SOA - Help!!!!

tigerfeet2006

consultant31 wrote: »

Since you say 'any comments gratefully received' here are mine:-

£400 a month for groceries for 2 people (or £350 for that matter) is a massive amount. We spend about half of that for the two of us and eat very well.

Personally, I would cut back on the amount put aside for gifts etc and let family and friends know that you are in a bit of a bind and can't spend so much in future - there's no shame in being short of money and I have found that once this is out in the open, half the family heave a great sigh of relief that they can cut back on the stupid amounts we all spend for birthdays and Christmas

Do you really need new clothes every month and what about the satellite/cable tv.....can this be cut down or even out?

IMO there are huge savings to be made on your SOA before considering bankruptcy, which should be a last resort. If you go over to the Old Style board there are loads of money saving hints and tips.

This is a BR SoA so what I have put is perfectly fine and what is normal for mostpeople. The poster can look at the Old Styl e board etc. once she has been through the process. She has taken the appropriate advice and BR is the solution that has been indicated.

If we are boasting about how little we spend I spend on average £350 a month for a family of five thanks to the help of Old Style.

squirrel1984

Thank you for all of your comments. I understand that savings could potentially be made but even though i am going BR i still want to be able to have a life. Im sure some of the OR dont understand the cost of living, we dont want lavish lifestyles we just want to be able to go out occassionally and maybe even treat ourselves, afterall whats the point of BR if you are still struggling to live within the 'allowances'.

I think because my situation is different to the normal BR is why im finding it hard. I am up to date with all my payments except the mortgage, it is on a property that i havent lived in for 2 yrs that my ex partner stayed in, he has now moved out and decided not to pay the mortgage (as verbally agreed). The house is in negative equatity, i cant afford to sell it, so the plan is to go BR and they will take the house (repossession) and include the shortall from the house sale in my bankruptcy! So it is difficult to live within allowances when ive had no debt as such (bank loan) to pay for and my wages have been my own!!.

PippaGirl_2

Yes it is hard squirrel. However you can see it from the side of the creditor, they have lost a considerable amount of money and that must be hard to take when they see the debtor shrug their shoulders and have a great social life and living 'well'. My debt was (mostly) not my fault either, I left a DV relationship with nothing but a bag of clothes and wasn't able to return for anything else. I needed to find somewhere to live, needed deposit in advance, rent, furnishings for me and my children. I was a student and in the summer breaks was not entitled to any state help (they've changed the rules since, now you can claim ESA or JSA but then you couldn't) so my debt piled up. Since completing my degree I have lived on means tested benefits as I am ill but have incurred no further debt and am living within my means. But I still feel guilty for owing the banks/credit cards that I lived on for those months and that I used to get what I needed. I assumed I would manage the monthly payments of course and would be able to work when I finished University but became very ill instead. But I don't think it is right that I should be able to have excess money to have a fab social life instead of paying money I do actually owe, I borrowed and used the money after all. Looking back I can't see how else I could have managed to get what I and the children needed so in many ways I am not to blame but that doesn't negate my feeling that I ought to do my best to pay what I can when I am well enough to work towards the debt I owe. I'm not having a go, just I see things differently maybe.

wildheart83

Being totally honest, there's a huge difference between surviving and living. The point of BR is to have a clean slate and regain a "normal" life as opposed to just surviving. Yes we can get by on a very small budget and most of us probably have done in the past but the allowances for BR allow us to get back to being able to afford the essentials without having to find money for food / clothes etc.

Your SOA is your starting point, put down what you're spending at the time of going BR, and include all your accounts - mobiles / tv / internet etc and see what your OR says. If it's a reasonable request and you can show your reasoning behind having something then I'm sure you'll have no problems but as Pippagirl says, you might just be lucky or unlucky with your OR