My SOA - huge life change/income drop please help!

Cariad9

To give a bit of background - I'm currently working full time earning 24k a year. I'm leaving my job to live with my husband on an RAF base (hence the low rent). I'm hoping to be able to claim contribution based JSA. This is how the SOA looks once we move - we are losing half our monthly income so any advice gratefully received.


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,500.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 268.67
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home

Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.87
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216.67
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130.00

Motoring & Public Transport

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.33
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.67

Debt Repayments

Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Savings & Investments

Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00

Family

Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Entertainment

Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.67
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173.33
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86.67

Clothes, Health & Beauty

Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00

Education & Courses

University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Big One Offs

Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Odds & Sods

Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00


Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,768.67


Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,926.20

niksyg

Hello, well done for posting...just had a quick look but one that really arabs out is 'drinks for home £130' - that could easily be cut back on, if you just spent £30 you would have £100 to throw at debt!!

rising_from_the_ashes

Hi Best of luck with the move.Obvious areas to cut back are:

Drinks for the home @ £130 Nik suggests this is high & I also thing £30 / month could be a max for this (saving £100)

Drinks out & eating out @ £260 sorry but this is huge....... You can save huge amounts here - reduce to £75 & that's still pretty generous & you may be able to get it down further once you start (saving £185)

Haircuts & Clothes @ £100 is high - try an extra week between cuts, student nights, ebay for clothes (sell what you don't use & buy replacements with the money made - cut both in 1/2 (saving £50)

Books, films etc @ £21.67 is high for each month - again try to save £10 here (saving £10)

Groceries are on the high side if it's just the 2 of you and you could get at least £50 off here (saving £50)

Savings - how much do you have put aside? Might be worth considering using some to reduce the debts.......

Missing there's a few things missing which you need to include - dentist etc but scope to do this.

Savings above (nearly £400!) will balance the books and allow for the debts to be cleared quicker - best of luck

miketaff1408

Drinks at Home - 130

Drinking out - 173.33

Eating Out - 86.67

Smokes - 30

total = ~£420.

So out of the income of 1700 odd pounds per month, nearly a quarter of all your money is going up in smoke, or (eventually) down the toilet!

This is the area you really have so much power over cutting down.

If you could slash this figure to a quarter of this figure, £100 per month (which to many people on this board would still seem too generous) you would balance your SOA and not show a monthly shortfall.

You also need to look at the presents section. Do you really spend no money at all on birthdays or Christmas?

[Deleted User]

Cariad9 wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,500.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). 268.67
Monthly Expense Details

In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.00 This seems high? How many phones is it for? Use PAYG and/or SIM only deals when out of contract (eg GiffGaff), also if in a contract ask if you can drop down a tariff some will allow, some won't)
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00Both this and below seem reasonable, just check every 6-12 months as to whether you're on the cheapest tariff with the cheapest company
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00as above
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70.87
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216.67 Given that this doesn't include any alcohol, or cleaning products et I would suggest that you could cut this back - meal plan, batch cook, cook from scratch, shop aidl/aldi, shop from a list so you only buy what you need
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130.00 Very high

Motoring & Public TransportDo you need to have a car?
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43.33
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13.33
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.67

Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 380.00

Savings & Investments
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.00
Entertainment
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.67Can this be reduced? Get books and films etc from charity shops, ebay and amazon very cheaply
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173.33 This is very high especially in addition to what you already spend on drinks at home - try cutting back a bit
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86.67 when eating out look for deals and offers

Clothes, Health & Beauty
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00This seems high every month - try going a little longer in between cuts and see if there's a college or trainee salon nearby for really cheap/sometimes free cuts
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 Wear what you have until debt free. Also have a clear out and see if there are things that you no longer wear that you could sell on e-bay

Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Probably need to budget for this
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00And this

Odds & Sods
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00Try giving up - local nhs services should be able to provide alternatives

Total monthly income. . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,768.67

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,926.20I think that this can be reduced to meet your income without too much effort - spend less on alcohol both in and out of the home, cut back on the shopping - meal plan, batch cook, try lidl/aldi etc, try eating out less, and get your hair cut somewhere else and if you're ready try giving up smoking

How much are your debts for? Are the payments listed above the minimum payments or are you paying above minimum, if so by how much? What is the APR of each of the debts?

How much are in savings? What interest rate are they earning? Are there any penalties of withdrawing?

Hi, I have made some comments above on your SOA, but cannot comment on the debt as there's currently some info needed.

HTH

D9

dancingfairy

200 a month seems a lot to be saving while you have so much debt. Do you need to save this much each month? You will probably only be getting what 2 or 3% interest on your savings while you are paying what 19% or more on some of your debts? Clearly if you can stop paying into your savings at the same rate you could start making serious dents in the debts.
Best of Luck
df

Barbeduk

Drinks for home, eating out, drinking out, smokes. Cut them and you'll see those debts gone.

Angry_Bear

If you smoke, is it really only £30 per month? A pack a day is closer to £40 per week.

Much easier said than done, I know, but cutting out/back on the smoking and drinking will make a massive difference to your budget.

notatvstar

As a (RAF) Pad wife Caraid9's situation is a wee bit different from a normal civi in that there are some things that you will never have to pay for but there are some others that you really *should* do. i.e. The going out bit... My OH is in the Army and we have to fork out a fortune for Mess 'Do's.... And 'No'. I don't reckon her OH has the option to say to his RSM (or RAF equivalent) - "Sorry Sir, but I can't attend the 'Family Sunday Lunch'/Ladies Dinner Night/Summer Ball* (delete as appropriate), 'cos I'm skint Sir." Career limiting shall we say...

The 'Drinks and Food' Tab probably includes all the Mess Meetings that her OH probably attends too... and again. Attendance for him is compulsory.

... also 30 quid a MONTH for fags... (someone has a mate in the US Air Force methinks...)

Caraid9 - as you'll be on the Patch - I'm sure there'll be other wives/partners in a similar boat. Have you seen the Families Officer? Can you get a job on camp?

Cariad9

Thanks for all your advice. In answer to a few points:

had a quick look but one that really arabs out is 'drinks for home £130' - I included this as I don't want to cut back on socialising as moving to a new community I think it's important so had the thought of having Bbqs etc at home and save money by not going out as much.

Drinks out & eating out @ £260 sorry but this is huge....... You can save huge amounts here - reduce to £75 & that's still pretty generous & you may be able to get it down further once you start (saving £185) - same here, I don't want to cut back on socialising at first (although as I've made the same argument for the drinks at home I'm going to re-visit this). As another poster pointed out it's difficult knowing what social obligations OH has...

Books, films etc @ £21.67 is high for each month - again try to save £10 here (saving £10) - This accounts for books which I already get from charity shops. I think there is a library on base so will check it out.

Groceries are on the high side if it's just the 2 of you and you could get at least £50 off here (saving £50) True. This is our budget at the moment but I won't be having work lunches. I'll have another think about this.

Savings - how much do you have put aside? Might be worth considering using some to reduce the debts....... Debts are 2 loans, both old and finishing next year. One is 6.8% and the other 7.2% - paying them off early won't reduce the overall amount so don't see the point. The credit card repayments are over 2 cards. One is on a 0% which I pay minimum payments on, the other is 6.8% for the life of balance and I try to pay a bit extra on this! Savings are £100 a month into a ISA. OH is 4 years into a 9 year service and I wan't the option that if he does come out in 5 years time we have enough to put down a deposit on a house. The other 100 goes into a general savings for weekends away seeing family, the odd rugby ticket and anything else that may crop up.

Missing there's a few things missing which you need to include - dentist etc but scope to do this. Dentist I will get free of charge through HMG (I think - will double check!)

You also need to look at the presents section. Do you really spend no money at all on birthdays or Christmas? - I didn;t really consider this. Will re-think.

41.00 This seems high? How many phones is it for? Use PAYG and/or SIM only deals when out of contract (eg GiffGaff), also if in a contract ask if you can drop down a tariff some will allow, some won't) - This covers 2 phones and we're both in contracts until Jan. Will re-look then.

Motoring & Public TransportDo you need to have a car? Unfortuneatly yes. Will be living on an airfield in the middle of no-where

Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21.67Can this be reduced? Get books and films etc from charity shops, ebay and amazon very cheaply
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173.33 This is very high especially in addition to what you already spend on drinks at home - try cutting back a bit
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I think I answered this above.

Clothes, Health & Beauty
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00This seems high every month - try going a little longer in between cuts and see if there's a college or trainee salon nearby for really cheap/sometimes free cuts - This includes OH who has very fast growing hair so needs cuts every month (again military - can't have it long). However I think my hi-lights might have to go and maybe look into investing in clippers...
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 Wear what you have until debt free. Also have a clear out and see if there are things that you no longer wear that you could sell on e-bay - Fair point

... also 30 quid a MONTH for fags... (someone has a mate in the US Air Force methinks...) Couldn't possibly comment :rotfl:

I am hoping to get a job, however it's quite an isolated area so trying to budget for worst case scenario.

Sorry for the long reply.... if you're still awake than you very much, any further advice appreciated.

mildredalien

You may not want to cut down on socialising, savings or that bit of money put away for holidays etc. but at the moment your SOA is showing you spending £200 more than you actually have each month. You've suggested you can make maybe £60+ savings in your post above by reducing money on haircuts and new clothes, but you'll need to make some more if you actually want to break even, let alone clear those credit cards.

I can sympathise with moving to a new area and wanting to get involved, particularly with the expectations of what you will need to attend with your OH. However, you'll need to make some cutbacks somewhere, and the grocery and socialising budget seems to be the main place you could do this. You have budgeted for nearly about £400 for socialising - can you think of any ways of reducing this? How many BBQs can you have in one month?! Could you attend the work social events but not spend as much on alcohol or food? Throw a budget social meeting at home? Ask people to each bring a dish?