Soa

boblardo

Can someone please review our SOA please

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1866
Partners monthly income after tax....... 770
Benefits................................ 179
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2815

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 210.7
Rent.................................... 480
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 111
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 60
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 11
Mobile phone............................ 25
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 25
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 400
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 85
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 150
Other child related expenses............ 21
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 112.5
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 15
Emergency fund.......................... 20
Total monthly expenses.................. 2028.2


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 5000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 5000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 8750.....(210.7)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 8750......-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
DLC............................38063.....142.5.....0
Northern Rock..................25563.....249.4.....0
Wonga..........................868.22....255.7.....0
Vanquis........................250.......15........0
Wonga..........................371.2.....123.2.....0
Total unsecured debts..........65115.42..785.8.....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,815
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,028.2
Available for debt repayments........... 786.8
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 785.8
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 5,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -8,750
Total Unsecured debt.................... -65,115.42
Net Assets.............................. -68,865.42

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

tallyhoh

The 1st thing that stands out to me is the £112.5 insurance, what is this for? The budget for clothes & groceries could both be trimmed, have a look at the OS boards for ideas.

boblardo

Hi TallyHo, the £112.50 is for the gap/warranty payments on our car. it is a fixed term for 12 months

Sorry for being thick but what do you mean by "OS boards"?

MellyB_2

It's the 'Old Style Money Saving' board - it's in the Home and Play section and is very useful for people wanting to cut down on the money they spend on groceries etc.....

Debtfreein2011

Hi

Well done for posting!

OS is Old Style boards - they have hundreds of good tips for getting your food bills down. If you look in the other forums you will see them - ideas for cheap family meals and ways to use leftovers etc - cheap cleaning products too.

Is your council tax spread over 12 months? If not, you need to do this.

Gas and electric are high - I have just switched to a lower tarriff via a comparison sight and will receive cashback too. You definitely need to look into this. (And make sure you turn off all lights/appliances when not in use etc - its surprising how getting savvy with this really can help you).

Get out of mobile contract ASAP and either move to a cheaper one or go to PAYG.

Cancel Sattelite TV.

The groceries bill can be cut down a lot if you try hard - refer to old style boards as already advised. Also - BBC Good food website has lots of ideas and goodtoknow website too. Stews and casseeroles mean you can use cheaper cuts of meat, jacket potatoes are always a cheap meal idea.

£50 a month seems high to me for clothing. I appreciate you have children (how old are they?) so this cannot be eliminated completely but suggest ebay or supermarket shopping for kids and cutting out all new adult clothes until you're more sorted financially.

Car insurance at 85????? What car do you have? This seems ridiculously high to me. Also, you could consider selling your car and getting a cheaper runaround.

You need to keep a spending diary and keep track of everything you spend to see where the money is actually going as I suspect there is a lot more going out than listed above.

Are the debts really all 0%?

HTH

boblardo

Thanks

I have a strange request, are there any guidelines about the maximum limits for an SOA?

boblardo

Thanks for the posts

Some replies,

I think council tax is already over 12 months, we pay by direct debit in installments

GAS & Electric - we are on a key meter for both of these in a flat with no double glazing. Believe me this is actual figures. we don't have it on during the day but it gets really cold at night. Last winter we were spending £100 per month on gas as it was so cold

Our children are 3 & 5, granted it maybe high but i have also put dry cleaning in here as I need to wear suits to work. maybe i will seperate this. this also covers shoes and boy do their feet grow fast

We have a 05 Vauxhall Astra, it is on finance. I get a car allowance from work which pays for the car but as part of the finance agreement it is has to be fully comprehensive insurance with my wife as named driver. £85 is incorrect though it should only be £65 over 10 months.

We both already have payg mobiles, we could probably reduce this a little.

Satellite TV is on the lowest package, sorry i don't see how cancelling this will help. i get a combined package of tv, telephone and internet for £47 per month. Surely we are allowed some entertainment as we can't afford to go out

We are determined to pay our debts off, by the end of this year we would have reduced our creditors from 11 to just 2 so are making a conscious effort. One of the creditors DLC are being difficult and I want to send them a SOA that is realistic and affordable. i have been paying them £142.50 per month for 18 months now and can appreciate they want more, but i will give them more when i can afford to

The debts are not all 0% but I don't have the figures available. the 2 wonga's are agreed full and final figures so they are definately not adding interest, Northern Rock is an unsecured loan as part of the old together mortgage we had and DLC is a defaulted loan from HSBC. I don't have a figure for the car finance but it is definately not 0%

thanks for the help so far

HappyMJ

boblardo wrote: »

Thanks

I have a strange request, are there any guidelines about the maximum limits for an SOA?

There are guidelines maximum limits for an SOA on the CCCS website and especially for people considering BR.

For example one of the limits is £60 for all telephone services combined and that includes the tv and internet subscription charges. You have £71 so it would be reduced to £60.

The emergency fund wouldn't be allowed as you haven't listed what it's to be spent on. Apart from the fact you haven't listed it as an asset. If it's for potential motoring repairs then apply the £20 to the car maintenance section. If you don't spend it then it can be spent elsewhere.

On a BR SOA you are allowed to budget for a 1 week modest UK based holiday per year so you can put a bit more for that as I don't think you could get a family of 4 away for a week for £180.

Also, on a SOA for BR Entertainment isn't allowed as a seperate expense it needs to be put under the Groceries if it's a night out at a pub/restaurant or Child Expenses if it's a child activity depending on what it is exactly.

Sunnylooloo

Do you not pay anything for Water?

boblardo

Water rates are included in our rent payments

We are not looking at going BR, as I said we have already paid off 7 creditors and have agreed full and finals with another 2. 1 will be paid end of this month the other over a 3 month period

We will be left with 2 creditors one Northern Rock who we are currently paying the required payment of £249.40, although we do have some small arrears.

DLC are the other and they are giving me grief so we want a modest SOA to provide to them so we can pay them a fair amount too.

We want to repay our debts and CAN afford to meet our monthly commitments DLC just want blood! From January we feel we could commit to paying £500 per month to them and still have a little left over for the odd luxury

talana

Emergency fund.......................... 20

But no cash assets?
I'd be throwing the lot at Vanquis and/or Wonga in your situation. The £20 above, plus the £15 you have against holidays and any other savings you can make.
Once Vanquis/Wonga are cleared, you'll have £400 odd more disposable every month, and then you can easily start budgeting for non-essentials again.
But the pain has to come before the gain!