Erm - opinions please? SOA

pinkthinks

Forgive me - new poster having just realised that I have more going out than coming in.

Incomings:

Salary - £1258
Child Benefit - £69.80
CSA (altho only guaranteed if he pays it, lol) - £69
Partner - £250 (believe me he has more debt than me)

Total £1646

Outgoing:

FD P Loan - £239 (9 months paid 51 remaining) APR 7.9% £9601 settlement fig. as of today
Egg c/card - £110 (have fixed slightly over min payment) APR 15.9%. Balance £4800 limit £5000
Tesco c/card - £50 (am paying over fixed payment) APR 16.9%. Balance £1000 limit £1500
Council Tax - £112
Electricity - £50
Phone/internet - £50
Water - £15
Water - £28
Car ins - £32
Diesel - £80
Childcare - £54
Child karate (!) - £32
Food - £200
Sky - £15
House Iins - £16

Total £1708

Am now v. scared as don't know how I am paying these bills. Sorry to post here, but if anyone can give me some tips or words of wisdom - I have had that lightbulb moment and would like to claw my way out of this mess.

bobbie78

HI Pinkthinks, well done on posting your soa it is one of the first steps to debt freedom. I'm not so hot on doing these but hopefully some people will spot this tomorrow when there are more people about and go through it with a fine tooth comb. One question you have water in there twice is that correct or is one an arrears payment?

Good luck and keep posting, read through the debt diary's for inspiration that things can be sorted, and join a challenge or two and you'll be super motivated and an MSE'r in no time.

Rikki

There are always changes to be made with your food bill.
Sky can be cancelled if you are out of your 12 month contract.
Council tax is paid over 10 months not 12 is this what you have calculated in your budget?
You have 2 water amounts?
No gas?

You are doing the right thing over paying on your cards, but is that affordable at the moment.
Straighten everything out first and then make the over payments.
Where do you think you can save money?

CLAPTON

it would be better for yourself and everyone reading it if you reorganised your SOA

as

income ..as you have it

spending.....
exclude debt repayments

spending total

then debt repayment
...
...

debt total and debt repayment total

also
do you spend any thing on

rent/mortgage
car tax
car MOT
car servicing
car repairs
RAC/AA
clothes
presents/xmas
socialising
work related ..lunches/coffees
haircut, debtal/optical/dental
magazine/newspaper
holidays

also
why doesn't OH contribute more than 200

how many in your household

do you rent or are you buying

Smashing

Who is your phone/internet provider? £50 seems mightily expensive.
How many people is £200 feeding? Do you cook from scratch? Check out the old style boards to cut this down.
How often are karate lessons?
SKY is an obvious luxury that can go
Diesel - any way to reduce your jouneys? Walking/cycling/public transport etc.
Have a good root through the house and start ebaying things that aren't needed/used - dvd's, cd's etc.
Water listed twice - is one of these amounts for gas? Who are your providers? Have you shopped around for the best deal?
Any scope to increase earnings - overtime, part-time job etc?

looby75

hi pinkthinks

Congrats on your first post here, you have done the hardest and scariest part already!

Ok you have a pretty tight budget, and I'm sure you already know what I'm going to suggest needs to go first seeing as you have already kind of highlighted it. Your childs Karate lessons, not necessarily completely, maybe you can get them cheaper at your local community/leisure centre (here they give martial arts lessons for £2.50 a week, ok only once a week but better than nothing at all)

second thing is sky. I know it's a nice thing to have, but when things are really tight review via the sky box you already have will save you another £15 a month.

you also have 2 payments for water, £15 and £28, do you have to pay both, if so why?

hth a bit

roswell

I dont mean to offend but at this stage I would take a walk to the Citizens Advice Beaure with all the documentation you have and get advice from them there isnt a lot to pick at there, you can save 15 on sky but its not goign to give you £30 to get a freeview box, if your child enjoys karate then i wouldnt stop them going so really you dont have much to play with and if you have any emergancies eg washing machine breaks / boiler stops working etc your pretty much stuffed.
it wont make much differance if we can find £50 in there because its not going to improve the situation to a level where you can make a differance to your debt level.

Timmne

roswell wrote:

I dont mean to offend but at this stage I would take a walk to the Citizens Advice Beaure with all the documentation you have and get advice from them there isnt a lot to pick at there, you can save 15 on sky but its not goign to give you £30 to get a freeview box, if your child enjoys karate then i wouldnt stop them going so really you dont have much to play with and if you have any emergancies eg washing machine breaks / boiler stops working etc your pretty much stuffed.
it wont make much differance if we can find £50 in there because its not going to improve the situation to a level where you can make a differance to your debt level.

Well at least you made OP feel better about the situation!!

Anyway my suggestions....

Cut sky = £15 saving
Food bills cut to £35/wk = £48 saving - get yourself a little diary and each week write down what you're spending on food etc - you'll be surprised how regimented you become!!
Cut karate (harsh but in this circumstance fair) = £32 saving - send kiddy to the park!!

That's already a £95 per month saving, which'll give you a bit of space to get a freeview box - with tesco clubcard through quidco of course!!

Do you have the scope to get a new CC to balance transfer to? There's a new HSBC 15 month 0% one which is being raved about; could you get this do you think? This could save you another £60-70 in interest each month, which could in turn be paying off your debts faster in a snowball stylee way....

HTH - It's OK once you've started on the road to debt freedom - the lightbulb moment is incredible what it can do to your attitude to debt!

lynzpower

hi there

Im wondering about your partner giving you 250 pcm. Is this for half of food/board/overheads, only it doesnt seem to be coming close to fiar if it is.

Could you ask him for more?

( hope ive got that right )

tyllwyd

I don't know what the relationship is between you and your OP, but I'm assuming he pays the rent and gives you £250 for bills? If your relationship is long term, would it help if you did your budget together, then you can work out a way for your family to move forward.

By the way, you haven't put any tax credits in there - are you claiming any?

sanfrancisco

I don't think you have added it up properly??? The below comes to 1093. Have I made an error?

FD P Loan - £239 (9 months paid 51 remaining) APR 7.9% £9601 settlement fig. as of today
Egg c/card - £110 (have fixed slightly over min payment) APR 15.9%. Balance £4800 limit £5000
Tesco c/card - £50 (am paying over fixed payment) APR 16.9%. Balance £1000 limit £1500
Council Tax - £112
Electricity - £50
Phone/internet - £50
Water - £15
Water - £28
Car ins - £32
Diesel - £80
Childcare - £54
Child karate (!) - £32
Food - £200
Sky - £15
House Iins - £16