Can anyone give me some feedback on my SOA?

SarahFx

Just a bit of background to our situation first. I live with my husband, both of us are in ful time work and I am expecting our first baby at the end of November. We have our own home (2 bed terrace) but virtually no equity in it. Our plan is to stay in this house until the early repayment charge period expires in Sept 08 then move into somewhere rented and a bit bigger.

Our debts are - HSBC Credit card - £5000 18% interest, paying £200 per mth
Lloyds TSB credit card £2500 at 15% interest, paying £100 a month
Lloyds TSB personal loan outstanding amount approximately £4800, paying £180 per month
Next Directory balance £150, paying £20 pm

Mortgage repayment only £448 pm
Water meter £18pm
Council tax £98pm
Mobiles £35pm
Gas £43pm
Electric £75pm (due to EDF not billing us for 7 mths we ran up arrears, they say this amt is to pay this off and it should drop in September)
BT Land line £15
Life insurance £11
Sky £37 (H will NOT reduce the package no matter what I say, he is addicted to wrestling and can only watch it if we have Sky sports)
Home insurance inc contents £16pm
TV Licence £11pm
DVD Club £15pm
Car insurance £19 pm
Petrol (car share with friend) £80pm need car as work long drive away and no public transport
Food £200pm inc lunches at work and eating out
Magazine subscriptions £5pm
Savings for car repairs, car tax, home repairs Xmas and holidays £125
Total £1751

My income £1264pm
Husband's income £1000

SarahFx

Just wanted to add that we don't qualify for any other credit cards so can't reduce the interest rate. Our credit rating is terrible.

Lucy1982_2

Hi

More people will be along soon. But having a quick look through can you reduce/cancel your DVD rental? I have this myself and pay £7.99 and get 4 movies each month. I kept mine as it keeps me out the pub and I save money!!

I would also suggest that your food bill could possibly be cut. Can you take packed lunches to work? I would suggest that your OH needs to work out if he wants to be debt free because cancelling your Sky subscription would free up more money for the debt. This one is hard we pay £15 a month for sky but as we are having trouble with it we are thinking of cancelling, even if it means missing the shows we love. We are going to see if friends can video them for us. Would this be an option?

But good luck. This is fixable if you make a few cuts.

Crown

Hi Sarah, and Welcome

If my sums are right you are bring home each month between you £2264 and your total outgoings are £1251 on living expenses and £500 on debt repayments meaning that you should have £513 remaining to throw at your debts. From your post I would assume that you do not see this £500?

If this is the case you need to find out where the money is going. You both need to start keeping a spending diary. All you need to do is get a notepad and everytime you spend anything however trivial it may seem jot it down. At the end of the week total up what you have spent. Keep it for a month and it will be a real eye opener to where the missing money went.

Also what is your credit rating like? Is there any chance of applying for any 0% credit card deals or LOB (life of balance transfer deals?

I will post back later with comments on the SOA

Skint_Catt

:hello:

Could you drop the DVD rental if you have Sky?
Could you visit the old style boards to get that food bill down? Maybe cut down eating out for a while?

Burlesque_Babe

Hi there - The bits that jump out at me are

DVD club - ditch this. There are quite a few offers around like Lovefilm where you can get the service for free for 3 months. With a bit of clever switching around you can have a postal DVD service for free for quite a while.

Magazine subscription - can this be cancelled?

Food - this can be reduced if you take packed lunches and I'm afraid, stop the eating out. Also pop over to the Old Style Board where you will get loads of great advice on cutting down and still eating really well.

Sky........it depends how much you hubby wants to be out of debt. If you can reduce the monthly payment you will be surprised how much this will chop off a debt free date.

The £125 a month for Christmas etc. Just one month without saving this would almost pay off your Next account, which is about 29% APR and is costing you money each month.

Mobiles - when does your contract expire? When mine expired T-Mobile agreed to me keeping my number and going PAYG. I was a really low user but it's saved me about £15 a month since January.

With a bit of belt pulling in, the NEXT could be paid off within a month, and the £20 you are paying there (plus the savings I've mentioned above) could go onto the next debt.

Hope that is helpful - there will be loads of others around soon to help more.

Crown

Al_Mac wrote: »

See second post

Was merrily typing out a the post so missed the follow up.

Uniscots97

SarahFx wrote: »

Just a bit of background to our situation first. I live with my husband, both of us are in ful time work and I am expecting our first baby at the end of November. We have our own home (2 bed terrace) but virtually no equity in it. Our plan is to stay in this house until the early repayment charge period expires in Sept 08 then move into somewhere rented and a bit bigger.

Our debts are - HSBC Credit card - £5000 18% interest, paying £200 per mth
Lloyds TSB credit card £2500 at 15% interest, paying £100 a month
Lloyds TSB personal loan outstanding amount approximately £4800, paying £180 per month
Next Directory balance £150, paying £20 pm

Mortgage repayment only £448 pm
Water meter £18pm
Council tax £98pm
Mobiles £35pm
Gas £43pm (this seems very high, try uswitch and turning your thermostat down)
Electric £75pm (due to EDF not billing us for 7 mths we ran up arrears, they say this amt is to pay this off and it should drop in September)
BT Land line £15
Life insurance £11
Sky £37 (H will NOT reduce the package no matter what I say, he is addicted to wrestling and can only watch it if we have Sky sports) (Sky is a luxury, can you not reduce down to basic package and watch wrestling as repeats free?)
Home insurance inc contents £16pm
TV Licence £11pm
DVD Club £15pm (cancel this)
Car insurance £19 pm
Petrol (car share with friend) £80pm need car as work long drive away and no public transport
Food £200pm inc lunches at work and eating out (look on the OS board for tips to reduce this)
Magazine subscriptions £5pm
Savings for car repairs, car tax, home repairs Xmas and holidays £125
Total £1751

My income £1264pm
Husband's income £1000

Sorry if my comments seem harsh but you could make some considerable savings just by doing what I've suggested.

Uniscots97

ALso meant to say, make sure you check your tyre pressures once a week and drive slightly more slowly i.e. in a 70 do 65 and no sharp braking, this saves a LOT of fuel and could bring your fuel bill down too.

misspoppy

Hi

in order to get your husband on board have you done the calculations of what you will be bringing home when the baby is born, the drop in income will help him see that having kids means sacrifices, it will be easier to plan for one income and throw as much money to your debts as possible.

SarahFx

Thanks for the suggestions. I don't actually have any savings at the moment, the £125 was an idea I was going to start from next month as we seem to have been crippled with unexpected bills a lot lately. Good idea about delaying it for a month and paying most of Next off though.

The £500 that I haven't accounted for in my SOA is basically mostly my H's spending money as the debts are mainly mine and not his. He detests talking about money but I really need his help if we are going to make headway into paying things off before the baby comes. I have been wondering if he can download his precious wrestling for free so we can at least reduce the sky package.

I agree the DVD club is a waste as he always forgets to send them back anyway. Again this is H's outgoing.

I will see if I can reduce our gas. It has gone up a lot lately.

The magazine subscription is my little luxury. It can't be cancelled for several months so I'm going to keep that.

I will try to reduce our food bill. I plan on meal planning when I've stopped feeling so sick all the time. We have just started mystery shopping to keep our eating out hobby up cheaply.

My mobile is only £12 a month. I really need to keep it as I drive quite far to work and don't have the most reliable car. H's mobile makes up the rest of the cost as he has a blackberry. Are you noticing a theme here?!