My SOA - following my minor stress!

BeckyBloomwood_2

OK after my little stress moment yesterday I have decided to post my SOA. Mainly because I think sharing these things gives me the encouragement I need. So here goes -

Take home salary after Sharesave deduction of £240 and student loan =
£1188.35

Outgoings -Direct Debits -
Loan £231.78
Council Tax £83.00
Car Insurance £26.00
Home Insurance £14.74
Water £27.13
Total £382.65

Other living expenses -
Petrol £70
Food £60
Misc £150 (mainly spent on eating out, or food at work!:eek: )
Total £280


My lovely partner pays for all the rent, electric, phone, tv licence. This is so I can concentrate on paying off my debts.

I am paying off my Barclaycard at the end of April. Leaving the following debts

Loan - 10k now at £7500. Finishing in 2009 (accounted for above)
HSBC CC - £5000 - 20.880% interest - currently pay £257 a month
Mint CC - £3286 - 22.47% interest - currently pay £70 a monthCapitone CC - £450 - interest tbc - currently pay £20 a month
Total CC payments currently = £347

So total outgoings = £1009.65


Leaving £178.70 - which obviously is not left in my account at the end of each month!!

Hopefully I will get bank charges back from Barclays, giving me approx 2k to pay off debts. I also have a bumper pay packet next month of approx £2200.

I am a pigsback regular, I have just changed my car insurance through quidco, gaining £130 cashback, I have printed off the matched betting guidelines and I am just waiting for my brain to catch up! I have ebayed anything worth ebaying (inc my first pressing of Abbey Road!)
Myself and my parter are desperate to buy a house next year, but we can't do anything until I have got myself out of this huge hole I have dug myself.

And I am just about to attempt a weekly shop at Lidl, which I must stay is a daunting thought.

Any ideas on a masterplan?
Thanks in advance x

findingmyownway

If you keep a spending diary you will find out where you £150 'misc' spending + the £178 you should have left actually goes. Thats over £300/month you could probably put to better use.

You petrol bill seems quite high - is it right? Can you cut down on travelling / walk / cycle / get partner to drive ?!

BeckyBloomwood_2

My petrol is to and from work, can't really cut down on this as it would be 3 busses to work and back, and I often work really late, so it wouldn't be all that safe. I hate petrol expenses, I don't like spending money on things I cannot see!!! I only have a small engine too (1.25)
Thanks for the advice, I will make myself a little spreadsheet for my spending 'problem'

MikeyB_2

You say that you are spending £240 a month on your Sharesave, presumably deducted by your employer from your PAYE? Is there any possibility that these payments can be put on hold or ended as that is a fair wedge of cash that is leaving your SOA each month? It might be that you are tied in for five years for tax reasons though as is the case with a similar scheme I'm in.

You haven't mentioned the credit limits for your credit cards. This info would be useful as it could reveal an opportunity to move your funds around through a balance transfer or to better calculate a snowball of your cards

ZTD

BeckyBloomwood wrote: »

HSBC CC - £5000 - 20.880% interest - currently pay £257 a month
Mint CC - £3286 - 22.47% interest - currently pay £70 a month
Capitone CC - £450 - interest tbc - currently pay £20 a month

Right, what you need to do to snowball effectively is to confirm your interest rates, then set up a DD on your CCs to only pay the minimum. Then pump as much spare cash as you have into the highest rate card. Leave everything else at minimum payments.

Have you tried phoning them up and seeing if they will reduce your rates?

BeckyBloomwood wrote: »

Leaving £178.70 - which obviously is not left in my account at the end of each month!!

A spend diary will be your saviour here. Record everything you buy. You will then be able to see where the frittering goes. Actually that's not strictly true. Because you're keeping a diary - you'll stop a lot of frittering...

BeckyBloomwood wrote: »

And I am just about to attempt a weekly shop at Lidl, which I must stay is a daunting thought.

Take carrier bags, or otherwise you will have to pay for them. Lidl's aren't absolutely cheapest for everything, but they do have a good stab at being the cheapest.

Ingsy

Buy Super unleaded petrol. It costs most per litre but I end up using about 25% less each week, saving me 5 or 6 quid a week. Over £20 a month saved right there...

sammy115

I would look at the sharesave too. Can't think of anything else at the moment! Except make sandwiches and eat in more! (my downfall too!)

BeckyBloomwood_2

MikeyB wrote: »

You haven't mentioned the credit limits for your credit cards. This info would be useful as it could reveal an opportunity to move your funds around through a balance transfer or to better calculate a snowball of your cards

You are a genius! I just had a letter from HSBC, they have decided to increase my limit to £7500 (they always do this!) Thus leaving 2.5k credit on the card, so I can transfer some of my Mint across, providing that they are going to give me 0%! You have cheered me up no end, why didn't I think if that?! If my Capitone is higher interest than Mint I will do that instead. How sad is it that I am excited about this.

As for my sharesave, it would be silly of me to pull out. My share offer is £11 and I have approx 600 shares - the shares are currently at £24, so there is no way I could pull out knowing how much is to be made.

Thanks everyone for their help.

PS - Lidl was rubbish, I went to Asda, still got muchos bargains and enough food to last way until next pay day!

BeckyBloomwood_2

Ingsy wrote: »

Buy Super unleaded petrol. It costs most per litre but I end up using about 25% less each week, saving me 5 or 6 quid a week. Over £20 a month saved right there...

Useful tip, I never knew that, thanks

Ingsy

No problems. If you drive like a Barry then obviously you won't get any benefit from it though

BeckyBloomwood_2

Well I have just had two converstions with HSBC, the first who didn't really understand what I wanted and tried to sell me a loan. This resulted in me getting very frustrated and ended the converstion pretty sharpish!The second was a very nice lady who agreed to drop the apr of my balance tranfer to 7% for 6 months, which is better than what I am paying now, so will be a big help! This now shoots my HSBC card right up to nearlly £7.5k but reduces my Mint to £1150. I know the figures are all the same,but I feel like I achieved a minor something. Only a few months ago my HSBC was at £6.5k with £3.5k on my Mint in addition! Roll on bank charges, this would help me out no end! I will update my sig when all the tranfers have gone through.