My new SOA

tbourner

Here's an updated statement for you all to rip apart!!
This is an update to the old thread, replies below were from a previous incarnation.

I've been doing a spending diary, I'm useless at writing everything down, but I'm pretty sure I've got 99% of the things we buy on there. We get receipts for everything and I input it all into a spreadsheet that I've got saved.



Before you read, I've got some notes underneath that explain some of it.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1671
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1130
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2801

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 661
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 110
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 93.33
Electricity............................. 108 --see (A)
Gas..................................... 0 --see (A)
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 24.42
Telephone (land line)................... 17
Mobile phone............................ 90 --see (B)
TV Licence.............................. 12.13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 22
Internet Services....................... 18
Groceries etc. ......................... 190
Clothing................................ 15 --see (C)
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 27.5 --see (D)
Car Insurance........................... 90 --see (D)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 65 --see (D)
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 40
Buildings insurance..................... 13.93
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 25.4
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 35
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 25 --see (E)
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Takeaways............................... 15 --see (E)
Fags and Alcohol........................ 55 --see (E)
Entertainment 2 - pet events/toys etc... 50
Pet Food................................ 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 1952.71


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 130000
Shares and bonds........................ 500
Car(s).................................. 3000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 133500


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 114000...(661)......5.99
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 4390.....(110)......11.7
Total secured & HP debts...... 118390....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Nat West Loan..................10353.....267.......6.9
LloydsTSB Loan.................6540......206.......11.5
Northern Rock Loan.............29000.....170.......5.99
Overdraft......................2800......20........12.3
Lloyds CC......................654.......14........15.9
Barclaycard....................2150......52........14.9
GE Money Loan..................2000......50........26.5
Total unsecured debts..........53497.....779.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,801
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,952.71
Available for debt repayments........... 848.29
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 779
Amount left after debt repayments....... 69.29

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 133,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -118,390
Total Unsecured debt.................... -53,497
Net Assets.............................. -38,387



(A) Lecky and gas are all in one at £108, I know that's a lot but because of this and this we now can't switch until we've paid them off. Hopefully it'll go down in 2 months though.

(B) Mobiles we fell into the trap of wanting the latest phones again, so we're on 24 month contracts. 9 months in. It's being reduced soon, and I think you can take £5 per month off after every few months so we'll do that, then go cheap after 18 months!

(C) This is actually £30 on the diary but it reduces each month, we bought some new stuff before Christmas last year including running shoes and walking boots (I've been having trouble with plantar fasciitis so had to spend a bit), plus we had a wedding to best man at, average over last 6 months was £10.

(D) Tax should reduce to £19, insurance to £45 and maintenance to £60 when we sell one of our cars and start walking/cycling! A saving of £59 a month

(E) We've got a meal planner now, entertainment is one meal out each month, which is usually £20 ish. Takeaways I've reduced as we now allow one a month of those as well. We spend about £15 on alcohol each month, usually going to friends house (where they cook for us ) but for the fags the wife has just given up - her incentive is that her fag money goes in a pot to spend on DVDs etc. (reducing the entertainment). I can't take that off yet cos I don't want her to start again, but eventually that £40 will reduce to nothing or maybe £5-£10.







Our biggest spend is pets, we bought a scooter to run our (northern breed) dog on, which came to around £250!! We usually only spend about £20 every couple of months on toys (summer) and weekends away (winter), but the average on the spending diary is as shown (which is A LOT!). We're obsessed with our dogs though and we do stuff with them instead of planning holidays and things.


Anyway, enough with the excuses, how we doing?

OrkneyStar

tbourner wrote: »

Here's my latest statement for you all to rip apart!!

I've been doing a spending diary, I'm useless at writing everything down, but I'm pretty sure I've got 99% of the things we buy on there. We get receipts for everything and I input it all into a spreadsheet that I've got saved. But we sometimes forget when we go and get a sausage and chips on the beach or something, that's like £3 that's missing - like I say I don't think I've missed that much though.



Before you read, I've got some notes underneath that explain some of it.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1671
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1130
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2801

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 661
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 110
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 92
Electricity............................. 108 very high, even for electricity only!
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35
Telephone (land line)................... 17
Mobile phone............................ 85 very high, I see your points, reduce as soon as you can!
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 22
Internet Services....................... 18
Groceries etc. ......................... 185 could reduce more for only 2 of you!
Clothing................................ 35 buy nothing for a while, ebay any stuff you don't use and use those funds for anything essential
Petrol/diesel........................... 90
Road tax................................ 27
Car Insurance........................... 90
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 26
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 28
Buildings insurance..................... 33
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 53
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 30
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 40 see below- combined is high!
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Takeaways............................... 30 this should be included in food or entertainment.
Cigs and Alcohol........................ 60 alcohol should be in food or entertainment....cigs- try to reduce or do roll ups!
Pet Entertainment....................... 50 ???? As far as I am aware this is not an acceptable category and would have to be absorbed elsewhere!
Pet Food................................ 25
Total monthly expenses.................. 1962


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 130000
Shares and bonds........................ 500
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 134500


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 114000...(661)......5.99
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 4300.....(110)......11.7
Total secured & HP debts...... 118300....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
NatWest Loan...................10770.....267.......6.9
LloydsTSB Loan.................7000......206.......11.5
Northern Rock Loan.............29000.....170.......5.99
Zoe overdraft..................50........2.........19.24
Trev overdraft.................2900......20........12.3
Lloyds Card....................640.......14........15.9
Barclaycard....................2250......52........14.9
GE Money loan..................2010......50........26.5
Total unsecured debts..........54620.....781.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,801
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,962
Available for debt repayments........... 839
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 781
Amount left after debt repayments....... 58

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 134,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -118,300
Total Unsecured debt.................... -54,620
Net Assets.............................. -38,420



Lecky and gas are all in one at £108, I know that's a lot but because of this and this we now can't switch until we've paid them off. Hopefully it'll go down in 4 months though.

Mobiles we fell into the trap of wanting the latest phones again, so we're on 24 month contracts. 9 months in. It's being reduced soon, and I think you can take £5 per month off after every few months so we'll do that, then go cheap after 18 months!

Clothing is an average over the last 10 months, including me buying some new running shoes in November (£95) and a suit for a wedding (£80), so it's actually more like £25 a month.

Same with pet entertainment, we bought a scooter to run our (northern breed) dog on, which came to around £250!! We usually only spend about £20 every couple of months on toys (summer) and weekends away (winter).


Anyway, enough with the excuses, how we doing?

Comments in pink.
All the best.

tbourner

I keep meaning to get on eBay! There's a few bits I could sell. I just hate it, and I hate having to work out p&p costs, and I hate packaging stuff, and I hate going to the post office! I need some motivation!!!

The entertainment is high, but it include buying a Nintendo Wii for £100 last month, which was actually paid for by my father in law, so it wasn't our money, I put it in anyway cos it's on my spending diary. Maybe I should take it out. The rest is the odd trip to Harvester or somewhere, maybe once every 6 weeks.

I'm trying to persuade the wife to give up smoking and drinking, she's going to start with a fag-pot that she puts any money in when she doesn't buy cigs. Then we'll use the money for entertainment stuff to save on that side.

As I said for pet entertainment; it includes a large purchase over 6 months ago. Our dogs are everything to us, our source of entertainment is fostering and going to rallies, so we're not going to cut down on buying them toys (we do save though, getting a bag of old toys from freegle for example, you have to be careful with non-dog toys though cos they can do themselves damage). Anyone know of any cheap ways to get dog toys?

HappyMJ

At least it's honest. It's one of the more honest SOA's i've seen. You know what needs reducing and the notes above from Orkney should help. I'd like to cut down on "Entertainment" but life is for living. There's no point sitting at home watching TV or playing Nintendo Wii all year. As long as you are meeting all the minimum repayments then you should be fine. Dog toys can be made for free from what I would call rubbish. Be creative. I note that your insurance allowances seem to me to be quite high have you compared at every renewal to get the best deal? The GE Money loan is quite a killer interest rate. Is there any way to refinance that elsewhere. It should be much lower than that.

OrkneyStar

I agree your SoA is honest, my pointers were really just some suggestions- while I said food is high you could maybe absorb some of your pet costs in there ? Not sure whether you are reaching min payments or are you wanting creditors to reduce payments for you ? It also depends on whether you are prepared to sacrifice more to pay more, or be a little kinder to yourself and pay it over a longer time. As long as you are not adding to the debt though...you want it to be shrinking, not growing lol .

Perhaps you should base it more on what you anticipate will be spending in the coming year (as opposed to last year as maybe some large expenses skew it?).

As for dog toys, not sure what kind of dog and what they like, but try: 1. charity shops for old teddies they can cuddle/rip into pieces as they choose!, 2. 99p shops often have pet toys. 3. as Happy suggests what about googling how to make toys..I found this, but I am sure there is more!

Stick at it, make it a challenge, and every little step will help.

NorthernLas

I think you are doing really well with the spending diary. You now look like you know exactly where things go. Because it is a small surplus I would keep going if you can.

If you hate ebay, would you consider a car boot? It gets it over in a day without any trips to the post office.

When you buy things or look for insurance do you use cash back sites like TopCashBack or Quidco. I have recently swapped gas and electric and will get £100 cashback in a couple of months. I also have £7 for using search engines and surveys - OK it takes time while watching TV, but it adds up. If you pay it immediately to the debt, you don't miss what you didn't have!

tbourner

The GE loan is from Safestyle for doors and windows, we really needed them doing and the finance offered was the best option at the time. We can pay twice that figure and it reduces the term from 120 months to 30 months!! Not sure at what APR but obviously a lot less interest overall. I am currently paying double that as well, so maybe that's where that extra £58 is going!

I think I'll ask on here tomorrow if I get a min at work, for ways to save and do things cheap with dog toys, entertainment and cooking - old style forum I guess is the place for that. The wife doesn't help though, I'd be able to live on nothing if I was single, but then I guess most people could say that and as MJ said; life is for living (I'm not thinking about getting divorced to save on my monthly spending BTW ).

pure_dead_dopey

hi
try the pound shops for dogie toys and treats and biscuits. B&E (B& something) sells a big bag of treats for £3.99, weighs 1.5kg, lasts our big choccy lab 3/4 weeks, aslo good for cheap toys. All of these shops do some sort of doggy toys/treats. Combine both, buy little hide shoes, keeps out lab happy for nearly an hour and they come in packs of 8 for £1.

good luck, it isn't easy, but you're doing well

NorthernLas

I'm confused, if you are paying more on the loan (reducing the time to pay is great) are you leaving yourself short for things that happen annually, like car insurance/tax etc.? No need to answer, just if your SOA is accurate where is the extra money coming from?

tbourner

NorthernLas wrote: »

I'm confused, if you are paying more on the loan (reducing the time to pay is great) are you leaving yourself short for things that happen annually, like car insurance/tax etc.? No need to answer, just if your SOA is accurate where is the extra money coming from?

No, we have a 2nd joint account for all things like insurance, we pay enough into it to cover it all (hopefully) including that amount each month that I've put on the SOA - even for MOTs etc. that happen anually.
The 1st joint account is for our shopping, £435 a month for all shopping and fuel.
Anything left goes onto debts. The SOA shows £58 left after debt repayments.

Mini_Bear

Could you try to up your income - take on 2nd jobs etc? I know its a bit harsh but as you dont have kids you and your partner could both do it for a year and clear a big chunk off the car finance?
Working two jobs also stops you spending cash on the evenings and weekds you wrk too!!