New - SOA

choccieswirl

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 4
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 870
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1408
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 745
Total monthly income.................... 3023
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 965
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 160
Electricity............................. 87
Gas..................................... 73
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 34.5
Telephone (land line)................... 35
Mobile phone............................ 5
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 20
Internet Services....................... 15.99
Groceries etc. ......................... 480
Clothing................................ 40
Petrol/diesel........................... 65
Road tax................................ 18.33
Car Insurance........................... 17.79
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 15
Car parking............................. 4
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 272
Other child related expenses............ 78.6
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 24.06
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 73.08
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50 - see note A
Haircuts................................ 10.75 - see note A
Entertainment........................... 15 - see note A
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
Pension................................. 44
Total monthly expenses.................. 2615.22

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 250000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 253500

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 142000...(965)......2.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 142000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan from family ..............1400......40........0
Next...........................356.33....33.54.....25.99
Capital One....................4985.81...150.......17.04 - see note B
Overdraft......................2100......0.........0 - see note A
Catalogue......................159.52....23.48.....0
Tesco..........................2850......30........0 - see note B
Lloyds TSB.....................3200......40........3 - see note B
Lloyds TSB.....................845.36....42........15.9 - see note B
Total unsecured debts..........15897.02..359.02....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,023
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,615.22
Available for debt repayments........... 407.78
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 359.02
Amount left after debt repayments....... 48.76
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 253,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -142,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -15,897.02
Net Assets.............................. 95,602.98

Note A - have not been doing this as have been clearing the OD instead
Note B - have just reduced or increased balance with utilising lower interest rate offers so unsure of minimum repayments yet.

I keep looking on here and thinking, I really must to this .... so now I have, Ok hit me with it and thank you in advance!

Hannah_10

So far so good. I tend to drop very big axes on SOAs which show people are living above thier means as that's a desperate situation which needs fixing urgently. You however aren't in total hot water as the SOA is showing that you are meeting the payments and you have a bit left. Do you see a suplus at all? If not then you need to do a spending diary. In fact a spending diary is never a bad plan.

Providing you are holding even, or seeing a slight suplus then you're going the right way about it, using whatever money you can keep back to pay off your debts. I would assume the Next card has the highest interest rates, so usually that would be the one we would say clear first, but actually the overdraft could well be in the 20's too and if it is you may well have current account fees on top of that so it could well be that this is top priority. If you are paying for a current account stop and open a free basic account instead. (After the O/D is clear of course.)

Paying off the minimums on everything then overpaying the highest interest rate until it's gone and then onto the next highest interest rate is called snowballing. There is a snowball calculator tool which can help you maximise this (and can be very motivational too). http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx

Others will be along to help you shave a bit more out of the budgets where you can, however, for now, be pleased with yourself, you have taken on your debts without them coming to crisis stage first. That is a very good thing.

choccieswirl

Thank you so much for your reply - phew!! Spending Diary sounds like a good idea so I'm going do this as it does seem like things are better on paper than they are realistically sometimes! I'm trying to get the O/D down as quick as possible at the moment as the charges can be quite high. The bank did waiver last months as a 'good will' gesture, I nearly fell over, I only went in to activate the CC to make a transfer! Because we have been able to cover CC payments this month by transferring to 0% cards I'm using the payments to pay a chunk of the OD.
Thanks again CS x

HappyMJ

If it's all getting too tight you may want to consider asking the bank for a payment holiday on the mortgage or switch to interest only for a year until all the high interest debt is repaid. Then go back to a repayment mortgage.

happytails

choccieswirl wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 4
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 870
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1408
Benefits................................ 0 - Nothing here with 4 kids?
Other income............................ 745
Total monthly income.................... 3023
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 965
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 160 can you change this to over 12m rather than 10 months?
Electricity............................. 87 too high
Gas..................................... 73 too high
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 34.5
Telephone (land line)................... 35 very high
Mobile phone............................ 5
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 20 needs to go!
Internet Services....................... 15.99 quite high - could you get a phone, internet and maybe tv package would be cheaper than all these separates.
Groceries etc. ......................... 480 can be cut - see old style board for tips
Clothing................................ 40 - can this be reduced, seems very high
Petrol/diesel........................... 65
Road tax................................ 18.33
Car Insurance........................... 17.79
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 15
Car parking............................. 4
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 272 - do you get anything put to from the government to help with this, you should do.
Other child related expenses............ 78.6 - what is this for?
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 24.06 - high - shop around.
Contents insurance...................... 0 - you should really have something here.
Life assurance ......................... 73.08 - very high - does one or both of you have a critical illness to cause such high monthly payments?
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50 - see note A i see you arent using this ATM but it could be lower when you do
Haircuts................................ 10.75 - see note A - as above
Entertainment........................... 15 - see note A
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
Pension................................. 44
Total monthly expenses.................. 2615.22

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 250000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 3500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 253500

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 142000...(965)......2.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 142000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan from family ..............1400......40........0
Next...........................356.33....33.54.....25.99
Capital One....................4985.81...150.......17.04 - see note B
Overdraft......................2100......0.........0 - see note A
Catalogue......................159.52....23.48.....0
Tesco..........................2850......30........0 - see note B
Lloyds TSB.....................3200......40........3 - see note B
Lloyds TSB.....................845.36....42........15.9 - see note B
Total unsecured debts..........15897.02..359.02....-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,023
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,615.22
Available for debt repayments........... 407.78
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 359.02
Amount left after debt repayments....... 48.76
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 253,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -142,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -15,897.02
Net Assets.............................. 95,602.98

Note A - have not been doing this as have been clearing the OD instead
Note B - have just reduced or increased balance with utilising lower interest rate offers so unsure of minimum repayments yet.

I keep looking on here and thinking, I really must to this .... so now I have, Ok hit me with it and thank you in advance!

added my thoughts. Out of interest, how old are the kids? Are any of them old enough to get a part time job? If they are babies/toddlers in nappies do you use reusables - they really are fab

Sarah x

wynnvegas

I'd agree with happytails except on the sky! With 4 kids, council telly isn't going to cut it and £20p/m isn't that big a deal in the grand scheme of things. The landline does seem very high. We get Skytalk which is £14p/m with unlimited free landline calls so there's bound to be something better. The groceries are probably the biggest to cut down - nearly £500 is way over the odds and I would guess it should be able to be knocked down about £150 with buy1get1free offers and such or shopping around. Have you or your husband looked at childcare vouchers for the nursery costs? Taking a couple of months off the mortgage (if allowed) and ploughing the money into the high interest debts seems a decent idea as well.

Best of luck,

Billy

cobblers_boy

In no way consider myself an expert. However I also have 4 children and our 3 utility bills for Gas, Electric and Water come in at about £140 / month. On that basis you may be able to reduce the 3 by around £30 - £40 by shopping around. Utilise the cmparison sites then swap via a Cashback site if there is something worth chaning to as that would generate around £50 cashback as well.

Also on the basis of looking after the pennies I would have thought that there was a cheaper Internet option. I have just swapped to O2 with 3 months free and £50 cashback making it a net £58 for the year.

All the best.

CB:)

MrOrchard

Well done for posting!

Your biggest saving is potentially the food budget, that's an extortionate amount to spend, even for 6! You should be able to comfortably do it for £300 a month. Don't spend where it's not needed - no-one will notice if you buy value chopped tomatoes, baked beans etc. Buy a chest freezer (we got one for £30 on gumtree) and fill it with reduced meat.

There's so much you can do there!

Following that your electricity and gas is VERY high, do you turn things off at the socket when not in use? Is the heating/hot water on all the time?

HappyMJ

For fear of being attacked I think £480 per month £18.50 per person per week is actually OK. I imagine it also includes household products as well. Cleaning products, soaps, paper and so on... My DD can tell the difference with beans. However, branded beans when on special cost less than value beans. But then on the other hand we are talking about 10p saving. How do you cut a shopping budget from £18.50 per person per week down to £11.50 per person per week without sacrificing too much. I'd love to know because even after following some of the tips on OS board I can't see a family being happy on that amount....

MrOrchard

It's possible if it needs to happen. £18:50 per week isn't huge, but it is unnecessaryily large, especially if you have financial troubles. Try not showing DD the tins.

This has useful tips: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2669521

choccieswirl

Thank you all for your replies. Lots of things for me to look at. To answer some queries:

Benefits................................ 0 - Nothing here with 4 kids? - we get CTC and Child Benefit but i put it under other income. This will go down when baby turns 1.
Council Tax - will enquire about this, good idea!
Electricity............................. 87 too high absolutely agree and need to make a real effort to do something. We don't switch everything off when not in use so will do this from now. Thank you for that.
Gas..................................... 73 too high
Telephone (land line)................... 35 very high i get free anytime calls, line rental and tariff is £16 so the rest is mobile call at around £15-20 a month. Its nearly all to the same number as well so will advise that i'll be using free texts from now on! It's not until to scrutinise things you see the patterns emerging! I'll also see if theres anything cheaper out there.
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 20 needs to go! What I have considered is a freeview box? Not very techie but think if we got one of these I wouldn't need Sky? We only have the basic package + discovery for kids.
Internet Services....................... 15.99 quite high - could you get a phone, internet and maybe tv package would be cheaper than all these separates. Will look at with the phone.
Groceries & Clothing - I would love to reduce this, to be honest shopping & clothing is kind of combined as things I pick up are normally from the supermarket. Shopping is normally £120 pw instore but £100 max online. So i've allowed the other £20 on the SOA but would probably not be this. We already use loads of value brands, Also using cloth nappies so I think I need to look at our meal plans and maybe look at cheaper meals. If things are on offer I buy and freeze them. I think I should make the shopping a challenge!

Childcare/nursery....................... 272 - do you get anything put to from the government to help with this, you should do.
Yes i;m sure I will, have recently returned to work after ML and am just waiting for confirmation of new hours before phoning the Tax Credits. Although with change in earnings and then help for childcare i'm imagining the income with be swings and roundabouts!
Other child related expenses............ 78.6 - what is this for? This is everything the older ones do, guides, cubs, sports, gym music lessons (will not keep this up after this term), not all do everything, one sport thing and one guide/cub thing a week each. Guiding/Cubs is £6 pw alone!
Buildings insurance..................... 24.06 - high - shop around.
Contents insurance...................... 0 - you should really have something here. Sorry, should have said this in Buildings & Contents combined.
Life assurance ......................... 73.08 - very high - does one or both of you have a critical illness to cause such high monthly payments? thankfully no, this isn't just one life assurance, it is 4 policies sorry should have said. Mortgage cover, life assurance, redundancy cover and sickness/accident cover.
Haircuts -£10.75 this is for the whole family 3x per year.

So .... from your very helpful input i will set myself a shopping challenge, look into switching the utilities, also look into savings on the life covers. I will also have a chat with childcare about using vouchers, my employer does do them.

Thank you so much for all of your time is having a look at the SOA for me. Off now for some serious googling!
CS x