works on the basis you pay the roadside patrol - or they send an invoice - and then you fill out a claim form and get repaid).

How much do you have in savings? Could you not use 100% but maybe a chunk of it to clear the debts - it doesn't have to be all or nothing.

moremoneythansense

I want to get my finances in order I am sick of the amount of debt I have. However, we do have savings which I know you will all say use in full to pay off the debt!

However, this is my safety net when my husband who is older than me retires so that I can maybe drop my hours down so that we have more time to spend together (he brought the capital to our relationship 10 years ago and clear my debt then but we have continued to spend - mainly on 0% cards but then not pay it off and even do the dreaded 'spending on a balance transfer card... aarrgghh!!'. Yikes!! At least you know now!

The Xmas and Hols figures are actually a £250 month overpayment we make on our mortgage but invariably I have recently ended up transferring back more than I am overpaying to top the current account back up owing to the deficit!!

Ideally, I'd like to maybe clear half our £13,500 credit card debts outright and then maybe shifting the rest of the debt in chunks onto 0% and clear. I have finally stopped spending on them (used to use them like debit cards) but haven't used one for well over a month!!!) How much do you currently have in savings? Well done for finally stopping spending on them About 12K

Any general advice or encouragement would be useful - and don't all shout the bleedin obvious at me - haha - I know-I know but at least I've now stopped spending!
I would have liked to get a loan so cleared in 3 or 4 years but realised could just repay savings in that time maybe... which would of course be interest free.
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,297.64
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) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.79 Erm - this might be one of the obvious ones to you but wow this really is very high. How many phones is this for? can you switch to make serious reduction to this. Addressed today - insisted hubby check out why his last months iphone payment was £82!!!! He found out he had exceeded his text allowance and was charged 40p per text and he had been on hold to an 0800 number for almost an hour trying to get football tickets - at 50p pm!!! He will not do it again! He has also changed his tarrif from £40 pm to £35 pm including increasing his number of texts so - our first saving!! yippee!
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.50
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.37
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443.27 is this the standard amount (not the overpayments?) what is the balance & APR? Yes, this is normal payment. Only moved 2 years ago and only started very late on a repayment mortgage (was on a endownment/ISA previously) balance is 78K and rate is only .5% above base rate - flexible mortgage. VERY poor place to currently have our savings offset against I know!!!
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53.89 have you shopped around for this recently? may be able to get a bit cheaper. I did shop around - it's mainly critical illness cover (bit of a worrier) for both of us so that the mortgage is paid off.
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325.00 how many people for? £80 per person should be easily do-able, although many manage on less. only 2 - I am very disorganised - I have NEVER been a routine person, I know I really SHOULD create a menu and only buy what we need for that menu plan but instead I browse the isles and do far too much shopping at marks and spencers. I know I spend less when I shop online but don't always have time (plus pay for delivery) I also know I should shop at Aldi for now. :-)
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.42
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.17
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.50
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33 see if you can get cheaper cover. Is cover as good with a lesser known company? Hubby likes the fact that he has been with RAC for 20 years!!! He's a creature of habit.....
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326.85 so is this the minimums? what is the overall balance and the aprs? how much is on 0%?. Yes this is the minimums and from memory (will put actual on signature hopefully later tonight) the APS are 18.9 and 19.9 and one just states 1.43% per month but don't know how to convert it to APR. None on 0% just yet as in the past I have transferred large amounts onto 0% but then still just paid minimum payment. This time I want to just move say 1200 to 0% and pay off at £100 per month - then move some more and do same again.
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.58 consider stopping this and diverting to debts as you already have savings. (I know its tax-efficent but some of the interest rates paid are a pittance) This is actually my old ISA mortgage payment which I have kept on as a savings plan as it is still on target and is due to pay out over £30K in about 15 years - it also has connected life insurance for me.
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.50
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.25
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47.23 do you use all the channels you pay for? Yes - we don't have sky movies etc. the cost includes internet.
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.67

Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 look out for offers on the weekly email for buy one get one free type deals. Yes - thanks - I have used that a couple of times if I've gone out to nearby city as all in a row are usually on offer - Living Room/La Tasca/Slug & Lettuce
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 nothing ever? Well pointed out but actually I have more than enough clothes and I used to put any clothes purchases on the credit cards - so for now I will only buy the bare minimum.
Education & Courses
Big One Offs
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167.00 so you overpay each month and then borrow back the money for the holiday? how many holidays does the £2k buy? could you go on less holidays or a cheaper one for a couple of years whilst you tackle your debts? Yes, that was the principle as for the time it was against the mortgage it was reducing the interest and reducing the years - however, as I already mentioned - with interest rates as they are this is not best place for the savings. Yes, we have had too many large splurge holidays over the last 5 years (cruises, Las Vegas and Aus for hubby big birthday) so they are now on hold - a few weekends in Cities in UK this year with maybe a week away in the Sun in September. Plan for next splurge hol is in 2 years for my big birthday.
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.33 seems high to me (but each to their own on this I think, depends on how quickly you want to pay off your debts) Every year we say we'll spend less but get carried away as only us 2 and buy things we've seen throughout the year rather than buying DVDs/books/CDs/electronics throughout the year. Will definitely cut down if only for this year while we get straight.
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.83
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91.25 can you reduce, take a packed lunch at least some days Yes, mentioned before this is £2 each per day - not sure taking own lunch works out at that much less - but I had spaghetti hoops and bread for lunch today.....!! Hubby takes his own more than me but he's got a bit lax with it too lately - so will whip us both back into shape.
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,297.64

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,333.18

ANY more advice is gratefully received - it is all food for thought and I am finding was to cut back. Will use the demotivator tool to show hubby how much just our lunches amount to in a year.

Whilst I have all this debt I am not in arrears and don't have any CCJs or anything - I would like to do this as painlessly as possible but I am committed. Someone asked about when I will be reducing my hours but the story is my husband will retire in 8 years - which is when I hope to have paid the mortgage so that the mortgage ending and hubby's drop in salary/income will in effect balance each other out and we won't actually feel worse off. At that point I would like to reduce my hours and so would like some money in a pot somewhere.

Thanks to anyone who cares to comment.

moremoneythansense

no-one on line tonight? oh well, I'll make some inroads in tomorrow.
not sure how you keep conversations going - not sure where to go from here - as so many posts/so quickly - this drops down the board very quickly and therefore no new people see that it has even ever been posted... (sorry, does that make any sense?)
Night all............zzzzzz

zarazara

moremoneythansense wrote: »

Hi - not sure how I'm meant to play this but I'll just waffle and I've attached my SOA....

I want to get my finances in order I am sick of the amount of debt I have. However, we do have savings which I know you will all say use in full to pay off the debt!

However, this is my safety net when my husband who is older than me retires so that I can maybe drop my hours down so that we have more time to spend together (he brought the capital to our relationship 10 years ago and clear my debt then but we have continued to spend - mainly on 0% cards but then not pay it off and even do the dreaded 'spending on a balance transfer card... aarrgghh!!'.

The Xmas and Hols figures are actually a £250 month overpayment we make on our mortgage but invariably I have recently ended up transferring back more than I am overpaying to top the current account back up owing to the deficit!!

Ideally, I'd like to maybe clear half our £13,500 credit card debts outright and then maybe shifting the rest of the debt in chunks onto 0% and clear. I have finally stopped spending on them (used to use them like debit cards) but haven't used one for well over a month!!!)

Any general advice or encouragement would be useful - and don't all shout the bleedin obvious at me - haha - I know-I know but at least I've now stopped spending!
I would have liked to get a loan so cleared in 3 or 4 years but realised could just repay savings in that time maybe... which would of course be interest free.
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,297.64
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) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.79eek! go pay as you go and use only for emergencies
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.50
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.37
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102.00-
overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443.27
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53.89--shop around for cheaper
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325.00---how many people?
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.42
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.17
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.50
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 326.85
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61.58--reduce and put some towards debt repayment
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.50---seems a lot
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.25
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47.23---unaffordable,has to go till debts paid off
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00--reduce
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.67--what is this?
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00---reduce to £20 or less
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00---try a student to get this cheaper
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00--what is this? seems extravegant
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167.00---cancel this
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.33--why? seems a lot, reduce to £10 a month and stop buying presents for people.
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.83---reduce by half
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91.25---EEK! take sandwiches, See OS tboard
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00---take a flask to work.

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,297.64

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,333.18

several areas here where money can be saved to put towards the debt. I reckon about £600 a month.

La_escocesa

Hi Moremoneythansense :wave:

You might find it helpful to go onto the Old Style Board for some advice about meal planning and batch cooking. That could help reduce your food bills.

I started a spending diary www.spendingdiary.com and I find it really helpful to find out where all the extra pennies are going!

Do you shop at tesco? We've started swapping clubcard points for restaurant vouchers and have reduced our eating out bills.

You could also start by selling some things and the money from that could be put towards either debt repayments or towards something else, like Christmas presents or haircuts/beauty products...

HTH xx