I'm posting my SOA - OUCH!!

mad-max_4

I've been lurking here for a week or two and you have all inspired me to take a long hard look at our family finances!

Our SOA is as follows:

OH salary - £1850 - (soon to be increased to around £2040 pm)

My income - £755

Child benefit and tax credit - £162

TOTAL INCOME - £2767

Mortgage and home Ins - £1072!
Food - £200
mobiles - £30
Gas - £30
Electric - £30
Water - £30
Landline - £20
Broadband - £16.50
NTL TV package - £47.50
Pet Insurance - £11.25
TV Licence - £10.99
Council Tax - £110
Petrol - £100
Life Ins - £44.01

We owe a total of £21,816.77 - broken down as follows:

Loan 1 - Co-op Bank - £195.61 pm Total outstanding £3374

Loan 2 - Beneficial Bank - £113.00 pm Total outstanding £3730

C/C 1 - £193.00 pm minimum payment Total outstanding £5700

C/C 2 - £170.00 pm minimum payment Total outstanding £6500

Arrears on electric account - £90.00 pm for 6 months

An Overdraft of £1200 which at the moment we are paying a token amount of £25 towards pm.

And finally around £700 on catalogues on which I pay £75 pm.

Therefore total outgoings pm are - £2613.86

I realise this doesn't read too well - however OHs salary is very soon to increase by around £190.00 per month and I only have around 6 months to go on the electric arrears and the catalogue.

I have used your wonderful spreadsheet to snowball our debts and we should be debt free by February 2009. Maybe even sooner as I haven't taken into account OHs annual bonus which is usually around £3000!

I have learnt never to use catalogues again and I shall be cutting up the credit cards!

Please feel free to comment on our situation - your advice would be much appreciated. I have picked up so many tips from you already by just reading through old posts.

Annie_Fanny

mad-max wrote:

I've been lurking here for a week or two and you have all inspired me to take a long hard look at our family finances!

Our SOA is as follows:

OH salary - £1850 - (soon to be increased to around £2040 pm)

My income - £755

Child benefit and tax credit - £162

TOTAL INCOME - £2767

Mortgage and home Ins - £1072! (Ouch!)
Food - £200
mobiles - £30
Gas - £30
Electric - £30
Water - £30
Landline - £20
Broadband - £16.50
NTL TV package - £47.50 (Ouch! Who are you using for broadband - surely you can use ntl for the whole lot broadband/tv/phone and get it for much cheaper. We currently stand at about £24 a month down from about £70!!! If you are a 'loyal' customer if you mention leaving they should normally offer you a reduction.)
Pet Insurance - £11.25 (Search for Martin Lewis' thoughts on this matter.)
TV Licence - £10.99
Council Tax - £110
Petrol - £100
Life Ins - £44.01

We owe a total of £21,816.77 - broken down as follows:

Loan 1 - Co-op Bank - £195.61 pm Total outstanding £3374

Loan 2 - Beneficial Bank - £113.00 pm Total outstanding £3730

C/C 1 - £193.00 pm minimum payment Total outstanding £5700

C/C 2 - £170.00 pm minimum payment Total outstanding £6500

Arrears on electric account - £90.00 pm for 6 months

An Overdraft of £1200 which at the moment we are paying a token amount of £25 towards pm.

And finally around £700 on catalogues on which I pay £75 pm.

Therefore total outgoings pm are - £2613.86

I realise this doesn't read too well - however OHs salary is very soon to increase by around £190.00 per month and I only have around 6 months to go on the electric arrears and the catalogue.

I have used your wonderful spreadsheet to snowball our debts and we should be debt free by February 2009. Maybe even sooner as I haven't taken into account OHs annual bonus which is usually around £3000!

I have learnt never to use catalogues again and I shall be cutting up the credit cards!

Please feel free to comment on our situation - your advice would be much appreciated. I have picked up so many tips from you already by just reading through old posts.

Have you got the APRs for your debts?

Welcome by the way!

Annie
Xx

mad-max_4

Hi Annie,

Thanks so much for the lovely welcome.

Can't do anything about the mortgage I'm afraid - but totally agree it is a bit "OUCH"!!!

As far as the TV package goes I am with NTL for TV, phone and broadband so in total I'm paying them around £84 pm!!! I think I shall ring them and ask for a reduction. Will keep you posted on that.

As for APRs The Co-op loan is 5.9% Beneficial Bank is around 23% which I realise is absolutely horrendous and it is our first priority to be paid. C/C 1 is 14.9% and C/C 2 is 15.9%. I have tried to get a 0% card to transfer them onto but unfortunately we were turned down. I do have a couple of defaults from a couple of years back but they have been paid.

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Welcome aboard the good ship MSE mad-mex :beer:

well done for taking the first few steps before things spiral out of control.

I recommend a spending diary for you and your OH.

Bestthingsinlifearefree

mobiles seem very high.

me and wife both have pay as you go mobiles for emergencies / when we are out etc

spend about £5 each every 3 months on calls.

mad-max_4

Thanks - that sounds useful.

I don't want to sound dumb but do we just list our actual spending day by day to see where it's all going?

Bestthingsinlifearefree

In your SOA there seems to be no car insurance or maintenance budgeted ??

How many cars do you have ?

Bestthingsinlifearefree

nothing in the budget for holidays, dentist, hair dresser, christmas and birthdays.

did you spend nothing on those in the the last 12 months ?

mad-max_4

Mobile is on a contract I'm afraid. But I shall be going pay as you go as soon as I can.

Luckily we have a company car so no tax or maintenance to worry about.

As you can see the APRs on our debts are quite high. Do you think I can ring the companies involved and ask for them to be reduced?

mad-max_4

Holidays are a no no until the debts are paid off in full.

We do of course spend out for christmas and all the other things you listed - I try to do them all as cheaply as possible on what we have left each month! I know thats not ideal and hopefully with OHs payrise we will be able to budget for those things properly very soon.

callansdad

TOTAL INCOME - £2767

Mortgage and home Ins - £1072! Seems high but how much of this is mortgage and how much is insurance? Your property may be over insured. Search for a cheaper rate and use the likes of Quidco to earn cashback!
Food - £200 You could maybe shave a little off each month
mobiles - £30 Are these contract, seems quite high if its PAYG
Gas - £30
Electric - £30
Water - £30
Landline - £20
Broadband - £16.50
NTL TV package - £47.50 Eek, cancel it if you can't get a better deal, we have gotten used to living without Sky.
Pet Insurance - £11.25 I don't have any pets but would you be better off sticking this into an account just in case instead of paying it as insurance
TV Licence - £10.99
Council Tax - £110
Petrol - £100 What about car costs and insurance?
Life Ins - £44.01 Seems quite high, how much is this for? Could you get a better deal elsewhere?

We owe a total of £21,816.77 - broken down as follows:

Loan 1 - Co-op Bank - £195.61 pm Total outstanding £3374

Loan 2 - Beneficial Bank - £113.00 pm Total outstanding £3730

C/C 1 - £193.00 pm minimum payment Total outstanding £5700

C/C 2 - £170.00 pm minimum payment Total outstanding £6500

Arrears on electric account - £90.00 pm for 6 months

An Overdraft of £1200 which at the moment we are paying a token amount of £25 towards pm. Every little helps

And finally around £700 on catalogues on which I pay £75 pm.

Therefore total outgoings pm are - £2613.86

When your OHs wage rises earmark it towards debts straight away!

As for APRs The Co-op loan is 5.9% Beneficial Bank is around 23% which I realise is absolutely horrendous and it is our first priority to be paid. C/C 1 is 14.9% and C/C 2 is 15.9%. I have tried to get a 0% card to transfer them onto but unfortunately we were turned down. I do have a couple of defaults from a couple of years back but they have been paid.

Call up your CC companies, if there is any space on your cards then ask for a deal on a balance transfer rate (pref CC1) and transfer some money from CC2 onto it. It might not be much but it may help a little. If there is no space then there is no harm in asking if they can offer you a special interest rate for a while