Can't believe our SOA and our debt!!!!!!?

BillJones

darcey1105 wrote: »

I have no idea where he extra money is going he is paid weekly and I think we must be just spending it stupidly!!

This shows that your SOA is going to need some revisions. That's fine, many do, but you need to work at it until it's an accurate representation of your finances.

If you look at your debt levels at the end of each month, going back a few months, then you can see exactly how much excess or shortfall you have each month. You ten need to work on your SOA until it matches these data.

Some things will be rare, but they'll still be predictable. Add up six months of these "one offs", divide by six, and put that into one of the appropriate categories as a starting point.

If each month you are getting £300 deeper into debt, then your SOA MUST show that your outgoings are £300 more than your income, as you know that that's the truth of the matter.

A spending diary can help here, too. Write down everything that you spend. If you don't want to account to the penny (and on an income your size, you don't need to), you can allow yourself something like £20 for "sundries", and just use that for the tiny items that you don't want to have to write down (mars bar, newspaper etc).

[Deleted User]

You might want to redo your SOA, using the alternate calculator.

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

The one you have used is rather a broad brush.

It covers lots of ground, but misses out on the detail.

theoretica

If your OH is self employed and driving for work he should be offsetting the fuel costs and indeed most of the van costs (in proportion to the work/personal use) against his profit and paying them before rather than after income tax. Is he?

darcey1105

Yes his accountant does his tax bill each year, and offsets fuel and the costs of running his business- the amount posted was the average take home that is paid into his account over the last three months- I am going to redo out SOA and also can see where the money is trickling out if our accounts.
I think it may be better if we work in cash and don't take our cards with us (we both have the habit of just popping it on a card and not really taking much notice) also we withdraw cash and hence don't seem to really know what this is being spent on. I myself can see I do alot of top up shops so my £300 figure I thought I was spending was way out!!!
Am glad I've seen where we are going wrong as over the last 3 months we could have easily cleared half our debt if we had just been a bit more sensible!
Onwards and upwards and I'm glad I stopped and had a good look at where we are going wrong and spoke to the Oh last night and he is also on board!
He works long days sometimes 14/15 hrs to provide for us and also lots of weekends - by getting rid of our debt means we could enjoy family life a bit more. Thank you for everyone's suggestions so far am going to redo our SOA and will repost :0)

darcey1105

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Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 4024
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Child benefit £132.00
Total monthly income.................... 4156


Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 202
Rent.................................... 800.00
Council tax............................. 129
Electricity............................. 42
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 75
Water rates............................. 30.13
Telephone (land line)................... 20
Mobile phone............................ 108
TV Licence.............................. 9.28
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 42
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 300
Clothing................................ 25
Petrol/diesel........................... 420
Road tax................................ 37.5
Car Insurance........................... 87
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 15
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 17.69
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 20
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 27
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 15.1
Life assurance ......................... 16.69
Other insurance......................... 18.1
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 60
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Park christmas ......................... 62
Savings ................................ 52
Critical illness ....................... 14
Tool insurance ......................... 13
Total monthly expenses.................. 2677.49

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 8500
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 8500

Secured & HP Debts[/b]\
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR\
Mortgage...................... 0........(0)........0
Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 8000.....(202)......
Total secured & HP debts...... 8000......-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Vanquis .......................1250......65.04.....39.9
Vanquis .......................1750......86.25.....39.9
Aqua ..........................3150......60.01.....39.9
Simply be .....................497.......45........39.9
Next ..........................565.00. 57.00....25.99
Capital one ...................500.......35........34.9
Capital one ...................200.......15........34.9
Lloyds TsB ....................50........50........2.5
H and m .......................30........30........2.5
Barclays ......................800.......20........6.9
Barclays ......................400.......13........34.9
Aqua ..........................2200......125.......39.9
Total unsecured debts..........11,393. 602.28

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 4,156
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,677.49
Available for debt repayments........... 1,478.51
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments.......602.38
Amount left after debt repayments....... 876.13
\
Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 8,500
Total HP & Secured debt................. -8,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -10,884.90
Net Assets.............................. -10,384.98

darcey1105

Just did a snowball and we could be debt free in 10 months! Hubby's wages may fluctuate however he predicts with the current workload it should be around that figure for a good 4/5 months. Now to buckle down and get on with it :0) once debt free we may actually be able to have a family holiday- we haven't taken one since 2011.
Have spoken to BT about reducing my package as well as think we could get a better deal on our package and have put in my calendar to write a letter to cancel my phone contract in October :0) went to Li@l as well as we had barely any food left and got our weekly shop for £38! Do have some meat in the freezer I'm using up and may need £15 to get bread, milk and baby formula. But will take cash so can't overspend and leave the cards at home.

japmis

I'm no expert but at a glance there are definitely some areas where you could easily cut back....

darcey1105 wrote: »

Mobile phone............................ 108 YIKES
TV Licence.............................. 9.28 (this is normally 12.12 a month)


Pet insurance/vet bills................. 27
Contents insurance...................... 15.1
Life assurance ......................... 16.69
Other insurance......................... 18.1

Park christmas ......................... 62

Critical illness ....................... 14
Tool insurance ......................... 13

Can you get some new quotes for insurance? My buildings and contents combined is less than yours My cat insurance is less than £10 a month (via animal friends - worth checking out).


Maybe someone else on this board knows - but not sure Park are the best way to save for Christmas?


Your SOA still doesn't show where you are overspending, it shows money left over, so something doesn't add up.


Forgot to say......one thing that has REALLY helped me is having a completely separate bank account for "paying myself" e.g. I have a standing order from my main current account where my salary gets paid into, so every Friday I get "paid" £50 that has to cover food and any luxuries I might want. I've even set up this peripheral account to my paypal/eBay account so I can't sneak anything from my salary

On_my_way

Hi

You have made the first step because you have acknowledged that you need to sort out the problem.

A lot of people have much larger debts so your debt should be quite manageable - complete the SOA and people here will be able to help you with it.

Do you work as well? Are you able to contribute towards the debts too to clear them faster?

Good luck, you can do it!

Stewart_78

Does your husband have a separate business bank account? Surely the fuel should be paid out of that and a 'wage' drawn from the business excluding this? I don't think it's the law but it's much tidier.

darcey1105

Will have a look, our tv license is quarterly so I divided it by 4 as we pay £37 a quarter. Will look into dog insurance we have 3 although think my oldest chap my not be worth insuring soon other than third party liability as if he gets a serious illness costing thousands not sure we would put him through it. Sounds harsh but he is nearly 11 and not sure he would survive a major op. That's just for contents as our landlord has buildings in place. We flooded in our old house twice before we moved but will def look at reducing if we can.
I've just done the SOA to move forward. My hubby and I can see where we overspend on luxuries, food shopping, ATM withdraws etc so today is a clean slate so to speak and we are moving forward with a new plan and different outlook!! I am going to cancel our savings for me and hubby 0, we only save £12 a month for us but we have been putting £20 each into the kids accounts, may stop it whilst paying off our debt and then when debt free we can afford this saving option. ( with our spare income am hoping we could up our savings for all of us)

Does anyone meal plan does this help at all? My hubby tends to decide what he fancies on the day but wondering if I planned x amount of meals we could still meal plan but pick a meal we have planned if you catch my drift :0)