Sharpey's Diary - SOA

sharpey79gfc

Hi everyone,

I've been around these boards for more than 2 years now, mosty around the discounts / vouchers board and have up until now only posted every now and again.

However, a new year and a new beginning I am this year committed, with a little help & support from you guys, to clearing as much of my debt as possible.

I have put together my SOA in as much detail as possible below:

Income
Salary - £2,725.53

Fixed Monthly Expenditure
Mortgage (fixed for 5 years @ 6.89% - 2.5 years remain on fixed deal ) - £1,040.24
Car HP (3 years @3.1% end Nov 2007) - £213.18
Council Tax - £100.00
Gas / Electric (Powergen )- £54.00
Home Insurance (Norwich Union) - £32.57
Telewest (TV,Phone & Broadband) - £32.49
Sofa Payment (0% for 3 years - around 34 payments left) - £31.42
Water Rates - £27.67
Super Kind Bed Payment (0% for 3 years - around 22 payments left) - £25.27
Mobile Phone (Vodafone 18 month contract - 9 months remain) - £18.00
TV Licence - £11.37
Pet Insurance (Tesco - Westie 4 yeard old) - £8.13
Child Trust Fund - £5.00
Total Fixed Expenditure - £1,599.34

Variable Monthly Expenditure
Petrol - £175.00
Alliance & Leicester Credit Card (1.9% until 1st July 2007 - current balance £4,192.93) - £100.00
Egg Credit Card (3.9% until 1st June 2007 - current balance £4,180.77) - £110.00
Sunday Football Subs - £25.00
Monday 5-a-side Football Subs - £25.00
Total Variable Expenditure - £435.00

Monthly Savings
Xmas / Birthdays - £50.00
Car Insurance (paid in full annually) - £30.00
Total Savings - £80.00

Monthly Surplus Remaining - £611.19

A few notes to accompany the above.

My other half pays for all the monthly food bills so I don't have that expenditure

The main debts I want to clear this year are both my credit cards detailed above and the £550 outstanding on my new laptop (0% until 1st June 2007).

I also have around £29,500 unsecured loan tied in with my mortgage of £128,250 (both at 6.89%). I did this to consolidate all of my borrowings around 2.5 years ago in order to keep my head above water and enabled me to begin to turn the corner and see light at the end of the tunnel.

I am now determined to clear all of my unsecured this year apart from the £29,500 above, although eating into that too would be great! For info our house is currently worth around £155,000 at present.

Wow, its a real weight of my mind writing everthing down and getting it out in the open!

If anyone has any questions or advice at this point I would be most grateful.

I'll continue this post some more in the morning with some ideas I have at present in order to clear these debts but right now I've got to get some shut eye.

Thanks to you all in advance.

Sharpey

taxi73

Hi and welcome...you seem to have done a good job on your SOA
I can't see anything wrong with that...you seem to have everything covered...I suggest you keep a spending diary...as it's surprising how much money fritters away on nothing...your debt is all at a good rate and I think with determination you could clear these debts relatively quick...and in november you'll also have another £200+ (from car loan) to throw at the debt
There'll be plenty of others along to help you out shortly

bobbie78

HI sharpey, well done on posting your SOA. I'm new to all this too but I just wanted to say my spending diary has become a bible to me and it is a real revelation as to where the money vanishes too. All those 2 quids here and there suddenly start to add up really quickly and you realise where all the odd 10 quids out the cash point really go to.

Good luck with your debt free future and as Taxi said some nice people will be along soon with some suggestions to point you in the right direction.

moozie_2

Hello there

It's a pity you feel you have to change your name before you post on the debt free board I think that says a lot about how you feel about your situation.

Anyway, here are my thoughts....

sharpey79gfc wrote:

Income
Salary - £2,725.53

Fixed Monthly Expenditure
Mortgage (fixed for 5 years @ 6.89% - 2.5 years remain on fixed deal ) - £1,040.24
Car HP (3 years @3.1% end Nov 2007) - £213.18
Council Tax - £100.00
Gas / Electric (Powergen )- £54.00 Have you shopped around on this? It could be lowered, depending on size of your property.
Home Insurance (Norwich Union) - £32.57 Is this for contents and building? I think this can be lower too.
Telewest (TV,Phone & Broadband) - £32.49
Sofa Payment (0% for 3 years - around 34 payments left) - £31.42
Water Rates - £27.67
Super Kind Bed Payment (0% for 3 years - around 22 payments left) - £25.27
Mobile Phone (Vodafone 18 month contract - 9 months remain) - £18.00
TV Licence - £11.37
Pet Insurance (Tesco - Westie 4 yeard old) - £8.13
Child Trust Fund - £5.00
Total Fixed Expenditure - £1,599.34

Variable Monthly Expenditure
Petrol - £175.00 Can this be lowered at all? Make sure you get Tesco or Nectar points on it at the very least.
Alliance & Leicester Credit Card (1.9% until 1st July 2007 - current balance £4,192.93) - £100.00
Egg Credit Card (3.9% until 1st June 2007 - current balance £4,180.77) - £110.00
Sunday Football Subs - £25.00
Monday 5-a-side Football Subs - £25.00
Total Variable Expenditure - £435.00

Monthly Savings
Xmas / Birthdays - £50.00
Car Insurance (paid in full annually) - £30.00 £360 a year is high. Have you looked for alower option?
Total Savings - £80.00

Monthly Surplus Remaining - £611.19

A few notes to accompany the above.

My other half pays for all the monthly food bills so I don't have that expenditure

The main debts I want to clear this year are both my credit cards detailed above and the £550 outstanding on my new laptop (0% until 1st June 2007).

I also have around £29,500 unsecured loan tied in with my mortgage of £128,250 (both at 6.89%). Is it unsecured if it's tied to your mortgage? :confused: Also does your mortgage payment above includes this loan?

This is a good SOA although it would be better to list debts separately to your other bills. Also, there are things missing like haircuts/dental/any prescriptions/clothing/social etc

I suggest a spending diary for at least a month would help you identify where your money goes. Pay minimum on everything other than your highest APR card and once that is paid off, re-direct your payments to the next APR and so on. Have a look at whatsthecost.com for info on snowballing.

I don't understnad why your OH pays only for food. I assume the income and bills you stated are only for you. Are they not part of the mortgage/living with you?

I think the loan you have running parallel to the mortgage should be looked at. You clearly consolidated before and then run up the debts again. Been there done that Make sure this is the last time this happened as £37,800 odd in debt is not a light matter.

Best of luck and keep posting, I find it helps no end!

sharpey79gfc

Hi everyone,

Thanks for the welcomes and advice on the diary, I'll start that today and make sure I track every penny that I spend.

moozie - not sure what you mean about changing my name, its been the same since I joined MSE?!?!

Anyway, thanks for the advice and in response to your comments:

Gas/Electric - Powergen is not quite the cheapest but very nearly for me. But when you take into account that you receive tesco points for each £1 spent (equivalent to a 4% discount - with deal vouchers) it is the cheapest.

Home Insurance - This is for both buildings and contents and I agree this is probably too high and could be cheaper. I took a new policy out with Norwich Union just over 12 months ago when they gave me a special rate, since then it has increased and it needs looking at again.

Petrol - £175 is worse case scenario, it will probably be £20-£30 less than this each month, which will be a bonus. I religously get my petrol from Tesco just down the road from my work (again equivalent to 4% discount with deal vouchers)

Car Insurance - This is as cheap as I could get anywhere and even haggled them down on the phone from the online quotes I received. I'm only 27 and my car is only 2 years old (from new) so I think its quite reasonable. Believe me i've tried to get it down more :mad:

Mortgage / Unsecured loan - This is a northern rock together mortgage, where you can borrow more than 100%. My mortgage of £128,250 was for 95% of my property value at the time of £135,000. The additional £29,500 outstanding was unsecured on top of this but at the same fixed rate as my mortgage at 6.89%. The mortgage payment of £1040.24 includes both the secured and unsecured elements on a repayment basis.

This mortgage payment is one of my biggest gripes as I know I could probably get a lower rate but only once the value of my property excedes both the secured and unsecured elements, current value is estimated at £155,000. Also the redemption penalty is around £3,000 at the moment for terminating early.

The OH works from home. She looks after our little girl (whos nearly 3) and also childminds other children. She earns a minimal income really, so we agreed for her to keep her money and contribute to the house by paying the food bills, normally around £300 a month.

Cheers for the advice re: paying off the higher APR. Both my APR's on mycards are quite low at the moment (through a bit of tarting) but I shall put the lower APR to minimum payment and maximise the payments on the other. I'll see to that today! :T

As for other spend eg haircuts etc. I have my own set of clippers and give myself a No.1 all over so thats free! Clothes I normally only buy when I get vouchers for birthday in June & xmas as this seems to see me through each year.

As for social etc this needs to come from the residual amount I have left at the end of the month, which I will aim to keep to a minimum. I might join some of the various clubs of the DFW board to help me with this :T

My main downfall is take aways as both me and the OH both love our curries!! Must try to stop eating so many, its not good for the waist line either! :eek:

Thanks again moozie for having a good look at my SOA, its much appreciated and I hope the info above has shown my picture a bit clearer now. I'll keep posting as you suggest.

bobbie & taxi - thanks for your comments too. As for the car loan. I have my car on a 3 year PCP deal. At the end of 3 years I normally give the car back and take another new one for a similar monthly fee, I then know exactly how much I'm paying each month and don't have to worry about it going wrong either.

Thanks all

sharpey79gfc

Well apart from the new pic I found to update by profile I have managed to dig the depths of the internet to save money on my home building & contents insurance.

I have managed to cut this from the £32.57 per month with Norwich Union to around £18.50 per month with Budget Insurance. Will confirm the exact figures and annual saving when I cancel existing policy and take out the new one tomorrow. I might even get on the phone and see if I can haggle some more out of them!!

sharpey79gfc

Evening All,

Ok, I have cancelled my current home & contents insurance which was costing £32.57 per month, an annual cost of £390. My new policy cost me £201 although I had to pay a £28 cancellation charge on my old policy, therefore making an annual saving of £161.

Rather than paying off some of my credit cards this month with my surplus cash I have chosen to pay this insurance in one lump sum, saving their ridiculous APR of 18.5%. This will now reduce my outgoings by £32.57, so I will now save £16 a month fo next years bill and pay an extra £16 a month my highest APR card.

Was this the right thing to do and is this the right thing to do going forward, your thoughts would be most appreciated.

I will be targetting telewest tomorrow to try to haggle down my tv, braodband and phone as suggested by Martin in this weeks email. I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

moozie_2

sharpey79gfc wrote:

Well apart from the new pic I found to update by profile I have managed to dig the depths of the internet to save money on my home building & contents insurance.

I have managed to cut this from the £32.57 per month with Norwich Union to around £18.50 per month with Budget Insurance. Will confirm the exact figures and annual saving when I cancel existing policy and take out the new one tomorrow. I might even get on the phone and see if I can haggle some more out of them!!

Now that's more like it! Well done :T

I like the avatar too!

I am sorry about my comment on the new name etc. I really don't know what happened there I either got confused with another forum user or just lost the plot Glad the rest of my comments made some sense!

moozie_2

sharpey79gfc wrote:

Was this the right thing to do and is this the right thing to do going forward, your thoughts would be most appreciated.

Absolutely! I was planning to do this but my home insurance had 0% APR for paying monthly so I went with that instead and now pay an amount into savings each month so when it's due again, I can pay it off if the 0% interest is not available.

I think you definitely got the spirit of DFW/MSE there

sharpey79gfc wrote:

I will be targetting telewest tomorrow to try to haggle down my tv, braodband and phone as suggested by Martin in this weeks email. I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

I am sure you will do well on this. They are keen to keep people happy. I got my package down from £80 (incl calls) to £45 and now my evening and weekend local/national calls are free

sharpey79gfc

Thanks moozie.

The reassurance and encouragement helps no end and spurs me on to do even better.

When you get into this DFW mode it really grips you and is actuall quite fun, in a strange way!

bobbie78

hey well done :T great start sharpey all those 10 pound notes start to add up really fast so hopefully it will help. Add this money to the available money for debt repayments on snowball calculator and see how much that extra money will make your debt free date that much closer.