My SOA - what do you think?

KME91

i did myself a SOA about six months ago, I haven't posted it up, but I have been reading the boards and following the advice, and I'm getting the debt down, so i thought it was about time i did my SOA. hopefully i can look back in 12 months on a happier story.
I have debts with 8 companies, and a loan to a family member as follows:

Egg loan 1615.00
HSBC Loan 13801.11
Marks and Spencer Credit card 1645.00
Virgin Credit card 2950.00
Mint Credit card 3532.89
River Island card 424.00
La redoute account 104.00
Topshop account 120.00
Private loan 1000.00

Paying off monthly as follows

Egg loan 202
HSBC Loan 100
Marks and Spencer Credit card 60
Virgin Credit card 100
Mint card
River Island 75
La redoute 30
Topshop 10
Private loan 50

HSBC and mint are outstanding companies i've yet to agree payment with. I've done my budget, worked out what I can afford and made a monthly payment offer to HSBC, who i have been in regular contact with, just waiting for a response now. The total I've put in for the mint card is from the last time i heard from them in February 2006, so I want to ask the company what the outstanding balance plus charges are, and whether they'll accept an appropriate monthly payment. See my other thread (is this a good idea). All interest is frozen except the egg loan, which has 8 payments to go, so I'm happy leaving that as it is, it was a switch from a much higher interest rate anyway. I'm in the process of claiming back bank and CC charges, anything i get will also go towards paying off my debts, either as full and final payments on the smaller ones, or to clear the egg loan as it's still earning interest.

so i'm paying 677 a month off my debts, Mint offer included.

other monthly costs

Rent 165
travel to work 100
car tax/ins 40
Dentist/optician 30
Food/grocery bill 80

= £1092.

I take home £1120 which leaves me with £28 a month for emergencies, towards mot etc. I've got no dependants and i'm living with my parents and I am scraping by on this. I'm looking for better jobs, and ways to develop my career potential to earn more money. My employers don't offer overtime as we work flexible hours. I've tried public transport, but it's more expensive than driving, all things considered, and is a nightmare from where i live to the office anyway. As far as the family member goes, they have been an absolute legend to me, and I cannot possibly ride on their goodwill any longer, so we're both agreed on that payment rate to pay off what i owe them.

It's taken a long time to get to this point, and there have been plenty of tears along the way, i think it was at about £35 grand i had my lightbulb moment. My debt free date at this rate is around may/june 2010, but i'm determined to get there sooner.

So what do you think?

Storm

Are the amounts your paying off the minimums, what you've agreed with the companies or what you've decided on? I see there's a couple of smallish ones there (La Redoute, Topshop esp, then River Island) so I wondered if you might be better focussing on these for a couple of months to get them paid off completely.

Ebay/Amazon/Green Metropolis anything you don't use/want anymore, mystery shopping, pigsback, quidco, online surveys, matched betting etc can all help to increase your income.

Congratulations BTW - you've already knocked £10K off your total debts, which is definitely not to be sniffed at!:T

angelavdavis

Hi there and well done for your progress so far,Echoing Storm's comments, I think you have done brilliantly.Looking at the SOA, there is little to shave off the list really, perhaps you could reduce the food total a little - do you take sandwiches to work, etc?As you rightfully point out, your best bet at this stage is to claim back your bank and cc charges and see if you can increase the income.Remember to have another bank account set up and make any offers to the bank/credit card companies before you claim back charges as they are less likely to be flexible with you. It sounds like you have agreed payment plans with everyone anyway.Well done you and good luck!

Annie_Fanny

Gosh it sounds like a harsh regime for you KME91. Could you even afford to pay mint anything? How much are you hoping to get from reclaiming your charges? Hopefully it will be enough to knock some of the debts on the head so that you can snowball the extra money into the others. Maybe you could look into full and final settlement figures? I personally don't know much about these but it may be away to knock some of the debts on the head for a smaller percentage of the actual cost? What else can you do? Have you got anything to sell? Could you get a weekend job at all?

Good luck you are certainly putting your all into this!

Keep posting here there are always people around to offer good advice.

Annie

boo2905

Hi!! :hello:

This is probably a cheeky thing to ask but would it not be possible for your parents to chop your rent down a bit until you become a bit more solvent? My parents used to charge me £200 a month and when we discussed my finances we dropped it down to £80. Once I'm on my way to being a bit better off it will go back up again. Just a thought though

Also if your living with your parents you should question the food/grocery bill. Maybe you could use some of the food that your parents buy in.

Keep a spend diary and write down where every penny of your money goes and then you'll see where you can cut back more.

Good Luck :T

KME91

thanks guys.

I do take sandwiches to work when i can, when I stay at my boyfriend's it's a bit tricky, but then i save in petrol costs by staying there so it all balances out. a spending diary is the next step, i always seem to spend my full food budget, and i have no idea what on, so that's a good idea. i try not to eat my folks out of house and home, my dad's retired, and my mum's not exactly a high earner, which is also the reason for the relatively high rent. I do get quite well looked after for that though!

it's not all bad news, i can see light at the end of the tunnel which i couldn't before. I'm saving pennies and silver coins in jars, they're my treat savings, when they fill up i buy myself nice things. and if i get my bank charges back it's going to make a big difference, i'm expecting between 1 and 2 thousand pounds, which will wipe out those annoying little debts i've got hanging about. I've already got a new account set up, and my wages are going in there now, so i'm all set to take back every penny they owe me!

Ebay's the next step i think, i have lots of bits and bobs that I could sell. I was also thinking about making some bracelets and things to sell, i used to be quite good at that sort of thing.