completed my SOA, what now?

tobymangel

hi all,
I have been following these boards for a few years now and feel as though I am definatly in a better state financially than what I would of been without the forum advice that I have read in the past.
Anyway I thought I would produce my SOA as I am currently off work due to injury and will only be recieving SSP payments for the next 2 weeks (minimum).And was looking yesterday at bank account outgoings while renewing house insurance and although from following advice on here when purchasing products thought it may be worth doing this in case someone spots something I have missed.

For a bit of background, I have my own home on mortgage bought 12 years ago on endowment policy.
I have one lodger who pays £260 a month into a seperate rent account which i also pay £240 into, this covers all the outgoings related to the house and has around £20 surplus which i let build up until needed.

A year ago I left my job where I was earning £21,000 due to stress, and have been in a minimum wage job for last 12 months.I have been coping ok on this wage but have obviously had to cut back, I think the big expenditure that is my problem would be the loan at £242 pm on my old wage this was ok, but is now more than a week wage.This still has around 12 months to run any advice on how to reduce this would be a help.
Before my injury I was thinking of getting a second job to cover this loan if I could do around 16 hrs a week on top of the 40 I am doing wouldn't be a problem as I was doing in excess of 50hrs in old job but how is tax going to affect this been warned it makes it not worth doing not sure if this is a myth or not.

On my SOA i have highlighted my BG 400 policy at £40 a month as I believe some savings could be made here as was looking into yesterday and canceled a home emergancy cover I had with them at £6.50 pm as dont feel it is needed due to the other cover?, the cover includes kitchen cover at £18pm for five appliances however looking at T&c's show they only pay out 30% on any appliance over 3yrs old well all items included are over this age so would I be better scrapping it and saving the money for new items?dont want to cancel the whole lot as the boiler cover has been a godsend previously and is a good service in my area - I know the engineer that usually comes.

Anyway I think the above shows I know where i'm going wrong just feel I need a bit further guidance in how to improve my situation



Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... [1]
Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 900
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 260
Total monthly income.................... 1160
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 65
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 250
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 102
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 30
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 22
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 11
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 55
Internet Services....................... 15
Groceries etc. ......................... 60
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 20
Road tax................................ 20
Car Insurance........................... 0 (paid for using amazon cc)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 6
Contents insurance...................... 9
Life assurance ......................... 88
Other insurance......................... 40 British Gas 400
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 15
Haircuts................................ 7
Entertainment........................... 40
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
season ticket football.................. 40 (10 months a year only)
Total monthly expenses.................. 1002

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 100000
Shares and bonds........................ 700
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 101700

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 32000....(65).......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 32000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
amazon cc......................130.......25........0
bank of scotland cc............1525......15........0
natwest loan...................2900......242.......9.97
Total unsecured debts..........4555......282.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,160
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,002
Available for debt repayments........... 158
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 282
Amount short for making debt repayments. -124
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 101,700
Total HP & Secured debt................. -32,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -4,555
Net Assets.............................. 65,145
Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

HappyMJ

It's quite simple really all you need to do is cancel Sky and the football season ticket. Do you claim tax credits?

Tixy

Hi Toby

Given the amount you are earning if you took on a second job all you would pay in tax would be 20% of what you earn. So if you did 10 hours in a second job at £7 a hour then you would earn £303 a month gross and pay tax of £61 leaving you with £242 extra a month. You wouldn't pay National insurance on the second job because your earnings for that job would be too low.

At the moment you are showing a shortfall of £124 a month - how have you been managing so far? are you falling further into debt each month? are you reusing credit on your credit card? do you have an overdraft and is that getting bigger?

Your other insurance does look very expensive - how does it breakdown? if the boiler cover is the thing you want how much are you paying for this? and have you considered looking to see if you can find a cheaper provider for boiler cover?

Your life insurance looks very expensive - do you have any dependants? have you looked at the cover in detail to see what it covers and shopped around to see if you can find it cheaper?

You need to budget for you car insurance even if you pay for it by card, as you will still need to pay it next year, so its still an expense.

Have you looked into your sky package to see if you could reduce the cost? or look for a combined package for landline/broadband/sky as you should be able to get much cheaper that the £85 you are currently paying by not using separate providers.

How many miles a month are you doing in the car for £20 worth of petrol? I guess it can't be many, could you consider selling the car and saving the running costs and using public transport / occasional taxis? (this may be a last resort and not necessary if you can make some reductions in other areas or find a second job).

tobymangel

HappyMJ - The Sky is obviously a problem your right but this has been covered by the lodgers rent and in past have put rent up to get the sky in (maybe im making excuses) but i have been toying with the idea of canceling recently to make up the shortfall.

Football season ticket I have been going 25 years this is my one thing that i see as my escape or whatever you want to call it, this has been done on a money saving way as monthly payments make it cheaper as I would go anyway it saves £85 a year when i'm there I dont spend money on anything else anymore as used to so have probably cut £5-£10 off per game.

Tixy-This is what I was meaning about tax I have seen it on one of other boards but cant find it again I think this is a viable option 10 hours a week would be easy to fit round my job.

the shortfall has been covered previously by a little savings I had from hols when left old job but has recently fallen into my overdraft by about £300 at £10 charge a month should of put this in SOA.
My parents are also very good and will help me out if needed as they just wanted me out of my previous job and this was a condition of me leaving it that they would help me out.

Boiler cover is homecare 400 flexi at £231pa, £19.25 pm gas appliance cover £63.20pa,£5.26pm, kitchen appliance cover £216pa,£18pm total of £494.60 discount of 23.42 for DD and having boiler cover. I'm thinking it may be worth getting rid of kitchen appliance cover and putting into savings account for any repairs needed.

The life insurance this is my endowment policy for mortgage not sure if this is the correct place for it in the SOA ?

the phone and broadband is £29 a month with talk talk was trying to find out a bit more what im paying for yesterday by phoneing them but sytems were down need to call back today.

The car hardly leaves the house any more as now walk to work maybe use once a week around the town to parents house

Plumjam

Confused - if you own your house and have a lodger, why are you paying £250 rent? Is this the money you say you pay into an account (with your lodger's £260) which pays household bills? If so, which bills as you've then put council tax, utilities etc. in your SOA.

HappyMJ

tobymangel wrote: »

HappyMJ - The Sky is obviously a problem your right but this has been covered by the lodgers rent and in past have put rent up to get the sky in (maybe im making excuses) but i have been toying with the idea of canceling recently to make up the shortfall.

Football season ticket I have been going 25 years this is my one thing that i see as my escape or whatever you want to call it, this has been done on a money saving way as monthly payments make it cheaper as I would go anyway it saves £85 a year when i'm there I dont spend money on anything else anymore as used to so have probably cut £5-£10 off per game.

Oh well. I tried... It doesn't matter too much in less than 3 years you should be out of debt and can spend the extra on what you want. Your Natwest loan only has 12 payments to go. Although you will owe more on the credit cards in 12 months if you then start paying the £242 that would have gone to Natwest and use that to pay the CC's then you be debt free quite quickly.

TadleyBaggie

Plumjam wrote: »

Confused - if you own your house and have a lodger, why are you paying £250 rent?

I'm guessing the OP has shared ownership.

tobymangel

Plumjam wrote: »

Confused - if you own your house and have a lodger, why are you paying £250 rent? Is this the money you say you pay into an account (with your lodger's £260) which pays household bills? If so, which bills as you've then put council tax, utilities etc. in your SOA.

yes i see what you mean the £250 is going into the account which would pay all household bills this means it is counting it twice, think this would make me have £126 left a month is that right?

HappyMJ - I see what you are saying and yes the sky will be looked at, but the season ticket is something that I want to keep surely you allow for something similar in your life?

beanielou

I think you need to have some form of stress release & thats football for you.
As your loan only has a year to go you really only need to try to increase your income for a year max.
Keep plodding!

tallyhoh

£88 life insurance:eek:, mines £8.25. What does it cover?

tobymangel

i think ive miss understood it is my endowment product that goes with my mortgage to pay it at end of

life assurance ? think that may be right not insurance