After for some advice on what best to do

ste_coxy

Hi guys, I am going to post my SOA in a moment and was after some advice on what best to do as my tenancy is up next month and I am unsure or not whether to just move home to my parents' home and commute to work by train rather than working 2 jobs.

Ideally I don't want to have to move back home however, I do think financially it is the better option as I know I can get things paid off quick and have more disposable income to myself, I am just unsure what to do for the best as I do not want to have to commute if I really don't have to.

My monthly income after tax is £1250 but I am in the process of getting a 2nd job and based on 16 hours on the minimum wage that should bring in another £350 a month, which is the figure below.

Anyone any thoughts on what I should do? I've spoke to my housemate but she hasn't taken it very well that I want to move home as it will leave her with having to find someone new within 4 weeks - all of our friends are already in contracts so could not move in and she is not keen to move a stranger in, plus she couldn't afford to move in somewhere on her own as she'd need 4 months to get the funds together.

I would ideally like to go to university at some point before I am 30 (I am 23 at the moment) but financially it is not possible at the moment - I am going to do an Access Course at some point to help me.

I am not too keen to go down the road of anything that involves leaving a marker on my credit file as I already have a default notice against the Egg Loan which is why I am paying no interest on there. Ideally, I would be keen to pay everything off rather than opt for the likes of an IVA.

Any tips/thoughts/advice would be much appreciated.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1600
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1600
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 350
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 55
Electricity............................. 20
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 17.53
Telephone (land line)................... 12.5
Mobile phone............................ 40
TV Licence.............................. 6.09
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 50
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 40
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 60
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 83.12
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Subscription for bank account........... 13
Extra for joint account................. 20
Pension................................. 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 927.24

Assets
Cash.................................... 250
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 750

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Coop Loan......................7646.08...294.......9.9
Egg Loan.......................6690.08...127.3.....0
Natwest........................2000......20........17.81
M&S &More......................876.58....22........18.9
HSBC...........................1000......10........19.9
Total unsecured debts..........18212.74..473.3.....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,600
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 927.24
Available for debt repayments........... 672.76
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 473.3
Amount left after debt repayments....... 199.46
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -18,212.74
Net Assets.............................. -18,212.74
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

Tixy

It looks at the moment if you are managing not too badly (once you have the second income). If you can use all of that £200 surplus to go towards your debts.

Would you parents charge you any rent/board? What would your train fare be? can you use this to do a virtual SoA if you moved home to see how it would compare?

If you then did a snowball calculator for both options you might be able to think whether to you it would be worth putting up with living with the folks to get debt free by however many months/years quicker.

With regards to your housemate - whilst nobody wants to intentionally leave someone in the lurch I think you do have to be selfish and make up your mind based only on what you feel is best for you.

Can I just ask is there a reason your medical is so high? If its prescriptions can you get a prepay certificate. If its things like contact lenses have you checked online to see you are getting a good deal?

bottleofred

Hi,

If moving home is going to save a lot of money, you could consider it. However, you could also consider trying to find somewhere cheaper to live if you don't want to move home, but then it'll obviously take a lot longer to pay off everything. From looking at you SOA, medical/prescriptions etc and entertainment are quite high. You could definately half the entertainment.

ste_coxy

Tixy wrote: »

It looks at the moment if you are managing not too badly (once you have the second income). If you can use all of that £200 surplus to go towards your debts.

Would you parents charge you any rent/board? What would your train fare be? can you use this to do a virtual SoA if you moved home to see how it would compare?

If you then did a snowball calculator for both options you might be able to think whether to you it would be worth putting up with living with the folks to get debt free by however many months/years quicker.

With regards to your housemate - whilst nobody wants to intentionally leave someone in the lurch I think you do have to be selfish and make up your mind based only on what you feel is best for you.

Can I just ask is there a reason your medical is so high? If its prescriptions can you get a prepay certificate. If its things like contact lenses have you checked online to see you are getting a good deal?

Thank you for your quick response.

I would probably offer them £100 a month for board and a train pass would be £135 according to national rail website. I think I will try another SOA with these figures and this should give me a good idea then what to do.

the medical thing is my interest free payment for having laser eye surgery done. that will be paid in August 2011.

1666hby

Hi and welcome.
£50 on groceries and £40 on the mobile? First may not be accurate and mobile cost needs to drop - try payg or negotiating down if still in contract.
You need to budget for car maintenance.
£100 on entertainment - try and cut this down a bit. Time spent on second job may help.
Bank account subscription - set up a new bank account with no fees or frills. Do it via Quidco.com and get cashback. First Direct is offering £100 for new accounts, if you earn enough for them.
Debts - you need to pay the minimum on everything but throw everything you can at the debt with the highest interest. Or you could target M&S as second highest but smaller balance.
Do you really have £200 left over each month? Start a spending diary and write everything down - every sandwich, drink, coffee, magazine etc and find out where it goes.
What did you spend all the loans on? Sell anything you no longer use on eBay or gumtree - or carboot.
If I was 23 I'd rather stay independent and moneysave my way out of debt than go home to mum and dad.
Well done on getting the second job.

ste_coxy

bottleofred wrote: »

Hi,

If moving home is going to save a lot of money, you could consider it. However, you could also consider trying to find somewhere cheaper to live if you don't want to move home, but then it'll obviously take a lot longer to pay off everything. From looking at you SOA, medical/prescriptions etc and entertainment are quite high. You could definately half the entertainment.

I do not think we could find somewhere that much cheaper to live in all honesty unless we were to move out of the city centre but then it would mean having to pay public transport to get to work. I currently live and work in the city centre of Manchester, where there is not that much difference in the rental market. Someone said maybe asking to see if the landlord was prepared to reduce the rent if we sign another agreement, which might be worth asking?

I do agree about the entertainment - I was giving myself £100 for 2 nights out so I could reduce this to one night out a month.

The medical costs are for my laser eye surgery which is a fixed payment until August 2011 so I cannot adjust that.

ste_coxy

1666hby wrote: »

Hi and welcome.
£50 on groceries and £40 on the mobile? First may not be accurate and mobile cost needs to drop - try payg or negotiating down if still in contract.
You need to budget for car maintenance.
£100 on entertainment - try and cut this down a bit. Time spent on second job may help.
Bank account subscription - set up a new bank account with no fees or frills. Do it via Quidco.com and get cashback. First Direct is offering £100 for new accounts, if you earn enough for them.
Debts - you need to pay the minimum on everything but throw everything you can at the debt with the highest interest. Or you could target M&S as second highest but smaller balance.
Do you really have £200 left over each month? Start a spending diary and write everything down - every sandwich, drink, coffee, magazine etc and find out where it goes.
What did you spend all the loans on? Sell anything you no longer use on eBay or gumtree - or carboot.
If I was 23 I'd rather stay independent and moneysave my way out of debt than go home to mum and dad.
Well done on getting the second job.

thank you for replying.

the groceries me and my housemate do one big shop a month and both spend about £40 each and then the other £10 is for toiletries.

My contract is up and so, this is something I am due to sort out. Gonna cancel it tomorrow in fact ;-)

My dad is a bit of a handyman so car maintenance is something he and his mate who has a garage always sort for me, which is defo a god send.

I pay a subscription as it has insurance for my phone, Ipod and also break down recovery too - i have previously applied for a different current account with first direct but I think due to the state of my finances and because of the default i have this is not possible.

As for the debts, thanks for that advice - I have looked at the snowball calculator and it makes it clear on there which ones to pay off first.

I have not started a 2nd job as of yet and so I am not too sure if I will definitely have £200 spare until that happens.

The loans I have were paying off previous credit cards and the overdrafts that I have - ended up consolidating twice which put me further into debt so I do not really have anything to show for them.

I'm in the same way of thinking too however, I do know that it would be much quicker to be pay things off moving home, which will allow me to save more money too for things like holidays/travelling, uni, deposit for house etc.