Advice needed please !

missyv30

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet :eek:

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 983
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 1418.8
Other income............................ 150.00
Total monthly income.................... 2551.80

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 266.00
Council tax............................. 23.00
Electricity............................. 55.00
Gas..................................... 45.00
Mobile phone............................ 30.00
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 60.00
Groceries etc. ......................... 400.00
Car Insurance........................... 28.83
Other travel............................ 43.00
Childcare/nursery....................... 720.00
Other child related expenses............ 100.00

Total monthly expenses.................. 1782.95


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


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 78000....(266)......2.66
Total secured & HP debts...... 78000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
capital one ...................444.71....15.76.....34.9
provident......................667.5.....20........365.1
council tax ...................878.51....100.......0
legal aid .....................970.75....38.83.....0
credit union ..................644.66....93........26.85
Total unsecured debts..........3606.13...267.59....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,551.8
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,782.95
Available for debt repayments........... 768.85
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 267.59
Amount left after debt repayments....... 501.26

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -78,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -3,606.13
Net Assets.............................. -81,606.13

Well i have finally done an SOA i am now needing advice on paying off my debt and also how to save for birthdays and christmas, as well as saving for the future. As i always seem to be struggling to get ahead of birthdays and christmas i never seem to have any spare money. To put away it looks good on paper but i can't seem to get it to work in my head maybe am being thick or missing something. Just hopefully someone can give me advice as i suffer really bad from depression and cant cope anymore its stressing me out. That i cant get this to work out i really need help.
Thanks in advance,

rising_from_the_ashes

Hi missy well done for posting the SOA but there appears to be a lot of things missing from it (house insurance, presents, entertainment, emergency fund etc etc) - could you add these in please so we can see the full picture?

First glance, there are a couple of cut-backs that should be fairly easy - £60 for satellite (switch to freeview) and you should be able to get around £200 off the groceries with a bit of batch cooking/careful planning & buying. They the Grocery Challenge on the Old Style board.

Firewalker

Hi and well done fo taking the first step. However, your SOA appears to be incomplete - not a bad idea to track your outgoings for sometime and then fill it in properly (this exercise is a bit like keeping a food diary - you may find that you eat/spend much more than you realise).

The first thing that strikes me is your food budget - £400 for one adult and two children is too much even if the children are teens. We spend £300 on food for 4 adults and one teen at the moment and we eat really well - you may need to look at where you shop, and how you organise cooking and halve what you currently spend.

As to paying off your debts - this shouldn't be hard if you really have the money you claim you have left after the month is gone (but I doubt it; most of us don't if they have not done the writing down of expenses thing). Target one debt for over payment and do it; than use roll the money over on the next one etc. It will be gone before you even know it.

Firewalker

DCFC79

Well theres not much i can see that can be reduced, these 3 can surely be reduced

Mobile phone............................ 30.00
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 60.00
Groceries etc. ......................... 400.00

Contact your network operator and see if you can go to a less expensive contract. Re the tv is it a tv and internet bundle you have ? I take it no landline is included ? Can you not do the same as the mobile, call up and see if you can get it cheaper.

McKneff

Are you sure the amount of your council tax is correct per month.

You could easily cut your grocery bill by a third with planning.

missyv30

Hi thanks for reply the reason i havent added the others because i dont have house insurance and to be honest dont save for presents. I am going to do a diary for the month of october and see excatly where my money is going.The landline is included with the sky so is internet so all three being around £60, and the shopping could be tweaked alot. I meant that as cleaning stuff for the month and pet food two cats, but i know i can do better. It just seems i am no good with my money and am obviously doing something really wrong. So will keep posting and then update my SOA by the end of the month hopefully get it right eventually.

Thanks for your reply.

rising_from_the_ashes

missyv30 wrote: »

i dont have house insurance

You must get house insurance sorted ASAP - most mortgage lenders insist on it and from a personal point of view a few £ / month (no matter how tight things are) is better than having to face potentially 10s of £000s to rebuild a property & replace it's contents.

missyv30 wrote: »

and to be honest dont save for presents.

But you need to include the amounts that you spend in the SOA so you can see the true picture of where your money goes.

Try to add up how much you've spent on the missing things in the last 12 months, divide the total by 12 and this is the amount you need to add into the SOA.

How do you pay for these just now? Ideally, you want to put the amounts away somewhere so they're there when needed & not resulting in more debt building up.

missyv30 wrote: »

I am going to do a diary for the month of october and see excatly where my money is going.

Great start - it will be a real eye opener (it certainly was for me) - you do need to include absolutely everything, even if it's 50p for some milk / sweets etc.

missyv30 wrote: »

The landline is included with the sky so is internet so all three being around £60

As a comparison, my landline and broadband come to under £20 - I have never reached my download limit (and I am online a lot:o).

I'm sorry but Sky is not an essential when you have debts to clear - switch to Freesat.

That's nearly £500 / year difference ..... it's a lot of money and if you think that this figure is more than you've outstanding on your Capital One account .... best of luck

Heffi1

Hi Missy, it can be a bit difficult to start with knowing how much you spend and where it all goes. I suggest keeping a spending diary, you write down absolutely every little thing that you buy, this includes the food, mortgage, bills, sweets for the kids, newspaper etc.

At the end of a complete month, add up all the individual items, so all groceries in one column, mortgage in another, sweets another and so on, and then you will have more of an idea how much to put into the different sections.

It is really an eye opener when you do this as if you are anything like me, you forget about the bag of crisps and a choc bar, then the coffee while you are shopping. It soon adds up and this is where you can see straight away areas you can begin to reduce.

A lot of it is simple, once that is taken care of you will be in a much better position to work out what to do next, pop in here and ask questions, there is nothing to worry about as people have seen all sorts already, and we have all made mistakes along the way.

It will get better I promise.

Have you seen the Dr about your depression as that is very important not to ignore.

Bored

While keeping a spending diary is definitely a good idea for the future, you can improve the accuracy of your current SOA by going through past bank statements and adding each spend to one of the categories. If you do this for the past 3 months and divide the total for each category by 3 then you'll have a much clearer idea of where you are overspending.

Also, welcome to the DFW board. Stick around and read some of the diaries when you have time for extra tips and inspiration.

missyv30

Thank you for all the great advice i am looking into house insurance today as i did have it but my ex was paying, then cancelled without telling me till recently. I put it off because i havent a clue about theses kinda things but am biting the bullet today and see where i get.:eek:

as for presents i end up using the months money i get and then just go without, but i know now that its best to put away the money. So it doesnt have such an impact on that month and a few months after.

As for sky i will be looking to reduce it i know its not an essential but i dont smoke i dont drink i dont really go out. So thats my treat and kids and yes i know my debts important and am dealing with it, but so is my sanity. So please i appreciate your help but don't slate me for wanting to keep my sky lol. :eek:

Yes my council tax is correct i get benefits now the debt is not really mine but am helping to clear it as its my mothers and she is very ill :(and i would do anything to help her.

I have seen about my deppression its a chemical inbalance as was diagnoised at 15 just sometimes its hard to stay positive.

By the way excuse the spelling its bad at times lol anyway thank you again for all your advice and will be taking it all on board as its time to sort myself out. :j

heartbreak_star

Even if it's a chemical imbalance it needs to be sorted medically

Make sure you don't deprive yourself to help your mum - she can help herself too!

HBS x