Advice GREATLY appreciated please?

D5T

I had started a debt free diary but failed. (Shame mode invoked!)

I need to get things as straight as possible. My situation has dramatically altered since the diary so here goes:
I'm expecting a baby in July with my ex-gf, moving back into my parents in May & turning 30 in August!
My financial situation isn't great but it could be far worse! As you can see from my sig I did manage a decent target. That was mainly thanks to eBay.

Let's go then!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1850
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1850
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 444
Rent.................................... 475
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 85
Electricity............................. 33
Gas..................................... 17
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 27
Mobile phone............................ 60
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 0
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 70
Road tax................................ 170
Car Insurance........................... 146
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
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..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 15
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1542

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Secured Debt.................. 0........(173)......0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 0........(271)......9
Total secured & HP debts...... 0.........-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Capital One....................454.......0.........29
Total unsecured debts..........454.......0.........-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,850
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,542
Available for debt repayments........... 308
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount left after debt repayments....... 308
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -454
Net Assets.............................. -454
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

D5T

Additional notes:
Rent & all associated costs - Moving into parents in May (BIG saving!)
Council Tax, Gas & Electricity - Delayed getting arranged so therefore higher payments for fewer months.
Landline - this cost includes Broadband.
TV Licence - paid in full.
Mobile(s) - Totals £80 but receive £20 in return as set it up for younger brother. This is changing to PAYG in July. My own tariff is reducing in April but unsure as to how much lower O2 will allow. Probably by £10.
Food - absolutely no idea. I buy as & when. Something I need to get hold of.
Petrol - an estimate.Taken up running home from work 2-3 times a week to offest other petrol usage.

dollybeads

Hi there, well done for posting. I can't really comment on very much in your SOA as not that experienced. You have already though identified the need to note your spending on groceries, you might also like to think about adding in something for entertainment.

Its not very exciting i know, but the thing that has made the most impact for me, is keeping a sending diary. You only need a little notebook, the pound shops sell a pack with about 8 in for strangely enough a pound!

or if you are a bit of a tech, you can do this in excel or online, their are mobile apps that can do this for you and some are free.

by recording every single thing you spend really helps to bring home where you are wasting money. Simple but very effective.

Hope that things go well with the baby, and I look forward to seeing how you get on. Keep your chin up.

Dolly x

Superbiatch

Do you pay this monthly?

Road tax................................ 170
Car Insurance........................... 146

D5T

Thanks for replying.

No the road tax is annually - that part confused me as it didn't as to specify.

Sadly my insurance really is that high, it's my first year of driving! Expires in August, hoping for some reductioin although won't hold my breath. That also includes AA Recovery which I thought I had better get due to the pregnancy.

Superbiatch

Ok, I get where you're coming from about car insurance - just renewed my own and its gone up £200 with 10 years claims Do shop around and use all the comparison sites at the time though, you never know you might be able to shave a bit off.

The car tax needs splitting into months to get an idea of what your monthly spend is.

What are the unsecured and secured debts please? Can you show how much the debts are actually as i think they only show minimum payments currently

D5T

The £173 is the monthly payment. It's an educational loan (which I wish I'd never bothered with). It's a regular monthly amount. Unforunately they are not available at weekend so wasn't able to retrieve a balance. I think it's in the region of £2.5k though!

The £271 is my car payment each month. Have this for a few years as I only just bought it! At the time I didn't know about the baby otherwise I'd have bought differently. It's good in that it will be invalauble once the baby arrives.

Once I move back into my parents I will probably raise monthly amounts to pay these off quicker. The educational loan being the priority as it's a higher APR (although again can't access details currently) & has far less to pay.

Superbiatch

Your educational loan isn't probably isn't HP, so it should go under the heading 'unsecured' just to save any confusion. Have you many years left on the car? And get the details of the educational loan asap and updated your soa.

How much do you pay to the Capital One card each month?

Have you got an idea of any projected costs for when you move to see if any savings can be made?

D5T

Thanks for the advice, wasn't sure where to put the Educational loan. I've only just bought the car on either 4 or 5 years repayment plan. As I said once I've sorted the educational loan I'll pay this off far faster than projected.

I haven't made projected costs but obviously it will save me loads. No C. Tax, Utilities etc. Saving in the region of £500 minimum I guess.

Thank you for all your help.

D5T

Oh & the Capital One card, I always pay more than the minimum. I have applied for a credit card through my bank which allowed some transfer. If I get it & have it transferred that will be at a much better APR.

Superbiatch

But you aren't showing your payment to Capital One, it looks as though you pay £454 a month to it giving an incorrect figure at the end of the month.

I don't actually think you'll be too bad off but you really need to get all your figures down. You can probably afford to pay off quite a chunk of the capital one card and it be gone in a few months if you amend both the car tax and capital one minimum payments on your soa