My SOA

evherkes

I am positing this in case anyone has any suggestions!

I cannot afford to have any marks on my credit reports (IVA etc) as I can lose my job over it! Sadly as I have CL Finance dealing with a previous issue, until it is fully paid off credit cards wont touch me either.

I am happy to take on board any suggestions. I already use comparison websites to check insurance, my weekly shopping and fuel prices so I am wary. I don't buy any luxuries, as you can see no haircuts, holidays & Sky!

Thanks

[tt]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 900
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 1100
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2000
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 750
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 100
Electricity............................. 45
Gas..................................... 40
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 40
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 100
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 800
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 18
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2293

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
Lloyds TSB.....................1531.32...25........15.9
CL Finanace....................3754......50........0
M&S............................1311......0.........21.9
Car Finance....................9000......180.......5
Total unsecured debts..........15596.32..255.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,000
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,293
Available for debt repayments........... -293
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 255
Amount short for making debt repayments. -548
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -15,596.32
Net Assets.............................. -15,596.32
[/tt]

psychopathbabble

Hi, just a quick look over your SOA gave me the following:

£250 on groceries for two of you?!
How old is your child? Any way of reducing childcare costs?
You must buy some clothes for child? Need to include something for that.
Car insurance £100 per month?! Any way of getting that cheaper?
Do you not have internet or telephone line?

I'm sure some others will come along with other suggestions soon x

Superbiatch

It seems as though you are working for £100 a month, taking into account childcare costs. If you factor in travel, lunches etc - it doesn't even seem worth it Can anyone assist with childcare (family, the other parent etc?) and also your grocery costs can be cut right down to about £160 easily.

Your car insurance is very expensive too, are you a young/new driver?

Just realised you're paying £750 a month rent! Is that in London?

evherkes

Hi,

My little girl is 2.5, she goes in 5 days a week so it works out just less than £52.50 a day. My only family is my mum and little brother (11) and my mum also works full-time. I am trying to cut down on food shopping considerably and alothough I should be the size of a house I'm always hungry but trying to eat more porridge and stuff that will fill me up. All the vegs are so expensive and I have to buy them more than once a week for my little girl to keep her fit and healthy!

I try and use freecycle for my little girls clothes and also get some from colleagues at work, all of her knickers and stuff I buy in sales in advance from matalan etc to save money!

I had a car accident last year, and even with 1 yrs no claims, as I need business mileage my premium is huge I tried all of the comparison websites as well as the ones not on the comp websites. As i cannot pay it in one go, it is approx an extra £100 for the year and is about £100 a month!!!

I have a house in Milton Keynes. I lived ion flat before and had a terrible experience so I needed a house and that is about the right price for Milton Keynes in a safe area of MK with a decent catchment school (I dont want my daughter to miss out) and to be fair that is a good price, most of them were £825pm!

I am about to start flogging some of my daughters old clothes but I need to get some time away from wrk & sort this lot out first!

Thank you

tallyhoh

Your mobile phone cost & your grocery bill is very high. Where are you buying your fresh veg, its not that expensive, go & have a look at the old style money saving board for ways to reduce your food bill.

Is your car really necessary, I mean really?

theoretica

You are spending a lot more than your earn every month so you need to make some big changes. Your rent and car costs are crippling you. Could you find a job that would let you get rid of the car? Move somewhere cheaper or take in a lodger?

Look on the old style forum for advice on getting your grocery budget down, including fresh fruit and vegetables (more carrots and cabbage than peppers and raspberries).

Are you claiming the single adult discount on the council tax? Are you getting child maintenance in with your benefit figure?

moocowone

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but...

Total monthly income.................... £2,000
Total monthly expenses.................. £2,293

That's your first problem. If those numbers are correct, you're getting almost £300 further into debt every month. That should set alarm bells ringing. You need to tackle this ASAP.

Total unsecured debts.......... £15,596.32

That's your second problem. But you can't begin to tackle this until you've got some spare money each money.

So, before you can do anything else, you need to look very hard at your income and expenditure. While you're spending more than you're earning, things are only going to get worse. I would suggest you give CAB/CCCS/whoever a ring and talk through your situation. You might be able to cut your outgoings, or you might be entitled to further benefits. Sooner or later, you're going to have to find a solution, so don't delay!

Superbiatch

evherkes wrote: »

My little girl is 2.5, she goes in 5 days a week so it works out just less than £52.50 a day. My only family is my mum and little brother (11) and my mum also works full-time. I am trying to cut down on food shopping considerably and alothough I should be the size of a house I'm always hungry but trying to eat more porridge and stuff that will fill me up. All the vegs are so expensive and I have to buy them more than once a week for my little girl to keep her fit and healthy!

I have a house in Milton Keynes. I lived ion flat before and had a terrible experience so I needed a house and that is about the right price for Milton Keynes in a safe area of MK with a decent catchment school (I dont want my daughter to miss out) and to be fair that is a good price, most of them were £825pm!

Before paying your debts you are getting over £300 further into debt a month - with debts over £500 - you need a wake up call. Without sounding like I'm being harsh but you seriously can't afford to live in a house (unless you can of course rent out a room?) or to spend £250 a month on groceries.

You can buy decent frozen veg too, it doesn't always have to be fresh. Where do you do your shopping? Farmfoods, Iceland and Aldi, Lidl etc all do good frozen veg (I'm a food snob, but even i go there) and just purchase fresh veg once a week from your local fruit and veg shop.

I can understand you want your daughter to grow up in a good area with the best things around her, but what message is being sent by getting yourself further into debt? Does her father contribute at all btw?

Please don't take this the wrong way, its purely constructive criticism and i wish you all the best in getting it sorted out soon

leveller2911

OP , I've just done a search on Zoopla for Milton Keynes for 2 bedroom houses to rent.There are 2 pages of properties where you can save around £100 per month on your rent alone.Thats just from one site so you really need to start living within your means.Paying £750 per month in rent for 1 adult and 1 child outside of London is rediculous.If you currently have 3 bedrooms and move to 2 it should save some on the council tax banding too......

Secondly how much is the car worth? Will selling the car ,paying off the finance and buying cheaper be an option?.

opinions4u

If you're using the car for work, do you claim all the expenses that you're entitled to?

How many business miles do you do and what do they pay you for them (e.g. 40p a mile)?

You've stated that the payments on the M&S loan are nil. Is this right?

Nursery costs: ouch! It's tough going. Are there any friends who don't work who can help out for a bit here?

Car: is it worth changing to a smaller car with a smaller engine (lower insurance / road tax)?

I suspect you're already tight with gas, electricity and water - keep on with that (lights off, don't leave TV on standby etc, taps off, heating off / jumper on etc).

Does Dad pay any maintenance?

Do you have PPI on any loans (potential to reclaim and clear some debts maybe)?

I don't envy you and admire you for facing in to this. Is moving back in with Mum an option (care on impact on benefits)? Lodger (ideally a friend)?

Good luck.

kazwookie

I live in MK and manage to buy plenty of fruit and veg good quality at low cost.

Market
Lidl
Aldi
Sunday MK bowl, veg stand / pitch just to the right of the main entrance.
Main supermarkets are not that bad either

Mk has a good bus service, sounds like you need to down size your car, or ask if you can have a pool car from work for when you have to attend to work business, then your own car insurance would be less.

But untill you get your monthly outgoings lower than your income you are always going to have a problem and it is going to get bigger. You need to move to somewhere smaller ASAP.