New DFW; mini SOA & 'Hello'!

StudentMam_2

Hi everyone,
Been lurking on this board for a few weeks so just wanted to say 'Hello' in the hope it'll make me feel like less of creepy lurker just reading everyone else's posts.

I've decided recently to try and get completely debt free.
Myself & OH both working full time and currently have debts made up of:

£1500 OD (joint)
£800 CC
£2000 loan (joint)
£2000 loan (joint from FiL)

Currenly paying roughly:
£20 min payment on CC
£70 month x 2 to loans
& overdraft has been dipping back and forward.

Decided from last payday to try and get a handle on our finances so sat and done the full MSE budget planner which was actually quite helpful.
Sat and worked out that after bills we have £400 each month for food, travel & anything else we need for 2x adults and 6 yo DD. From last payday we split that in half (£200 each) and put it into a separate account for each of us.
In theory this means we have an account each for any travel/petrol/extra spends and the money in the joint account will be paying the bills.

It does help that my FT job is salaried but with a sales commission/bonus scheme and usually a decent amount of overtime so anything I get paid in bonus/OT can hopefully help go towards paying off debts.

It probably doesn't seem like a massive step to a lot of you but even acknowledging that we have debt, that my spending is completely out of control and that I need to take control of my finances is a massive step to me.

These boards have been a great inspiration and will hopefully join in with some of the challenges over the next few months!

HappyMJ

You really need a full SOA. £400 a month on extra spends is a lot...you need to allocate all of your money to pots at the beginning of the month and keep to it.

wegle

Well done for having the moment of realisation. Definitely put the full SOA up. An extra £400 for unallocated spends is a lot of money. Things like petrol should be accounted for in the budget.

StudentMam_2

Knew I'd end up missing something!
Done a SOA on the calc linked from the newbie thread.
The £400 in the post is to cover food and petrol. Doing the full on SOA shows about £80 to pay off debts but convinced I've missed something off, will try and stick to it this month and track the spending so will hopefully see where we're actually at by next month!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1086
Partners monthly income after tax....... 800
Benefits................................ 81.2
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1967.2
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 355
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 97
Electricity............................. 205
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 32.42
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 88.38
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 8.99
Internet Services....................... 37.25
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 130
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 52
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 5
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 50
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 8
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 30
Buildings insurance..................... 5
Contents insurance...................... 5
Life assurance ......................... 19
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 50
OH Smoking.............................. 200
Total monthly expenses.................. 1720.16

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...................... 68000....(355)......13
Total secured & HP debts...... 68000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit Card....................800.......19........0
Loan...........................2000......70........0
Loan...........................2000......70........0
Total unsecured debts..........4800......159.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,967.2
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,720.16
Available for debt repayments........... 247.04
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 159
Amount left after debt repayments....... 88.04

bess1234_2

Is £200 electricity a mistake? Are you repaying something. It's rather huge

If you halved electricity mobile and Internet, you could throw an extra £160 a month a debts, making your life much sweeter as you get rid of the debt. And wouldn't be any change in your lifestyle. Unless its more complicated. We pay £60 lec and gas combined, which really annoys us, cos last year it was £40 and can't figure how extra chargers on all the electronics have bumped it so high.

nicp60

Hi,
I've made some comments below, which I hope you'll find helpful. Remember the SoA shows £80 after you've made the minimum payments, so if you don't have this, then I'd suggest a spending diary.

When you've got the full APR details of your debts, put them through the snowball calculator to work out what your debt free date is, and then you'll find that budgeting, sticking to it and slashing your outgoings will become an addictive challenge as you see the debt free date come closer. http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/snowball-calculator.php
You could add OH's smoking budget in there and see the difference it makes to be cheeky!!!

Hope this helps, and best of luck!

StudentMam wrote: »

Knew I'd end up missing something!
Done a SOA on the calc linked from the newbie thread.
The £400 in the post is to cover food and petrol. Doing the full on SOA shows about £80 to pay off debts but convinced I've missed something off, will try and stick to it this month and track the spending so will hopefully see where we're actually at by next month!

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1086
Partners monthly income after tax....... 800
Benefits................................ 81.2
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1967.2
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 355
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 97
Electricity............................. 205 I assume this is Gas and Electricity combined? This is huge - are you paying off arrears?
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 32.42
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 88.38 When are you out of contract?
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 8.99
Internet Services....................... 37.25
Groceries etc. ......................... 300 You can definitely slash this by £100 a month by shifting down brands and meal planning.
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 130
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 52
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 5
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 50
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 8
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 30
Buildings insurance..................... 5
Contents insurance...................... 5
Life assurance ......................... 19
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 50
OH Smoking.............................. 200 You know what's coming here!!! I used to smoke too - you won't be able to convince him to quit if he doesn't want to, but you could suggest he goes on rollies - used to cost me about £40 a month for 15-20 a day.
Total monthly expenses.................. 1720.16

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...................... 68000....(355)......13
Total secured & HP debts...... 68000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit Card....................800.......19........0
Loan...........................2000......70........0
Loan...........................2000......70........0 Are these really all interest free???
Total unsecured debts..........4800......159.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,967.2
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,720.16
Available for debt repayments........... 247.04
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 159
Amount left after debt repayments....... 88.04

ilovelondontown

You do have areas to cut back on, 300 just on food is a lot, go down a brand, plan your food menu's, yellow label shopping. You could save £100+ a month easily.

In your SOA you've only put down 2 loans and the credit card debit but in your original message you include a 1500 OD. This needs to be added if you're adding both your wages into this SOA. Trying to "hide" debts don't make them go away, if you're going to tackle this head on you need to know exactly what the damage is. Also what are the APR's on these debts? Knowing this will show you were you need to prioritise repayments first.

Check you're on the best electricity tariff, that's high pm. Check you're on the best internet rate, this is high. Also your mobile bills are really high and I don't think it needs to be said that spending £200 on smoking really is burning your money.


You have a real chance to get back in control of money here, but it's going to take commitment from both you and your OH as well as realising you need to put some calls in to get your household bills down.

cottage_retreatist

OH Smoking.............................. 200 You know what's coming here!!! I used to smoke too - you won't be able to convince him to quit if he doesn't want to, but you could suggest he goes on rollies - used to cost me about £40 a month for 15-20 a day.

I went on e-cigs over a month ago and haven't smoked a real cigarette since - only 12 pound per month for the e-liquids! This could be an option? My OH supplements his smoking of rollies with e-cigs so if he hasn't got tobacco or doesn't want to go out to buy tobacco he smokes the e-cig and that saves money too.

Some people don't like them but they're the only thing that stopped me smoking flat out!

But deffo cut down that - maybe just switch from marlboro to mayfair? :rotfl:

and the Old Style MoneySaving board has loads of help for people making their food budget stretch further - even as simply as dropping down a brand for key items can seriously reduce costs and shopping at the market for fruit and veg etc.

But you've had your LBM! Good luck! :money:

HappyMJ

How much is in the Emergency fund that you contribute £50 a month to? If it's empty what and when was the last emergency that required spending the accrued balance?

If you do not contribute to an emergency fund do not include £50 a month on your SOA.

wegle

Added a few of my comments below. Some already mentioned.

StudentMam wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1086
Partners monthly income after tax....... 800
Benefits................................ 81.2
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1967.2
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 355
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 97
Electricity............................. 205This is huge! Our combined gas and electric is £70 a month. Get all your bills out, calculate your consumption and put the figures through uswitch or MSE energy club to see if you could get a better deal
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 32.42
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 88.38
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 8.99
Internet Services....................... 37.25Does this include you landline? There are deals out there for phone and broadband for around £19 a month including line rental
Groceries etc. ......................... 300This can definitely be cut with meal planning, brand swaps etc.
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 130
Road tax................................ 10
Car Insurance........................... 52This is a bit on the high side. Check the comparison sites when it's renewal time
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 5
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 50What is this?
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 8
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 30Does your pet have an illness? How many animals is this for. Pet ins can be got for as little as £7 pcm for a dog and less for a cat
Buildings insurance..................... 5
Contents insurance...................... 5
Life assurance ......................... 19
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0With a child in the house I would have thought you would need something here for sure. Unless you do not celebrate birthdays and christmas of course.
Haircuts................................ 0Never?
Entertainment........................... 0Never a trip to the cinema, DVD rented etc??
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 50Could some of this be allocated better elsewhere?
OH Smoking.............................. 200I'm not going to have a go because I'm a smoker too. Just for comparison I smoke rollies and am certainly not a light smoker. My monthly ciggie budget is £74
Total monthly expenses.................. 1720.16

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 0You put above you have a car. This is worth something even if it's a little amount
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 0

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 68000....(355)......13
Total secured & HP debts...... 68000.....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Credit Card....................800.......19........0
Loan...........................2000......70........0
Loan...........................2000......70........0Really all o%? Also put the overdraft here as well.
Total unsecured debts..........4800......159.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,967.2
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,720.16
Available for debt repayments........... 247.04
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 159
Amount left after debt repayments....... 88.04

There's definitely scope for some decent overpayments here, but you really must be realistic with your SOA. Keep a spending diary so you know exactly where each penny goes. If you have a fancy smartphone there's a few free apps that you can download to keep track of spending.

Congrats on taking the first step to being in charge!! :T

StudentMam_2

Thanks for all the replies folks.

I'll try and answer the questions in one go:

One loan has no APR as its from the in laws but sadly the other loan and CC obviously do but as I'm absolutely rubbish I've not got a clue what they are, definitely going to have a look around and find out what they are and then have a look on the Snowball calc link, it'll definitely help to have an end date!

The 200 is electric as we've got no gas and have storage heaters instead of ch, it's being queried with the company at the minute but it apparently due to underpaying last year? Had a letter last week to say they're recalculating it though and have been desperately trying to cut back on the electric since January so fingers crossed it'll drop!

The car insurance was just renewed at start of aug and is literally half what it was beforehand :eek: I'm 24 and passed my test 3 years ago so quite expensive but luckily selling car insurance is my job so managed to tweak it down with changing occupation wording etc.

OH smoking is an ongoing conversation that will be nagged at him until he gives in :A

The emergency fund got almost wiped out last month due to car repairs and to be honest probably gets used every few months for car/home 'emergencies' a few of which we could probably work around.

I usually do a load of overtime and push for commission leading up to Dd birthday and Christmas and use the extra cash for this but as you've made me realise putting a little bit away each month and buying in advance will definitely be a better way to go and then would leave the overtime and commission for paying off debts? Sounds like common sense really but just never really done it this way before,

I definitely need to look in more detail at this as I'm sure we can get a lot of these things down I.e. grocery spending. Definitely loads to think about and look at.

Thanks everyone!