SOA - Back again (with my tail between my legs!)

Crap_with_money.com

Hi all,

I was quite a keen visitor to MSE a few years ago. I got my debt under control, although I didn't quite get rid of it since I took a break from the over payments to save to get married.

Since we got married, we've got really caught up in "keeping up with the Jones'", we've had some great holidays, bought some fancy clothes, been exceptionally generous with the gifts! The end result = we're skint! :(

I've done an SOA, things like the money we're spending on gifts are not reflective of what we were spending up until now, they're just what we've agreed we'll spend from now on (I didn't really budget for that before, I just bought whatever I thought was nice, regardless of how much it cost).

Anyways - our SOA............

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1650
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1408.92
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3058.92

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 595.5
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 23.44
Rent.................................... 30
Management charge (leasehold property).. 39.31
Council tax............................. 150
Electricity............................. 56
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0
Telephone (land line)................... 57.57
Mobile phone............................ 62.2
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 320
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 2.5
Car Insurance........................... 30
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 13
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 60
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 157.98
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Eating Out.............................. 45.25
Total monthly expenses.................. 1874.87


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 102000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 106500


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 102000...(595.5)....0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 900......(23.44)....0
Total secured & HP debts...... 102900....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Personal Loan...............16000.....328.7.....7
MBNA CC.....................1400......25........0
Natwest........................2337.38...51.41.....0
Natwest OD..................1286.65...0.........18.18
Total unsecured debts....21024.03.....405.11....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,058.92
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,874.87
Available for debt repayments........... 1,184.05
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 405.11
Amount left after debt repayments....... 778.94

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 106,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -102,900
Total Unsecured debt.................... -21,024.03
Net Assets.............................. -17,424.03

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

patman99

If you can really free-up £778 p/m, then I would suggest sticking another £100 p/m into your mortgage. This will bring down your monthly costs and/or shorten the time it takes to pay-off the mortgage.

HappyMJ

Looks great...You have £778.94 left over each month which you can use to pay the credit card off with. You also have an allowance for entertainment and eating out which most people don't usually have the room for. You don't have anything for Clothing...even if you just put £10 a month aside just for replacement shoes every year at least it's been budgeted for and you aren't using the credit card to pay for them.

bouncydog1

You could pay off your overdraft in 2 months and then set aside funds to pay off MBA when 0% expires.

jessie4109

do you really pay nothing for your water? Also you have nothing put away for car maintenance / mot.

[Deleted User]

both your landline and mobiles look high

Crap_with_money.com

In theory thats how much we have, but it never seems to work out that way. How much would most people pay for food for 2 people in a month? I always budget £200, but in counting back for the last few months its been over £300.

We don't pay water separately in Scotland, it's included in the council tax. The tv includes the phone, sky and broadband - does that still sound too much?

I just cancelled my mobile contract a couple of days ago so I'll be shopping about for a new deal which will hopefully save a bit there.

Thanks for all the responses

Xx

catwoman73

Sky/phone etc looks OK and is slightly less than what we're paying. You're not skint skint skint, so if its worth it to you, its OK to keep it.

Mobiles look high though and you could probably shave a bit off food. You need to add something for clothes.

Is the amount you've put for food/fuel etc realistic and what you actually spend? Do you ever go on holiday? I suggest you save up £200-£300 per month to pay for holidays, white goods/car replacement etc and increase this when you get out of debt- you could then afford £1k pm or more and also be able to pay off your mortgage early as well. Make your money work for you not the banks

You appear to have two workers and one car - does one of you not spend any money on transport - if they walk/cycle - good for them.

Can you overpay the loan without penalty? Are the credit cards really 0%?

However, in the first instance, I would aim to get out the habit of using credit cards and overdrafts - I would pay the minimum on everything and concentrate on paying off the overdraft and credit cards one a time, starting with the one with the highest interest rate. You should be able to do this within 6-9 months and everything will be a bit 'tidier'.

I would then look at building up savings so you don't need to use credit at all but you could look at a cashback card if you can trust yourself to ALWAYS pay it off in full every month.

Is your OH on board with the debt busting - it needs to be a team effort, its no good if one of you is making cutbaks and the other continues to overspend on clothes/gadgets/work lunches etc.

HTH

retepetsir

It might be a good idea to start a spending diary to see where it all goes

moohound

1) Save emergency fund £600 - £1000 in instant access account for minor emergencies, make sure you can both get at the money if needed.
2) Snowball to clear debts OD first as others have said, then in order of highest to lowest interest.
3) Stash a disaster fund of £2k minimum in an ISA to cover short term loss of income.
4) Is your pension sorted?
5) Overpay mortgage, by this time you will have plenty spare a month to do this and it will make a big difference.
6) Relax,as the Joneses will have to keep up with you now

We have done 1)(£650) , 3) (£9000) and 4). 2) is sorted for me this month and OH in August, then we are starting on 5) ours was slightly back to front but OHs debt is 0% so didn't seem as urgent.

Crap_with_money.com

catwoman73 wrote: »

Mobiles look high though and you could probably shave a bit off food. You need to add something for clothes.

We don't buy clothes often, tends to only be as a 1 off expense if we're going somewhere like a wedding or on holiday or something, so I'm not really sure how to add that to a budget as it's not a monthly expense and I'v no idea how much we spend on it over the year?

Is the amount you've put for food/fuel etc realistic and what you actually spend?

I went back through the last few months bank statements and added up the food/fuel costs so thats accurate on what we've been spending. I've decided I'll aim for the £200/month but actually lift the cash out and replace it with receipts for a month or 2 so I get a better idea of what to cut it down to -anyone any other tips for saving on food?

Do you ever go on holiday? I suggest you save up £200-£300 per month to pay for holidays, white goods/car replacement etc and increase this when you get out of debt- you could then afford £1k pm or more and also be able to pay off your mortgage early as well. Make your money work for you not the banks

Holidays are the problem! We consolidated our debts (sweary word I know!) after we got married, then booked up to go to my friends wedding in South Africa. On paper it seemed we would be able to afford it but it just turned out to be more expensive than we expected. We are booked to go away again in July though, but I was thinking rather than budget monthly I'd use whatever excess will be for debts for the 1 month to pay for that.

You appear to have two workers and one car - does one of you not spend any money on transport - if they walk/cycle - good for them.

We only live a mile away from my work, so I'm lucky I don't need a 2nd car, although since my hubby works shifts it would defo be nice to have 1 eventually!

Can you overpay the loan without penalty? Are the credit cards really 0%?

We can overpay, and the CC's are def 0%.


HTH

Thank-you so much for such a detailed reply! I'm feeling a lot more motivated about it all today - we're hoping to add another wee person to our new family sometime soon, so we really need to get a grip on the finances or I guess that can't happen!