I wanna be debt free! (with SOA)

japmis

Decided to start publishing my efforts to be debt free as motivation/chastisement.

I've been bad with money since I graduated; wasn't used to being flushed with cash having moved out of home when I was 16. I somehow managed to buy a flat last year (inheritance from my dad) and now I'm just desperate to clear ye olde overdraft ASAP.

I'm posting my SOA, it's taken me weeks to pluck up the courage, so go easy. I know there's lots of extras in there that can be cut.

NB:
I've downloaded 6 months worth of banking and done a pivot table to get average monthly spends for things like train tickets, petrol,
My santander loan clears in June 2014
My home insurance covers contents as well
My satellite/cable cover landline, TV and broadband via Virgin
Petrol is high because I've made a couple of trips to Cornwall in the last 12 months to visit family
Where I have paid for things annually, I have divided by 12 to give a figure (insurances, car etc)
I pay myself £50 a week into a different account to cover food, toiletries and anything left over is for entertainment e.g. cinema (there's never any money left over!)
I'm saving £30 a month for Christmas 2014
I've just cancelled my gym membership (£45/mo) - why should I pay for something I hate doing?!
I get paid every 4 weeks; my 13th pay day this year will be paying off some of the credit card.
Oh and I pay my sister's mobile phone bill, this is non-negotiable.

Here we go....

:money:



Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2132
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2132
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 597
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 162
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 20.83
Council tax............................. 79
Electricity............................. 20
Gas..................................... 67
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 46.86
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 17
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 43.44
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 53
Petrol/diesel........................... 87
Road tax................................ 22
Car Insurance........................... 34.25
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 3
Other travel............................ 12
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 8.58
Buildings insurance..................... 17.25
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 13
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 30
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Lottery................................. 8
Sister's phone.......................... 15
AA breakdown............................ 7
Charity................................. 9
LoveFilm................................ 8
Total monthly expenses.................. 1667.33

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 2000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 130000...(597)......4.2
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 0........(162)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 130000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Santander Loan.................972.......162.......7
Halifax CC.....................6600......66........0
Total unsecured debts..........7572......228.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,132
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,667.33
Available for debt repayments........... 464.67
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 228
Amount left after debt repayments....... 236.67
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 2,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -130,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -7,572
Net Assets.............................. -135,572
Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

Tixy

Hi

Have you just been making minimum payments recently? or have you had the extra £236 and been able to put that to your debts as well?

Have you tried using a snowball calculator to see how long it would take you to get free based on this SoA (you'd need to also put in your HP balance and APR to get a correct result).

One thing I would look at
Water rates............................. 46.86 (is this on a meter or unmeasured? have you looked to see if you would save if you got a meter)

Also worth checking your gas & elec are with the best supplier/cheapest tariff. Your gas seems quite high, have you tried reducing your usage at all?

jackieblack

Not really relevant to your monthly income/outgoings but you haven't included the value of your property in your assets, but you have included your mortgage in the loans section
ie Your net assets are not actually -£135000!

I can't see any mention of the overdraft you want to clear.

TBH, if you've got £236 left at the end of each month you should be able to clear the O/D quite easily - is it really a question of just keeping to the budget as you've laid it out or are there other expenses you haven't included?

McKneff

If you are in a flat and cant get a water meter, ask them for an assessed charge, no way should you be paying that much, it will probably halve.


Your gas and electiricty should be a lot less than that if you live alone.


Im sure you don't really need to spend £53 a month on clothes, for the next 12 months, stick to just socks and undies.


You could also ask the council to pay your council tax over 12 months instead of 12.

Poppops

Hello

Your water rates are high. I pay £28 per month and there's four of us.

You have put zero against secured loans but payments of £162 per month?

Your groceries look high at £200 per month just for yourself? You could definitely cut this back.

Are you sure you don't get AA through your bank account or insurances? I wasn't aware my insurance included travel insurance and homeserve and so was paying twice on those and I now know I get RAC as part of my bank account.

Lottery and charities are optional of course and you could cut back on £240 a year presents.

Netflix is cheaper than LoveFilm.

PS, I LOVE a pivot table!

mum2one

japmis wrote: »

Decided to start publishing my efforts to be debt free as motivation/chastisement.

I've been bad with money since I graduated; wasn't used to being flushed with cash having moved out of home when I was 16. I somehow managed to buy a flat last year (inheritance from my dad) and now I'm just desperate to clear ye olde overdraft ASAP.

I'm posting my SOA, it's taken me weeks to pluck up the courage, so go easy. I know there's lots of extras in there that can be cut.

NB:
I've downloaded 6 months worth of banking and done a pivot table to get average monthly spends for things like train tickets, petrol,
My santander loan clears in June 2014
My home insurance covers contents as well
My satellite/cable cover landline, TV and broadband via Virgin
Petrol is high because I've made a couple of trips to Cornwall in the last 12 months to visit family
Where I have paid for things annually, I have divided by 12 to give a figure (insurances, car etc)
I pay myself £50 a week into a different account to cover food, toiletries and anything left over is for entertainment e.g. cinema (there's never any money left over!)
I'm saving £30 a month for Christmas 2014
I've just cancelled my gym membership (£45/mo) - why should I pay for something I hate doing?!
I get paid every 4 weeks; my 13th pay day this year will be paying off some of the credit card.
Oh and I pay my sister's mobile phone bill, this is non-negotiable.

Here we go....

:money:



Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 1
Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2132
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2132
Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 597
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 162
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 20.83
Council tax............................. 79
Electricity............................. 20
Gas..................................... 67 - this looks really high, have you got the heating set to high
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 46.86 - would you be cheaper with a meter as one perso
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 17
TV Licence.............................. 12.12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 43.44
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 53 - if your trying to pay some debts couls you try to reduce what you buy and sell any items you dont need
Petrol/diesel........................... 87
Road tax................................ 22
Car Insurance........................... 34.25
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 3
Other travel............................ 12
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 8.58
Buildings insurance..................... 17.25
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20
Haircuts................................ 13
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 30
Emergency fund.......................... 0 - [COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]should have something in this fund[/COLOR]
Lottery................................. 8
Sister's phone.......................... 15
AA breakdown............................ 7
Charity................................. 9 [COLOR="rgb(65, 105, 225)"]while that is nice, with the debts could this be reduced[/COLOR]
LoveFilm................................ 8
Total monthly expenses.................. 1667.33

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 2000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 2000

Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 130000...(597)......4.2
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 0........(162)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 130000....-.........-
Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Santander Loan.................972.......162.......7
Halifax CC.....................6600......66........0
Total unsecured debts..........7572......228.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,132
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,667.33
Available for debt repayments........... 464.67
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 228
Amount left after debt repayments....... 236.67
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 2,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -130,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -7,572
Net Assets.............................. -135,572
Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using IE browser.

I've popped a couple of suggestions to the debts, the good thing is that you do have a surplus and the loan finishes soon, do you actually have that amount left over, it may be worth keeping a spending dairy to see what you have left at the end of the month xx

japmis

Tixy wrote: »

Hi

Have you just been making minimum payments recently? or have you had the extra £236 and been able to put that to your debts as well?

Have you tried using a snowball calculator to see how long it would take you to get free based on this SoA (you'd need to also put in your HP balance and APR to get a correct result).

One thing I would look at
Water rates............................. 46.86 (is this on a meter or unmeasured? have you looked to see if you would save if you got a meter)

Also worth checking your gas & elec are with the best supplier/cheapest tariff. Your gas seems quite high, have you tried reducing your usage at all?

I've just been making minimum payments on the credit card, any left over money at the end of the month goes straight into the overdraft - which is about £1000 - I will add to the SOA and dump numbers into the snowball calc.

Water is provided by Southern Water - apparently they are one of the most expensive in the country? I don't have a meter. What's the criteria for this being advantageous as I don't want to end up paying more!

Gas bill: I was paying £40 direct debit, but did a meter reading and my new direct debit is £67!! :eek: Since then I have dropped the thermostat from 20 to 19 and shortened the length of time it is on (now from 5.30am to 7am then from 5pm to 8.30pm) I have new double glazing in the bedroom and sitting room, plus a new front door, but the kitchen, bathroom and spare bedroom have the old double glazing which isn't great. The CH is off in the spare room and the door is kept shut. I have no qualms with sitting indoors with a hat on and a hot water bottle :rotfl:.

Electricity: I'm currently on an effing pre-paid meter, which I've been trying to change since I moved in....I have FINALLY got EDF to come out first week of February to switch me to a regular direct debit job..... and hopefully I'm still on their blue price promise 2015 which they have assured me I can carry over from my previous property.

Thanks for the response!

japmis

jackieblack wrote: »

Not really relevant to your monthly income/outgoings but you haven't included the value of your property in your assets, but you have included your mortgage in the loans section
ie Your net assets are not actually -£135000!

I can't see any mention of the overdraft you want to clear.

TBH, if you've got £236 left at the end of each month you should be able to clear the O/D quite easily - is it really a question of just keeping to the budget as you've laid it out or are there other expenses you haven't included?

I don't think there is any value in my house....? Unless I include the 10% deposit I put down?

I wasn't sure where to add the overdraft then forgot about it....will do it tonight.

I'm really really bad at keeping to budget because there's always emergency stuff that crops up which catches me out because I have absolutely no buffer saved. Maybe I should keep my 13th pay day as an emergency fund and not pay off a slug of the CC?

japmis

McKneff wrote: »

If you are in a flat and cant get a water meter, ask them for an assessed charge, no way should you be paying that much, it will probably halve.


Your gas and electiricty should be a lot less than that if you live alone.


Im sure you don't really need to spend £53 a month on clothes, for the next 12 months, stick to just socks and undies.


You could also ask the council to pay your council tax over 12 months instead of 12.

I will call Southern and ask for the "assessed charge"; I kinda assumed they would have done this when I opened the account with them in June..... but maybe I'm being naive!

See previous post about gas and elec bill.

I was seriously alarmed when I ran the pivot table on my banking spreadsheet........ I'm going to double check that number because I honestly haven't spent hardly anything on clothes for a year (honest guv!) ...... the only thing I have bought is clothes for work in the January sales .....I will take another look.

I already do pay my council tax over 12 months and I have a single person discount

japmis

:rotfl:

Poppops wrote: »

Hello

Your water rates are high. I pay £28 per month and there's four of us.

You have put zero against secured loans but payments of £162 per month?

Your groceries look high at £200 per month just for yourself? You could definitely cut this back.

Are you sure you don't get AA through your bank account or insurances? I wasn't aware my insurance included travel insurance and homeserve and so was paying twice on those and I now know I get RAC as part of my bank account.

Lottery and charities are optional of course and you could cut back on £240 a year presents.

Netflix is cheaper than LoveFilm.

PS, I LOVE a pivot table!

Seriously going to get onto Southern Water....feel like I've been a right muggins

My loan is unsecured, just a bog standard 3 year loan from Santander which I used to buy a second hand car.

My £200 a month for groceries IS me already cutting back :rotfl: ; this does cover all my toiletries, cleaning products, cat food, bird food (I'm so naughty!). I think my big ticket item is alcohol and I reckon I spend £30 a month on this (altho I NEVER go to the pub EVER or eat out, and I've boycotted the cinema because paying £10 for a ticket is insane).

I've looked at changing my bank account to £10 a month fee which includes travel insurance and breakdown service.....it's on my list of things to do.

I've got 2 brothers, 1 sister, 4 nephews, 3 nieces, 1 great niece AND 1 great nephew....practically every month there is a birthday so I think £25 a month is darn good considering that includes Christmas presents too. I have massively cut back on gifts, especially as some of them are just plain ungrateful, and the others are getting older.... the ones with their own kids only get token presents and I spend money on their children instead. My actual friends don't get anything at all and this year I made Christmas puddings for everyone (might explain the gas bill) which was expensive on ingredients BUT I offset this cost by selling loads at work for £10 each....so I broke even on Christmas gifts :money:

LoveFilm has a much better choice of world cinema..... but £8 a month is almost the same as the cinema itself..... so I think as much as I love it, it's got to go.

Pivot tables really are my light bulb moment!

japmis

mum2one wrote: »

I've popped a couple of suggestions to the debts, the good thing is that you do have a surplus and the loan finishes soon, do you actually have that amount left over, it may be worth keeping a spending dairy to see what you have left at the end of the month xx

I run 2 spreadsheets, one for cash flow, which forecasts my weekly bank balance (currently shows I will be out of my overdraft in April) and one for forecasting my money remaining at the end of each month e.g. I download my bank statement at least twice a week so I can quickly see what has actually come out of my account and what I expect to come out before the end of the month. This has been essential for me getting paid every 4 weeks just to keep track of what is going where and when! I currently have £300 forecast to remain so I've done well so far for January :A