Newbie......

guinness79

Hi,

Right I am new to all of this so please forgive me if I post anything that doesnt make sense

I have spent considerable time reading other peoples posts and seeing all the fantastic replies people give so thought it was time I posted my story.....

I have never been great with money and twice as a student I got myself into trouble and my parents bailed me out.... u think I would have learnt :-)

Well here I am married with a little one and find myself back in debt again.... although this time it has nt just come from careless spending... a huge proportion has come from the loss of a job leaving me with a large loan against a car that is not worth anywhere near the value of the loan. For 2 years while out of work and on maternity (I lost my job when I was 3 months pregnant and then subsequently was not an attractive employee ... whilst I receive a chunk of redundancy this only saw to keep me going) I had to pop my loan onto a huge term to reduce my payments right down....

I am now back at work and have moved the loan back to where it should be and have another 3 years to go.... but we want baby number 2 and cant do this until my loan is paid off so on a mission to get it paid off asap

So.... here is my SOA... although I am married due to previous errors in my financial ways OH refuses to share finances with me ! (who can blame him!) so we split everything 50/50 (we earn the same wage all but) therefore my SOA relates only to my finances and half of all joint bills so please take that into consideration when viewing

Any comments/ views grately received.......

ps.... holiday savings are for a holiday in November.... this has been booked for a couple of years ... after this time this money will be free to make over payments on my loan

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2834
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2834
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 575
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 65
Electricity............................. 25
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 25
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 30
TV Licence.............................. 6
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 25
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 150
Clothing................................ 50
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 45
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 25
Childcare/nursery....................... 160
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 5
Contents insurance...................... 5
Life assurance ......................... 35
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 15
Entertainment........................... 150
Holiday................................. 500
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2166

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 95000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 7000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 102000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 86000....(575)......5.65
Total secured & HP debts...... 86000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Santander Loan.................12700.....436.......6.5
Lloyds TSB Visa................1000......20........0
JS Visa........................500.......15........0
Total unsecured debts..........14200.....471.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,834
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,166
Available for debt repayments........... 668
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 471
Amount left after debt repayments....... 197
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 102,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -86,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -14,200
Net Assets.............................. 1,800
Created using the SOA calculator at

talana

Amount left after debt repayments....... 197

Can you account for this missing £197 every month? Maybe a spending diary will reveal where it goes.

You clearly have expensive tastes in holidays!
Nothing wrong with that if you're not struggling unduly, which you don't seem to be right now. But come Nov, put that £500pm to clearing the 2 Visa debts asap.

£150pm for entertainment might be seen as a bit excessive. Savings can be had if you want them.

Not a lot else stands out as HUGELY wasteful, but there are always places to save. I think you need to find that £197 first though.

MrOrchard

Well done for posting, it certainly doesn't look "dire" but could be trimmed considerably, are you able to "overpay" the loan at all?

Assuming all figures should be doubled for the household then you can save a LOT of money here:

Electricity and Gas over £110 a month in total is 'off the scale' expensive, turn everything off standby and off at the plug and make sure your heating and hot water are only on when you need it.
£30 on a mobile phone is reasonable, if you can afford it, consider switching to PAYG for £10 a month to save a little more
£100 a month on Cab/Satellite/Phone and Internet is high, especially if it's not bundled with your internet subscription and landline. Try Freeview and a cheaper broadband provider (again, it's only cheap/good value if you can afford it)
£45 a month car insurance is £90 for both of you to pay, this is HUGE (especially as your car tax only indicates one small engined car), shop around!
You should cut the entertainments budget if you can.

Ultimately you indicate a surplus each month, so you should just use this to pay off the two credit cards, and explore tackling the loan, and if this doesn't work, see if you can overpay the mortgage to reduce the term or overall debt, especially once the holiday is paid for!

GOOD LUCK!

guinness79

.... Thanks for the rapid response!

I have today started a spending diary so I will keep track of where it is going (however I know full well.... its the odd pint in the pub.... takeaway etc)


The holiday is huge.... we are going to Disney World in Florida.... its our honeymoon (could nt afford the wedding and the honey moon at the same time !!)

But once thats done with 2011 holidays are going to be UK based!

isy1011

start a spending diary. write down everything you spend on clothes, hair, entertainment, presents, diy etc etc and just see if you are being realistic about what you are spending.

talana

I was forgetting I was only looking at your household expenses divided in half.
More scope for saving then than I made out before!

podperson

Hi guiness and welcome to the site

Could you possible mark the bills that you are only pay half of so we know? Little hard to tell when some seem reasonable but if you are only paying 50% are actually quite expensive - eg internet, sky, groceries. Could cut your entertainment down by at least £50, especially if it's just for you and OH pays for himself.
The good thing is that even before any cut backs you are showing a surplus. Are you actually seeing this though? If not need to start a spending diary to see where it is disappearing to - it's amazing how much the little things you don't think about can add up. Once you do have this money spare every month then could clear off the visa in a few months (are the cards actually 0% interest or are you just not sure on the rates?) and when you stop making the holiday payments will have a lot extra to throw at them

guinness79

wow.... so many responses already!

Gas and Electricity.... I have tried to swap suppliers but no one could save us any money :-(. I work from home most of the week so I am there pretty much all day so lights/ water / electric does add up. We do turn most things off... but will make a concerted effor to turn more off ....I know OH leaves his phone charger pluged in permanently

Groceries.... I am currently on a mission to cut down our grocery shopping and so far this month have only spent about £70 (this includes nappies etc for little one)

Sky... We have full package ... OH will not budge on this .... however I ave forgotten to account that we have this half price for 6 months so saving a bit there

Going to have a look at internet etc but as I work from home I have to have reliable internet and to date I ahve only found that to be BT


however have also just realised I have forgotten to include overdrafts

My current account is approx £500 OD and the 'Joint Bill account is aprox £800 OD so have those to tackle too

themull1

I pay more than that in gas and electric, i don'tm think its off the scale expensive, we went to disney world florida last year - it was fab!! hope you manage to clear those debts soon.!! I'm sure you will once you've paid for your holiday, then you will have all that extra money to throw at them.:j

guinness79

Thanks everyone for all the responses so far....

anyone else?

MFWannabe

guinness79 wrote: »

Hi,

Right I am new to all of this so please forgive me if I post anything that doesnt make sense

I have spent considerable time reading other peoples posts and seeing all the fantastic replies people give so thought it was time I posted my story.....

I have never been great with money and twice as a student I got myself into trouble and my parents bailed me out.... u think I would have learnt :-)

Well here I am married with a little one and find myself back in debt again.... although this time it has nt just come from careless spending... a huge proportion has come from the loss of a job leaving me with a large loan against a car that is not worth anywhere near the value of the loan. For 2 years while out of work and on maternity (I lost my job when I was 3 months pregnant and then subsequently was not an attractive employee ... whilst I receive a chunk of redundancy this only saw to keep me going) I had to pop my loan onto a huge term to reduce my payments right down....

I am now back at work and have moved the loan back to where it should be and have another 3 years to go.... but we want baby number 2 and cant do this until my loan is paid off so on a mission to get it paid off asap

So.... here is my SOA... although I am married due to previous errors in my financial ways OH refuses to share finances with me ! (who can blame him!) so we split everything 50/50 (we earn the same wage all but) therefore my SOA relates only to my finances and half of all joint bills so please take that into consideration when viewing

Any comments/ views grately received.......

ps.... holiday savings are for a holiday in November.... this has been booked for a couple of years ... after this time this money will be free to make over payments on my loan

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2834
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2834
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 575
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 65
Electricity............................. 25
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 25 - Is this really £50 per month then? that seems high; see if it would be cheaper to have a meter
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 30 - See if you could halve this or go pay as you go?
TV Licence.............................. 6
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 25
Internet Services....................... 10 - Maybe you could get this cheaper if you had it with your satellite package? also the phone line may be cheaper too if you have a combined package
Groceries etc. ......................... 150 - this could be possibly reduced by £50
Clothing................................ 50 - you could cut this to £20 at least until you've paid off debts
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 45 - this is high; check comparison sites to see if you can get cheaper
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 25 - What is this for?
Childcare/nursery....................... 160
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 5
Contents insurance...................... 5
Life assurance ......................... 35 - This is high; again check comparison sites
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 15
Entertainment........................... 150 - Cut this down by at least £50 so you can put this extra £50 towards debts
Holiday................................. 500 - As you've stated; once this holiday is paid for then you will have this amount to pay off debts; make sure you do pay all of it straight off debts otherwise it may 'vanish' in spends again every month
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2166

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 95000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 7000 - Perhaps you could consider selling and getting something cheaper if you definitely need a car? as you say you work from home most days. this could clear overdrafts, cards and pay a chunk off your loan
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 102000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 86000....(575)......5.65
Total secured & HP debts...... 86000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Santander Loan.................12700.....436.......6.5
Lloyds TSB Visa................1000......20........0
JS Visa........................500.......15........0
Total unsecured debts..........14200.....471.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,834
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,166
Available for debt repayments........... 668
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 471
Amount left after debt repayments....... 197
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 102,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -86,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -14,200
Net Assets.............................. 1,800
Created using the SOA calculator at

Hi
Welcome to the board; i've made some comments above. Are the credit cards really 0%? If not then find out what the APR's are and pay the highest one first.
With some cutbacks you could really make a big dent in those dents; as you say once you've paid for the holiday you will have £500 per month extra that you can pay off the debts