New poster - in need of advice! Full SOA in post

lobsta100

Soph86 wrote: »

You said the charity payments include £120 charity and £27 synagogue membership, but you also have £37 as synagogue membership in a seperate field. Is this correct? Also, £120 + £27 = £147 not £150. That an extra £40 a month you could have?

Sorry you are right - it is £37 synagogue membership and then the £150 is donations.

It is a requirement for us to give 10% of our income to charity. The concept is that the money we earn is all a gift so we should recognise this by giving others less fortunate. However if we cannot afford to give 10% and still meet our needs, it is allowed to give less. I am already giving a fair amount less by giving £150/month.

The reason we have been consistently eating into the arranged overdraft is because we had been spending the majority of everyday expenditure on the credit card and then I had been paying off large chunks of the bills each month. Since "seeing the light" and consolidating/ paying off credit cards, we are not using them to pay and so should hopefully not have need for the overdraft (we hope).

JCS1

Does your employer do charity giving through their payroll? You could still give the same amount but as it's a pre-tax deduction you would save tax too. Some details here http://www.cafonline.org/default.aspx?page=7026

lobsta100

JCS1 wrote: »

Does your employer do charity giving through their payroll? You could still give the same amount but as it's a pre-tax deduction you would save tax too. Some details here http://www.cafonline.org/default.aspx?page=7026

Unfortunately I have tried that and they don't offer that. They aren't big on benefits!

MFWannabe

lobsta100 wrote: »

Hi all

I am new to this part of the forums, but need some help!

Currently my wife doesnt work as she has been looking after our almost 2 yr old son at home. She would look to get a job once our son is at school age. My job currently pays £35k pa but since I am 1 exam from completing my accountancy qualification, my salary would then be minimum £45k from September-ish.

Our mortgage payments are currently fairly low as we have an Interest-only loan with Nationwide on their SVR of 2.5%. However, our flat is small and my wife is expecting our 2nd child (pls G-d) towards the end of the year. We will only have a finite time before the flat is too small to house our family and we would have to look to move, with all the limitations of having to find a mortgage/ deposit.

Our car repayments are only until June 2012 and then it will be fully paid off.

The Virgin Credit Card is a 16 month 0% balance transfer deal, so it is full up to the limit and I currently pay the minimum by DD.

I was paying off the HSBC Mastercard bills every month in full, but recently this was tipping us close to our formal overdraft limit (£1,500) every month. Now, I have been paying off small chunks each month to keep some cash available.

I have attached our full Statement of Affairs below. I would massively appreciate any advice you can give, as I am so keen to eventually be debt-free! I want a real future for my family!

Thanks in advance

Adam L

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.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2056
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 123
Other income............................ 21
Total monthly income.................... 2200

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 443
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 150
Council tax............................. 174
Electricity............................. 47
Gas..................................... 40
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 39
Telephone (land line)................... 75- this is huge; monitor the calls that are being made and see how you can reduce this
Mobile phone............................ 25
TV Licence.............................. 0 - you need something in here
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 14
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 40
Road tax................................ 12
Car Insurance........................... 45
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 77
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 59
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 55 - check comparison sites to see if you can get this cheaper
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 22
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 - you need something in here
Haircuts................................ 0 - do none of you have your hair cut?
Entertainment........................... 0 - Is this really nothing?
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Child Trust Fund payment................ 20
Charity direct debit.................... 150
Synagogue membership.................... 37
Car finance payment..................... 223 - How much longer will you be paying this for? You also need to list this in the debts section
Total monthly expenses.................. 1972


Assets
Cash.................................... 11000
House value (Gross)..................... 250000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 14500
Other assets............................ 7500
Total Assets............................ 283000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 212500...(443)......2.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 212500....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Virgin Credit Card.............5800......56........0
HSBC Mastercard................1200......38........21.9
Total unsecured debts..........7000......94........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,200
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,972
Available for debt repayments........... 228
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 94
Amount left after debt repayments....... 134

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 283,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -212,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -7,000
Net Assets.............................. 63,500

Created using the SOA calculator.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.

Hi
I've made some comments above where you could make some cutbacks. Seriously though you have 11k in savings; you could pay off your debts and still have 4k left!! Then you will not be paying interest on debt and can put what you were paying on debt back into your savings; so looking at your soa that would be £200 per month; even more when you say your wages will increase by quite a hefty amount in September
How much longer do you have to pay on your car finance? That will be a good saving also when that is paid.

lobsta100

FREEZ wrote: »

Hi
I've made some comments above where you could make some cutbacks. Seriously though you have 11k in savings; you could pay off your debts and still have 4k left!! Then you will not be paying interest on debt and can put what you were paying on debt back into your savings; so looking at your soa that would be £200 per month; even more when you say your wages will increase by quite a hefty amount in September
How much longer do you have to pay on your car finance? That will be a good saving also when that is paid.

Hi

I need to amend the original post as there were some mistakes/ omissions.

The landline of £75 was per qtr so is really £25/month.

We have no TV - so no licence

Haircuts is just me £9 every 6 weeks or so. Presents is really minimal as generally we have agreement with family and each other that we wont do presents.

Groceries of £200 is more than we spend on food to cover some misc spending.

We still have until June 2012 to pay for the car unfortunately.

In terms of using savings to pay off debt. Since posting originally, I used £1,000 in ISA to pay off majority of HSBC CC. The £10k is locked into a fixed bond until this April.

MFWannabe

Once you can get to your savings in April i would pay off the debts; you will still have some left in there for emergencies and it will only be another 5 months before your wages will increase. Also you have unti 2012 to pay for your car but that is now only another 17 months or so; which probably sounds like ages away!!

beanielou

Im glad you have paid off most of HSBC at 21% APR.

lobsta100

beanielou wrote: »

Im glad you have paid off most of HSBC at 21% APR.

Thanks! Now I have to work on not having to use the overdraft and how to pay off the £5,900 on the 0% BT card!

beanielou

But at least the 5k is on 0%.
I have found the OD a very difficult one TBH.
Good luck!

lobsta100

Sorry posted in error - see post below!