Time for Advice! My SOA!

Mowgli87

Hello!

So, Ive been a lurker for months and have added my two cents to others threads, but I think its about time I start asking for advice myself!

Below is my SOA. Its says that I have a surplus of £334 - I have no idea where this goes, as by two weeks after payday Im on a £0 balance! Im going to start a spending diary from next pay day (25th march) and keep an eye on it...already downloaded a fab app!

I live with my boyfriend, but we have our finances seperate, so I have left his salary off and split everything in two as we pay 50/50 for bills and rent. The mobile is high but they are both mine (i have two contracts, dont ask, one is £12 per month and will be over in 4 months)

I want to get my debt paid off asap and start living life. Im 24 years old and I have been in debt my whole adult life. These debts started when I was 18. I feel like I am just drifting through life. I had some dreams and aspirations, I wanted to travel the world... now the furthest I travel is across the road to work and back...

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 0
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1300
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1300
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 375
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 65
Electricity............................. 45 (had a huge winter bill, paid 2/3 of it and paying other third over the year)
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 13
Telephone (land line)................... 5
Mobile phone............................ 37
TV Licence.............................. 6
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 12
Internet Services....................... 12
Groceries etc. ......................... 100 (trying to keep this down, £100 is the most, some months half that if im clever!!)
Clothing................................ 20 (not often I do this, but better to over estimate?)
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 30 (visit my mum and dad in Cardiff)
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 7
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 4
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 851

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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................4600......50........0
Credit Card....................370.......15........0
Friend.........................600.......50........0
Total unsecured debts..........5570......115.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,300
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 851
Available for debt repayments........... 449
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 115
Amount left after debt repayments....... 334
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,570
Net Assets.............................. -5,570
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

pmf63

Im going to start a spending diary from next pay day

I'm not going to comment on your SOA. I don't have the knowledge or expertise but I will on the quoted line. Why wait till payday? You may be surprised how much you spend in the 10 days leading up to payday!

[Deleted User]

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1300 Any way to increase? Overtime?
Total monthly income.................... 1300

Monthly Expense Details
Rent.................................... 375
Council tax............................. 65 Is this paid over the usual 10, see if you can spread over 12 to reduce the monthly payment a little
Electricity............................. 45 (had a huge winter bill, paid 2/3 of it and paying other third over the year)
Water rates............................. 13 Are you on a meter or monthly charge - might be worth considering a meter if there's only the two of you
Telephone (land line)................... 5
Mobile phone............................ 37 High, but you have said this will reduce soon - consider PAYG or monthly SIMM only
TV Licence.............................. 6
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 12 Consider freeview, or drop channels that you don't use
Internet Services....................... 12 See if combining in a package with home phone and pay-for tv would be cheaper
Groceries etc. ......................... 100 (trying to keep this down, £100 is the most, some months half that if im clever!!)
Clothing................................ 20 (not often I do this, but better to over estimate?)
Other travel............................ 30 (visit my mum and dad in Cardiff)
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 7
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 4
Contents insurance...................... 0 might consider this
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20 every month?
Haircuts................................ 0 never?
Entertainment........................... 50
Emergency fund.......................... 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 851

Assets
Cash.................................... 0 where's the emergency fund?
Total Assets............................ 0

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR You need to find the APR's on these and make overpayments starting with the one with the highest APR (the one costing you the most) - I suspect the cc unless you are on a 0% or other deal
Loan...........................4600......50........0
Credit Card....................370.......15........0
Friend.........................600.......50........0
Total unsecured debts..........5570......115.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,300
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 851
Available for debt repayments........... 449
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 115
Amount left after debt repayments....... 334 As you have said yourself you don't have this, and you really need to figure out where it goes - it's a lot to just dissapear in a few days after pay day!

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,570
Net Assets.............................. -5,570

Your SOA doesn't look too bad, and there's not really anything else anyone can say until you figure out where your surplus is going and include this in the SOA.

HTH

D9

Hannah_10

I agree with PFM, start your spending diary today. You know when payday is so you can only use data gathered after that later if you want to look a neat tidy 1 month cycle or anything, but honestly the longer you keep a SD for the more accurate your averages will be.

Looking at your SOA carefully I can't see a lot of problems with your expenditure. Yes I could comment about the Sky V not being essential or whatever but we're looking for a missing £334, Sky seems a distraction to the main point. So I'm not going to butcher your expenditure yet because it's clearly wrong, you're losing over £10 a day and you don't know where it's going, that's priority number 1. When you have a better idea where it's disapearing to we can have another good look at your expenditure.

Another way in which your grip on money could be easily tightened is to find out our APR rates and put them in. Also, I would be interested to know what the minimum repayments on them all are please? Have you got an overdraft? That's another one people who are just starting out on the DFW path tend to forget. If you have please put it on, including the charges you pay on it. If you don't know the answers don't worry, a call to your bank/lender should get them pretty effortlessly.

Tixy

Hi

Its quite a chunk to be losing each month - and as you know a spending diary will help you find it - but some suggestions in the meantime as to where it could be going...
Are you paying any bank fees a month? or interest on an overdraft?
Cosmetics? toiletries?
books, magazines?
haircuts?
Does your groceries include pet food?
Lunch whilst at work? coffees, bottles of pop 'on the go'
Lottery tickets?
monthly CRA fee?

Mowgli87 wrote: »

Electricity............................. 45 (had a huge winter bill, paid 2/3 of it and paying other third over the year) is this the payment for the arrears and the current usage then?
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 13
Telephone (land line)................... 5
Mobile phone............................ 37
TV Licence.............................. 6
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 12
Internet Services....................... 12 can you get a cheaper all in landline, tv and internet combined - looks like between you you are paying £58 for this.
Groceries etc. ......................... 100 (trying to keep this down, £100 is the most, some months half that if im clever!!) does this include pet food as well?
Clothing................................ 20 (not often I do this, but better to over estimate?) yep better to overestimate a little. Does it include shoes, bags etc as well?
Other travel............................ 30 (visit my mum and dad in Cardiff)
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 7
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 4
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 0 ?
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 50 are you actually saving this each month?
Total monthly expenses.................. 851


No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................4600......50........0
Credit Card....................370.......15........0
Friend.........................600.......50........0
Total unsecured debts..........5570......115.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,300
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 851
Available for debt repayments........... 449
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 115
Amount left after debt repayments....... 334
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,570
Net Assets.............................. -5,570
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

Mowgli87

Hey,

Thanks so much for your comments - heres some answers to the queries! The Electricity is for the arrears as well as our usual monthly DD. £90 in total, £45 for my half.

My phone/tv/internet is a sky package, i just split it over the 3 options. Sky are the bain of my existance, our contract ends in May and we will be cancelling. Looking into freeview/free sat? Any advice on this and cheap phone/broadband options?

The £50 emergancy fund was only started last month so I only have £50 in it so far.

Grocery amount includes pet food. Kitty is an house cat so we feed him IAMS light which is £14 for a 3kg bag which lasts over a month (before we did this we were spending about £15 a week on cat food and started to get a bit of an overweight kitten!)

Sorry, we do have contents insurace, its only £4 a month each.

I cut my hair myself And it looks darned good

As for the spending diary, I really wanted to start clean from pay day. I would do it now, but I wont be spending anything anyway!! I only have £40 and that will be for food! (usually how the end of the month pans out)

I really need to get a grip on my spending, I have NO idea where my surplus goes, and I dont have anything to show for it! I get bonus's at work, this month I had £550 bonus, granted I paid £300 on the elec bill, the rest was squandered - I bought my BF a £50 computer game, I went to Wales to see my parents/friends and ate in restaurants for every meal, £60 on petrol for the trip... Its stupid that I had all that money two weeks ago and now im struggling!! It could have paid off my credit card!! Whats wrong with me?!

I start the month with the best intentions - budget and plan till my eyeballs fall out, but 1 week in and its out the window!

Im really angry at myself... Ive always blamed it on not being taught finances/leaving home at 16/depression etc but to be honest, I just need to stand up and take responsibility for my actions. I am a grown woman, with a good career ahead of me and the potential to be amazing... I just need to step up and stop being flaming silly!!



There are no interest or charges on my credit as I defaulted 2 years ago... thankfully Natwest agreed to freeze interest and I am just paying of default amounts at the above rates (but I now want to start paying more)

curlytop12

don't be mad at yourself!you are facing up to things now,put the rest behind you.
just a pointer on the sky-when you cancel,you get to keep the box,and it can be used as a freeview box just like that!nowt else to pay for.
(i was really surprised and pleased as it was the sky rep who told me this when i cancelled!!)
good luck

Hannah_10

Ok, well something else you need to do then is find out the value of your electricity arrears and the value of your actual usage (get on the phone now) and separate what is debt and what is use. Also, were the arrears run up at your current address or not?

Mowgli87

Hi hannah,

The Arrears is £160 - they were from out current address, it was our winter bill. £14 a month for arrears, £76 standard DD.