SOA for scrutiny!

BlasphemousRumours

Hi everyone,

Could I have your suggestions as to the best way I can pay off my debts please! I've managed to negotiate either reduced or zero interest with creditors so almost everything I'm paying to them is coming off the balances. My current DFD is May/June 2017 at my current rate of payment. I'm lucky that I work for a company that allows employees to sell annual leave which I'll be doing this year and next (this will be about £250 extra in May's salary which I'll pay off debt). This should bring my DFD down to March/April 2017. Any pointers gladly received!

Also, have only included my share of household bills as that is the way we choose to divvy our monies up. Husband pays rent, I pay bills and groceries. I give him £120 a month to even out our incomes. He has his own debts which he is paying off as well.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1427
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1427

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 120 (Amount I give to husband to make our share of the household bills pro rata - he pays all our rent, I pay for all of the bills/groceries and give him this amount each month because I earn more than him.)
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 114 (Not too sure what this amount will be from April 1st onward - we moved half way through the year and the council split July's payment over the remaining 7 months). Normally paid over 10 months as I like the two non-payment months!
Electricity............................. 52 (Electricity and gas - have recently done a meter reading and we're all square - not over or under paying)
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 44 (On a meter - have given a meter reading recently and waiting for an up to date bill).
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 10 (PAYG)
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 17 (Now TV subscriptions to both Sky Movies and Sky Entertainment - we get a lot of use out of them and would be cheaper than having proper Sky. Watch at least 4 films a week and catch up on all our favourite TV shows without buying boxsets).
Internet Services....................... 19 (Line rental and Talk Talk internet)
Groceries etc. ......................... 250 (£60 a week. We are greedy piglets.)
Clothing................................ 50 (I like clothes... )
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 9
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 20 (Small family, no children and only buy birthday and Xmas presents for one friend).
Haircuts................................ 6 (Two haircuts a year at £40 a time)
Entertainment........................... 80 (£20 a week - pub quiz, eating out, bottle of wine...)
Holiday................................. 20 (Nothing planned except a short city break over Easter)
Emergency fund.......................... 50
Appliance rental........................ 57 (We rent our fridge freezer and washing machine)
Total monthly expenses.................. 930


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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Vanquis........................3028......112.......0 (Fixed zero interest 12 months)
Halifax (overdraft)............1856......70........0 (Fixed zero interest 6 months - have to send them a SOA in May)
Halifax (overdraft)............696.......27........0 (Fixed zero interest 6 months - have to send them a SOA in May)
Mum............................700.......100.......0 (Really have to pay this back ASAP!)
Littlewoods....................290.......11........12 (Reduced interest for 12 months - was 29.9%)
Barclaycard....................329.......14........12 (Reduced interest for 12 months - was 29.9%)
Quick Quid.....................704.......24........0 (Fixed zero interest 6 months - have to send them a SOA in May)
Total unsecured debts...7603....358


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,427
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 930
Available for debt repayments........... 497
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 358
Amount left after debt repayments....... 139

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -7,603
Net Assets.............................. -7,603

BlasphemousRumours

Ooh I've just snowballed and its given me a DFD of December 2016 (without factoring in the two annual leave sales!) Could be October 2016 if I play it right!

twiggy86

Hi :hello:

Well done for posting your SOA!

I spotted two things on a quick glance:-

* Groceries - do you meal plan? do you write (and stick to) a list? actually check your cupboards for what you have/haven't got? use apps like shopitize, checkoutsmart etc? where do you shop? Sorry for the questions! These are all things I've quite recently started doing and it's made a big difference to my shopping bill

* Clothes - you justified this so you I'd guess you know you're spending too much on this! If you used this on debt busting you could pay your mum back in 5 months rather than 7 or double your payments to Halifax and quick quid for example. If you really do need new clothes (do you?!) then can you buy on eBay or charity shops? (I recently got a nice brand new jumper from a charity shop!) Can you sell any of your old clothes on eBay to fund the purchase of new clothes?

Also, just wondered why you rent your fridge freezer and washing machine? Quick google says that you could get a new washing machine from £150 and fridge freezer from £200 - that's what you'd pay in rent over 6 months. Appreciate you would need the cash up front.

Hope that helps.

enthusiasticsaver

I think I would focus on the smaller debts first to enable you to get rid of them and then put the payments on that on to the bigger ones. So if you paid the spare money you have left each month and your holiday buyback on the Littlewoods and Barclaycard accounts you could clear them by May. Then focus on paying your mum back and quickquid.

National_Debtline

Hi OP


Are your council tax payments for 2014/15 due to continue right up to and including March, or are you due a "free" month between now and April's new bill? If so, perhaps it's worth using the £114 that would be saved in March towards buying a freezer or washing machine as per twiggy's suggestion above.


Dennis
@natdebtline

BlasphemousRumours

Thank you twiggy86!

I do meal plan and we stick to it about 80% of the time (can always guarantee there'll be an "oh f- it" evening and we'll get a pizza but on the whole we're good). We like meaty things and...*nice* things (proscuitto and salami on our homemade pizzas for e.g.!) We're a bit spoiled with food and I think one way of saving a bit is if we have one evening a week where its just cheese/beans on toast for e.g. If we can get into the habit of having 1-2 cheap meals a week we could definitely save money. I don't use apps or anything and shop solely at Tesco (don't drive so no Aldi sadly!)

The clothes thing is my one weakness (alright, and proscuitto...!) I'm not the most confident person and I'm not one of those fashionable girls who can rock a Primark outfit - it just looks terrible on me! So I tend to buy things that are a bit more expensive (*ahem* White Stuff...) in the hope that they'll make me feel better in them (which they do on the whole). I keep saying to myself that I'll have a look in our local charity shops! And I do love Ebay. I'll cut this down to £30 in March and see if I notice (probably won't and even if I do, I certainly won't die will I?!)

BlasphemousRumours

National_Debtline wrote: »

Hi OP


Are your council tax payments for 2014/15 due to continue right up to and including March, or are you due a "free" month between now and April's new bill? If so, perhaps it's worth using the £114 that would be saved in March towards buying a freezer or washing machine as per twiggy's suggestion above.


Dennis
@natdebtline

That's a great idea. I think we're tied into a contract with both the washing maching and fridge freezer so I'm going to make a real effort to save for one or the other once the contract ends (pretty sure it's July this year.)

BlasphemousRumours

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

I think I would focus on the smaller debts first to enable you to get rid of them and then put the payments on that on to the bigger ones. So if you paid the spare money you have left each month and your holiday buyback on the Littlewoods and Barclaycard accounts you could clear them by May. Then focus on paying your mum back and quickquid.

That's what I want to do. Psychologically I'd rather have fewer creditors than pay off the larger amounts first. Can't wait to get that annual leave money in my bank account! Roll on May!