Bit of Guidance

HeadAbove_2

Hi all, first post for me today, just looking for a bit of guidance really.

Below is my (our) SOA; on the face of it all looks relatively rosy with amount outstanding for repayments, etc. but as you will see there are a number of arrears that are not currently being tackled. Essentially these were built up by my partner in her old house before we bought a place together earlier this year and I have only recently become aware of the extent of them :eek:!!

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................ 1317
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1000
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2317
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 408.7
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 252.67000000000002
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 111
Electricity............................. 35
Gas..................................... 50
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 14
Mobile phone............................ 95
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 61
Internet Services....................... 8
Groceries etc. ......................... 135
Clothing................................ 15
Petrol/diesel........................... 85
Road tax................................ 19
Car Insurance........................... 134
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 7
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 8
Buildings insurance..................... 10
Contents insurance...................... 9
Life assurance ......................... 62
Other insurance......................... 25
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 17
Entertainment........................... 40
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1644.37

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 110000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 9000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 119000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 86244....(408.7)....4.79
Secured Debt.................. 1110.....(33.67)....0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 7473.....(219)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 94827.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Welcome Finance................2513.24...65........0
Lowell Finance.................89.97.....0.........0
United Utilities Arr...........355.48....0.........0
Overdraft Cahoot...............450.......50........11.8
Overdraft Natwest .............1000......0.........19.89
Council Tax Arr................1425......0.........0
Npower Arr.....................582.86....0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........6416.55...115.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,317
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,644.37
Available for debt repayments........... 672.63
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 115
Amount left after debt repayments....... 557.63
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 119,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -94,827
Total Unsecured debt.................... -6,416.55
Net Assets.............................. 17,756.45

Whilst our debts are nowhere near as bad as some I've read on here it is still causing me some concern.

Nothing is for water rates as I'm in the process of sorting with them to lump the arrears in with our monthly repayments, was £30.

You will note that many of the APR's for what (were) my partners debt are missing as I simply do not know them; she had a habit of ignoring the majority of her mail and I suppose I should have wondered why sooner; thankfully all is opened now and we are looking at tackling the arrears together.

Any comments would be appreciated (and yes, I know a main feature is going to be to cut Sky down ).

Thanks,

Watalie

Can't comment too much - there are much better people on here who wll advise you more than I can!

Only thing I noticed was Mobile Phone £95 :eek: :eek: Can you get that down a bit too?

KingElvis

Your sat tv and mobile bills are horendous, I would snip, chop and slash those little puppies without hesitation.

And is your car insurance really £134 a month? what do you drive?

Loads of saving you could make until those debts are history.

Good luck.

HeadAbove_2

Ah, well like I said it is a joint SOA, my car insurance is around £44pm, partners more like £90, nothing to do with having particularly nice cars, just she only passed her test two years ago and is building up no claims.

The mobile phones are excessive, I pay £35 standard, she pays £45, rounded up to £40 & £55 respectively on SOA in case of having to call 'paid' numbers as we have recently (long story, Sky made a right mess of moving our phone line to our new property :mad:)

Thanks for your notes though...any suggestions on which way to tackle the o/s debts, maybe hitting the smaller ones first and then attempting the larger ones step at a time?!

Watalie

Have you looked at the snowball calculator?

It works it all out for you - I'm not exactly sure where the link to it is - can someone please post a link for HeadAbove please?

missworks2jobs

HeadAbove wrote: »

Monthly Income Details

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 408.7 any chance of having a payment break/going interest only when due to renew etc.
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 252.67000000000002
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Electricity............................. 35
Gas..................................... 50 can you get a dual fuel discount by changing supplier - try Uswitch? could you get your bills down by seeing if you can get any free insulation/energy saving lightbulbs etc?
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 14 if you have mobiles do you really NEED a landline (we got rid our ours - it stopped the credit card companies and junk phone calls)
Mobile phone............................ 95 EEKKKK. Pay as you go or lower contract.
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 61 that's steep can you cut out some of the packages (i.e. movies only when you're on holiday/xmas, or sport only during the season).
Internet Services....................... 8
Groceries etc. ......................... 135 try the thrifty board on good old fashioned moneysaving to find some bargains and trim a little bit off this
Clothing................................ 15
Petrol/diesel........................... 85 would it be cheaper to ditch the car and get a travel pass? or even walk/cycle even if just for 2 days a week - could you car share to save the petrol?
Road tax................................ 19
Car Insurance........................... 134
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 7
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 8
Buildings insurance..................... 10
Contents insurance...................... 9
Life assurance ......................... 62 personally i'd get rid of this, its technically a "just in case" saving....which if you're looking at tightening your belt.....really needs to go?
Other insurance......................... 25 do you REALLY NEED this? What is it for?
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20 (can you cut this down - home-made presents or chip in for group ones)
Haircuts................................ 17
Entertainment........................... 40 can you trim this down any - have people over for dinner parties/football matches/movie nights instead of going out?
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1644.37

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 110000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 9000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 119000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 86244....(408.7)....4.79
Secured Debt.................. 1110.....(33.67)....0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 7473.....(219)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 94827.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Welcome Finance................2513.24...65........0
Lowell Finance.................89.97.....0.........0
United Utilities Arr...........355.48....0.........0
Overdraft Cahoot...............450.......50........11.8 woah! aim at getting rid of this first that's high and its quite small so easier to tackle.
Overdraft Natwest .............1000......0.........19.89 - woah! aim at getting rid of this first that's high.
Council Tax Arr................1425......0.........0
Npower Arr.....................582.86....0.........0 oh dear - make sure you take regular readings, you can usually email them with current readings to keep your bills upto date so they dont fall so far out. Can you change to monthly billed and everytime you get a bill email or phone them with a current reading.
Total unsecured debts..........6416.55...115.......-

podperson

As mentioned above mobile phone and sky are pretty high, reduce if you can. Also life insurance seems quite high, if there's not a specific reason for that then look at shopping around. Other then that is pretty good. Seems to be showing over £500 left over a month, if you don't actually see this then could be worth keeping a spending diary to see where it is going - is really surprising how little things here and there can add up.
Regarding what order to tackle them in, most people would advise looking at the ones with the highest interest rate first. Am assuming the arrears for the utilities and council will not be charging anything so would pay minimum amounts on those and look at bringing down the high interest overdrafts. You have put 0% interest for Welcome Finance - is this because you don't know the amount? as they generally charge a horrendous rate of interest!!

talana

Amount left after debt repayments....... 557.63

This is the figure I always look at first.
So where's that £557 per month going? You need to find out.
That alone put towards the debts would clear them in no time.

HeadAbove_2

missworks2jobs wrote: »

HeadAbove wrote: »

Monthly Income Details

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 408.7 any chance of having a payment break/going interest only when due to renew etc. - going to be a while, only took mortgage out in May 2010
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 252.67000000000002
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Electricity............................. 35
Gas..................................... 50 can you get a dual fuel discount by changing supplier - try Uswitch? could you get your bills down by seeing if you can get any free insulation/energy saving lightbulbs etc? - was paying less in old property, these are fixed amounts to British Gas so am in credit for now but I'm sure this credit will be wiped come winter, will see and review. Actually have a very energy efficient property, low B on EPC so can't complain too much
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 14 if you have mobiles do you really NEED a landline (we got rid our ours - it stopped the credit card companies and junk phone calls) - landline is Sky related, was under the impression you needed it, but I suppose that would only be for interactive services now you've mentioned it.....
Mobile phone............................ 95 EEKKKK. Pay as you go or lower contract. - agree entirely, soon to follow
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 61 that's steep can you cut out some of the packages (i.e. movies only when you're on holiday/xmas, or sport only during the season). - we did that last year with the movies (and still have them) but plan to go back to that mentality
Internet Services....................... 8
Groceries etc. ......................... 135 try the thrifty board on good old fashioned moneysaving to find some bargains and trim a little bit off this - we actually do well with shopping, we've managed to reduce to 135 with cleaning products and pet food included by doing meal planners and shopping online at mysupermarket (god I love MSE) - saves us buying tat as we wander around
Clothing................................ 15
Petrol/diesel........................... 85 would it be cheaper to ditch the car and get a travel pass? or even walk/cycle even if just for 2 days a week - could you car share to save the petrol? - I keep thinking this. However, we both work about 6 miles away from home, and both in the EXACT opposite direction (part of the reason for the location of where we bought actually, cringe). I start at 8 & she at 8:30.
Road tax................................ 19
Car Insurance........................... 134
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 7
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 8
Buildings insurance..................... 10
Contents insurance...................... 9
Life assurance ......................... 62 personally i'd get rid of this, its technically a "just in case" saving....which if you're looking at tightening your belt.....really needs to go? - This was all actually attached with the mortgage, foolishly I didn't do the shopping around myself and let our mortgage advisor do it; have since looked around and could cut back significantly. This is all changing when we return from our jollies
Other insurance......................... 25 do you REALLY NEED this? What is it for? - This is all CI cover sold at the time of the mortgage, do you think I could look to drop this altogether??
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20 (can you cut this down - home-made presents or chip in for group ones) - this is an over-estimate, in reality I would say it's more like 10-15 including all close family and each other, no other presents are sent
Haircuts................................ 17
Entertainment........................... 40 can you trim this down any - have people over for dinner parties/football matches/movie nights instead of going out? - again an over-estimate, can be trimmed back though
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1644.37

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 110000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 9000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 119000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 86244....(408.7)....4.79
Secured Debt.................. 1110.....(33.67)....0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 7473.....(219)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 94827.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Welcome Finance................2513.24...65........0
Lowell Finance.................89.97.....0.........0
United Utilities Arr...........355.48....0.........0
Overdraft Cahoot...............450.......50........11.8 woah! aim at getting rid of this first that's high and its quite small so easier to tackle.
Overdraft Natwest .............1000......0.........19.89 - woah! aim at getting rid of this first that's high.
Council Tax Arr................1425......0.........0
Npower Arr.....................582.86....0.........0 oh dear - make sure you take regular readings, you can usually email them with current readings to keep your bills upto date so they dont fall so far out. Can you change to monthly billed and everytime you get a bill email or phone them with a current reading. - Now with BG, this was an arrears my partner had built up in her old property as part of her 'head-burying' exercise :rotfl:. I manage the BG payments and reading properly, bill is quarterly but I submit a reading every month to ensure we don't get a sting this size again :eek:
Total unsecured debts..........6416.55...115.......-

Thanks for your tips, all very much appreciated

HeadAbove_2

podperson wrote: »

As mentioned above mobile phone and sky are pretty high, reduce if you can. Also life insurance seems quite high, if there's not a specific reason for that then look at shopping around. Other then that is pretty good. Seems to be showing over £500 left over a month, if you don't actually see this then could be worth keeping a spending diary to see where it is going - is really surprising how little things here and there can add up.
Regarding what order to tackle them in, most people would advise looking at the ones with the highest interest rate first. Am assuming the arrears for the utilities and council will not be charging anything so would pay minimum amounts on those and look at bringing down the high interest overdrafts. You have put 0% interest for Welcome Finance - is this because you don't know the amount? as they generally charge a horrendous rate of interest!!

Exactly that, as I mentioned in the opener I have no idea as to the rates of interest on a couple of the debts, I have only recently been told about them so I assume paperwork with interest info will be along at some stage!

KingElvis

As said above, if you have a 0% from Welcome you must be doing well I think you must have left the 7 out LOL

In our house, we both have decent Blackberry contracts and we pay around 45 - 50 per month so you could deffo do something about that without losing the luxury of a contract.

Yep, I can see the car insurance would be high with no claims. May be cheaper for you to insure both cars and then name her as a driver until those nasty debts have gone.

All the best

Elvis