My SOA

MonstersMummy

OK, finally got round to doing this!!

There is myself (not working) and my 2 boys - 5 and 2.

When I write them all down it doesn't sound like a lot so I'm hoping it isn't and I should be able to get it sorted pretty quickly, please tell me if I'm living in a dream world though!!!

Total Income (Inc benefits/maintenance some paid weekly some monthly so have done the weeklies as x52/12 to get a month figure):
£1075

Debts:
Lloyds CC £4625.85 Repay £100ca
Next £1242.47 Repay £130ca
M&S Chargecard £328.06 Repay £10ca
Sofa £3593.64 (at 0% so not so concerned with this) Repay £171.12

Total Debt £9790.02

Monthly Bills:
3 mobile £40
Pipex Landline £18ca.
Tesco Internet £17.97
Lottery Subscription £9
NTL Cable £4
TV License £10.99
Car Insurance £26
Electric £47.50 (just increased)
Gas £33

Other:
Preschool £152
Petrol £87ca
Food £173 (but drastically reducing that on the Jan grocery challenge! Aiming for £80ca this month)

I'm going to look into merging the landline with the broadband with talktalk to cut that down. Am cutting both gas and electric usage but wont have an affect on bills for a while.
Oh and Water was £200 last quarter but that included 2 refills of a swimming pool and bath/showers for 6 people not 3 so will not be anywhere near as high this time round.
I'm cutting the preschool hours down as he's not funded yet so will drop from £35p/w to £14p/w.
Am also looking into, tomorrow, moving my son to a different school - one that isn't 7.5 miles away so we can walk instead and will only need the car for shopping cutting my fuel bill to about £10 p/m!!!
I haven't listed leisure or clothes because we all have enough clothes to last a good 6 months or longer and I only go out if I have a spare £10...bit of a hermit me!!

Please let me know what you think.

Thank you.

oscar52

People know more then me, but heres my view.

firstly DO NOT go to talktalk - and i say that as a current customer (moving to pipex when contract up in march). they are useless and will just piddle you about saying not my problem, its his, no its his - get the picture? Pipex got curent deal for broadband and ulimited calls for £25 - need bt line though.

Also as well as other cuts you mention, try curring mobile bill.

As your nor working (or i assume as you mention benefits, give ebay a go for extra cash. go to uswitch - check your getting good deal for electric/gas - then if needed use quidco to switch and get money back as well.

CLAPTON

the debts...you haven't listed the APRs of the debts but pay the minimum on each debt except the one with the highest APR and on that one pay as much as possible .
try putting your numbers into the snowball calculator

http://www.whatsthecost.co.uk/snowball.aspx

things look quite good but you haven't included any of the oneoff or annual costs (e.g. presents, car tax, RAC/AA, car servicing , clothes (you're bound to buy something over the next year), xmas costs, any holidays)..with these work out everything you will spend over the NEXT 12 months, divide by 12 and add to your monthly budget and save these monthly sums in a saving a/c so when you need the money it will be there and you wont have to use CC to pay.

i'm assuming the rent and CT are being paid for you.

best of luck

MonstersMummy

Thanks guys.
Oscar, I had heard bad reports about talk talk on watchdog a while ago but thought theymight have it sorted by now!
I'm tied to the mobile til may but can reduce the contract to £25 next month, just got to work out how much I'm using on it first to see if will be worthwhile.
The gas and electric were done through uswitch middle of last year and I get the annual discount for them so will keep them as is for now, til that comes through anyway!

Clapton, I've just worked out all the APRs, the highest being Next but thought I'd try and clear the M&S first as its so small. Will have to look at that calculator though.
Presents for the kids are taken care of for the next 4 years due to hand me downs from my cousins (have 3 huge boxes of toys and games in the attic!!!) and everyone else gets homemade! We dont do holidays (my kids think going to my mums for the weekend is a holiday so I'm happy with that!!), my aa is covered with my bank and I service my car my self (proper money saver!!!) so its just the tax/mot I've missed off there.
Yes my rent and and council tax are all covered through my benefits which is a relief as they were just over £400 a month before.

MonstersMummy

I've just done that snowball link! Wow!! Only 18 months (not including sofa as thats 0%) to pay off next, the cc and m&s!!
I've added everything in and adjusted according to my cutbacks I'm now making (leaving the utilities as they are) and leaving my self some money to play with/not including any extras such as money made from ebay/amazon. So I've got a realistic figure of waht I can pay each month towards them. Anything else I can add to that will obviously be a bonus and knock them down quicker.
18months!!!! And I can clear all but the cc by July this year!!

Thank you!