Completed an SOA, what next? help

babydoll1

Hello all, i have just joined the quest to be debt free too, i have just finished my SOA and i'm wondering what do i do next? i have read on other threads that the first step is doing the SOA. help please. below is my cureent SOA, i finished uni in 2005 and have been working since finishing.

Monthly Incomings:

Salary - £871 p/m net
working tax credit-£292.19 p/m
child tax/child benefit - £176.68 p/m/ 70.75
______________
Total - £1410.62

Monthly Outgoings:
Rent - £651
Council Tax - £104.31 - 1251.82
Gas - £42
Electric - £46
TV License - £11.71
Sky& internet -£20
landline/mobile Phone - £40.79
Food - £250
Car Insurance - £46
Petrol - £120
after school activities - £30
Ekm -£22.92
Road tax -£15
Clothing. -£30
______________
Total: £1,429.73

Credit repayments outstanding minimum payments %

Dorothy Perkins £382.91
*Additions £740
Vanquis £794.84 3.632%
*Naturally close £1031.05
Capital 1 £437.12 2.570 % 8%
Halifax £1055 26.75% 21.95% + over limit fee
Barclaycard £318.67 24.9% 6.99 27.9%
Aqua £350
Welcome £2999 37%
DWP £2303.71
Students loan £17000
Overdraft £1741.45 2.05% 27.5%ear£
Provident £535 60
Clydesdale £832.47
Mum £2000
Electricity £138.85 £48
Gas £128.08 £38
Car insurance £45
Brook and Bentley £128.95 £16.45
Fine 1 £30
Fine 2 £90
T-mobile £78.95

Total 32,366.817

Lucy1982_2

I hate to point out the obvious but your outgoing exceed your incoming.

How many of you are there? Is there any way that you can cut the food bill? Even £50 would mean your outgoings are less than your income. Do you need both a landline and mobile? When is your car insurance due for renewal? I saved myself £31 by shopping around and getting a better deal.

I'm sure other people will be along soon.

But well done for getting so far. Have a look at this website http://www.whatsthecost.co.uk/snowball.aspx and fill in all the details, it will tell you how to pay off your debts the quickest. Given your income have you looked at a Debt management plan?

I don't know anything about them personally, but it might help you. I'm sure someone will know.

Good Luck and welcome

boo2905

Hi

Well done for posting. What happens now is that lots of lovely people should hopefully read your SOA and give you some advice on where to cut back and make bigger payments to your debts.

Personally I would try and address the amount of money you spend on food. Also the landline and mobile phone. Can you find a deal which combines your tv and internet package plus a phone package?

Also is there an option for car share to cut down your petrol bills?

Try selling things you don't need any more on Ebay and amazon.

As Lucy suggests try using the snowball calculator. I would probably say to pay your minimum payments on things and then pay as much as you have spare to the smaller debts and pay them off then you feel like your getting somewhere and you will end up having more money to put towards your bigger debts.

Look for bank charges that you may have to try and claim them back and see if that helps you.

Even an extra £5 here and there when you can afford it onto debts makes a difference. It will take a long time and will feel like it's slow moving but there's loads of people on here to offer support.

Good Luck

tigtag02

Hi there and well done for posting

My imediate observations are:
How many adults in the house? (Your SOA suggests its you and 3 kiddos') Are you getting the 25% reducution from the CT if its just you?
Is the debt for DWP for overpayments in Tax Credits? If so have you contested this?
If it is just you and the kids are you getting maintainence?
Food bill can be cut somewhat - try the OS board for yummy receipes made from scratch (I'm doing chicken soup tonight <yes, I know I keep going on about it >)
SKY should be able to do you speak, surf and see for £26 and then swap your mobile for PAYG.

HTH
tigtag

Storm

babydoll1 wrote: »

Monthly Incomings:

Salary - £871 p/m net
working tax credit-£292.19 p/m
child tax/child benefit - £176.68 p/m/ 70.75
______________
Total - £1410.62

Monthly Outgoings:
Rent - £651
Council Tax - £104.31 - 1251.82
Gas - £42 This seems high - have a look at Martin's article on switching & getting cashback
Electric - £46 Ditto
TV License - £11.71
Sky& internet -£20
landline/mobile Phone - £40.79 This is high - can you split into landline & mobile please? With the mobile, if on contract phone up & reduce the tariff by as much as possible, or go PAYG
Food - £250 How many is this for?
Car Insurance - £46 When renewal comes up shop around for best deal & get cashback
Petrol - £120 Can any journeys be made on foot or shared with friends?
after school activities - £30 Speak to the school to see if there's a hardship fund for these
Ekm -£22.92 What is this?
Road tax -£15
Clothing. -£30 Again, how many is this for?
______________
Total: £1,429.73

Credit repayments outstanding minimum payments %

Dorothy Perkins £382.91
*Additions £740
Vanquis £794.84 3.632%
*Naturally close £1031.05
Capital 1 £437.12 2.570 % 8%
Halifax £1055 26.75% 21.95% + over limit fee
Barclaycard £318.67 24.9% 6.99 27.9%
Aqua £350
Welcome £2999 37%
DWP £2303.71Is this overpaid benefits? They often just reduce your payments for a while until it's paid back I thought
Students loan £17000 What sort of loan? if it comes out with tax & NI then I wouldn't worry about it just yet
Overdraft £1741.45 2.05% 27.5%ear£
Provident £535 60
Clydesdale £832.47
Mum £2000 How urgent is this, or can your mum hold out to be repaid?
Electricity £138.85 £48
Gas £128.08 £38
Car insurance £45
Brook and Bentley £128.95 £16.45
Fine 1 £30 If this is a parking fine then it's a priority one purely because it will double if not paid...
Fine 2 £90 ...is that what happened here?
T-mobile £78.95

Total 32,366.817

A few notes for you, hope they help

shopaholictiedtheknot

Hi there, your gas and electric look a bit high, have you looked into changing suppliers?

bandraoi

The one thing that jumps out at me from your SOA is that you're two years out of college but your take home pay is £871/m.

Are you working full time?
Is there anyway you can find a better paid job?

findingmyownway

Hi and welcome to the boards :T :T

It would help if you give us a few details on your family etc. How many kids do you have? Live with partner etc? I assume not as you only have 1 wage listed.

babydoll1 wrote: »

Monthly Incomings:

Salary - £871 p/m net
working tax credit-£292.19 p/m have a look at www.entitled.com to check you are getting all benefits appropriate.
child tax/child benefit - £176.68 p/m/ 70.75
______________
Total - £1410.62 - this could be increased by ebaying things you don't need. also have a look at threads about pigsback and quidco to make a few more pounds/month.

Monthly Outgoings:
Rent - £651
Council Tax - £104.31 - 1251.82 check you have a single person 25% discount (if you are single obviously )
Gas - £42
Electric - £46 gas and elec seem a little high. have a look at martin's articles on cutting these bills by switching suppliers etc.
TV License - £11.71
Sky& internet -£20
landline/mobile Phone - £40.79 seems high, can you switch to PAYG or onto a free calls package?
Food - £250 not too bad but i dont know how many you are feeding. have a look at the Old Style board for tips on reducing it.
Car Insurance - £46
Petrol - £120 sounds like a lot. do you drive for work? can you claim expenses?
after school activities - £30
Ekm -£22.92 i don't know what this means
Road tax -£15
Clothing. -£30
______________
Total: £1,429.73

Credit repayments outstanding minimum payments %

Dorothy Perkins £382.91
*Additions £740
Vanquis £794.84 3.632%
*Naturally close £1031.05
Capital 1 £437.12 2.570 % 8%
Halifax £1055 26.75% 21.95% + over limit fee
Barclaycard £318.67 24.9% 6.99 27.9%
Aqua £350
Welcome £2999 37%
DWP £2303.71
Students loan £17000 this is the least of your worries. i assume any payment gets taken direct from your wage anyway. to make yourself feel better i would even consider taking it off your 'debt totals' for the time being.
Overdraft £1741.45 2.05% 27.5%ear£
Provident £535 60
Clydesdale £832.47
Mum £2000
Electricity £138.85 £48
Gas £128.08 £38
Car insurance £45 on top of whats listed above?
Brook and Bentley £128.95 £16.45
Fine 1 £30 are these fines a 1 off payment? or something else?
Fine 2 £90
T-mobile £78.95

Total 32,366.817

you clearly have a significant amount of debts. do you mind us asking what you spent it on? do have have 'stuff' to show for it that can be sold or returned?

you need to have a think about if you can realisticly afford to pay these debts. at the moment your income is less than your outgoings without even taking into account any minumum payments. i think a trip to the citizens advice might help. or there maybe some posters on here who could give you more advice.

babydoll1

Hello all, in answer to all the questions.
Ps although some of the solutions were obvious, i have been financially depressed and was having an extremely difficult time at work because of bullying. However, i recognise that not doing anything at all about things is not helping so i'm starting now.



edited for privacy reasons.

shopaholictiedtheknot

Food Shopping is definitely very high if there are two of you, I am so bad with food shopping mine is at least that for three of us but I am going to try lidl this month and see if I can cut back

Lucy1982_2

I have sky and they do offer a free broadband service... I might be worth seeing if you can transfer to that.

Although I had major problems as the connection didn't work. But if you have it already, it's not different to moving phone tarrif. Which leads me to my next point. Can you drop your mobile tarrif for the next month? I'm with T-Mobile on one of there flex tarrifs I pay £25 a month and get £61 of credit to use. I don't have a landline so this covers me for the month.

Good luck and let us know how you get on.