Can anyone help? my SOA

Lifeisbutadream

Could do with some advice! - this is my SOA - my household income is £2316 - expenditure comes to £2675.97. :eek:

Details are here (per month)

Overdraft Cost £10.00
Mortgage / Rent £790.00
Household Maintenance £10.00
Buildings & Contents Insurance £20.01
Council Tax £140.00
Water Rates / Meter £50.00
Gas Bill £73.00
Electricity Bill £73.00
Home Phone Bill £67.00
Internet Bill £14.99
Mobile Phone Bill(s) £50.00
Window Cleaner £6.00

Level Term Assurance £29.00
Travel Insurance £8.00

Food & Household Shopping £300.00
Eating Out £20.00
Drinks for Home £30.00
Smokes £75.00

Car Maintainence £20.00
Car Insurance £38.00
Petrol / Diesel / Gas £20.00

Personal Loan Repayments £320.00

Childcare / Play Schemes £25.00
Laundry / Dry Cleaning £8.00
Nappies / Baby Extras £5.00
School Trips £5.00

DVD / Video Rental £5.99
Shopping For Fun £20.00
NTL / Sky Subscription £9.75
TV Licence £11.37
Other Fun £16.00

Cost of Christmas £83.33
Cost of Summer Holiday £208.33
Cost of Birthdays £41.67

New Clothes £30.00

Newspapers / Magazines £10.00
Haircuts £20.00

Both myself and my husband self employed - OH works 60 -70 hours a week and I work between 30 and 45 depending on how busy we are (we have 2 kids) - cant get a second job because our business hours a irregular and need to be on call.

Thanks in anticipation...

joughtib

First of all, well done for this, we can have a little go through this between us.

Just having a quick look through whilst at work. Check Gas/Electric levels and/or provider. Can you cut phone bill at all, both landline and mobile.

Travel insurance - Might be worth shopping around for this, and to cut costs, it might be worth not having a holiday for this year, and getting rid of insurance for one year.

Eating out budget, go without meals out for a few months, and eat at home, but make it special. Cut down on drinks at home as well, every penny counts.

Smoking......you know what i'm going to say for that one.
DVD Rental....get rid for now.
Shopping for fun.....explain what this is, and can you do it cheaper.
NTL/Sky Subscription, can this go totally, or possibly freeview?
Magazines, try to do without for a while, you might be able to view the text online.

Hope this helps so far......

CLAPTON

a. is the only debt you have the personal loan costing 320 per month?
b. how many months left to pay this loan.

c. basically you can't afford 1000 per annum on xmas or 2,500 on holidays or 500 on birthdays at the moment. Stopping these will just about make you break even and avoid more debt.

d. you're spending 1,800 on gas and electricity per annum... worth reducing the amount of time the CH is on , checking why the electic is so high

e. phone ... use BT at 11 per month and then https://www.call1899.com or equivalent (they charge 3p per call NOT per minute)...should be able to save 30 at least

f. can you switch to PAYG mobiles and use only sparingly

elantan

you have an informative soa thanks ..i can see loads of ways that you can cut back ...but it's down to how much you really want to ...this would be my list of cut backs
get rid of the window cleaner i know it's only £6 a month but over a year that's £72,
cut down on the shopping (take a look at the os board) that is an awful lot for 4
eating out would need to go till you could afford it
i would try and shave £10 off the drinks bill (i know this aint easy i cant manage it and we spend more that you)
cigarettes..well £75 a month is £900 a year ..dont know how much your overdraft is but i think £900 would help alot and save you the £10 a month on fees
dvd rental/shopping for fun/sky subscription/other fun...you can get these things when you can afford them cut them back just now it will make a diff of over £50 a month
summer hols ..i know this one would be hard to give up ...but it's only gonna be short term not forever ...can you not go camping for a couple of days or there is always the £9.50 hols in the sun ...everyone i've spoken too loves them ..once you are debt free you can save up and go anywhere in the world ...you just need to get the money first
i'd get rid of the newspapers and mags as well
hope that helps ...i know it seems a bit extreme but sometimes it's good to go extreme even for a short while till you can get sorted ...good luck

coxj2901

Lifeisbutadream wrote:

Could do with some advice! - this is my SOA - my household income is £2316 - expenditure comes to £2675.97. :eek:

Details are here (per month)

Overdraft Cost £10.00 (Can you switch to Alliance & Leicester for their interest free overdraft)
Mortgage / Rent £790.00
Household Maintenance £10.00
Buildings & Contents Insurance £20.01 (Shop around using uswitch - if you go through quidco you can earn cashback)
Council Tax £140.00 (Are you sure you are in the right band? You can get back payments if you are not)
Water Rates / Meter £50.00 (This could be cut down - Always turn taps off, Re-use water where possible)
Gas Bill £73.00 (Again through uswitch and quidco you should be able to trim down)
Electricity Bill £73.00 (As above, also make sure you turn all lights off, turn down washing machine to 30c etc....)
Home Phone Bill £67.00 (Seems excessive Uswitch and Quidco to find the best deal for you)
Internet Bill £14.99 (You should be able to get calls and internet for circa £30 per month through places like talk-talk)
Mobile Phone Bill(s) £50.00 (Contract or PAYG? If contract then switch to PAYG)
Window Cleaner £6.00 (Can you ask the window cleaner to clean once a year?)
Level Term Assurance £29.00 (Shop around)
Travel Insurance £8.00 (Go without a holiday for a year or two until you have repaid your debts)
Food & Household Shopping £300.00
Eating Out £20.00
Drinks for Home £30.00 (Try and cut down - have you thought about making home made wine?)
Smokes £75.00 (I know this one is hard. can you switch to rollups whilst you try to quit?)

Car Maintainence £20.00
Car Insurance £38.00
Petrol / Diesel / Gas £20.00

Personal Loan Repayments £320.00 (Are you on the best deals that you can find i.e. 0% balance transfers, low rate unsecured loans?)

Childcare / Play Schemes £25.00
Laundry / Dry Cleaning £8.00
Nappies / Baby Extras £5.00
School Trips £5.00

DVD / Video Rental £5.99 (Have a search for DVD tarting. You can get all the DVD's you could ever watch by playing the system free introductory offers etc...)
Shopping For Fun £20.00
NTL / Sky Subscription £9.75 (Can you cancel and get a freeview box?)
TV Licence £11.37
Other Fun £16.00
Cost of Christmas £83.33
Cost of Summer Holiday £208.33 (Can you put on hold for a year or two to free up some spare cash?)
Cost of Birthdays £41.67 (Have a look at some of the competition threads - there is loads you can win to either sell or use as presents)
New Clothes £30.00 (Can you sell some of your old clothes via ebay and use some of the funds to repay your debt and some of the funds to buy new ones?)

Newspapers / Magazines £10.00 (There is tons of reading material on the internet. Also library's are a cheap way to get all the reading material you need)
Haircuts £20.00

Both myself and my husband self employed - OH works 60 -70 hours a week and I work between 30 and 45 depending on how busy we are (we have 2 kids) - cant get a second job because our business hours a irregular and need to be on call.

Thanks in anticipation...

Finally can you look at generating income from other means. Some that spring to mind are:

Cashback sites (Quidco)
Mystery Shopping (Retaileyes)
Competitions
AQA
Online Questionaires
Ebay

Rgds, John

angelavdavis

Hi, and welcome to the forum.

I have removed any zero value entries to make it a bit easier to read. Here are my suggestions below:

Lifeisbutadream wrote:

Could do with some advice! - this is my SOA - my household income is £2316 - expenditure comes to £2675.97. :eek:

Details are here (per month)

Overdraft Cost £10.00 What is your current overdraft? If you don't have one, you shouldn't be paying this.
Mortgage / Rent £790.00
Household Maintenance £10.00
Buildings & Contents Insurance £20.01
Council Tax £140.00
Water Rates / Meter £50.00
Gas Bill £73.00 This seems very high - have you checked whether you can get a better deal through uswitch? Sign up to quidco first so you can get cash for switching provider.
Electricity Bill £73.00 As for Gas
Internet Bill £14.99 see below
Mobile Phone Bill(s) £50.00 is this work related or personal?
Window Cleaner £6.00 do them yourself - its free!
Level Term Assurance £29.00
Travel Insurance £8.00

Food & Household Shopping £300.00 This could be reduced by £100 - check out old style forum for ideas on cutting back on grocery budgets
Eating Out £20.00 This could go. Make sandwiches for lunches and cut back on this until you are in a better financial state.
Drinks for Home £30.00 This could go
Smokes £75.00 This should go, but at least you could switch to rollups
Car Maintainence £20.00
Car Insurance £38.00 Is this the best deal you could find - check quidco for offers.
Car Tax This seems to be missing?
Petrol / Diesel / Gas £20.00

Personal Loan Repayments £320.00 What is the APR/Total/duration left

Childcare / Play Schemes £25.00
Laundry / Dry Cleaning £8.00 Look on Old style forum for tips on reducing dry cleaning bills.
Nappies / Baby Extras £5.00
School Trips £5.00

DVD / Video Rental £5.99 This should go - library is free
Shopping For Fun £20.00 This should go
NTL / Sky Subscription £9.75 Shop around - you are paying for landline, mobile, sky and broadband - Virgin is apparently offering deals at the moment,
TV Licence £11.37
Other Fun £16.00 What is this for?

Cost of Christmas £83.33 £1000 for Christmas and you only have 2 kids! I am coming to yours this year! Is this really necessary? I think this could be reduced
Cost of Summer Holiday £208.33 £2500? Look at the holiday forums to see ways of cutting back on this
Cost of Birthdays £41.67 £500 for birthdays on top of Christmas! I think you need to be realistic about these presents. I understand you love your kids - but is it worth being in debt over this?
New Clothes £30.00 This can go

Newspapers / Magazines £10.00 this can go, look at news online, take advantage of introductory offers and cancel before being charged, etc
Haircuts £20.00

Both myself and my husband self employed - OH works 60 -70 hours a week and I work between 30 and 45 depending on how busy we are (we have 2 kids) - cant get a second job because our business hours a irregular and need to be on call.

Thanks in anticipation...

Looking at the above, I think you could easily shave off £300 and that's without reducing your Christmas/Birthday spend. I am sure others on here will have ideas.

abitrubbish

Hi there

I'm no expert, but a few things jump out at me:

Summer holiday - £2,500 - this is a big chunk of your overspend. You really can't afford this. Could you do without a holiday this year, or if you really can't do without maybe try a much cheaper break in the UK?

Christmas and birthday costs are also very high - you could save here by buying presents through the year when they're cheap, or even making some (get the kids to help). You and OH could agree not to get anything for each other too.

Are your gas and electric bills really exactly the same amount, or have you doubled up here? This seems very high if it's right, it could be worth look at whether you could get a better deal on this.

Home phone and internet are very high, we have talktalk and get phoneline, broadband and all (landline) calls for £20pm. Could you look at getting a better deal here? If these are necessary for your business shouldn't they be listed separately?

And as joughtib says above, there's quite a lot of "fun extras" in there which you could probably do without for a while: shopping for fun, takeaways, clothes, haircuts, newspapers etc.

I'm sure the experts will be along soon to help. Well done for posting so far, I'm sure you can sort it out more easily than you think!

Good luck and keep posting!

chevalier

does the gas and electric include any arrears? If not then these are very high.
So some thoughts. When you run the bath does the water come out so hot that you can't put you hand underneath it? If so have a look at the temperature your water boiler is set at. Someone else on the forum mentioned that fitters turn it up high to test it and then don't always turn it down. I have mine set to 60 degrees and that is comfortable.

Do you walk around the house in a t shirt? If so you may want to see what your thermastat is set at. Any more than 20 degrees I would say is too high. turning your thermastat down by 1 degree saves about £70 a year.

Are all of your appliances turned off at the wall when not in use? Leaving things on stand by uses nearly as much electric as it does when the appliance is on.

You can get energy saving lightbulbs free in some cases. Have a look on the freebies board for offers.

best of luck
chev

TheAble

Lifeisbutadream wrote:

Could do with some advice! - this is my SOA - my household income is £2316 - expenditure comes to £2675.97. :eek:

Details are here (per month)

Overdraft Cost £10.00 May be able to arrange a loan at lower APR, go through quidco.com for cashback.
Mortgage / Rent £790.00 Are you on the best mortgage rate? See moneyfacts.co.uk for best rates. See if lender will reduce interest rates
Household Maintenance £10.00
Buildings & Contents Insurance £20.01 Again, is this cheapest? Go through quidco.com for cashback
Council Tax £140.00 Ensure you are taking full advantage of any council tax benefits
Water Rates / Meter £50.00 This is very high. Look into water saving methods, showers instead of baths
Gas Bill £73.00 Wow, along with elec, a massive amount. Use uswitch.com to find cheapest provider. Go through quidco for cashback. Reduce use of central heating.
Electricity Bill £73.00
Home Phone Bill £67.00 This is massive! Primustel.co.uk offer zero pence per minute on weekend and evening calls. Quidco again to sign up. 1899.com for daytime calls - you pay 5p per call, no matter how long you stay on the phone.
Internet Bill £14.99 Could you use a package like talktalk? Then you pay £20/month and get all calls free. Download limit though
Mobile Phone Bill(s) £50.00 Very high. Could you use PAYG? See quidco again
Window Cleaner £6.00 Could you clean yourself?

Level Term Assurance £29.00 Is this cheapest? Quidco again for cashback (sounding like a broken record here!
Travel Insurance £8.00 May be worth ditching this and paying per trip. £96 per year is a lot. Quidco again...

Food & Household Shopping £300.00 If kids are young, should be able to shave £100 off this
Eating Out £20.00 This may have to go. Use tesco clubcard two for one deals
Drinks for Home £30.00
Smokes £75.00 Sorry, these have to go. Could you try roll ups as a halfway house?

Car Maintainence £20.00
Car Insurance £38.00 Is this cheapest? Quidco...
Petrol / Diesel / Gas £20.00

Personal Loan Repayments £320.00

Childcare / Play Schemes £25.00 Ensure you use child care vouchers to reduce income tax bill
Laundry / Dry Cleaning £8.00
Nappies / Baby Extras £5.00
School Trips £5.00

DVD / Video Rental £5.99 Do you use Tesco clubcard vouchers? £11 worth buys you 12 free blockbuster tokens. This would save you this £5.99
Shopping For Fun £20.00 Try to halve or eliminate this. You're trying to save after all
NTL / Sky Subscription £9.75 This has to go. Use freeview instead
TV Licence £11.37
Other Fun £16.00 Again, reduce or eliminate. Tesco vouchers again have days out tickets.

Cost of Christmas £83.33 £1000 for Christmas? This is high. Try to halve.
Cost of Summer Holiday £208.33 £2500 for a summer holiday? This has to be reduced by around £2000 at least. Try a British holiday, or even go without this year.
Cost of Birthdays £41.67 £500 for birthdays is high. Try to cut by around £300.

New Clothes £30.00 Can you make do with what you have? If not, aim for £10 per month

Newspapers / Magazines £10.00 Can you halve this?
Haircuts £20.00

Both myself and my husband self employed - OH works 60 -70 hours a week and I work between 30 and 45 depending on how busy we are (we have 2 kids) - cant get a second job because our business hours a irregular and need to be on call.

Thanks in anticipation...

Hello there,

I have had a go at your SOA, see what you think! In summary, I would say make sure you make use of quidco.com, and severely cut your expenditure on luxuries. Remember, you're overspending by £300 a week and you have a hefty loan repayment. It's important to realise that the party's over now!

Regards
TheAble

Lifeisbutadream

QUOTE=CLAPTON]a. is the only debt you have the personal loan costing 320 per month?
b. how many months left to pay this loan. YEs this is the only loan we have - it is 6.9% APR and we have 6 years left!!:eek:

c. basically you can't afford 1000 per annum on xmas or 2,500 on holidays or 500 on birthdays at the moment. Stopping these will just about make you break even and avoid more debt. I maybe overestimated these, but worked out that 2 x kids partys and pressies were about £200 each plus me and OH - could definatly cut back here. Xmas the same - included all extra xmas food - holiday is already booked and paid for for this year so I cant change that..:rolleyes:

d. you're spending 1,800 on gas and electricity per annum... worth reducing the amount of time the CH is on , checking why the electic is so high - I didnt realise I was paying so much until I looked at my statement - it does seem a lot!

e. phone ... use BT at 11 per month and then https://www.call1899.com or equivalent (they charge 3p per call NOT per minute)...should be able to save 30 at least - we have another phone line - run abusiness from home - we are already on a special rate for this, so dont know whether we can reduce this - but will look into it..

f. can you switch to PAYG mobiles and use only sparingly[/QUOTE] - both phones are used for the business - I am on a contract for another year and dont pay more than the contract cost but OH used his a lot for business. We pay out of our bills account though because we use them for ourselves as well, some will be able to go against our tax payment.

Thanks for your help..;)

Lifeisbutadream

QUOTE=elantan]you have an informative soa thanks ..i can see loads of ways that you can cut back ...but it's down to how much you really want to ...this would be my list of cut backs
get rid of the window cleaner i know it's only £6 a month but over a year that's £72,
cut down on the shopping (take a look at the os board) that is an awful lot for 4
eating out would need to go till you could afford it

We only go out about 3 times a year, thats why I put £20 a month - I actually cook all my meals from scratch already - I buy cheapest where possible too - I probably spend too much on cleaniong and household products though

i would try and shave £10 off the drinks bill (i know this aint easy i cant manage it and we spend more that you) - I know - this is a biggy - we know we should cut down..
cigarettes..well £75 a month is £900 a year ..dont know how much your overdraft is but i think £900 would help alot and save you the £10 a month on fees - I know - we should stop definately - I get lectured from my 7 year old every day!
dvd rental/shopping for fun/sky subscription/other fun...you can get these things when you can afford them cut them back just now it will make a diff of over £50 a month
summer hols ..i know this one would be hard to give up ...but it's only gonna be short term not forever ...can you not go camping for a couple of days or there is always the £9.50 hols in the sun ...everyone i've spoken too loves them ..once you are debt free you can save up and go anywhere in the world ...you just need to get the money first - holiday already booked for this year - but it is already paid for (thats why we are overdrawn)
i'd get rid of the newspapers and mags as well
hope that helps ...i know it seems a bit extreme but sometimes it's good to go extreme even for a short while till you can get sorted ...good luck[/QUOTE]