Haven't been on here in a long time

vix1978_2

And as much as I'd like to say I'm pleased to report I'm debt free I'm not.

And now money is tighter than ever and I've had a bit of a scare about not being able to meet my repayments I am back. I am in the process of drawing up a new SOA, but at the minute it looks like I have more going out than I do coming in. And I've not even included anything other than bills in that :rolleyes:

GirlRacer_2

Hi Vix, how about posting a new SOA and letting the folks on here tear it to shreds! Lets see if anyine can help you.

MUSTBEFUNNY_2

Good luck Vix - the road to being debt free is a difficult one isn't it? It feels like you can't afford to take your eye of the ball for a minute...

GirlRacer_2

Your right there mustbefunny, at least vix has got the sense to come back to this board to get some more advice and moral support.

vix1978_2

GirlRacer wrote:

Hi Vix, how about posting a new SOA and letting the folks on here tear it to shreds! Lets see if anyine can help you.

Once I've got all the details together I will do.

And I didn't just take my eyes off the ball, I let the ball get completely away from me.:o

GirlRacer_2

Hey don't beat yourself up about it, we all do it, it's just some of us don't admit to it. Your back in the right frame of mind now so that's a good start.

LewisC_2

Welcome back

Don't be scared to post an SOA - facing up to it is the first big step. You'll know from before that the people around here are fantastic and will have you back on track in no time

vix1978_2

Very rough SOA

Income

Salary £1918.80
Other £800

Bank Account fee £12
Rent £1000
Contents insurance £12.77
Council Tax £133
Gas £33
Electricity £27
Internet £35
Mobile £60
Food and household shopping £200
Tube fare £186
Car insurance £50
Car tax £9.17
Parking £5
Petrol £50
Gym £135
Sky £35

Debts:

Car Loan £305.47 (total owing £4582.05, not sure of APR)
Sofas £94.84 (total owing £48.40, 0% APR)
American Express CC £48.00 (total owing £1900.53, it says 1.52% interest per month which i know isn't the full APR)
Egg Visa £19.62 (total owing £980.81, 16.9% Apr)
Egg money £16.59 (total owing £675.24, 16.9% APR)
MBNA £50.17 (total owing £3957.19, APR 16.9% APR)

Total money left £201.17

I currently pay the minimum on my credit cards but I'd like to pay more. And, as has already been mentioned I haven't included any holidays or anything else in these calulations. On the plus side I forgot both my payrise and the fact that my tube fare comes straight out my account so at least I now have more coming in than going out

*zippy*

Hi Vix good to see you back,

vix1978 wrote:

Very rough SOA

Income

Salary £1918.80
Other £800

Bank Account fee £12 Do you need this?
Rent £1000 Could you move to somewhere cheaper or get a lodger?
Contents insurance £12.77 Have you checked if you can get this cheaper?
Council Tax £133 Are you claiming your single persons living allowance
Gas £33 Have you checked if you are with the cheapest suppliers?
Electricity £27
Internet £35 Seems high?
Mobile £60 Can you cancel and PAYG or move to a cheaper plan
Food and household shopping £200 Is this for one?
Tube fare £186
Car insurance £50
Car tax £9.17
Parking £5
Petrol £50
Gym £135 Cancel?
Sky £35 Cancel?

You should be able to free up quite a bit each month good luck with it zippy x

Verbatim

Hi and welcome back.

The obvious areas are to reduce shopping, how many are you feeding on that?, mobile, perhaps pay you go, or a cheaper contract, (are you tied in?) and to work out whether you're getting £10 a month worth of services from your bank for the fee. If not change to a free account.

More painfully you could see if you need the car right now. Do you live in London, (the tube being the clue but Glasgow and Newcastle I think also have tubes tho probably not that expensive??) could you manage on public transport, and there's also the gym and sky. Maybe take up tennis or running or swimming and ask sky to reduce to the minimum or cancel.

Losing the car would free up around £420 a month alone plus you could sell it, with the permission of the finance co', and pay off the loan. I'm sure these are all areas you've considered so forgive me for stating the obvious. You're actually not that much awry on your budget so I'm sure you'll get it sorted.

vix1978_2

I share the flat with my boyfriend, the £800 is from him to cover his half of the household bills.

We can't really change the gas/electric as we're going to be moving again in April as the landlord would only give us 6 month tenancy and due to other issues with him we won't be staying so I don't want to sign up to a 12 month contract.

I really do need to keep the gym membership. I have found a cheaper one close to work, but I need to give three months notice on my current one to leave.

I currently have 2 mobile phone contracts. I have cancelled one of these which will drop this down to £35 per month.

We are unable to get a BT line in our current flat (it's a new building and to get connected to the exchange would cost £110 and we'd need to sign up for 12 months) for a 6 month tenancy this just isn't worth it. So the internet is a mobile 3g card. i shouldn't really be online during the day at work but as I'm somewhat scared by my current situation I thought I'd risk it for today.