My SOA - Advice Welcome

Mrs_A_2

Hi,

I've posted a few times with some hair brain ideas of cutting costs etc. I thought I should probably attempt an SOA. I'll say from the offset though, that aside from actual direct debits - the rest is guesses based on the past.

The CC is 0% until October 2014. The amount has accumulated from dipping into our wedding / honeymoon savings for ??? and then not having enough to pay everything, hence having to use CC.

The Loan for the Car is 42 months long, we are into 7 months of paying it now. I would like to pay it off early.

I think generally our overspend is purely done on whittling - we tend to nip out to the shops and buy X Y Z etc. I have to admit to personally being unable to think 'don't buy that, you can't afford it'.

I forgot to include in the SOA that we have a cleaner which costs £96.00 a month.... its one of the first cut backs. Another is bringing our own lunches into work, I'm a serial buy lunch everyday person!
Thats around £225 a month saved already I guess.

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.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1715
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1415
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 25
Total monthly income.................... 3155

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 479
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 109
Electricity............................. 68.2
Gas..................................... 68.2
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 47
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 26
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 34
Internet Services....................... 25
Groceries etc. ......................... 350
Clothing................................ 200
Petrol/diesel........................... 345
Road tax................................ 25
Car Insurance........................... 113.51
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 85
Car parking............................. 60
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 7.95
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 34.06
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 28.38
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 53.5
Entertainment........................... 600
Holiday................................. 300
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 3120.8


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 120000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 8000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 128000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 80000....(479)......2.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 80000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit Card....................6250......62.5......0
Car Loan.......................8000......217.7.....7.8
Total unsecured debts..........14250.....280.2.....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,155
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,120.8
Available for debt repayments........... 34.2
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 280.2
Amount short for making debt repayments. -246

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 128,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -80,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -14,250
Net Assets.............................. 33,750

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

sistafromanothermista

£600 per month on entertainment?!:eek::eek: £300 per month for holidays??
Are you sure?

R_P_W

Well this is easy!

Significantly cut down the money on clothes, holiday and entertainment! Job done.

Mrs_A_2

Sisterfromanothermista - The £600-£800 I kind of lumped into there as didn't know what else to do. Basically I think we have had around that amount left each in our own accounts - which has been spent on ???

The £300 holiday is probably correct... although we don't save for them to be honest. Our holiday last year cost £3,500 in total so it was that which I used as an example. I do get a bonus (3-4K) which actually paid for it, but I won't come on here and lie - we would be planning another expensive holiday like this if we hadn't decided to clear our debts, so obviously this money will now be saved and cut down massively.

Mrs_A_2

R P W - Thanks. Thats what I thought too.

I've worked out a plan for the next few months which basically means paying all our direct debits, and for food / petrol, keeping £100 each (massive cut down) for anything we need, and keeping £200-£250 in our joint account for anything. It basically leaves £1000 to attack the CC with, then the Loan.

HappyMJ

Mrs_A wrote: »

Sisterfromanothermista - The £600-£800 I kind of lumped into there as didn't know what else to do. Basically I think we have had around that amount left each in our own accounts - which has been spent on ???

The £300 holiday is probably correct... although we don't save for them to be honest. Our holiday last year cost £3,500 in total so it was that which I used as an example. I do get a bonus (3-4K) which actually paid for it, but I won't come on here and lie - we would be planning another expensive holiday like this if we hadn't decided to clear our debts, so obviously this money will now be saved and cut down massively.

That must have been a nice holiday. My last holiday cost me £9.75 each (for four people) for a long weekend in Wales. The food that we ate came from the supermarket and came out of out of the normal grocery shopping budget. The petrol for the car ended up being only half a tank and had been allocated from my monthly petrol budget. Probably spent about £20 on entertainment whilst there and that came out of the entertainment budget and we would have spent that on going out at home over the weekend. Be careful you don't double count anything.

If you don't know where your money is going then keep a diary.

Mrs_A_2

HappyMJ - I hope to be as thrifty with our money as you are one day.

I have started a diary

HappyMJ

Mrs_A wrote: »

HappyMJ - I hope to be as thrifty with our money as you are one day.

I have started a diary

I wish I was more thrifty...I still go out somewhere every weekend and I really have to reduce that. I'm really upset with myself last weekend for buying a pizza from a shop. I know how to make one. I've done it several times before. It's usually quicker and much more fun making one than waiting for the delivery so why did I order one....because it came with free ice-cream. Right so I spent £13.49 to get an ice cream worth £4.49 and the pizza wasn't anywhere near as good as the ones I make.

Tiglath

You're doing £1200/month on clothing, entertainment, presents, haircuts, holiday. Think you've got a lot of wiggle room there to make savings and overpay your debt, especially if you add your bonus to it and do a cheap no-frills holiday or even go without for a year You could clear the creditcard in 4-5 months, and then start on the car loan. You'd be almost there after a year, and then you won't owe anything but the mortgage; worth sucking up the temporary pain to get it paid back. I definitely agree with the suggestion of a spending diary; I realised I was doing £10/day on work breakfasts and lunch. I carried a little notebook and wrote down every penny I spent. I empty my purse every day of all but £1s and pay it back into my account every couple of months.

Mrs_A_2

Thanks Tiglath. Exactly - lots of disposable income going on rubbish we don't need. I hope September is the start of our clawing back. I just don't like the debt hanging over us, I want it cleared, then to start enjoying things when they have been PAID for before, rather than after.

I'm aiming at having our CC cleared by December (subject to bonus!) and the Loan by next December, latest.

heartbreak_star

Mrs_A wrote: »

Hi,

I've posted a few times with some hair brain ideas of cutting costs etc. I thought I should probably attempt an SOA. I'll say from the offset though, that aside from actual direct debits - the rest is guesses based on the past.

The CC is 0% until October 2014. The amount has accumulated from dipping into our wedding / honeymoon savings for ??? and then not having enough to pay everything, hence having to use CC.

The Loan for the Car is 42 months long, we are into 7 months of paying it now. I would like to pay it off early.

I think generally our overspend is purely done on whittling - we tend to nip out to the shops and buy X Y Z etc. I have to admit to personally being unable to think 'don't buy that, you can't afford it'.

I forgot to include in the SOA that we have a cleaner which costs £96.00 a month.... its one of the first cut backs. Another is bringing our own lunches into work, I'm a serial buy lunch everyday person!
Thats around £225 a month saved already I guess.

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.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1715
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1415
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 25
Total monthly income.................... 3155

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 479
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 109
Electricity............................. 68.2 High - are you on the best tariff?
Gas..................................... 68.2 Same with this
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 47
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 26
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 34
Internet Services....................... 25
Groceries etc. ......................... 350
Clothing................................ 200 WAY too much. Wear what you have for now.
Petrol/diesel........................... 345 All essential journeys?
Road tax................................ 25
Car Insurance........................... 113.51
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 85
Car parking............................. 60 Any way to cut this?
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 7.95
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 34.06
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 28.38
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50 Halve this
Haircuts................................ 53.5 Leave an extra week between cuts, colour at home
Entertainment........................... 600 Cut this to £200
Holiday................................. 300 Lose this
Emergency fund.......................... 0 Need something in here
Total monthly expenses.................. 3120.8


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 120000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 8000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 128000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 80000....(479)......2.5
Total secured & HP debts...... 80000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit Card....................6250......62.5......0
Car Loan.......................8000......217.7.....7.8
Total unsecured debts..........14250.....280.2.....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,155
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,120.8
Available for debt repayments........... 34.2
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 280.2
Amount short for making debt repayments. -246

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 128,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -80,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -14,250
Net Assets.............................. 33,750

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

Some suggestions from me in pink (though some of the later ones seem to not be pink - bemusing!).

You can easily save £400 minimum on this SOA without batting an eyelid. Good luck

HBS x