Here's my SOA- All help appreciated

debtnovice_2

Hello all,
been reading the site for ages and finally took the plunge and have registered...dunno why it took soooooo long! heres my SOA,

total earnings £2,600.00
rent -£865.00
council tax -£130.00
loan -£350.00
CC 1 -£100.00
CC2 -£60.00
Utilities -£100.00
travel -£170.00
Food -£200.00
petrol -£50.00
mobiles -£60.00
clothes -£100.00
TV Licence -£11.00
Misc Spending -£100

the above is all monthly. the earnings are for my wife and i, just started renting so most of our money goes on buying the new things for our flat. the food bill includes items for our 1 year old baby (looked after by her grandma, so no childcare costs!). the clothes are for all of us..we have 2 mobiles but no house phone.can anyone suggest anything that i have left out?

newmum1

debtnovice wrote:

Hello all,
been reading the site for ages and finally took the plunge and have registered...dunno why it took soooooo long! heres my SOA,

total earnings £2,600.00
rent -£865.00
council tax -£130.00
loan -£350.00
CC 1 -£100.00
CC2 -£60.00
Utilities -£100.00
travel -£170.00
Food -£200.00
petrol -£50.00
mobiles -£60.00
clothes -£100.00
TV Licence -£11.00
Misc Spending -£100

the above is all monthly. the earnings are for my wife and i, just started renting so most of our money goes on buying the new things for our flat. the food bill includes items for our 1 year old baby (looked after by her grandma, so no childcare costs!). the clothes are for all of us..we have 2 mobiles but no house phone.can anyone suggest anything that i have left out?

your rent is very high, could you move somewhere cheaper
your food bill for the 3 of you is also very high you could look on the moneysaving old style forums for help with this
what are the aprs on the cards
travel what is this for?
utilities have you got a breakdown of the amounts
what is included in misc spending

debtnovice_2

thanks for your reply.....

we've just moved to this place so we have to stay here for at least 6 months!
i'll have a look at the other board for food ideas....
my new sig. has the APRs now...
travel is tube travel for me (into central london) and 1 way bus ride for my wife back home each night from work (she walks in the morning)
Utilities are an estimate as we've had no bills at all yet for our place and it's only recently built so no prior bills
misc spending is just sillly little things that we are trying our best to cut out- usually things we need for our new flat...
thanks for all your help!!

heppy23

I would recommend joining your local freecycle group and looking to get bits and bobs for the flat that way.

When your debts are gone then think about replacing the freecycle stuff.

Welshlassie

Well done on facing your debts.

What about other car expenses eg insurance, tax, maintenance?
Birthday, Christmas, hair cuts all should be budgeted for, even if you don't spend them every month.
£100 per month for clothes is alot that's £1,200 a year, do you really need all these, I can understand some expenditure for your baby, but can you two manage without until you get yourselves back on your feet.

You those outgoings added up you still have £300 spare a month, where does this go?? Try keeping a spending diary so you find out what happens to it and you may well find that it is wasted on things you don't really need, this would then give you a few more quid to throw at your debts. Have a look at a snowball calculator to work out when you would be debt free if you just pay the minimums and then play with the figures a bit to see how quickly you can be debt free just by overpaying a bit extra. You should also find out is you are able to over pay on your loan.
good luck

kathfisch

Hi there and welcome! :hello:

My first thought is that your phone bills are high! You say you don't have a home phone but mobiles can get so expensive... perhaps you could look into getting a home phone and making all your calls the cheapest way possible... have a look on the telephones board for lots of great advice. If your mobiles are out of contract then you could switch to payg, amazing how much it helps you to reduce spending compared to on contract!!

I make your figures:

Income: £2,600

Outgoings:
Rent £865.00
Council tax £130.00
Utilities -£100.00
Travel -£170.00
Food -£200.00
Petrol -£50.00
Mobiles -£60.00
Clothes -£100.00
TV Licence -£11.00
Misc Spending -£100
Total Outgoings: £1,786

Which leaves 2,600-1786 = £814 for debt repayments.

Loan £350.00
CC 1 £100.00
CC2 £60.00
Total repayments: £510

So there is about £300 a month spare there that is not accounted for. It really helps to start a spending diary, write down everything you spend and see if you are sticking to your budgets. It can shame you into stopping some unecessary spending!

Some things that are not on your list: annual expenses like christmas, birthdays, insurance etc. These should be divided by 12 and included in the budget (and saved!) so that when the time comes you don't end up putting it on a credit card.

Kath

debtnovice_2

thanks for your quick replies....
i'm going to look into the freecycle idea- never heard of this before so a bit of investigation needed!
ur right about clothes, am definitely going to cut this right down...
arguably the best idea is the spending diary...working in london means there are so many opportunites to spend the odd pound or 2 and before u know it, it all adds up, and i think i could do with an exact amount i spend- il probably surprise myself!
any extra money that we get left with is put into a savings account with the aim to pay off the credit cards once the 0% offers are over...

Storm

Hi,

As both the CCs are 0% at the moment I would say stick to the minimum payments and save any extra money each month so you get a bit of interest (and hopefully will have enough there to pay of the remaining balance when the 0% runs out!)

According to your figures you should have £304 left at the end of each month, and you need to work out where this is going. If you & your wife both keep a spending diary including every little newspaper, bar of chocolate etc you'll get a clearer idea of where your money is going and where you can cut back.

The food bill is high - I spent £11 yesterday that will see me through a week or more (including loads of fresh fruit & veg). The phone is also high - are you on contract or PAYG mobiles? You need to see about changing to a cheaper tariff or restricting the amount of credit you'll let yourself get each month.

Have you made sure you're getting all the benefits you're entitled to? Child Benefit & Child Tax Credit you'll definitely be eligible for.

Can you make overpayments on the loan to clear this quicker? If not, then it'll probably be worth once the CCs are sorted going for a high interest regular saver account so you can try and get a lump together to request a settlement figure.

Finally, you've put in a figure for petrol but nothing is budgetted for MOT, Tax, insurance, breakdown cover etc - plus things like birthdays, hair cuts etc. If you budget an amount each month towards these then you're less likely to fall into the trap of using the credit cards again

Hope this helps & sorry it's a bit rambling!

Storm

debtnovice_2

thanks kath, the idea of a spending diary is growing on me! and i didnt think of the xmas/bday etc costs being divided by 12....that'll put a hole in the £300 left over!

debtnovice_2

thanks storm.....
the phone costs are for 2 mobiles which are needed so we can keep in touch with our little one during the day.... i forgot to budget for the other car costs...the extra amount of £300 is getting less and less!
we definitely need to do something about food bills, i've realised that!

lisa_75

debtnovice wrote:

thanks storm.....
the phone costs are for 2 mobiles which are needed so we can keep in touch with our little one during the day..

I don’t understand why you need this as grandma is providing childcare so it is not as if you need to be easily contactable in case the little one is sick and needs picking up, like with a nursery.Also, are you not contactable at work by phone? One mobile on PAYG between you should be fine and used for emergencies ONLY. This should get your mobile bill down to £5-£10 a month.