Stuck in an endless loop...help me...

Venusflytrap

mmm3k wrote: »

Monthly Expense Details[/b]
Mortgage................................ 633
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 100
Council tax............................. 109
Electricity............................. 127 Why not use comparison sites to see if you couldn't be getting a better deal. Also look at 'Which?' for reviews on the best energy providers and deals.
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30
Telephone (land line)................... 20 We use BT and get free weekend landline calls for £12.50 pcm. Why not look into saving a bit here?

Mobile phone............................ 80 My monthly contract costs £11 pcm and I get a very good package - free phone (ok, not a 'smart one' but I don't care!) unlimited landline calls, around 300 free texts + 300 free mob. minutes and 500 MB internet usage. You can def. save some...is your contract close to its end? May be look at a SIM only deal or keep your current handset and renegotiate your tariff?

TV Licence.............................. 15
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 24 This is not a necessity. Wouldn't it be cheaper to get a free view box one off?
Internet Services....................... 12.5 See if you can get a deal on home broadband with your landline provider or mobile phone provider. My mob. phone provider gives us unlimited internet access for just £5.00 pcm.

Groceries etc. ......................... 300 My husband and I spend £140 per month, very achievable. With a child this shouldn't need to double! Look at batch cooking and freezing for the week, taking b.fast and lunch to work, buying fewer packaged meals/soups, finding out when your local store slashes prices on soon to expire goods (most of which can be frozen straight away and used weeks after) and shop then. We go to our local Waitrose around 10 am when a lot of items are reduced by up to 50%.

Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 220
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 150
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 650
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 15
Other insurance......................... 33 Is travel insurance part of this? If so why not look at opening a Nationwide Flex account (your partner too) which comes with free single annual multi-trip travel insurance. Then you can upgrade to their family cover to include your child which may still be cheaper than getting full cover else where. I recently switched to NW (and my husband might too) which will save us over £40 per yr. NW's cover is also quite good (pretty low excess, covers most 'standard' circumstances and my pre-existing medical conditions are also covered at no extra cost.
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2653.5

My comments are in pink above. Hope they help.

Naomim

mmm3k wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 3000
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1100
Benefits................................ 0 are you over the salary threshold for child benefit?
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 4100

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 633
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 100
Council tax............................. 109
Electricity............................. 127
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 80 Shop around to see if you can get better contracts.. If you are on contract, do you use ALL of your minutes texts?
TV Licence.............................. 15
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 24
Internet Services....................... 12.5 - Can you put this into a package with your tv?
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 Could probably come down a bit. Meal planning and shopping online help me loads! Go onto the "old style" boards for inspiration.
Clothing................................ 0 - Nothing for your LO or clothes for you & DH for work? Something needs to go in here.
Petrol/diesel........................... 220 -Is this accurate or a guestimate?
Road tax................................ 0 Paid via the company or should something be in here?
Car Insurance........................... 150
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0 Never? When popping to shops at weekend? Even if it's £5 a month put it in.
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 650
Other child related expenses............ 0 Day trips, swimming lessons, anything??
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0 covered with your mortgage?
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 15
Other insurance......................... 33 What's this for?
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 Something should be budgeted in here every month.
Haircuts................................ 0 Again, unless you all have long hair or a friend/family member that does all cuts for free, there should be something in here.
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2653.5


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 200000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 5000
Total Assets............................ 206000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 179950...(633)......3
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 300......(0)........0
Total secured & HP debts...... 180250....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Halifax........................3200......100.......22
Barclay Card...................4400......115.......18
HSBC...........................1900......100.......22
BarclayCard....................3300......100.......18
Halifax........................2800......100.......22
Total unsecured debts..........15600.....515.......-
Are you paying the minimum on these debts?
Put your overdraft into this section too, it needs to be accounted for and treated like a loan.


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,100
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,653.5
Available for debt repayments........... 1,446.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 515
Amount left after debt repayments....... 931.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 206,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -180,250
Total Unsecured debt.................... -15,600
Net Assets.............................. 10,150

hi I hope you don't mind I made a few comments on the SOA. You've made a start which is a good thing.

As a full time working parent I know how hard it is to juggle everything. You have to dedicate a small bit of time everyday on keeping on top of checking your bank statement. I do 10 minutes a day and it really helps.

Naomi x

dancingfairy

Hi - you may find it helpful to set up a brand new basic bank account with another bank and transfer all your direct debits etc across and your salary etc and then allocate a set amount each month to paying off your old overdraft. You may find it easier then to keep track of exactly how much you are spending each month and how much you are reducing the overdraft by.
df

mwa

Hiya

we were in a similar situation with overdrafts and have just spent 18 months reducing them. What we did was account for X amount every month as a debt payment towards it and then physically reduce the limit every month by phoning the bank, thus reducing the debt slowly over time.

Good luck, you will get there!

MWA

MrWillyWonka

As others have said, you really do need to find out where your £930 is going because if you really did have £930 spare every month then you would be out of your overdraft in just 2 months.

Best thing to do is get out all your statements and put everything that goes out into your SOA then you can really figure out where all the money is going.

Best of luck

mmm3k

Thanks all, as I said this is a great site. I now see that my SOA has quite a few missing numbers which are important in working out where my money is going...

Thanks again for all your help, I've already started recording my daily expenses so hopefully will get to the bottom of it.

RetireEarlyBlog

LittleMissGiggles123 wrote: »

Also meant to say, keep a spendng diary to see where the little things are being spent. It's surprising how much you spend on lunches, coffees, magazines, treats for the kids etc.

A spending diary is absolutely essential when you're trying to budget. It's only when you write down where your money goes, that you actually see how much you waste.

suecoo66

mmm3k wrote: »

Hello All,

Great Site, great information! New here, need some advise and suggestions hence my post.

I have incurred debt over the last 2 years mainly due to childcare costs doubled for us and we ended up going in overdraft each month, now since our child has turned 3 the childcare costs have come down a bit. In the initial months of childcare costs going up we used our credit cards a lot. I've now got caught in a loop though I'm a high rate tax payer, I can't seem to get out of the loop, even if I put my entire salary in the bills account 1/3rd of it goes in the overdraft and the remaining is not enough to pay the bills and my account ends up using overdraft again and again....so its an endless loop going on for about 7 months now....what can I do? any tips? I don't have access to additional cash except mine and partners salary. My Bank has suggested I take another loan to consolidate but don't want to be in more debt to clear existing debt....

A very helpful member here suggested that I post SOA on DFW board so I have put all my details below:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 3000
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1100
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 4100

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 633
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 100
Council tax............................. 109
Electricity............................. 127
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 80
TV Licence.............................. 15
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 24
Internet Services....................... 12.5
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 220
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 150
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 650
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 15
Other insurance......................... 33
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2653.5


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 200000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 5000
Total Assets............................ 206000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 179950...(633)......3
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 300......(0)........0
Total secured & HP debts...... 180250....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Halifax........................3200......100.......22
Barclay Card...................4400......115.......18
HSBC...........................1900......100.......22
BarclayCard....................3300......100.......18
Halifax........................2800......100.......22
Total unsecured debts..........15600.....515.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,100
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,653.5
Available for debt repayments........... 1,446.5
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 515
Amount left after debt repayments....... 931.5

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 206,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -180,250
Total Unsecured debt.................... -15,600
Net Assets.............................. 10,150

£650 on childcare! If you worked less hours you'd save money on childcare, pay less tax and NI and could probably claim child tax credit. Could your parents help with child care? I would also transfer to 0% cards.
Your electric is high have you compared online? Can you reduce this? Use energy bulbs, wear warmer clothes indoors and turn the heating down.

brummiebabe

Are you using childcare vouchers through your employers? Might save a little on your costs!

asparagus1968

my pennys worth:

start a spending diary-£900 a month is a lot to "misplace"

compare electric companies,go through a cashback site and earn for just comparing( i use topcashback)

get a new package for sat/broadband/phone (should get one for about £25 a month)

fill out soa regularly as you remember more things,you'll be amazed

the only way i managed to pay off my overdraft was to open a completely new bank account, have wages going in,bills coming out. i left just the minus balance of the overdraft in the old account and set up a direct debit to pay £100 off it every month.

you are entitled to £83 ish a month for child benefit,have you never claimed this?

see if either of your employers does the childcare voucher scheme.

you will get there,keep focussed,good luck