My SOA - Quite shocked!

Tixy

I don't think your SoA is as bad as you feel.
First do you have the £80 or so left each month? do you know where its going? aside from what your overdraft costs you is the rest of that £80 reducing the overdraft each month?

If you do have the small surplus then whilst you can make some improvements to your outgoings it would appear its not essential to and certainly not at the point to be thinking of stopping your repayment mortgage.

Is there something specific you want to save for? or is it just that you want to clear the debts and have some savings for emergencies.

If you do have say £50 of the £80 surplus, and if you cut groceries by £80-£100, cut clothing in half, saving £25 and cancel ww, then you should end up with a surplus of say £175 a month, that should give you a reasonable amount to put towards your debts on top of the minimums.

A couple of other things - water seems high for one person, possibly consider a meter for this or if on a meter investigate if you have leaks etc. Also instead of cancelling phone & internet maybe see if there is a slightly cheaper package out there? Eg if you are with orange or o2 for mobile they do good deals for landline & broadband. The cheapest deal is about £16 a month for both, but only available in some areas, still its worth investigating before you decide to get rid altogether.

Squirrel1980

Thanks for all the replies! Really useful stuff! Feeling very motivated now!!

NeverAgain wrote: »

Keep the proper internet at home and bin the stupid smartphone would be a reasonable compromise.

A £15.99 PAYG Nokia will make calls, do texts, has a camera, play MP3s etc etc.

I wonder about the union subscription, only you will know your business, but many unions these days seem very good at meetings and conferences for paid officials, but useless when it comes to looking after a member in difficulty.

I have to say, I'd rather live without telly and internet than my iphone. (I know that probably seems rediculous to most people) I'm also tied into another year on a contract... so I think I'll investigate ways of switching to a cheaper deal or PAYG.

My union are generally considered to be a bit rubbish, but if I'm going to work privately they are the best people to have backing me up for liability. So I've decided that from now on, to even warrant paying them I need to work privately and if not, there's really no point.

de1amo wrote: »

i should think your mortgage company will require proof that you will have some sort of 'savings' instrument before letting you go onto interest only.

I phoned them and you're absolutely right. They said that without savings I'd need proof of my inheritence and pension plan. I think its something I might consider if I get desperate... but perhaps after I know I've cut back in every other possible area.

bouncyd!!! wrote: »

Get shot of your mobile, and go PAYG, reduce your groceries spend by 50%, get rid of the weightwatchers and try and reduce your fuel costs - that should give you £200 per month.

Thanks for this. The groceries are going to be the first and biggest change I think, I'll check out that board.

I've already stopped the weight watchers payments, I do it online and know it off by heart now anyway so thats a tenner saved!

Fuel costs are rediculously high. Unfortunately, its all for work... I do 70-80 miles a day and because I work all over my county with no regular trips I've found it really difficult to set up any kind of car shares. So I will try to cut down by driving more slowly! Also thinking about parking up a 30min walk away from work... thus using (slightly) less petrol and getting some exercise everyday!

Squirrel1980

Pollycat wrote: »

Hi Squirrel
you should be able to cut quite a bit from your grocery spend (our average spend over the last 60 months - yes, I really am that anal ) for me & OH is less than £170 per month.
That includes all cleaning stuff and beer & wine.
And it incldues all the bits of stuff like the odd pint of milk or loaf of bread.
And we eat very well indeed.

But, you need to be organised and plan your meals and (if possible - do you have a freezer?) cook in bulk.

The Old-style board does have some really good advice.
If I buy packs of mince, say 400gm, I buy 4 and split them into 5 portions of 320gm (just over 3/4lb each), which makes it cheaper per portion/meal.

Do you buy premium brands e.g. Heinz beans?
Check out Martin's downsize challenge.
I can't find the link to it but the idea is to drop a brand:
if you buy premium, drop to own brand
if you buy own brand, drop to saver

If you can't tell the difference: great but if you can: just step back up.
I will not compromise on toilet rolls, coffee and tea!
However, I buy these when they are bogof or half price.
Can I admit that I have 70 Quilted Velvet toilet rolls in my garage - but they were all bought at half usual price or less. :T
Same with Kenco Colombian & Costa Rican - quite often this is on offer in Co-op or Tesco, so I stock up then.

Water rates @ £40 per month:
Are you on a meter?
If not, is this an option?
We are on a meter and pay just over £20 pm.

I also think you can reduce your £50 pm clothes spend and possibly your £30 pm gifts.
Who do you buy for?
It might be an idea to ask if they'd agree to only buy token presents or even drop it altogether - they might even welcome the suggestion.

What is the £50 per month under 'rent'?

I wouldn't give up the TV or internet at this stage.

Do you buy take-away coffees from Starbucks or glossy magazines or new lippys?

You might be spending money that's not included in your SOA so maybe that's another place to check out.

Good luck.

Thanks Polly! I am genuinely shocked at how much I spend on groceries! Simply filling out the form and going through the last months bank statements, adding up all the money spent in Sainsburys (yes, I know, stupidly expensive supermarket!!) has been an eye-opener. I have to admit to being a bit of a foodie, tend to go for all the premium, organic, fancy-pants stuff! Also do lots of entertaining for friends.

All this will be cut right back, for sure! I'm so pleased I bit the bullet and added up my grocery spend.

lvm wrote: »

I have an iPhone and have only ever had it on PAYG (given my poor credit history I would have never got a contract anyway).

I top up £15 a month and I get 500 texts and unlimited 3G and Wifi - and I can use the £15 for calls if I need to. The good thing is the calls are never too expensive so I've currently got over £70 in credit that I think O2 would let me put towards a bill when I eventually will be accepted for a contract phone.

Also...with regards to the groceries. Do you buy a lot of junk food? I'm just taking a guess seen as you're on Weight Watchers as well. The best thing I do is I have a credit card with a £260 limit and I use this only for petrol and food so once I hit the limit, that's me. I used to withdraw £100 on payday to last me the month for food and that definitely helped too.

With regards to the CC you've got - who is it with? If an MBNA kind of card you could give them a call and ask if they have any 0% balance transfer deals you could take £2k from to get rid of that overdraft. Only if you're paying for the overdraft though and you have a £2k limit available.

Seems like you're in an excellent position so hardly any changes are needed - just some small tweaks that would save you a bit extra!

Good luck!

Thanks!

I'm with vodaphone and on a contract with a year to go. I am definitely going to phone them though and see if I can change my deal.

No junk food for me, not for the last year anyway but I am a big foodie, I like all the expensive stuff. But this is changing as of yesterday I'm downgrading! Also going to bulk cook and freeze as has been recommended by pretty much everyone!

My cc is now interest free for 20 months (Barclay Platinum).

I realise I'm not in masses of debt but I'm just starting to feel like I'm losing control and, given another year, I could be in a very bad state. I was motivated to do this because I want to take a career break and go travelling at some point in the next 3 years. So really its a case of saving up as much money as possible... But now I have a decent enough reason to do it I will be able to think "Shall I buy sirloin steak for me and a few of my friends, or would I rather go to Ghana?" and I think this will motivate me!

orangesmartie wrote: »

Your water rates are really high for a single person. I was thinking that!! Are you getting your single person discount? I think so... I have now added this to my list of things to do. I live in Devon where our water authority is the rip off South West Water. I'm in Somerset, but you clearly pay much less than I do!! I pay £13 a month and I'm still in credit every quarter (That's the lowest they allow the DDs apparently). So give them a call and make sure your a) getting your discount and b) adjusting your payments to a better level. Thanks, I shall definitely do this!

You also appear to have a small surplus at the end of each month - do you actually have this? No, I definitely dont have any surplus, so I must be spending it on things here and there. If not, start a spending diary and see where it goes - it'll be make up here, magazine there, chocolate bar or even car parking etc - its amazing how much money we unconsciously spend every month. I think almost ALL of my spending is unconscious... thankfully, I think this thread has woken me up!!

If you want to reduce your telephone internet, take a look at Martin's tips. Last summer I switched to Plusnet internet at £6.49p/m with 4 months free, which actually made the cost £4.33p/m and switched my home telephone to Primus for (i think) £8.99p/m. I don't use my home phone a lot (i really have it for BB access) so I haven't had a bill over £10, so if that's an option for you, that will save you another £10p/m.

This is brilliant advice, I'm out of contract now so I shall check out Martins tips and those companies... thankyou!

Your mortgage is a really good price so I wouldn't change to interest only if you can avoid it.

Consider also whether you can drop down on your present fund from £30p/m - this equates to £360 per year (on the other hand you may have a big family). I have a big family but also lots of generous friends who I feel I have to keep up with. I'm going to talk to everyone and explain that I'm trying very hard to save money and could we cut down on gifts. I make good cakes, everyone wil get a cake from now on!!

Squirrel1980

woofwoofwoof wrote: »

The one thing on your SOA that is very necessary is buildings insurance and you don't seem to have any. This is more important that contents insurance so maybe have a look at that.

I live in a new-build flat, so my buildings insurance is covered within the service charges I pay every quarter (the £50 'rent' I pay every month)

Tixy wrote: »

I don't think your SoA is as bad as you feel. I think maybe I've missed off a lot of the 'here and there' spending that doesn't obviously come up on my statements. I know its not terrible, but I can see it getting worse slowly and gradually each month so I guess I'm trying to nip it in the bud.

Is there something specific you want to save for? or is it just that you want to clear the debts and have some savings for emergencies. I want to feel financially stable (I have a good job and earn enough to care for myself so feel I have no excuses!) But i also want to take a career break and go travelling. Hence the desire to save as much as possible, as quickly as possible.

Thanks for the rest of your feedback on my SOA

:beer:

bouncydog1

If you have the time, you could shop at different places for stuff. I get all cleaning stuff at the Co-op but only the stuff on special including washing powder etc. Also buy pasta's there. I buy meat at M & S but again only 3 for 2's or other specials. Toiletries I buy at Boots on special and get the points....and on it goes. Have now managed to reduce our family food spend to between £50 & £70 per week - sounds expensive but we live offshore and so everything is more expensive.

Slowdown

Whatever you do don't stop paying these.
You may at some point need them to back you up. As a teacher I would never consider not being in a union. Don't forget there is a principle behind unions as a support system and a representative of your rights as a worker.

de1amo

i think when i see people's SOA's and the rate of their mortgage i always ask myself what their interest rate is? i always focus on my mortgage because it is my biggest outgoing. İ am on a svr rate of 2pc and i am curious to know what rate your on?

timbstoke

A few tips from me:

- Don’t get depressed, get motivated. You know you’re getting by on your current expenses, so instead of looking at how much you’re spending, look at how much you’re stripping off your expenses every time you tweak something. It gets addictive!
- Downshifting can make a massive difference to your grocery shopping. You’ll soon figure out the areas you’re not prepared to compromise on (for me, I won’t use cheap bread, beer or teabags, I’m still experimenting with other things) and I’ve actually found some value brands better than the premium brands I was buying before.
- Put your SOA into a spreadsheet. Every month, redo it in the next column, and make the cell a bold, bright green where you’ve made improvements. Again, this gets addictive.
- Get a prepaid card and use it for budgeting. If you’re allowing yourself a £70 grocery budget, load the card with £70 before you leave, and use it to pay. It cuts down on impulse spends drastically, because every impulse buy then has to replace something you’ve budgeted for or the card will be declined. O2 and Orange both do these, and they’re fantastic for this purpose alone.
- Don’t forget to allow yourself the occasional treat. Saving money gets addictive, but not *that* addictive!
- If your internet use is only occasional browsing, see if you can use your iPhone as a portable wifi hotspot - I know Android phones can do this, but iPhone's may be a little more restrictive here. If you can, you can cancel the internet and use your iPhone for your computers wireless access instead.

Pollycat

Pollycat wrote: »

Water rates @ £40 per month:
Are you on a meter?
If not, is this an option?
We are on a meter and pay just over £20 pm.

What is the £50 per month under 'rent'?

I think you've had your LBM before things have got out of hand and there seems lots of places that you could save money.

curlytop12

hi there,
wow,some fab advice given-have been hitting the print button to use it myself!
have you compared union fees at all?RCN v UNISON etc.also,if you work less than full time hours some unions charge you less.
also,make sure you are claiming tax relief on your union fees,professional subscriptions,registration fees,uniform costs.
whats saved me loads monthly (i was queen fritterer)is making a list of everything in cupboards/fridge/freezer then doing a shopping list around this.
also working out a weekly budget,taking it out as cash every thursday(payday is thurs)and making it last.
good luck:)