Time for my SOA

omas

I've been strugle with my debts for a while. Both with my wife would love to sort out debts by the end of 2013.

My SOA:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1157
Partners monthly income after tax....... 580
Benefits................................ 330.45
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2067.45

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 102.7
Rent.................................... 530
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 124
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 50
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 44.75
Telephone (land line)................... 18.5
Mobile phone............................ 19.11
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 23.5
Internet Services....................... 13
Groceries etc. ......................... 240
Clothing................................ 8
Petrol/diesel........................... 80
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 115
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 50
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 3
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 6
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
SAYE.................................... 20
Union membership........................ 8.21
Pension................................. 78.8
Total monthly expenses.................. 1646.94


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 3200
Car(s).................................. 1800
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 5000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 3034.6...(102.7)....25.2
Total secured & HP debts...... 3034.6....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
DFS............................339.......28.25.....0
HFC Bank.......................575.34....15.14.....24.9
HFC Bank.......................672.12....25.68.....24.9
Very...........................200.......0.........0
Isme...........................260.......0.........0
Next...........................72........15........39.9
Natwest OD.....................530.......10........18.89
Lloyds TSB Loan................10994.8...229.......24.9
Total unsecured debts..........13643.26..323.07....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,067.45
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,646.94
Available for debt repayments........... 420.51
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 323.07
Amount left after debt repayments....... 97.44

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 5,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -3,034.6
Total Unsecured debt.................... -13,643.26
Net Assets.............................. -11,677.86

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

My wife it's at this moment on SMP. I am working full time and being paid every 4 weeks as on my SOA.
Car insurance is high as I don't have yet NCB a supposed to drop down to £67/month in December.
Electricity and gas is high (it's £100 by dd dual fuel, eon internet saver), because I'm still on debit since last winter (only £20).
Water - no meter (using a lot of water at spring/summer time - growing veg).
Internet, land line - It's a bundle from BT (£13.50 land line, £5 international calls, £13 unlimited internet). My wife is calling abroad at least 7h every month and couldn't find cheaper deal.
Mobile phones - £13.90 from 3 and £5.21 from T-mobile both always staying within limits.
Sky - It's mostly for our little girl.
Groceries - dropped from £500 a month.
Other child related expenses - Baby milk formula x4 a month + clothes bundle from ebay or car boot every 3 months for our 2 months old.
Entertainment - inc Cinema for a £1, McDonald, Wacky Warehouse, etc.
Pension - can't resign as that's my life insurance as well. Employer is adding same amount of money to my pension account.
SAYE - can resign in 4 years.Shares and bonds
Shares and bonds - I stated I've got £3200, but can't sell them until 2015

Our plan is to paid off:
Very - December
Next - January
Natwest - February
DFS - March
HFC Bank x2 - July
Isme - September
Lloyds TSB Loan - we want to start doing approx £120 overpayments every month.

We also sent claim for missold PPI (2x loan Lloyds and 2x CC Lloyds) and Natwest bank charges, all the money will go to overpay our loan.

rising_from_the_ashes

Hi Omas, as few thoughts from me below:

omas wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1157
Partners monthly income after tax....... 580
Benefits................................ 330.45
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2067.45

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 102.7
Rent.................................... 530
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 124
Electricity............................. 50 Quite high - saw your comments - make sure it drops down once the arrears are paid
Gas..................................... 50 As above - also you'll be able to check for a better deal without arrears to clear
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 44.75 Try water butts etc for watering veg
Telephone (land line)................... 18.5
Mobile phone............................ 19.11 Not bad for that many phones .... are they all essential?
TV Licence.............................. 12.37
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 23.5 Not essential - get Freesat for a one off payment of £25 - kids don't need sky!
Internet Services....................... 13
Groceries etc. ......................... 240 Congratulations on 1/2ing this!:T
Clothing................................ 8
Petrol/diesel........................... 80
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 115:eek: Roll on December!
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 50 What are these?
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 3
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0 You must get this ASAP
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 6
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
SAYE.................................... 20
Union membership........................ 8.21 Is this essential?
Pension................................. 78.8
Total monthly expenses.................. 1646.94


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 3200
Car(s).................................. 1800
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 5000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 3034.6...(102.7)....25.2
Total secured & HP debts...... 3034.6....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
DFS............................339.......28.25.....0
HFC Bank.......................575.34....15.14.....24.9
HFC Bank.......................672.12....25.68.....24.9
Very...........................200.......0.........0
Isme...........................260.......0.........0
Next...........................72........15........39.9
Natwest OD.....................530.......10........18.89
Lloyds TSB Loan................10994.8...229.......24.9
Total unsecured debts..........13643.26..323.07....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,067.45
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,646.94
Available for debt repayments........... 420.51
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 323.07
Amount left after debt repayments....... 97.44

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 5,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -3,034.6
Total Unsecured debt.................... -13,643.26
Net Assets.............................. -11,677.86

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

Our plan is to paid off:
Very - December
Next - January
Natwest - February
DFS - March
HFC Bank x2 - July
Isme - September
Lloyds TSB Loan - we want to start doing approx £120 overpayments every month.

Is Very interest free? (no apr noted) If so, pay the Next account first as it's the highest interest rate.

Also, HFC has a higher interest rate than Natwest, so you really want to pay these ones the other way round.

You want to start making inroads into the highest rate debts first - leave the lower rate ones / 0% until later (although obviously making sure you meet the minimums) HTH

[Deleted User]

omas wrote: »

I've been strugle with my debts for a while. Both with my wife would love to sort out debts by the end of 2013.

My SOA:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1157 Any way to increase? Over-time?
Partners monthly income after tax....... 580 If this is SMP, will your wife be returning to work, and if so when? and what will her salary be then?
Benefits................................ 330.45 Are you claiming all that you are entitled to?
Total monthly income.................... 2067.45

Monthly Expense Details
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 102.7
Rent.................................... 530 Is this good value for the area/size of the property? Would moving to a cheaper area/small place be an option?
Council tax............................. 124 Is this over 10 or 12 months?
Electricity and electric................ 100 - am I right in thinking that £80 of this is what you're paying and £20 goes towards debt? - I still think that £80 is pretty high, although I think you probably can't switch until you are out of arrears - can you switch to a cheaper tariff with the current company? Often online duel fuel is cheaper - also try and reduce consumption - switch things off instead of leaving them on standby, switch the thermostat on the hot water and heating down a few degrees (you are unlikely to notice), energy saving bulbs etc
Water rates............................. 44.75 Is this a meter or a standard charge? Any way to reduce consumption if it's a meter?
Telephone (land line)................... 18.5 If this is just a home phone, shopping should get this down - should be able to get home phone and internet combined for approx £20 pm
Mobile phone............................ 19.11
TV Licence.............................. 12.37 How many phones is this for? PAYG might work out cheaper, or one of the SIM only deals (depends on usage)
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 23.5 switch to freeview/freesat
Internet Services....................... 13 as above
Groceries etc. ......................... 240 You could probably reduce this a bit - meal plan, batch cook, drop brands, cook from scratch, shop Lidl/Aldi
Clothing................................ 8
Petrol/diesel........................... 80 Any way to reduce? (combine journeys? walk more?)
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 115 (This goes down in Dec)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10 Do you actually save this somewhere for when it's needed?
Other child related expenses............ 50 What does this cover? Is it good value? Is it necessary? And can you get the same/similar for cheaper elsewhere?
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 3
Contents insurance...................... 0 Probably should consider this
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10 does this get saved somewhere for when it's needed?
Haircuts................................ 6
Entertainment........................... 20 What does this cover?
SAYE.................................... 20
Union membership........................ 8.21
Pension................................. 78.8
Total monthly expenses.................. 1646.94


Assets
Cash.................................... 0 Where's car maintenance/presents/clothing etc cash for when it's needed?
Shares and bonds........................ 3200 Investigate if cashing these in would be benificual - could pay off a chunk of debt
Car(s).................................. 1800
Total Assets............................ 5000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 3034.6...(102.7)....25.2 - this will be repaid in just under 2 1/2 years - what was this spent on?
Total secured & HP debts...... 3034.6....-.........-

Unsecured Debts - where's your utilities arrears debt? How much is it for? and when will it be fully repaid?
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Next...........................72........15........39.9 This is a very high APR and should be your priority for any overpayments that you can find
HFC Bank.......................575.34....15.14.....24. This and the following two debts combined should be your next priority as the APR's are the next highest
HFC Bank.......................672.12....25.68.....24.9
Lloyds TSB Loan................10994.8...229.......24.9
Natwest OD.....................530.......10........18.89 This debt needs to be your third priority
Very...........................200.......0.........0 Is this really 0%, and will it remain that way until repaid?
Isme...........................260.......0.........0 as above?
DFS............................339.......28.25.....0 as above?
Total unsecured debts..........13643.26..323.07....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,067.45
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,646.94
Available for debt repayments........... 420.51
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 323.07
Amount left after debt repayments....... 97.44 Do you actually have this available at the end of every month? If not, keep a spending diary noting down all your monthly spends form a newspaper and a carton of milk, to lunches at work/out, to the rent and other bills and everything in between - you will soon find out where it goes.

If you do have this at the end of the month, overpay towards your debts, starting with the most expensive (highest APR) and working your way down the list until they are all repaid, your NEXT debt will be repaid in one month, and then in month two repay your previous surplus combined with previous monthly payment to next towards one of your second priority debts (£97.44+£15), and when it's fully repaid, move on to the next one and each time you move on to the next debt add the previous debts minimum payment to your surplus for overpayment to existing debts.

This way you will snowball your debts (there's a snowball calculator which will prioritise your debts for you on the same page as you filled in this SOA)

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 5,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -3,034.6
Total Unsecured debt.................... -13,643.26
Net Assets.............................. -11,677.86

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

My wife it's at this moment on SMP. I am working full time and being paid every 4 weeks as on my SOA.
Car insurance is high as I don't have yet NCB a supposed to drop down to £67/month in December. - when this reduces add it to the surplus for overpayment towards your most expensive debt
Electricity and gas is high (it's £100 by dd dual fuel, eon internet saver), because I'm still on debit since last winter (only £20). You need to list the amount of the arrears in your debts, how much is this, and when will it be fully repaid. Once fully repaid ensure that you are with the cheapest energy supplier
Water - no meter (using a lot of water at spring/summer time - growing veg). Can you get a rainwater collector (can't remember the correct name) to try and reduce the water you use in the garden?
Internet, land line - It's a bundle from BT (£13.50 land line, £5 international calls, £13 unlimited internet). My wife is calling abroad at least 7h every month and couldn't find cheaper deal. We have free international calls with Talk Talk - you can get home phone and internet combined for £20pm (cut out pay for TV and ger freeview/freesat)
Mobile phones - £13.90 from 3 and £5.21 from T-mobile both always staying within limits. (if you are paying for more than you use then use a cheaper tariff or go PAYG)
Sky - It's mostly for our little girl.(she will probably not remember when she is older, there's plenty of free TV for kids on freeview/freesat, and you can pick up very cheap DVD's on e-bay and in charity shops - and resell when watched/bored with them)
Groceries - dropped from £500 a month.(wow! that's a big drop, but if you wanted to you could probably shave a little more off)
Other child related expenses - Baby milk formula x4 a month + clothes bundle from ebay or car boot every 3 months for our 2 months old. (do you ebay the ones that have been grown out of?)
Entertainment - inc Cinema for a £1, McDonald, Wacky Warehouse, etc. (try and check for vouchers etc for days out - sign up to Martin's e-mail if you don't already subscribe)
Pension - can't resign as that's my life insurance as well. Employer is adding same amount of money to my pension account.
SAYE - can resign in 4 years.Shares and bonds
Shares and bonds - I stated I've got £3200, but can't sell them until 2015 (ignore my comment on this above then)

Our plan is to paid off: My advice would be to prioritise your debts according to how much they are costing you, starting with the most expensive (highest APR) and working your way down to the lowest costing (lowest APR), as this way you will pay the least amount of interest as possible and have more to pay towards the actual debt, therefore paying them back quicker
Very - December
Next - January
Natwest - February
DFS - March
HFC Bank x2 - July
Isme - September
Lloyds TSB Loan - we want to start doing approx £120 overpayments every month.

We also sent claim for missold PPI (2x loan Lloyds and 2x CC Lloyds) and Natwest bank charges, all the money will go to overpay our loan. (I cannot say this enough, repay in the order of what is most to least expensive!)[/QUOTE] (there is some good advice on this forum and on Martin's main page about reclaiming PPI)

I have made some comments above, I hope at least some will be of use to you.

D9

omas

Domino9 wrote: »

omas wrote: »

I've been strugle with my debts for a while. Both with my wife would love to sort out debts by the end of 2013.

My SOA:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1157 Any way to increase? Over-time? To increase my pay I would have to change my hours and my wife couldn't go back to work.
Partners monthly income after tax....... 580 If this is SMP, will your wife be returning to work, and if so when? and what will her salary be then? My wife's going back to work after SMP, but dropping hours to 3 days. Her salary supposed to stay same as SMP.
Benefits................................ 330.45 Are you claiming all that you are entitled to? I'm claiming CTC and CHB. That's everything we can claim for. Last year our income was £34000 before wife gone on SMP.
Total monthly income.................... 2067.45

Monthly Expense Details
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 102.7
Rent.................................... 530 Is this good value for the area/size of the property? Would moving to a cheaper area/small place be an option? We are renting 3 bed house from our friend. Before we used to paid £575 for 2 bed flat. Can't get anything cheaper. It's just walk distance from my wife's work.
Council tax............................. 124 Is this over 10 or 12 months? It's over 10 months. 2 month surplus will cover overpayments on debts.
Electricity and electric................ 100 - am I right in thinking that £80 of this is what you're paying and £20 goes towards debt? - I still think that £80 is pretty high, although I think you probably can't switch until you are out of arrears - can you switch to a cheaper tariff with the current company? Often online duel fuel is cheaper - also try and reduce consumption - switch things off instead of leaving them on standby, switch the thermostat on the hot water and heating down a few degrees (you are unlikely to notice), energy saving bulbs etc I'm having online dual fuell tariff, the cheapest I could find on the market. Before I used to pay £75 a month, but they increased it because of debt. My windows and boiler are over 20 years old (High H Energy), but LL is not going to do anything with this. All lightbulbs changed to energy saving ones.
Water rates............................. 44.75 Is this a meter or a standard charge? It's a standard charge. I'm growing my own veg, but anyway LL don't agree to fit meters.
Telephone (land line)................... 18.5 If this is just a home phone, shopping should get this down - should be able to get home phone and internet combined for approx £20 pm As I write below my soa it's land line + international calls package. TalkTalk would be £18.80
Mobile phone............................ 19.11
TV Licence.............................. 12.37 How many phones is this for? PAYG might work out cheaper, or one of the SIM only deals (depends on usage) As wroten below that's for 2 phones. Can't find any cheaper than £5.21 a month and both contracts are for over 15 months.
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 23.5 switch to freeview/freesat Wouldn't like as we don't have any other Entertainment. We aren't going out every single month.
Internet Services....................... 13 as above I'm having a high usage and can't drop it down. Some months 40GB it's not enought. Contract is for another 10 month's dropped from £26.99 down to £13.
Groceries etc. ......................... 240 You could probably reduce this a bit - meal plan, batch cook, drop brands, cook from scratch, shop Lidl/Aldi. We are having a weekly meal plan, cooking from scratches and doing shoping mostly in Aldi.
Clothing................................ 8
Petrol/diesel........................... 80 Any way to reduce? (combine journeys? walk more?) Nobody from work live around and to be honest I can't walk to work 10 miles one way. After I finish work I've got only 20 minutes before my wifes going out to her work place. Can't leave childrens on their own. We don't have anyone to help us with this matter.
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 115 (This goes down in Dec)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10 Do you actually save this somewhere for when it's needed? I keep saving for this when I need to do something with the car. Most of the maintenance and repair doing on my own. That's MOT, Service and parts when needed.
Other child related expenses............ 50 What does this cover? Is it good value? Is it necessary? And can you get the same/similar for cheaper elsewhere? As I wrote below baby milk formula is necessary (don't want to feed my 2 months old with chips as some people do), it's costing us £8.95 x4 weeks and the rest of money will go for some clothing of ebay or car boot.
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 3
Contents insurance...................... 0 Probably should consider this Resign of this to cut my costs. Never used before and paid £11 for last 4 years.
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10 does this get saved somewhere for when it's needed? No, I'm buying on sales for whole year mostly using food shopping money, but sometimes we have to spend a little bit more. Both with my wife don't buying each other presents to cut costs as much as possible.
Haircuts................................ 6
Entertainment........................... 20 What does this cover? As wrote below £1 cinema tickets, McDonald's, Popcorn from Tesco's, etc.
SAYE.................................... 20
Union membership........................ 8.21
Pension................................. 78.8
Total monthly expenses.................. 1646.94


Assets
Cash.................................... 0 Where's car maintenance/presents/clothing etc cash for when it's needed? As above
Shares and bonds........................ 3200 Investigate if cashing these in would be benificual - could pay off a chunk of debt Explained below
Car(s).................................. 1800
Total Assets............................ 5000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 3034.6...(102.7)....25.2 - this will be repaid in just under 2 1/2 years - what was this spent on? Car
Total secured & HP debts...... 3034.6....-.........-

Unsecured Debts - where's your utilities arrears debt? How much is it for? and when will it be fully repaid? Everything is explained below.
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Next...........................72........15........39.9 This is a very high APR and should be your priority for any overpayments that you can find I wrote below our plan. Have you read it?
HFC Bank.......................575.34....15.14.....24. This and the following two debts combined should be your next priority as the APR's are the next highest As above
HFC Bank.......................672.12....25.68.....24.9
Lloyds TSB Loan................10994.8...229.......24.9
Natwest OD.....................530.......10........18.89 This debt needs to be your third priority
Very...........................200.......0.........0 Is this really 0%, and will it remain that way until repaid? Until March it's 0%, then 39.9%
Isme...........................260.......0.........0 as above? Until October it's 0%, then 39.9%.
DFS............................339.......28.25.....0 as above? It's 0% until repaid.
Total unsecured debts..........13643.26..323.07....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,067.45
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,646.94
Available for debt repayments........... 420.51
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 323.07
Amount left after debt repayments....... 97.44 Do you actually have this available at the end of every month? If not, keep a spending diary noting down all your monthly spends form a newspaper and a carton of milk, to lunches at work/out, to the rent and other bills and everything in between - you will soon find out where it goes. Usually we are using it emergency, sometimes using for overpayment and sometimes we have to buy tickets for my wifes parents to come over.

If you do have this at the end of the month, overpay towards your debts, starting with the most expensive (highest APR) and working your way down the list until they are all repaid, your NEXT debt will be repaid in one month, and then in month two repay your previous surplus combined with previous monthly payment to next towards one of your second priority debts (£97.44+£15), and when it's fully repaid, move on to the next one and each time you move on to the next debt add the previous debts minimum payment to your surplus for overpayment to existing debts. As I wrote below we are planing to do this.

This way you will snowball your debts (there's a snowball calculator which will prioritise your debts for you on the same page as you filled in this SOA)

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 5,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -3,034.6
Total Unsecured debt.................... -13,643.26
Net Assets.............................. -11,677.86

Created using the SOA calculator at www.makesenseofcards.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

My wife it's at this moment on SMP. I am working full time and being paid every 4 weeks as on my SOA.
Car insurance is high as I don't have yet NCB a supposed to drop down to £67/month in December. - when this reduces add it to the surplus for overpayment towards your most expensive debt
Electricity and gas is high (it's £100 by dd dual fuel, eon internet saver), because I'm still on debit since last winter (only £20). You need to list the amount of the arrears in your debts, how much is this - £20 (I wrote that above), and when will it be fully repaid - supposed to paid off already. Once fully repaid ensure that you are with the cheapest energy supplier As above
Water - no meter (using a lot of water at spring/summer time - growing veg). Can you get a rainwater collector (can't remember the correct name) to try and reduce the water you use in the garden? As above
Internet, land line - It's a bundle from BT (£13.50 land line, £5 international calls, £13 unlimited internet). My wife is calling abroad at least 7h every month and couldn't find cheaper deal. We have free international calls with Talk Talk - you can get home phone and internet combined for £20pm (cut out pay for TV and ger freeview/freesat) I checked TalkTalk deal and would have to pay £26.05 a month.
Mobile phones - £13.90 from 3 and £5.21 from T-mobile both always staying within limits. (if you are paying for more than you use then use a cheaper tariff or go PAYG) I've had PAYG and it was more expensive.
Sky - It's mostly for our little girl.(she will probably not remember when she is older, there's plenty of free TV for kids on freeview/freesat, and you can pick up very cheap DVD's on e-bay and in charity shops - and resell when watched/bored with them) She have some programmes she's watching all the time. We also have our programmes. We thought about leaving Sky, but then probably we would spend more money on going out rather on Sky.
Groceries - dropped from £500 a month.(wow! that's a big drop, but if you wanted to you could probably shave a little more off) Will try.
Other child related expenses - Baby milk formula x4 a month + clothes bundle from ebay or car boot every 3 months for our 2 months old. (do you ebay the ones that have been grown out of? - Yes, I am.)
Entertainment - inc Cinema for a £1, McDonald, Wacky Warehouse, etc. (try and check for vouchers etc for days out - sign up to Martin's e-mail if you don't already subscribe) We always do vouchers, using Tastecard, exchanging T Clubcard points for days out, etc.
Pension - can't resign as that's my life insurance as well. Employer is adding same amount of money to my pension account.
SAYE - can resign in 4 years.Shares and bonds
Shares and bonds - I stated I've got £3200, but can't sell them until 2015 (ignore my comment on this above then)

Our plan is to paid off: My advice would be to prioritise your debts according to how much they are costing you, starting with the most expensive (highest APR) and working your way down to the lowest costing (lowest APR), as this way you will pay the least amount of interest as possible and have more to pay towards the actual debt, therefore paying them back quicker As above Very and Isme will be 39.9% , they are now on buy now pay in 12 months later. We want to use surplus to overpay next debt on list - like you said snowball.
Very - December
Next - January
Natwest - February
DFS - March
HFC Bank x2 - July
Isme - September
Lloyds TSB Loan - we want to start doing approx £120 overpayments every month.

We also sent claim for missold PPI (2x loan Lloyds and 2x CC Lloyds) and Natwest bank charges, all the money will go to overpay our loan. (I cannot say this enough, repay in the order of what is most to least expensive!)[/QUOTE] (there is some good advice on this forum and on Martin's main page about reclaiming PPI) I was reading it and thanks to that I sent my PPI claims. PPI should be around £2700, that money will overpay our loan and supposed to drop our loan repayment from 4 years down to 3 years and all overpayment hopefully would cut loan repayment for one more year.

I have made some comments above, I hope at least some will be of use to you.

D9

omas

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Hi Omas, as few thoughts from me below:

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 23.5 Not essential - get Freesat for a one off payment of £25 - kids don't need sky! I wouldn't have to pay £25 to get Freesat, I can always use my old Sky card without subscription. Sky is the one think we don't want to resign.

Also, HFC has a higher interest rate than Natwest, so you really want to pay these ones the other way round. It has a higher APR, but Natwest is easier to pay off and then i can use surplus to start overpaying HFC. I also getting callI

You want to start making inroads into the highest rate debts first - leave the lower rate ones / 0% until later (although obviously making sure you meet the minimums) HTH 0% debts will soon change to 39.9% that's why I want to get rid off them asap.

I want to starting paying off my debts from the easiest to pay off to the highest ones and using surplus of money as snowball to t overpaying the bigger ones. Hopefully it does have any sense for you.

Tixy

Just a comment regarding the Sky tv - on freeview you can get up to 50 TV channels, including 3 children's channels. On freesat its even more. Before you discount the idea of cancelling Sky then I'd suggest having a look at what channels you can get - there should be plenty you can get for free to keep you entertained without you having to go out more.
If you do still decide to keep Sky then its often worth phoning and threatening to leave, as they'll then often give you a good deal (eg half price for 6months or similar) if you agree to stay.

If you don't have the £94 spare a month and some is spent on things like travel for OHs parents then I would budget for this and see what you really have spare. At the moment unless you make some changes somewhere you won't be able to clear your debts by the end of 2013.

If you only pay 323 a month then it will take you 92 months to clear the debt, so over 7.5 years. If you could pay the £420 your SoA shows (and didn't use that £94 for other travel or emergencies etc) then it would take you 52months, so by the end of 2015.

If you want to clear it in 27months (ie by the end of 2013) you'd need to be paying about £640 a month. I can't see enough areas you could cut back to pay that much towards your debts each month, but I think you need to make some tough choices about what you can cut down or give up so that you can pay more towards your debts.

If you look at a detailed snowball (and put in the promo 0%s and what they increase to) it will show you the best order to tackle your debts - and will tell you to pay off next first, then very and then isme, to pay the least amount in interest.

Horace

Re water for garden, get a water butt and use your washing up water.

Thinking about the calls abroad, why not use Skype and use the internet? Depending on your computer you may need a set of headphones with microphone attached (around £20). You could get an annual licence for the area where your wife has family and then use Skype to make calls.

Stop buying clothes from catalogues too because the interest rate is usually phenomenal, make do with what is in the wardrobe already and sell clothes that you no longer wear.

Mikazaru

If the £97 sometimes goes towards emergencies or travel then that needs to be budgeted for in the SOA and then you'll have a true figure for what you have left at the end of the month.
Do you shop around and use cashback sites for insurances? With cashback you should be able to get contents for a little bit less than £11 a month

omas

Horace wrote: »

Re water for garden, get a water butt and use your washing up water.

Thinking about the calls abroad, why not use Skype and use the internet? Depending on your computer you may need a set of headphones with microphone attached (around £20). You could get an annual licence for the area where your wife has family and then use Skype to make calls.

Stop buying clothes from catalogues too because the interest rate is usually phenomenal, make do with what is in the wardrobe already and sell clothes that you no longer wear.

We are using Skype, but as we have only one pc at home we can't both use it at same time. My parents in law not always have their pc turned on. Usually at evenings we have to call them to turn it on if we want to speak with them. My wife is talkin with her mum every single day, in last 3 months she spend only on phone over 22h.
We don't buy too much clothes from catalogues. From Next we bought some clothes for 2 weddings this year, but from Very and Isme we bought Trampoline, Tumble dryer and chest of drawers on buy now pay in 12 months.

omas

Mikazaru wrote: »

If the £97 sometimes goes towards emergencies or travel then that needs to be budgeted for in the SOA and then you'll have a true figure for what you have left at the end of the month.
Do you shop around and use cashback sites for insurances? With cashback you should be able to get contents for a little bit less than £11 a month

£97 usually every month goes towards different things, for example last month I've had to buy 2 pairs of tyres and the heater resistor for my car (money from car maintenance budget wasn't enough). Month before I've had to collect my in laws from airport, then take them back (£40 petrol both ways). I spent a lot more on petrol as they wanted to go to zoo or shopping, etc.

adolphin10

You say you are paid every 4 weeks. Is the amount shown the 4 weekly salary or have you caculted a monthly amount. if it is the 4 weekly salary then you will have 13 pay days per year for only 12 months expenses ie one spare pay.