Cant do this anymore - SOA

miradene

I see you have posted an updated SOA. It took me so long to write my last reply you posted before I did!! :rotfl:

miradene

Perhaps it is getting too late but I can't see where you have included your monthly payments to your unsecured debt(capital one, Edinburgh Building Soc etc..) in your outgoings?

Jules69B

Car insurance is for both cars. hubbie has always been on my insurance but this year we started him his own policy so it is higher but he needs to earn his own ncd.
We are pretty healthy so we dont use prescriptions unless absolutely essential, and only the kids go to the dentist as we cant afford even nhs costs. Hubbie needs lots of work done and some false teeth but last quote was £450 so he wont go back.
Child related expenses, this is for the rugby club fees, and football club subs. no school trips included as cant remember when i last paid for one.
Bank charges are due to bounced direct debits, dates are skewed at mo so missed several payments in one week.
Car is worth about £800 and van is worth about £1200 I guess. we cant afford to sell them as we wouldnt get back what we have paid out so far. new gearbox for the car cost us £1400 last year.
£600 for groceries includes all the shower gels, shampoo, washing powder etc but I am going to take a good look and see where I can cut down that. I do buy joints and make our own fillings. I do buy a lot of fruit and veg as the kids will eat a whole bowl of fruit in minutes. I make bulk dinners and freeze any left overs. I make cakes and sometimes bread for the lunches, usually when the oven is on already. I need to try to do a proper shop rather than keep popping to the shop for more bread etc as I always come back with more than I went for.
Hubbies baccy costs at least £14 per week but there is nowhere on the soa to put that. He wont give up or cut down. Rabbit food, hay and wood shavings for the 2 rabbits cost £24 ish per month plus fresh veg.

I am going to start tomorrow logging down every penny that I spend as I know I dont have £500 spare at the end of the month so it has to be spent somewhere.

Thankyou
Jules

Jules69B

miradene wrote: »

Perhaps it is getting too late but I can't see where you have included your monthly payments to your unsecured debt(capital one, Edinburgh Building Soc etc..) in your outgoings?

all currently unsorted. Capital One keeps going away and coming back under different debt collecteors.
the Edinburgh building society one is from an old mortgage that was repossessed in 1997 but they have started chasing me in the last 6 months. I have tried to dismiss it using the legislation regarding old mortgages but apparently it doesnt apply to my debt??
Jules

swimsink

I'm sorry this is a really unhelpful post but your rent is £360pcm and you have four kids? That's crazy i'm paying £500 a month for a 2 bed apartment. Sorry again just shocked! Good luck getting your situ sorted x

Hughesy84

Jules69B wrote: »

Bank charges are due to bounced direct debits, dates are skewed at mo so missed several payments in one week.

Car is worth about £800 and van is worth about £1200 I guess. we cant afford to sell them as we wouldnt get back what we have paid out so far. new gearbox for the car cost us £1400 last year.

I do buy joints and make our own fillings.

I am going to start tomorrow logging down every penny that I spend as I know I dont have £500 spare at the end of the month so it has to be spent somewhere.

Thankyou
Jules

Ok some simple things

1 - Get your direct debits all set up for the same date, straight after pay day.

2 - You have a car worth £800, yet you paid £1400 for a new gearbox?? Sorry but you should have just scrapped it (money back for scrap) and bought another car for say £800.

3 - :rotfl:Now I see your real problem....your smoking joints and making your own fillings, so growing lights are what is costing your in elec (just kidding with that one)

4 - Great idea, and really highlights where you might be wasting money, simple things like newspapers can cost a fair bit a week, but ask yourself do you need them if you have the internet etc......get it all wrote down

Hughesy84

swimsink wrote: »

I'm sorry this is a really unhelpful post but your rent is £360pcm and you have four kids? That's crazy i'm paying £500 a month for a 2 bed apartment. Sorry again just shocked! Good luck getting your situ sorted x

All depends on where you live and how flash it is.

Where I live you could get a 3 or 4 bed semi for the same money your spending.

swimsink

Your right, i just imagine you must have a 3-4 bed house at least it seems crazy!
It is a brand new apartment i would have rathered a house but i feel safer alone in an apartment.
Sorry i apologise going completely off topic!

FireWyrm

Hi Jules,

Sorry to hear about this. Nine times out of ten, the reason people are sinking is because they are spending more than they think. This might sound obvious, but it's a real shocker when you actually analyse what you spend where. When I kept a spending diary, I was appalled at how much was going on incidentals like milk etc. Every trip to the corner shop was £50, we were spending double in petrol than what I had thought and budgeted for. Your first step is analysis. You cant figure out what to fix if you dont know where it's going.

Jules69B wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 4 I have 2 chilren under 8 so it's comparable
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1083
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1450
Benefits...Child benefit................ 186
Other income......Tax Credits........ 7.56
Total monthly income.................... 2726.56 You earn more than I do.

Monthly Expense Details
Rent.................................... 360.32

Council tax............................. 129 Reasonable and nothing you can do about this. Put this in the 'MUST' column
Electricity............................. 80 Not reasonable. Check out the comparison sites and then reduce your usage. I spent £62 a month and I could do better just by shutting off things on stand-by. Get yourself an energy monitor to see where you are using the power and what to do about it
Gas..................................... 44 Shop around
Water rates............................. 55 Unfortunately a 'MUST' and not allot you can do, so this one has to stay 'as is'
Mobile phone............................ 20 PAYG or Contract?
TV Licence.............................. 12.75
Internet/Cable TV/phone .............. 80.00 Yikes! You can reduce this by at least £30 a month. My entire TV, Broadband and Telephone package is £50 a month and I think that's excessive.
Groceries etc. ......................... 600.00 You can reduce this, I promise. I feed two adults, two children and three cats on between £85 and £120 a month. You can too. See some of my threads on the Old Style board for ideas.
Petrol/diesel........................... 90 pw This is killing you, you have to do something about this. Any chance of a car share, public transport, bike or walking?
Road tax................................ 320 py Nothing you can do short of downgrading your car, but if you're in trouble, this might be worth thinking about. I drive a crappy little peugeot for work and I pay £35 a year!
Car Insurance........................... 130 pm Definately too much. Shop around. I pay £40 and £32 respectively for my two cars.
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 30pm Every month?
Car parking............................. 20pm
Bank account charges 16pm ? Seriously? Every month? This you can definately do something about....
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 300 py What are these and can you reduce them?
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Bank charges varies but average..........70pm Again? Every month! this is your number one priority to get rid of. You shouldnt be fined every month. Call the bank and see if you can re-organise your finances so this stops.
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 23pm
Life assurance ......................... 9pm
Other insurance......................... 24pm Building insurance?
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50pm This is savings? Every month? That's $600 a year. Can you reduce this? Token christmas presents for outer family and reduced presents for the kids
Haircuts................................ 50pq This should go, if not, you could look around for a better place with a better price.
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2184.73
Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1200
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 1200


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 0
Total secured & HP debts......

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Utilities.......................2500 water not sorted yet
Council tax……………………. 4210 attachment of earnings taken before wages paid
Capital one 600
Edinburgh mortgage company 9600
Phillips debt collection (re cars not sorned) 160
Dad for car 1300
mum 240

Total unsecured debts.......... 18610


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income....................2726.56
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2183.73

Excess ???? £542.83 Obviously, this isnt true or you wouldnt be in the mess. My guess is that most is going on incidental spending every month. You might want to look into this.

WestonDave

A few random thoughts that might help...

Re your internet. My wife works from home basically online fulltime up to 100 hours a month working on her employers system. We have an AOL package for £9.99 per month, plus £12 line rental which covers all calls to local and national numbers 24/7 - we only pay for calls to mobiles (which you should be able to cover within your mobile?) and to 0845/0870 type numbers. So on that basis you are paying roughly £50 per month for cable TV - cut it off at the next renewal and find something else to do.

Re the water rates - is it worth considering a water meter (if this is possible with your landlord). We have a family of 4 (including 2 small children who used to share a daily bath) and were paying less than £50 per month metered.

Similarly you are overpaying for electricity - we run an instant heat electric shower, use the tumble dryer too much and still pay less than that per month (ours is around £50).

Car insurance - have a look at dual car policies - Admiral do one which is a dual car one, Direct Line give you a 5% discount off if you insure a second car with them. Ours was £430 for two cars worth say £1500 and £6000 so you are massively overpaying - albeit that I suspect its the van getting hammered or it may be connected to your car having a massive engine hence drinking the petrol.