SOA - Advice gratefully received

IHaveNoMoney.com

Hi right after my first attempt the other night i have done a more detailed SOA with aprs%

I would like some advice regarding which debts to pay of first, my initial thought was to do them in size order starting with smallest first (not incuding the 0% apr buy now pay laters) but am wondering whether it would be better to do it in order of apr.

Here goes:

Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1 (3 years old in August)
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1560
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1350
Benefits................................ 80
Total monthly income.................... 2990

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 360
Council tax............................. 105
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 25
Water rates............................. 30
Telephone (land line)................... 11 am planning to get sky to take on phone line which will save us £1
Mobile phone............................ 50 £15 mine £35 hubbys (hubby will be dropping to £27 in May)
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 45 include internet as we have to pay extra due to not being able to have the free connection through sky hopefully this will change soon costs £12.99 a month)
Internet Services....................... 0 with sky
Groceries etc. ......................... 200 i am doing a spending diary this month and am to stay inside this budget
Clothing................................ 0 included in monthy savings
Petrol/diesel........................... 180
Road tax................................ 0 included in monthly savings
Car Insurance........................... 25
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 included in monthly savings and my dads a mechanic
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 40 Husbands bus pass for work
Childcare/nursery....................... 230 will be free in september
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 44 healthshield insurance we are thinking of dropping into the lower bracket which will be £22
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 included in monthly savings
Haircuts................................ 30 i go every 7 weeks would cut back but need to cover the grey lol
Entertainment........................... 60 between april-sept we play pentanque (french boules) so allowing £15 a week for this
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 80 As of next month i am going to get my child benefit payments put into a seperate account to cover car tax, mots, xmas etc
smoking................................. 60 personally i would give it a go to give up but hubbys won't but i am working on that one, i have been dieting and lost 5+ stone and still away to go so not sure i am ready yet to give up
Husbands lunch.......................... 30 spends £1.50 a day for lunch and drink at work don't think a pack lunch would be much cheaper as he would want porkpie/sausage rolls and they all eat in the canteen
Child Maintance payments................ 180 another few years left on this hubbys daughter is 10 and son 6
Weight Watchers......................... 10 i need this
Total monthly expenses.................. 1847

Assets[/b]
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 500

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Barclay Loan...................10000.....414.......9.8 til September 2013 originally £25000
Barclay loan...................5500......180.......15.5 til january 2015 originally £6500
Very...........................35.95.....0.........0
My Mum.........................180.......0.........0
Isme...........................380.......0.........0
Vanquis........................2221.9....112.......54.19
Additions......................383.23....0.........0
BarclayCard....................977.7.....21.9......24.5
Aqua...........................900.......26.9......39.95
Capital one....................474.43....23.7......34.08
Barclaycard....................441.49....9.93......29.9
Additions......................1092.5....0.........0
Argos..........................366.11....14.6......29.9
Simply Yours...................261.36....13.2......29.9
Vanquis credit card............252.1.....11........54.4
Jacamo.........................244.46....12.2......29.9
Evans..........................201.75....6.09......29.9
Captial one....................190.83....9.54......34.08
Next...........................167.74....15.8......29.9
Burton.........................127.34....5.........29.9
Isme...........................74.35.....0.........0
Very...........................64........0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........24537.24..875.86....
0% aprs are buy now pay laters

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,990
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,847
Available for debt repayments........... 1,143
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 875.86
Amount left after debt repayments....... 267.14
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -25,037.24
Net Assets.............................. -24,537.24


Hows it look i am starting to think it is more do-able now we are ending the month in the clear when i am not spending on things we can't afford. I am now also trying to pick up extra shifts at work doing an extra night next week which will be an extra £100 after tax

Also sell bits on ebay and keeping my eye out for bargins local for collection and going to try my hand at some car boots.

Thanks for all your help

honey10

Hi

I didn't want to read and run, and I just have a question
Why will there be 3 children in August? (sheer curiosity lol)

Also, I think the general consensus is to pay off the higher APR cards first, as they are costing you the most.


Do you actually have £250 left each month?
xx

IHaveNoMoney.com

Hi thanks for your reply, no we don't have £250 left a month although last month hubby was down around £300 from his wages due to holiday and we were no worse off becasue we were more carefull we just seem to flitter money here and there especially on food and takeaway treats it's surprising how quick it goes.

I am doing a spending diary this month so wil see what that shows

i Mean't my little boy will be three in august must edit that lol ones enough

Thanks

Lula-Hula

Hi & welcome.

First of all I want to say congratulations on losing 5 stone - that's a great achievement that shows you have tenacity, perseverance & determination to succeed.

These qualities will help you a lot.

As far as working out how to pay off the debts in the quickest order; many people use a method called snowballing. You can find this on the following site https://www.whatsthecost.com.

Having said this; if what I see about the Vanqis card being at 54.4 % apr is true :eek: then I would pay that one off now.

You can earn extra money by completing surveys online, there are threads about these & other ways to increase your earnings on the up your income board.

Good luck & keep posting
xx

IHaveNoMoney.com

RenovationMan wrote: »

Would it not be cheaper to ditch Sky and go with FreeSat and get one of the really cheap broadband packages that Martin endorses? I assume that with such high tarrifs on your mobiles that you get free calls/texts and so your landline never gets used (ours never does) and so your landline can just go on a really cheap tarrif.

Do you really need the health insurance? Your children will have free prescriptions.

Sky for me could go however hubby is into all the wwe wrestling if this has to go then suppose it will but he isn't gonna be happy about it i am working on him however if he agrees it would only be to cut the package so he would still get sky 1 for me i would be happy with freeview. Internet is a huge problem for us as we struggle to get a company that can provide to us but will look into this

Mobile phone well mine is only £15 a month and when it comes up for renewal in a few months i will get sim only which will be £15 unlimited calls/600 mins. Hubby needs a new phone as his was stolen so his will be £27 with quite alot of mins so landline is only used at weekends (free) and to call 0845/0844 type numbers

Health insurance - i think we could cut it down to £22 month but this covers dentist/opticians however once we have say £200 in emergency fund i think we could let the health insurance go as we would have a back-up.

Thanks for the advice

mildredalien

Well done on taking control of your finances!! It's great that you are able to cover your payments with the income you have, and 'in theory' have some left over With £25k of debt though, there are quite a lot of parts of your expenses that would seem 'luxuries'. For example, spending a lot on entertainment, smoking, lunches, mobiles, haircuts. Keeping a spending diary sounds like a fab idea, so you'll know where that extra money really is going - I know I'm 'supposed' to have about £200 left at the end of each month but I don't think I've ever seen it!

Of course it's your budget and YOU have to live with it No point being miserabe by cutting out everything remotely fun and losing the motivation to manage your debts completely!

Oh, and try ringing up Sky and wrangling a cheaper deal - I've seen posts on here where people have managed to cut their bill by half for 6 months or so. Sometimes they never put it back up again! You could always drop down to the most 'basic' package which isn't awfully expensive.

IHaveNoMoney.com

Thanks for all your advice and support

Been thinking about what we could cut back on
- health shield cut back to lowest band saves £22
- hubbys phone save £10
- sky hope to get it down by £10
- cut out some unnecessary trips in the car and drive slower £10
- cut back entertainment by £10
Would give us an extra £62 a month

Also going to do some car boots and ebaying, will do as many surveys as possible every little helps

Thanks Again

triple_choc_chip

Hi, you originally asked which order you should pay the debts? I'd say definitely the vanquis cards - and I hope you've already binned them!

By my calculations (and please, someone correct me if I'm wrong) if you've got more than 50% interest then they're charging you half the debt again every year.

I think on the higher vanquis debt you're only paying off £10 of the balance each month after interest, and on the lower one only 40p! :eek:

So throw any extra funds at those first then try and snowball the others, highest interest first. Good Luck.

CH27

You need to pay the two Vanquis cards off ASAP.

eschaton

IHaveNoMoney.com wrote: »

Thanks for all your advice and support

Been thinking about what we could cut back on
- health shield cut back to lowest band saves £22
- hubbys phone save £10
- sky hope to get it down by £10
- cut out some unnecessary trips in the car and drive slower £10
- cut back entertainment by £10
Would give us an extra £62 a month

Also going to do some car boots and ebaying, will do as many surveys as possible every little helps

Thanks Again

Little sacrifice here considering your debts.

Up to your eyeballs in debt but don't want to cut back on haircuts, smoking, entertainment, sky TV and the rest.

If you really want to solve your debt problems then you at least have to make an effort.

How much have you got saved in your emergency fund?

eschaton

Also what did you buy with Barclay loans with £15,500 outstanding?

Can anything be sold?

Can't be home improvements if you rent and car is only worth £500 so not that.