Statement of Affairs

Helpdesperate

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,102.67
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 245.05
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.08
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787.60
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
union subs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.96
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.92
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108.33
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181.63
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.75
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
childrens clubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.83
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.33
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67
Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.33
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,627.72

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,312.44


Some months we have more income as my husband does an on-call rota and my income is up and down as I have a regular lunchtime job in a school and also am employed as a domestic cleaner for the elderly for which I have had to register as self-employed. I had been working 4 jobs since sept with 3 primary school kids but recently dropped to 2 jobs and am going back up to 3 I keep getting chest infections and am making myself ill. We are not in arrears at the moment on anything but we just can't keep on top of it for much longer. There is only 10k equity in the house, most of which would be swallowed up in redemption fees, we did try to sell the house for 1 year but not even a single viewing, and couldn't drop the price as would have put us in negative equity. We are looking at doing an iva through payplan possibly. No decisions made yet and no figures sorted yet. I feel so ashamed. Thankyou in advance.

Helpdesperate

most of the problem is credit card debt- Ihave to have a car for work and so does hubby, my car payments still have 2 years to run on them. We have an overdraft of £3500, £12090 on one credit card at 5.95% for life, £8897 on another on 0% which is due to start charging interest in April and £11340 on a barclaycard at 19.9% and then £476 on another barclaycard at the same rate, then £300 on a storecard that was for clothes/shoes etc as we were desperate at £29.9%. The household shopping is variable, sometimes more, sometimes less, so I averaged it.

Denzel09uk

Hi, and welcome.
Had quick flick through your statement. A couple of questions. your shopping bill seems a little high maybe try and cut that down.. also is the Credit card payment minimum payments due.
New clothes amount seems a little high. I tend to buy clothes every couple of months and its only when I need to. Then again i am a bloke.
Car maintenance is this every month if so I would be looking to get a new car, Your spending over £1200 a year on maintenance on your car if this is the case.

I hope this helps all the other bits seem ok to me.

Also If you have spare cash get the smaller card paid off first as then it doesnt seem as though you have loads of cards about. Easier to manage if you understand.

Regards

Denzel09uk

McKneff

Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.08
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 what is this for
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787.60
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390.00 You can reduce this easily
with meal planning.
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
union subs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.96
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.92
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108.33 You spend over £1200 a year
car maintenance, surely not.

Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181.63
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.75
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
childrens clubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.83
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33 for what?
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 Necesssary?
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33 you can get this free
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 record films from the telly
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00 Not necessary, is this more
important than throwing it
at your debts.
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.33
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 what, every month, make do
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67 Ditto, bet your wardrobes
bulging, stop for a while


Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.33
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 read news on the internet.
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 Make sandwiches, stop
snacking, drink tap water.

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,627.72

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,312.44

Just a few pointers but hope they help.

[Deleted User]

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax) . . . . . . . 2,102.67 (Does this include your new 3rd job? - how much will your income increase?)
Income from Self Employment (before tax) . . . . . 280.00
Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245.05

Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.08
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 (see if you can combine home phone and internet - should get combined for about £20 - compare providers in your area - SKY, Virgin, BT, TalkTalk etc)
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 (as above)
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 (What does this cover?)
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36.00 (check comparison sites for gas and electric - often online packages and duel fuel is cheaper)
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37.00 (as above)
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26.00
Council Tax. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118.00 (Are you paying this over 10 months - see if you can spread over 12, or put this abount towards highest interest debt during CTax free months)
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33.00 (does this include contents and buildings - check comparison sites when you can renew)
Mortgage/Rent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 787.60
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27.00 (Check comparison sites)
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Food and Household Shopping. . . . . . . . . . . . 390.00 (You can probably cut this down - batch cook, meal plan, drop brands, only buy what you will use, Aldi/Lidl)
union subs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.96

Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00 (are all journeys essential?)
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.92
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87.00 (Quite high - shop around at renewal)
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108.33 (Again, quite high)

Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455.00 (how many cards? what's APR's?)

Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181.63 (How many payments left and what's the APR?)

Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.75 (Check comparison sites)
childrens clubs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00 (what does this cover)

Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.00 (Cancel if out of contract, if in contract drop to the basic package)
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.83 (What does this cover?)
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67 (Try using vouchers etc,(Orange wednesdays), or get a DVD instead)
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33 (What does this cover?)
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 (What does this cover?)
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc) . . . . . . . . . . 8.33 (What does this cover?)
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 (Cut out or reduce)
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.00 (Expensive, cut out until you are debt free. Or use 2 for one vouchers etc)

Clothes, Health & Beauty
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00 (Is this contact lenses? See if you can get cheaper online)
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.33 (See if there's a college near you where you can get a trainee to do hair cuts for free/cheap)
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.33
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.33 (essentials only for now)
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 (Every month, this seems high)
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67 (wear what you have - buy essentials only)
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58.33

Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 (quite a lot every month - read news and articles etc online)
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only) . . . . . 33.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 (bring your own and bring them with you)

Total monthly income . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,627.72

Total monthly expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,312.44

Hi,

I have made some comments above, hopefully some of them will be of use to you.

There seems a lot of areas where you could make cuts (Pay for TV, cinema, eating out, magazines, food shopping, DVD's hobbies etc), and some others that you could check that you are getting the best value for your money (insurances, utilities)

HTH

D9

Helpdesperate

The car insurance is for 2 cars and my hubby does high mileage as he is out on the road. This is the same with the maintenance, but hubbys car is 9 years old and we can't afford payments on another car. My petrol costs are quite high because I go from house to house and the school where I work for my job and as a result also haveto use the car for the school run as don't have time between finishing work and walking to/from school with a 4 year old, 9 and 10 yearold.
I hadn't realised that £390 pcm was high for food and household shopping for a family of 5 either. The amount for clothes includes shoes and trainers and pumps etc that the kids have to have for school and asda school uniforms, although we don't spend this every month.
The phone, digital tv and broadband are with one provider but I thought I had to break them down for the soa! although am looking at dropping some of the bits off it andto be honest looking at the soa we only rent dvd's maybe once every 3 months or so. I shop around on renewal for all insurances and change gas and electric regularly. I rarely buy new clothes for myself andcertainly not regularly, the soa was probably not quite accurate as I hadto think about whatwe do spend money on, but i'm going to have another look at the figures.Thanksforall your suggestions.

Helpdesperate

Oh, the credit cards, Barclaycard £11300 at 19.9%, Halifax at £12k 5.9% Virgin at 0% but going up to 15.9%,Barclaycard plat £475 at 19.9%. Pet costsare vaccinations etc, the car payments have 25 to run on 12.9%. We tried to get a loan to consolidate some debts but have been turned down. I've just realised i have doubled up on the shoes and clothes and put the kids down separately as well as with ours DOH! the optical bills are for glasses for 2 adults, but only if we need them.

Clarie_2

Hi, I can't see from this if you have spare money at the end of each month to pay off debts with. If you do, and can make anything over the minimum payments, then try 'snowballing' your payments (highest interest first, work you way down). Also if you have any spare credit, you could see if shuffling and balance transfers gets your interest rates lower.

If you don't have spare money each month, and are strugglign to make minimum repayments, it might be worth talking to CCCS or similar for advice?

Clarie

Helpdesperate

This month we had quite a bit of spare cash, so I threw itall at the highest interest card- paid an extra £140 off the barclaycard and when hubbys work expenses come back in to the bank account they will get paid into it as well.Some months we have alot more than others, for example, this week my earnings are zero because I have had to take the week off to do training for my new job. When hubby gets paid we will have a fair amount of surplus cash -maybe £300 to pay off over and above the minimum payments because the overtime for dec-jan was quite a good month. At the end of March, I know we won't have as much becausethe o/t for jan-feb was not so good. He does a mandatory on-call but in August his employer enforced new t&cs on everyone which reduced his take home pay by around £400pcm we were already in debt but I had planned to start work when the smallest started school to finally tackle this, but because his employer did this all i'm doing is earning enough to cover what he's lost from his wages.:mad::(

Helpdesperate

I am going to use one ofthe other soa'sfrom a sticky as itseems to be a bit clearer.Just out of interest, what do other families spend on household shopping and food (including detergents, washing powders etc)? wehavehadan initial consultation with payplan, and am expecting a follow up on weds - just getting all my paperwork together.

Gandalfthegrey

Hi
We spend about £60 per week on groceries inc cleaning/houshold products etc, that's for 2 adults and a toddler. That also includes nappies and wetwipes (hopefully he'll be potty trained soon - not going great at the moment!) but we do have another baby due in a week's time so we will still need to buy nappies, formula milk, etc. Our shopping is likely to go up to £70 per week.