SOA...it's worse than I thought :(

DMPhereIcome

Bedsit_Bob wrote: »

A number 2 (better yet, a number 0) all over makes the grey much less noticeable.

An added bonus is, once you have bought the clippers, the haircuts are free.

wise words, definitely money saving...but it aint gonna happen!:rotfl:

DMPhereIcome

thehappybutterfly wrote: »

my tuppence worth:

mobile phone - Tesco mobile or GiffGaff. We're £21 a month for 3 mobiles - 2 on Tesco and 1 Blackberry on GiffGaff.

school lunches - have you discounted the 12 weeks of holidays? My 15YO daughter gets £10 a week but this would only calculate as £33.33 a month.

school lunches - nope, didn't think of that! must get the calculator out...

DMPhereIcome

chevalier wrote: »

I take it you don't qualify for free school meals? good luck with your debt busting.

nope don't qualify as I receive working tax credit...so £2.20 a day it is (which I find astonishing for one meal!)

DMPhereIcome

DMPhereIcome wrote: »

school lunches - nope, didn't think of that! must get the calculator out...

and the mobile is astronomical...but I do love my Iphone:o must get on with phoning them up to reduce my contract...I have lots of free minutes and texts...but not enough friends to use them all!

ViolaLass

DMPhereIcome wrote: »

nope don't qualify as I receive working tax credit...so £2.20 a day it is (which I find astonishing for one meal!)

Packed lunch.

Firewalker

Hi there! I could have commented on your SOA in detail but the good people on here have already done this. There are several things that jump out:

1. Your groceries spending - this is very high. Even including all you mention in a later post this should not be over £150 for the two of you; given the amount you pay for child care I am deducing that your child is under three - in which case your spend on groceries can go down to £100 per month.
2. Mobile phone is high and you will have to change your arrangements (when is the contract ending?)
3. Car insurance at £45 per month is a bit high - you can lower this if your first task becomes to build a bit of 'emergency' fund (£1,000) and discuss paying it in one go; shop around - chaniging your provider every year is the way to go if you want to save a lot (we do and it took us 10
years to work it out).

What concerns me most though is the language you used in your response to others: you mentioned contingencies and estimates. Please, please understand (and accept) that you can control your finances only if and when these words leave your vocabilary. My experience is that when one knows almost to the penny how much they earn, spend and on what - this is when their financial destiny changes and they realise that they have more money than they thought.

To achieve this level of knowledge you will need to keep firm track of what you spend and on what for at least couple of months - boring, I know, but at the end of it you will be able to decide what to cut out and what to keep without loss of wuality of life, deprivation and suffering.

Firewalker

somethingcorporate

You say you are contributing £20 to an "emergency fund" yet do not list anything on cash assets.

How much is your emergency fund at? I'd suggest it would be worth using some of this to pay down your capital one which is at a horrible rate.

Unfortunately iPhone is a very luxury item and your budget does not really allow for it. For the sake of your little one flog it and get something cheap and cheerful.

**sparkles**

hi there

how about your son getting school dinners one a week, say a friday as a treat?

or alternate it day about with a packed lunch?

have you tried doing surveys? i use valued opinions and they pay out well and offer a wide range of vouchers

all the best

sparkles

[Deleted User]

DMPhereIcome wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1Is a car essential? Could you get around using public transport for cheaper? Not only could you sell the car and pay towards debts, but you could also save insurance, tax, petrol and maintenance costs?

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 954Any way to increase? Over-time? Second job? Have you have a look at some sites like People Per Hour
Benefits................................ 795
Other income............................ 350I am assuming that this is the lodger? Do you have room to take in a second lodger?
Total monthly income.................... 2099

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 465
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 187
Council tax............................. 96Is this over 10 or 12 months, if 10 ask your council if you can spread over 12
Electricity............................. 53
Oil..................................... 40
Water rates............................. 63
Telephone (land line)................... 22What does this cover home phone and internet
Mobile phone............................ 39VERY high - are you stuck in a contract, if so when is it up? Look at SIM only and PAYG I am sure that you can more than half this
TV Licence.............................. 13(12.12)
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 20Cancel when/if you are out of contract and get freeview/freesat
Internet Services....................... 0??
Groceries etc. ......................... 250I think that you can at least half this, unless you cut out school dinners and make packed lunches instead but even then I think you could reduce by £50-£75
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 13
Car Insurance........................... 45
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10Is this enough realistically?
Car parking............................. 0never?
Other travel............................ 0Consider if this would be cheaper
Childcare/nursery....................... 300You have said this is an estimate, can you get more accurate figures? Can you look through bank statements to see what you spent last year?
Other child related expenses............ 55Pack lunches can be much cheaper than school dinners
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0never?
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 14
Buildings insurance..................... 25
Contents insurance...................... 8
Life assurance ......................... 19
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0never? Even the Little one at Xmas?
Haircuts................................ 25See if there's a college near by that does trainee cuts for free/ cheap - also keeo an eye out in groupon/living social/Woucher
Entertainment........................... 20
Emergency fund.......................... 20Does this actually get saved for when it's needed?
Total monthly expenses.................. 1922


Assets
Cash.................................... 0Do you have the cash that you don't spend on monthly outgoings saved somewhere for when it's needed? Haircuts? Emergency savings? MOT? etc
House value (Gross)..................... 157000
Car(s).................................. 0I thought you had a car?
Total Assets............................ 157000[/B]


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 102000...(465)......3.84Any way to extend the term a bit until your other debts are reduced a bit, once they're gone you can always reduce it back down and/or overpay?
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 3500.....(187)......17.9What is this for? The car? Can you downgrade to a cheaper run around or live without the car at all?
Total secured & HP debts...... 105500....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Barclaycard....................8200......240.......0Is this really 0% and if so is it for the duration of the debt? Or when does the 0% end?
HSBC CC........................2500......70........18.9
HSBC OD........................1600......20........17.9
Family/various.................1000......50........0as above
Creation.......................645.......33........19.9
KandCo.........................450.......34........0as above
Capital One....................1600......85........34.9This is definately the one to focus on if you can
Total unsecured debts..........15995.....532.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,099
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,922
Available for debt repayments........... 177
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 532
Amount short for making debt repayments. -355This does seem like quite a bit to make up. And unless your income is expected to increase any time soon (through employment or taking in another lodger - if you have room!) and/or you can downgrade the car (if that's what the HP debt is) or live without a car for a bit, I don't think that you will be able to find this from the rest of your SOA, and even if you can I don't think that it is sustainable.

Have you addressed what got you into debt in the first place? If you go into a DMP you will not be able to reach for any more credit, so don't cut out the emergency savings just in case they're required

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 157,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -105,500
Total Unsecured debt.................... -15,995
Net Assets.............................. 35,505Over all the picture is good!
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.[/i]

I have amde some comments above, as your user name suggests you are thinking about the DMP route - make sure that you go to one of the charities for advice on this and possible alternative solutions to your debt, do not pay for this service.

Here is the link to who you can contact: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2077631

Good luck, and hope your situation improves soon - it must be very stressful,

D9

DMPhereIcome

Firewalker wrote: »

Hi there! I could have commented on your SOA in detail but the good people on here have already done this. There are several things that jump out:

1. Your groceries spending - this is very high. Even including all you mention in a later post this should not be over £150 for the two of you; given the amount you pay for child care I am deducing that your child is under three - in which case your spend on groceries can go down to £100 per month.
2. Mobile phone is high and you will have to change your arrangements (when is the contract ending?)
3. Car insurance at £45 per month is a bit high - you can lower this if your first task becomes to build a bit of 'emergency' fund (£1,000) and discuss paying it in one go; shop around - chaniging your provider every year is the way to go if you want to save a lot (we do and it took us 10
years to work it out).

What concerns me most though is the language you used in your response to others: you mentioned contingencies and estimates. Please, please understand (and accept) that you can control your finances only if and when these words leave your vocabilary. My experience is that when one knows almost to the penny how much they earn, spend and on what - this is when their financial destiny changes and they realise that they have more money than they thought.

To achieve this level of knowledge you will need to keep firm track of what you spend and on what for at least couple of months - boring, I know, but at the end of it you will be able to decide what to cut out and what to keep without loss of wuality of life, deprivation and suffering.

Firewalker

Thanks for your response, I had typed (and then lost:mad:) a really long post setting out what changes I had started making which relate to what you have said (there were lists and everything!)...but I think I got timed out of the website and so it's gone!

Your point regarding my 'vocabulary' made me smile as you're right I'm estimating and guessing because I haven't done a spending diary and I don't know where it all goes...yet! I suppose I 'panic posted' to begin with because I started last month off so badly trying to get my cards back within their limits and realising there just wasn't going to be enough coming in for the rest. My SOA is correct where utilities etc are concerned, but the general 'spending' I've no clue about and so spending diary has started in earnest

Car insurance is due for renewal in December and will be going down to around £27 p/m

Food shopping (which was a pure guess) will be monitored like a hawk and I'm hoping to cadge a free (or at least very cheap) slow cooker of a friend at work who doesn't use hers (or at least I'm hoping she doesn't ) I was in the supermarket with a friend of mine last night and I brazenly dragged her to the yellow stickered section, elbowed everyone else who was trying to get in there too, and picked up a nice bit of lamb which would go lovely in a slow cooker..:)

I haven't phoned yet about my mobile nor have I re-booked the appointment with the stop smoking lady at the GP's but they are tomorrow jobs. I've opened a new current account and in the process of switching everything over and have set up various little savings pots too. I also haven't used a credit card so far this month (7 days in and counting...)

I'm a very impatient person and want to see changes now but I'm realising that everything takes time...and a bit more effort!