My SOA

Robbie_Duck

Hi,

Not sure if this is the correct place for this, I wont be offended if its moved!

Just after a bit of advice really.

Have just been put down to a 4 day week with associated 20% pay cut. Before this we were reasonably comfortable, now we need to tighten our belts a bit. I have a small amount of savings but i really dont want to break into these for every day living.

SOA below. Any advice on what i could be cutting/reducing.... I guess Sky would be the first :rotfl:

Hopefully 4 day weeks isnt a long term thing but a useful exercise none the less. I live with my girlfriend, and her wages will probably cover my individual shortfalls. Just want to make sure im doing everything i reasonaly can though so i have set up the SOA as if i was on my own.

Thanks for your help in advance!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet


Household InformationNumber of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned....................1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1286 (edit) + 100 from PT job.
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income....................1286
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage...............................258 (517 - 1/2 each)Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent....................................
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 60 (120 - 1/2 each)Electricity............................. 13 (26 total)Gas.....................................36.5 (73 total)
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates.............................14 (28.16 total)
Telephone (land line)................... 15 (30 total) + broadband - Virgin - cant get Sky BB where we live
Mobile phone............................30 (12 month left on contract)
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV......................36 sky
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 120
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 175
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance...........................24
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 7 (14 tot)
Contents insurance...................... 0 as above
Life assurance .........................13.52
Other insurance.........................7.5 critical illness
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)......20
Haircuts................................8
Entertainment...........................200
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency/savings investment fund.......................... 100
Total monthly expenses..................1104
Assets
Cash.................................... 500
House value (Gross).....................125,000, ( 95,000 mortgage)
Shares and bonds........................1500
Car(s).................................. 1500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 3500

No Secured nor Hire Purchase DebtsUnsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Overdraft …………………………300………..0……….0
Student Loan...................4200......150........1.5
Total unsecured debts..........4200.....150.......-

isy1011

Gosh cant read that at all.

Can you do one in this format

http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

Tixy

Hi and welcome

This is the right place. But you seemed to have missed the last few lines off the bottom of your statement of affairs. Can you edit the post and add these on?

Robbie_Duck wrote: »

Hi,

Not sure if this is the correct place for this, I wont be offended if its moved!

Just after a bit of advice really.

Have just been put down to a 4 day week with associated 20% pay cut. Before this we were reasonably comfortable, now we need to tighten our belts a bit. I have a small amount of savings but i really dont want to break into these for every day living.

SOA below. Any advice on what i could be cutting/reducing.... I guess Sky would be the first :rotfl:

Hopefully 4 day weeks isnt a long term thing but a useful exercise none the less. I live with my girlfriend, and her wages will probably cover my individual shortfalls. Just want to make sure im doing everything i reasonaly can though so i have set up the SOA as if i was on my own.

Thanks for your help in advance!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet


Household InformationNumber of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned....................1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1286 any chance of finding a second job or other ways of earning money of your extra day off?
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income....................1286
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage...............................258 (517 - 1/2 each)
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent....................................
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 60 (120 - 1/2 each)
Electricity............................. 13 (26 total)
Gas.....................................36.5 (73 total) this looks quite high, have you shopped around recently to see if you can get a cheaper supplier or looked for the best tariff (for gas & elec). If you have then can you try cutting your usage a little (wear warm jumpers and socks and turn it down a few degrees etc)
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates.............................14 (28.16 total)
Telephone (land line)................... 15 (30 total) + broadband - Virgin - cant get Sky BB where we live if not in contract you could look for slightly cheaper combined deal (think there are some around £22 at the moment)
Mobile phone............................30 (12 month left on contract)if you don't use all the mins you could try asking if they will let you drop down a tariff, though they may expect you to wait until you are only 6months from end of contract)
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV......................36 sky as you mentioned yourself, this could go, or could be reduced, or perhaps see if they will do you a good deal to keep you if you threaten to leave.
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 120
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 175 is this mostly commuting? could you lift share with anyone? do you drive efficently (ie slowly!)
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance...........................24
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 7 (14 tot)
Contents insurance...................... 0 as above
Life assurance .........................13.52 check comparison sites to ensure a good deal
Other insurance.........................7.5 critical illness and for this
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)......20
Haircuts................................8
Entertainment...........................200 This may need to be reduced a bit whilst you are on short hours.
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency/savings investment fund.......................... 100 have you got anything saved from this already? could you reduce what you are putting in for a while until work picks up?
Total monthly expenses..................1104
Assets
Cash.................................... 500
House value (Gross).....................125,000, ( 95,000 mortgage)
Shares and bonds........................1500
Car(s).................................. 1500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 3500

No Secured nor Hire Purchase DebtsUnsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Overdraft …………………………300………..0……….0
Student Loan...................4200......150........1.5
Total unsecured debts..........4200.....150.......-

If that is all your debts shown it looks like you are just about managing each month. Is your overdraft actually 0%? if not then remember to put the interest cost/or fees into your budget.

There are a few areas you could reduce things a bit, but on the whole not too bad I would say.

Barricade

£200 a month entertainment?!?
Theres £200 of savings a month already!
£36 a month on Sky is guessing including movies. I'd quite happily settle for a nice home cooked meal and a movie instead of going out!

£120 a month for groceries? Is that just yourself, or is this shared between you and your girlfriend? Me and my missus manage on £110 a month.
Your water rates appear quite expensive aswell.

tasha-debt

I think your SOA looks pretty good. I would concentratre on trying to reduce the following:

- Gas
- Electric (look if its cheaper to combine them)
- Try and knock the groceries down to £100 a month if you can (you could do some batch cooking on your day off etc).

I think you could save about £40 a month here.

I will probaly get shot for saying this but as you have no debt I dont think £200 a month is bad for entertainment...........

I think you could try and use the day off and aim to make as much extra cash as you can, have a good sort out and ebay/carboot things etc. Set yourself a challenge to say make £25 a week extra.

dancingfairy

Hi - a couple of thoughts from me - see if you can get better deals on gas/electric - have a look at Martin's article on them - check a comparison website and if you do switch then use a cashback website such as Quidco for an extra few quid -
Food - is not too bad, especially if it's half - could be reduced a bit if things get really tough for you.e
Clothing - it might help to budget for a nominal amount here
Mobile - you could see if you could lower the package - you might save 5/10 a month
Entertainment and Savings - whilst not exactly extravagent these areas would probably be the ones to cut if things get difficult.
Oh and I agree with the other poster who said can you post the whole of your SOA as the bottom bit calculates the difference between what you have spare to pay off your debts and how much the minimums are costing you - ie whether you should be able to make the min. repayments or not.
Car boots/ebay can be useful to free up a bit of cash - especially for things you no longer need/use - oh and I've found the computer Exchange useful as well - CEX - they will give you cash for computer bits and bobs, dvd's and mobiles - anything they can sell really.
df

Robbie_Duck

Thanks to everyone who has replied so quickly!

I have just remembered that I have taken a part time job on my day off! Only 4hrs a week but gives me an extra £100 a month that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I will add that on.

Isy, hopefully that reads a bit better now, I edited it straight after I had posted it, so you must have been quick!!

Tixy, thanks for your advice. I agree about the gas and elec. Its something we have been thinking about for a while. However we have fallen foul of the ‘estimate reading’ and our payments have gone up to cover a past shortfall. Is it still possible to switch in this position?

Petrol is nearly all commuting. Unfortunately the guy who I used to lift share with has changed jobs. Very selfish! I have recently down graded my car though to something a little more economically.

I put £100 (min amount) into a Investment fund every month. (I find it much easier to save in there then a savings account because I cant easily get at it!) I will investigate if I can stop the payments in without closing the scheme.

Barricade, I didn’t think that was too bad, although I agree that it’s an area that isn’t vital. I will cut down! I have the Sky Sports package. I kid myself that it’s cheaper to have that than go up the pub for every game!

The food shop is interesting. The £120 I put on there is my spend only! We both put that onto our own Clubcard + accounts every month and spend £50-£60 a week. Embarrasingly that is a big reduction on what we were spending too. You have put me to shame. Clearly cuts need to be made there then!

Re water rate – Can you swap? I thought I was stuck with whatever they wanted to charge me!

Tasha, thanks for the reply. To be honest, this is more of a check up for me. I could probably just about sustain my current spend if I really wanted to, but the reduced money is a good excuse for a finance review and hopefully a chance to pick up some good habbits!

Fiddlestick

Robbie_Duck wrote: »

To be honest, this is more of a check up for me. I could probably just about sustain my current spend if I really wanted to, but the reduced money is a good excuse for a finance review and hopefully a chance to pick up some good habbits!

That's exactly how I started as well

I find it's really helpful to have all your spending laid out in black and white

foxgloves

The entertainment & Sky is perfectly OK if you can sustain it, but if you're thinking about stopping your savings plan, then maybe halving your entertainment budget would allow you to keep this going. Plenty of good stuff to do that doesn't cost anything. Re groceries, we usually spend 250 a month for groceries which includes cat food, cleaning/household stuff, etc, but if we have an expensive month (i.e at the moment we've got a big bill that's shortly coming due plus a car service, tax & MOT) we can do it on 100. If you make a habit of meal planning & batch cooking to stock up the freezer, then every so often, you can live on a lot less to free up some extra cash to go elsewhere. The old-style forum is great for tips on cheaper living.

themull1

why havent you put your girlfriends wages on?