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Getting there slowly..

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RockPaperScissors
RockPaperScissors Posts: 359 Forumite
Debt-free and Proud!
edited 20 May 2013 at 12:06PM in Debt-free wannabe
Hi all!

Been (sort-of) active on the site for a few months or so but still hadn't plucked up the courage to do my SOA.

Really want 2013 to be the year that I fully sort out my finances. I was in quite a bit of debt with CC's two years ago and have made some great progress by stalking these message boards.

We bought our first home three weeks ago and were incredibly lucky to have the support of family who put money into the Lloyds TSB Lend a Hand scheme. They also helped us with a deposit (not included in the SOA because we will start repaying them in a year or so).

I am finding it all too easy, now that we have moved in, to find myself buying little things for the house and just want to make sure I stay on track with my finances. I only have one more repayment (3rd June) until my graduate loan is paid off which I'm really pleased about, and then I want to turn my attention to the Credit Card.

One thing I've noticed is that I seem to have a reasonable amount left over from my wages each month after bills, but I have no idea where this disappears to (I've noticed lots of others say the same thing). I need to keep better track of where this is going!

(FYI - I have not included insurance/road tax as I generally pay in full when this arises and have enough in my wages to do so - insurance around 280, tax around 120, at separate times of the year. Elec & gas I have taken EDF's "estimates for us" and split this 50/50 between the two as I am not sure what the divide will be until my first bill arrives)

I have divided everything by 2 and removed my partners wage because we split everything 50/50 and he deals separately with his own debt :)

Fingers crossed I can make some real progress this year, so here goes:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information

Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household.........
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details

Monthly income after tax................ 1833.12
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1833.12


Monthly Expense Details

Mortgage................................ 378.4
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 76.83
Electricity............................. 20.83
Gas..................................... 20.83
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 21.08
Telephone (land line)................... 7.5
Mobile phone............................ 39
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 2.5
Groceries etc. ......................... 150
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 160
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 100
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 14
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 990.97



Assets

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



Secured & HP Debts

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 165381...(378.4)....4.04
Total secured & HP debts...... 165381....-.........-


Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................106.27....100.......0
Credit Card ...................1078.17...50........0
Grad Overdraft.................300.......25........0
Total unsecured debts..........1484.44...175.......-



Monthly Budget Summary

Total monthly income.................... 1,833.12
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 990.97
Available for debt repayments........... 842.15
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 175
Amount left after debt repayments....... 667.15


Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -165,381
Total Unsecured debt.................... -1,484.44
Net Assets.............................. -166,865.44
DEBT FREE AT LAST!
Virtual Sealed Pot Challenge 2014 - Member 161
Single Pot 1 Total:£23.32
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Comments

  • R_P_W
    R_P_W Posts: 1,522 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Is it accurate?

    2.50 for Internet? No tv licence? No presents or haircuts or holidays ever?!

    Road tax and car insurance?
  • R_P_W
    R_P_W Posts: 1,522 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Sorry ignore I should read post properly. However I would suggest you do a joint soa and also include your annual costs
  • redpete
    redpete Posts: 4,735 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Leaving out annual costs gives a misleading picture and is one reason why it looks like you have sufficient 'spare' money to clear your debt in a few months; just divide the annal cost by 12 to give a monthly equivalent. You also need a realistic estimate of what you spend on clothes, entertainment, haircuts, holiday etc etc.

    Mobile phone contracts can be had for at least half what you pay - but of course it might not fit your current usage.

    £150 a month on food for one person is quite high if you are trying to cut down.
    loose does not rhyme with choose but lose does and is the word you meant to write.
  • Thanks all!

    Yes I think I need to readdress the holidays etc. We don't actually take any currently and haven't done for a long time which is why I didn't include that. Out broadband is indeed £2.50 each per month as I chose PlusNet 4.99 for 12 months from the MSE financial ed section.

    My best friend is a hairdresser so hair is done for free thankfully :)

    Also didn't include TV license as we paid up front for the first 12 months so we won't need to worry until April 2014. We were lucky enough to have that spare so I thought it would allow some leeway this year.

    Presents you are totally right about and I should factor that in. How does everyone else put this aside? I want to keep this somewhere safe but wasn't sure if it should be in a separate "fun money" account or just left somewhere in the house (which feels unsafe).

    Very right about the contract - unfortunately they suckered me in last September so I'm tied in at the moment. I do use it for a lot of work calls and emails though so I do get a fair bit of usage out of it (unlimited texts and calls and internet).

    Re. food shopping - I'm sure we have spent less than £75 btween us each week so far. I initially took estimates from my best friend as we had no idea what bills would cost and wanted to put enough away throughout the buying process to be covered for our first month so I'm sure I can alter this figure in a couple of weeks when we are stocked up with all the basics

    Thanks for the comments :)
    DEBT FREE AT LAST!
    Virtual Sealed Pot Challenge 2014 - Member 161
    Single Pot 1 Total:£23.32
    Joint Account Pot Total:£6.67
  • blitzboy
    blitzboy Posts: 477 Forumite
    edited 20 May 2013 at 3:22PM
    Although you pay things like road tax, car insurance and tv licence all in one go, it is still an expense that comes out of your wages so needs to be included otherwise it distorts the income v outgoings. Just divide the amount by 12 to get the monthly amount, e.g. my car insurance is 300 so my monthly amount would be £25.

    You never spend anything on clothes, entertainment, presents or holidays? Never? Perhaps a 'spending diary' may help you figure out where some of your 'extra' money is going. It is certainly an eye opener for some when they see how much they spend over a month/year on simple little things like starbucks/costa or takeaways.

    As for the bits that you have included, the main things that stand out are car parking and mobile phone, both seem high. Obviously the mobile will be on a contract but if the phone you have is still sufficient at the end of that contract then a sim only deal could save you a lot of money. As for the car park, I assume this is for work? Can you park somewhere cheaper and walk a little further perhaps?

    Also, £75 a week for food for 2 people can easily come down by buying own brands, special offers, using coupons, etc.

    And when you finish paying your graduate loan in June, try to still spend that same amount on your debts, just on the card instead. Don't think of it as extra money available now. (Edit: Just re-read and realised that the card is 0% so you could put the £100 a month into savings until the 0% deal ends and then pay a lump sum off, depends if you are confident that you won't be tempted to spend the money in the mean time.)
  • Seen_the_light
    Seen_the_light Posts: 33 Forumite
    edited 20 May 2013 at 3:18PM
    Hi RockPaperScissors, this annual budgeting 'thing' is a bit new to me too. However, here's what I have been doing. Nationwide (and I suspect various other banks etc) allow an almost endless amount of e-savings accounts and allows you re-name them to suit. So therefore I have about 10 different accounts where I filter off money from my salary each month into each pot. So as an example I made a list of what I wanted to spend on friends and family for their respective Birthdays, divided it by 12 and this is how much i put into my 'Birthdays' e-savings account each month. Just a little word of warning on this though, you need to make sure that your first 'Birthday' doesn't come round before you've had chance to save for it or that you don't have 2/3 in one month! I do this for Christmas, Holidays, clothing etc. You'll possibly find, as I did, that you won't have quite so much money left out of each salary by doing this, but not doing this leads to credit card temptation and then you end up with the same expenditure with interest to pay! Good luck!
    Lightbulb Moment - November 2012
  • blitzboy -

    Thanks so much for the advice. We don't go out at all. we live in a small village and don't particularly like the local town so we tend to just have all our friends over at the weekend. I have factored in some beers/wine into my weekly shopping figure (as well as 1 take away) for those nights. We found it helped us cut our costs dramatically by staying in.

    Re. parking - sadly I already walk around 25 mins to work in the morning. I commute 1 hour, park outside of central Brighton (far cheaper) and then walk the rest of the way.

    I'll re-post a new SOA in a moment with total costs.

    Seen_the_light - That's a fab idea! I did toy with opening the online saver but didn't realise I could open several. That would make life so much easier! Thanks :D

    Does anyone know - if I do a joint SOA - will I still be able to separate our debts? We are not married and want to keep what we both "owe" entirely separate. He doesn't feel he should pay my debt back and I don't feel I should pay for his either so although we pay 50/50 for all bills, mortgage etc. I don't want his OD's factored in.

    Thanks all :)
    DEBT FREE AT LAST!
    Virtual Sealed Pot Challenge 2014 - Member 161
    Single Pot 1 Total:£23.32
    Joint Account Pot Total:£6.67
  • harrys_dad
    harrys_dad Posts: 1,997 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    it may be possible to keep them separate, but I would ask if you earn roughly the same amount? For "separate" accounting to work bills etc should not necessarily be 50/50, especially if one partner earns much more than the other.
  • Not at all. I earn a fair amount more than he does. He is refusing to do anything other than 50/50 (though I will wear him down in the end).

    That's why I was having issues when filling it out :)
    DEBT FREE AT LAST!
    Virtual Sealed Pot Challenge 2014 - Member 161
    Single Pot 1 Total:£23.32
    Joint Account Pot Total:£6.67
  • Marson79
    Marson79 Posts: 12 Forumite
    Hi hope you don't mind me asking a question, we are wanting to buy a house but still have some credit card debt. Was it ok to have this still on your card & apply for a mortgage. We are so depserate to own our own home & Parents will help with a deposit. Many Thanks
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