SOA - starting again

ladywood

I haven't posted on here for ages though have browsed a little. When we renovated our house last year we ended up in a bit of debt (together with an existing car loan) - I started well on budgets, meal planning etc but have lapsed rather badly of late . So have decided need to start posting again for motivation! We are servicing the debts OK but I want to pay more than the minimum that we are managing at the moment so that we can clear them once and for all. So for our SOA….

In:
Me £1,607.75
OH £1,645.12

total £3,252.87


Out:

Mortgage £1,211.56
House insurance £42.98
Gas/Electric £63.00
Water £23.00
Telephone/broadband £45.00
Council Tax £171.00
TV Licence £11.00
Income/critical illness protection £101.50
Car insurance (2 cars) £71.13
Cars - fuel £150.00
Cars - tax/repairs/MOT etc £65.00
Lenses/dental £29.95
Union (x 2) £26.36
Mobiles (x2) £50.00
Internet (servers for web sites) £23.50
Charity £2.00
Dogs (x 3) - food £100.00 (expensive but only food we have found that doesn’t upset their digestion)
Dogs - day care £120.00
Vet insurance £49.30
Car loan £162.00
Sofa £79.00
Min payments on CC £210.00
DVD rental £5.00
TOTAL: £2,812.28

Leaving £440.59 for clothes, food, birthdays etc. plus additional debt repayment. Really not sure what we pay for these (will restart the spending diary) but I know we are not paying much extra off the debts right now.

Debts
skycard (0% to january 2008) 1600
Capital 1 (6.25% LOB) 5280
Car loan (7.9% no early repayment) 1135 ends Feb 08
Sofa (0%) 1415 ends Dec 08

Total debt: 9430



It is just me and my OH plus 3 large dogs. Any suggestions appreciated.



Thanks

hypno06

Hi, I'm not that good at the whole SOA thing, but bumping this up for those who are!

I would def say get that spending diary out and work out where the extra money is going though, also get over to the OS board to keep your housekeeping down to a minimum and see if you can chuck a bit extra at the capital one card to bring that one down a bit quicker otherwise it could run on and on and on!

slowlyfading

I'm not too good with SOA's either, but here's my suggestions
- firstly, keep a spending diary. Write down everything you spend each day, then add it up either at the end of the day, or week. This will open your eyes about where your remaining money goes each month - having a daily coffee costing £2 can soon add up!
- Critical illness protection? I've never seen this before (though I can guess what it means!) do you really need this? Seems expensive.
- do you need 2 mobiles? just an idea.
Great to see another person posting. x

SarahNeedle1872

Hi,

I would definately endorse a spending diary... it really shocked me to see how much money I was just throwing away! Otherwise, I'm not the greatest with SOAs, but I do have to ask what Dog daycare is? £120 pcm is a lot of money....

Sarah x

ladywood

Thanks for the comments.

Will restart the spending diary - did it last year but then lapsed...

Critical illness/redundancy cover will pay out to cover the mortgage/house expenses if me or my OH lose jobs or get a life threatening illness and can't work. We took it out as our mortgage is relatively high in proportion to our joint salaries and we would struggle if either of us couldn't work. But will have a look at it again.

Mobiles - we both work away a lot so need one each really.

Day care - for dog walker to look after the dogs during the day - and for cover when we are away - it is a lot but there are 3 of them. Used to be able to work from home but am now out for a full day so really they need this. We don't have anyone we can ask to do it as a favour and the dog walker is very reliable.

I am sure we are spending a lot more than we need to on groceries - will look at that again.