SOA - please can you take a look and give me some advice please!

nicnicj

here is my SOA that i've done today... I would like some advice on how to get rid of our credit card debt.
Have tried calling the bank today to ask for a consolidation loan/extension to our mortgage but no joy as we want to borrow too much/don't earn enough.

any advice much appreciated, thank you!!

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1234
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2200
Benefits................................ 135
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3569

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 200
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 343
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 153
Electricity............................. 65
Gas..................................... 35
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35
Telephone (land line)................... 25
Mobile phone............................ 65
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 40
Internet Services....................... 25
Groceries etc. ......................... 1000
Clothing................................ 150
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 25
Car Insurance........................... 75
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 15
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 80
Other child related expenses............ 100
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 14
Buildings insurance..................... 14
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 21
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 70
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 150
Holiday................................. 200
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 3047


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 240000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 10000
Other assets............................ 9000
Total Assets............................ 259000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 160000...(200)......1.5
Secured Debt.................. 8000.....(343)......8
Total secured & HP debts...... 168000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
halifax........................3600......36........0
aa.............................3000......30........0
nationwide.....................2600......30........0
virgin.........................6150......62........0
bt visa........................444.......25........0
barclaycard....................3100......72........0
tesco..........................1300......50........18.6
santander......................500.......90........22.6
Total unsecured debts..........20694.....395.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,569
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,047
Available for debt repayments........... 522
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 395
Amount left after debt repayments....... 127

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 259,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -168,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -20,694
Net Assets.............................. 70,306[/b

reallyAnnoyed_2

Groceries! Definitely groceries.

*will post in detail later, time to go home*

Gareth19

Has to be groceries. For a 4 person family are you seriously spending £250 per WEEK on groceries? What on earth are you buying?

PasturesNew

nicnicj wrote: »

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2

Groceries etc. ......................... 1000

Entertainment........................... 150
Holiday................................. 200

£1000 on groceries is easily £500 more than's necessary.
£150 entertainment isn't necessary.
£2400 holiday isn't necessary.

Just cut the groceries bill and you might not have to think about cutting anything else.

rebeccatom

nicnicj wrote: »

here is my SOA that i've done today... I would like some advice on how to get rid of our credit card debt.
Have tried calling the bank today to ask for a consolidation loan/extension to our mortgage but no joy as we want to borrow too much/don't earn enough.

any advice much appreciated, thank you!!

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1234
Partners monthly income after tax....... 2200
Benefits................................ 135
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3569

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 200
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 343
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 153
Electricity............................. 65 High, Have you checked to see if you are on the best tariff? Does this include arrears?
Gas..................................... 35
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35
Telephone (land line)................... 25
Mobile phone............................ 65 How many is this for? can you see if you can cancel and go on PAYG or drop a tariff?
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 40 - This should go, or try calling and see if they will reduce your payments if you threaten to leave
Internet Services....................... 25
Groceries etc. ......................... 1000 WOW!! way way to high, get over to the old style boardwill be able to half this with some practice
Clothing................................ 150 - can you cut this out for a while? try having a sort out and ebay stuff.
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 25
Car Insurance........................... 75
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 15
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 80
Other child related expenses............ 100 - what is this for?
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 14
Buildings insurance..................... 14
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 21
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 70
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 150 - try reducing until your debts are down
Holiday................................. 200 - is this already booked? can you try getting a cheaper holiday or even cutting out this year?
Emergency fund.......................... 0 - you should have something in here
Total monthly expenses.................. 3047


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 240000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 10000
Other assets............................ 9000
Total Assets............................ 259000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 160000...(200)......1.5
Secured Debt.................. 8000.....(343)......8
Total secured & HP debts...... 168000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
halifax........................3600......36........0
aa.............................3000......30........0
nationwide.....................2600......30........0
virgin.........................6150......62........0
bt visa........................444.......25........0
barclaycard....................3100......72........0
tesco..........................1300......50........18.6
santander......................500.......90........22.6
Total unsecured debts..........20694.....395.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,569
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,047
Available for debt repayments........... 522
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 395
Amount left after debt repayments....... 127

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 259,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -168,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -20,694
Net Assets.............................. 70,306[/b

You have a good income so with a few tweeks and shifting of spending habits you can do a lot.

Have you looked at the snowball calculator?

also would suggest keeping a spending diary, this helped me loads, to see where all the little bits and bobs go that add up over the month.

tell_it_how_it_is

As mentioned above, your groceries figure is easily the standout one. One would imagine with a shift down on brands for a few things (alcohol, fags cutbacks possible too?) you could knock a good £300 or more off that.

Others worthy of consideration are perhaps the mobile phone(s) i.e. you can get decent minutes and texts each month for £10 or £15 if retaining existing phones, and less spend on the clothing, which seems overly generous.

Also, if you haven't done so already, see if you can get the car insurance cut down from £900 a year. Plus, could you consider and cope as a one-car family?

nicnicj

thanks for all the replies..

I am going to start a spending diary... and cut back on groceries. doesn't help living practically next door to tesco so it's like our corner shop! need to plan menus i think.. just time, always run out of time and go for the easy option!

have to have a holiday, work so bloody hard all year, my husband and I have to have something to look forward to!!

on a contract at the mo with phone but will look to reduce that when the contract expires.

only just got the HD box with sky which was £120 for the year (got £50 in vouchers back) as my husband is well into his Formula 1! was an early birthday present to be fair!

clothing can probably cut back on, this is mostly the children though, don't buy that much for myself these days!

children also do several clubs - gymnastics, swimming, theatre - have talked to them about cutting one out so that will save about £50 a month (cost of class and petrol to get there)

agreed that we defo need something in our emergency fund each month too so will start doing that.

thanks you've given me a lot to think about.

Betty_Crumble

Groceries etc. ......................... 1000
Clothing................................ 150
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 70
Entertainment........................... 150

1370 to work with there and thats without touching phone, internet etc. Just cutting by half is a 685 saving and that is still generous.

R_P_W

This is going to come across as being really blunt......having the £2k holiday a year and Sky HD package are luxuries and I'm afraid to say that from the SOA you have posted you just cannot afford it.

You have reasonable incomes each month. Your mortage of £160k on a 1.5% interest rate costing you £200 a month is the BEST YOU ARE EVER going to have it.

As other have said, your food shopping of £1000 a month is crazy. I have seen other SOA on this site where people of have 3-4 kids who spend less than half that. If you can cut this down to £500 a month and channel that money towards your credit card debts you will be well on your way to cutting your debt over a couple of years.

I don't have kids, but admire that you are trying to keep them doing the various activities. Whilst it costs money surely a worthwhile investment over the long term.

The other stuff is small in comparison and I empathise that you both work hard and need that holiday and that actually £2k you won't exactly be in a 5 star hotel.

Have you had a good clear out? It is amazing what people will buy on e-bay. My wife listed some used clothes that were 3-4 years old, she was going to put them in the charity bin but decided to give ebay ago and made nearly £150.

Barbeduk

My grocery budget for 2 adults and 2 kids is £260 a month inc cleaning stuff and toiletries. 3 of us have packed lunches every day, the 4th has school dinners. I used to spend waaay more than this though so can strongly recommend the grocery challenge on the old style board for tips and motivation. A good place to start is spending cash only, you'll soon cut back!

If you could cut back on the entertainment budget, the clothes budget and the mobiles when they're off contract you'll save loads. Have a think about the holiday, if you can only afford it by adding to your debt, then you can't afford it. I'm afraid you'll be part of a big club on that one.

Can you swap the land line over to sky?

Well done for being brave enough to post the SOA, I'm afraid I never was, mine was all over the place!!

Good luck.

rising_from_the_ashes

nicnicj wrote: »

have to have a holiday, work so bloody hard all year, my husband and I have to have something to look forward to!!

You can have a decent holiday for much less than nearly £2.5k tho:)

nicnicj wrote: »

only just got the HD box with sky which was £120 for the year (got £50 in vouchers back) as my husband is well into his Formula 1! was an early birthday present to be fair!

Is that £120 / year on top of the £40 / month?

nicnicj wrote: »

clothing can probably cut back on, this is mostly the children though, don't buy that much for myself these days!

Sorry but £150 / month if that's just for the kids is way too much - try selling outgrown clothes on E*bay etc & using the money to buy new ones. You should be able to reduce this by at least £100

There are a few other things that are too high - presents, mobiles etc but, as others have said the Grocery bill is absolutely astronomical.

The utilities could probably be lowered with some comparison hunting:

- my landline costs £12.49 / month incl anytime calls & my broadband £6.49 and I'm in a Market 1 (ie restricted to who you can move to) area so you should certainly be able to match if not better this.
- mobile phones are expensive so cancel the contracts as soon as you can
- Elec is OK but Gas is high - again shop around, check readings against bills etc

Cars - If you only spend £100 in fuel between 2 cars, then it really is worth considering whether you actually need both of them as neither can be doing any great mileage on that amount. Maintenance is too low for 2

Entertainment - too high when added to all the other luxuries eg Sky, holiday etc

Barbeduk wrote: »

My grocery budget for 2 adults and 2 kids is £260 a month inc cleaning stuff and toiletries. 3 of us have packed lunches every day, the 4th has school dinners.

As Barbeduk says, it is possible for families of 4 to manage on around 1/4 of this - pop to the Grocery Challenge on the Old Style Board (where many families have budgets at this level) for tips on how to cut down, make savings - as well as some fantastic recipes