Decided to post my SOA !!

payingitoff

Hello all,
I'm quite new to these boards, I've started a diary which has been very helpful to show me I'm doing rubbish ! It's alright saying you want to be debt free...... but now I have to act and really make the effort to be debt free!

So I am posting my SOA for some advice please.

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 800
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1300
Benefits................................ 428
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2528
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 543
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 105
Electricity............................. 55
Gas..................................... 50
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 31
Telephone (land line)................... 0 (in with sky package)
Mobile phone............................ 45 (2 incontract until Dec)
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 60 (includes internet and landline)
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 450
Clothing................................ 30
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 25
Car Insurance........................... 35
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 5
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 55 (swimming must keep)
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 13
Contents insurance...................... 7
Life assurance ......................... 20
Other insurance......................... 21
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 80
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 40
Holiday................................. 50
Emergency fund..........................20
Work club............................... 12
Lotto................................... 8 (keeping you never know!!!)
Total monthly expenses.................. 1982.12[/b]

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 130000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 7000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 137000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 77000....(543)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 77000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Barclaycard....................1739......100.......0 until March 2013
Car............................5650......150.......0 until end of loan
Loan...........................6290......60........0 (dad lent this for big home improvments)
Total unsecured debts..........13679.....310.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,528
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,982.12
Available for debt repayments........... 545.88
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 310
Amount left after debt repayments....... 235.88
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 137,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -77,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -13,679
Net Assets.............................. 46,321

Thank you in advance for any advise offered

shoe_gal_84

Hi,

I'm really not that well equipped to be helping you out with this. There are so many people on here that will be able to offer you some really great solutions. In the mean time, this is what I thought from reading your SOA:

* Could you stop your Sky package as £60 a month is a lot for phone and TV. We are with the Post Office and our package of £24 a month includes our home phone and broadband.

* Your grocery bill seems really high, even for 5 of you. Perhaps try going down a brand - supermarket own brand items are often exactly the same as expensive items. We do our shopping online and it saves us money as we don't get tempted by things!

* Any ways of reducing your petrol cost?

* You could try and cut down on presents as £80 a month sounds like a lot. Use voucher codes and discount sites to buy presents or get creative and make something to cut costs.

* You say that your debt has gone up since your holiday - do you need a holiday? Most people who are in debt and trying to pay it off, would say that a holiday is a luxury that they can't afford. If you do keep this in there - how about camping or something like that? Can be done very cheaply.

* To be honest, I'd get rid of the lottery payment, but that's up to you!

Your SOA says that you have £235 a month left over, is this the case? If not, then try writing a spending diary for a couple of months to see what kinds of things you spend your money on. I did this and was shocked to see that I wasted so much money on things like magazines and coffees and I hadn't even realised before!

Well done for posting on here, it's the best way to get started. Wishing you lots of luck and hope you get lots of helpful comments on here.

payingitoff

Thanks so much for coming back so quickly!

Yep sadly I booked a holiday we couldn't afford before my LBM - so debt increased slightly but I am now very determined to rectify that!

Some very good points and I will try and shop around for internet and phone deals

shoe_gal_84

I signed up to UKmysurvey and Valued opinions websites. They send me links to surveys I fill in, and when you've done so many, you get rewarded with a voucher - I always choose Amazon vouchers and use them for presents.

I also use Maximiles points, which you can fill in surveys on and get points when you shop online. These can be swapped for shopping vouchers, or for things like CDs or cinema vouchers.

Tesco Clubcard Vouchers is how we afford the occasional break away. We shop at Tesco online and try to get our fuel from Tesco too. The points soon add up and they are often worth 3 times more when used on hotel stays or similar!

payingitoff

They're really great ideas. I;m off to sign up now... !