finally... done my soa thingy... V.LONG

Scared1980

Hi everyone....

I have finally sat down and done it....

here it is...

Income

Source Amount
Child Benefit £118.70
Tax Credit £86.00
My Wages £1,210.00
OH Wages £1,250.00

Total £2,664.70


Expenditure


T-Mobile £45.00
02 £35.00
Gas £9.00
Electric £35.00
Life Insurance £13.67
Life Insurance £10.10
Water Board £18.00
Sky TV £15.00
Mortgage £650.00
Council Tax £137.89
Home Phone £25.45
Secured Loan Payment £291.90
TV License £11.37
Car Insurance £27.22
Car Insurance £28.63
B&C Insurance £22.00
Food Shopping £280.00 This is £70.00 per week; this includes nappies and milk/food for our youngest daughter.
My Petrol £100.00
OH Petrol £200.00 OH works in Ascot, Berkshire.
Car Tax £30.00 (Worked out on current yearly cost of £180.00 per vehicle for one year.)
Car Service/MOT/Tyres £50.00
Childcare £400.00
Clothing £15.00
Other £30.00

Total £2480.23


Money remaining at end of month:

£2,664.70 - £2480.23 = £184.47:rolleyes:

Creditors
Natwest £28,646.72 (original loan was for 14,000 :mad: )
Robinson Way £ 2,838.39 (Capital One CC)
Blair Oliver £ 5,402.39 (BofS CC)
Rockwell £ 1,734.09 (Lloyds TSB O/D)
Rockwell £17,490.90 (Lloyds TSB Loan)
Buchanan Clark £ 1,551.15 (Lloyds)
Geoffrey Leaver £ 1,421.87 (Open University)
GE Capital £ 35,000.00 (Secured Loan)

We owe approx £100k :mad: (not including mortgage)

Have no real explanantion as to how we got here.... we both had some debt when we met... and it seems to have got worse... wish we had known about this site before we were advised to do a secured loan :mad:

We were in a DMP with some dodgy company, who have basically made matters worse and charged us for the pleasure!! I have now told them to go jump and actually spoke to my creditors and agreed some stuff... the only one being awkward is Natwest... they are going for a charging order on the house... it was denied first time round, but going to court again on the 4th July :eek:

Anyways... I am 26 and OH is 35, we have two adorable little girls, a 3 and a half year old and a 7month old... the money trouble really started when we had our first and I had to take maternity pay... and I know I probably shouldn't have had another... but she wasn't planned... but would never change things... at least I have my two now... so no more

Any advice on the above would be fab

Thanks

L
x

Storm

Hi :hello:

The things that jump out at me most are the mobile bills - £80 a month for 2 phones :eek: If you're on contracts phone up to reduce your package to the bare minimum, and look into going PAYG if possible. This is on top of £25 a month on the home phone, so have a hunt around to see if you can get better deals.

Food shopping can definitely be reduced - have a look on the old style board, there's a challenge there for feeding a family of 4 for £29.99 per week!

Do you absolutely need 2 cars? The petrol, tax, servicing is a big chunk of your monthly budget - could one or other at least be downgraded so the insurance is less, perhaps switch to diesel for better fuel economy?

Finally - do you get childcare vouchers through your payroll? If not, enquire about this as they come out before tax & NI.

Storm

p.s. you may want to remove surnames from your post (it helps to remain anonymous!)

Lucy1982_2

Hi and Welcome.

Right. Like me when I started you have money left over at the end of the month. Where is it going? I would start a spending diary to work out what you are spending and where, that way you should be able to cut down on things.

Is there anyway you can reduce your mobiles? I'm also with T-mobile on one of there flex tariffs and pay £25 a month for £60 call/text allowance. See if you can move them around a bit for a cheaper deal.

Also when is your car insurance due? I sorted mine today and saved myself £31 a month. I'm not great on gas etc as I live and home and have nothing to do with these

Oh and one other thing. Do you know what your APR's are? That way you can throw any spare cash at the debt costing you the most.

Good luck and I imagine more people will be along soon to help

Scared1980

Thanks for the replies guys...

I will have a word with OH and see if he can cut his mobile bill down... my mob o2 is a standard charge... never goes beyond that... where as before the tarrif change it was 60-70 per month :eek:

Thanks for the tip about surnames... I did a copy and paste and didn't think...

I have tried and tried to get my shopping bill down, and before I had my little one it was only about £40.00, but Nappies and Baby milk are soooo expensive... Luckily she is having more and more finger foods now, so I can stop buying the jars of food etc.

My weekly shop does include stuff to do lunches all week as well, so my oh and I don't have to spend money when at work.

the remaining money goes towards the debts... I have a payment plan set up with them all.

I get a bonus at work in July so am going to use that to offer them an additional payment that month... that is the right thing to do... isn't it

Unfortunately both cars are needed... I use mine to do the school run and take little one to chilminders then to work and my oh works in Ascot (hour drive from home) but at the weekend we tend just to use my car. I can't really downgrade the cars as they are both worth less than £1k each.

I want to ditch the home phone, but I still have 4 months of the contract left so I will have to wait to do that.. or pay £80 to get out of it!

My OH occassionally brings home commission... would it be best to offer that as and when we get it or save it and pay one of the smaller debts right off??

The only one still charging interest is Natwest... they won't budge on the amount or anything:mad:

On one good note... we don't have our £500 overdraft anymore... managed to get out of that with Xmas money given to us.. and then told the bank to take it off...

I will ask HR about Childcare vouchers, can my OH ask his place as well?

Thanks again guys..

L
x

Ytaya

Scared1980 wrote: »

T-Mobile £45.00 This is high! On a contract? Negotiate to a lower tariff. Not on a contract? Look at switching to PAYG.
02 £35.00 As above
Sky TV £15.00 Can you cancel this?
Home Phone £25.45 Can you reduce this? Or does it include your internet connection?
Car Insurance £27.22 Is this the cheapest? Shop around and negotiate for a better deal? Go through Quidco for cashback.
Car Insurance £28.63 As above
Food Shopping £280.00 This is £70.00 per week; this includes nappies and milk/food for our youngest daughter. This is high! Look around on the Old Style board for cooking and shopping tips to save money. You can halve this without too much distress.
Other £30.00 What exactly is this?

Go to somewhere like uswitch and make sure you're getting the best deal on gas/water/electricity/phone etc. Then go through Quidco for cashback if you need to switch. Check that you're getting the best deals on all your insurance - car, life, b&c - and go through Quidco for cashback if you need to change.

Scared1980 wrote: »

We were in a DMP with some dodgy company, who have basically made matters worse and charged us for the pleasure!! I have now told them to go jump and actually spoke to my creditors and agreed some stuff... the only one being awkward is Natwest... they are going for a charging order on the house... it was denied first time round, but going to court again on the 4th July :eek:

Try contacting CCCS or Payplan. Or the Citizen's Advice Bureau. They can offer DMPs for free and lots of people here have had success with them.

Well done for getting this far and good luck!

pinkkaz

Scared1980 wrote: »

I have tried and tried to get my shopping bill down, and before I had my little one it was only about £40.00, but Nappies and Baby milk are soooo expensive... Luckily she is having more and more finger foods now, so I can stop buying the jars of food etc.

My -soon to be - sister in law spends £10 per week on nappies from a "green" nappy company. Basically they give you reuseable nappies and then collect and clean them for £10. Better for the environment too! Or just do reuseable and clean yourself for even cheaper.

mrsspendalot

I feed a family of 5 on £35 a week, including nappies and packed lunches .... it can be done, but you have to be prepared to choose value brands and do proper meal plans and make a list of what you need for those meals. Cut out all non-essential foody bits and then you're laughing. Pop over to oldstyle and ask them for tips. They are great. I was spending £70-80 a week when I started on here, now I never go over £35. A couple of weeks ago I managed to get the shopping for £27!

Scared1980

I will go onto uswitch tonight and check all my insurances etc. thanks for that.. fingers crossed...

I probably spend £8 per week on nappies... so I suppose thats not too bad really... I always buy the ones on offer as well... my little one doesn't seem to notice the difference!!

I wanted to cancel sky, but unfortunately we tried freeview and we don't get reception and I know it sounds awful but CBeebies is a life saver when I am cooking dinner/cleaning etc. I know there is something called freesat (offered by SKY) - anyone heard/know about this???

The "Other" is really just a safety net if you like... for things that crop up... but what I do is put it in an envelope and what doesn't get used gets paid off a debt... does that make sense?? I have only had to use it a few times... school trips/birthdays etc. but I usually have the majority of it left at end of the month. (It used to be cigarette budget... but that habit went thanks to pregnancy... yeah!!!)

Lucy1982_2

Quick thought on the baby food (bare in mind I don't have kids!) I know some people that liquidise normal meals for their little one rather than buy the jars. That way they know what little one is get and it doesn't cost them any more than feeding the 2 of them as they just but some aside.

Just a thought.

KittyKate

Hi Scared, have you thought about joining Pigsback (through the freebies board)? You and your OH can get Boots vouchers for free to pay for nappies (and if you use an advantage card you can save even more!) Hope that helps! x