SOA (copied from diary)

70 Posts
:hello:
I've quoted my SOA from my diary (to save retyping/reformatting) to see if anyone has advice -- realised posting in this subforum might be a better option after posting in the diary thread :doh:
I've quoted my SOA from my diary (to save retyping/reformatting) to see if anyone has advice -- realised posting in this subforum might be a better option after posting in the diary thread :doh:
Finally got around to my SOA. It's not perfect, but I've added notes that should clarify thingsIf anyone is willing to give some advice, I'd appreciate it very much
Statement of Affairs
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 595.83
Benefits (PIP). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329.33
Benefits (Housing Benefit). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319.37
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23.28 Currently fixed into a 24 month contract ending sometime in 2016, but negotiated 50% discount with phone company (it's for an iPhone 5S) and will look at sim-only deals after expiration
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.95
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Included with home broadband
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 The law of averages says £40, but I'd rather overestimate and pot the rest instead of panicking if it goes slightly over like it did this month (£42 and pennies)
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 South West Water have lost my meter information :rotfl: Cannot pay without knowing amount to pay
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 None at present but need to take out policy ASAP :eek:
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 495.00
Insurance for freezer and washing machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.80 Also includes an annual service; both last 5 years and only 10 monthly payments then it's sorted -- paid 1/10
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1.58
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Mother is paying for this for the first year as she's impressed with my first five months of savings / sensible purchases of savings
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 Parents paying for the first year, same reason as above
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.67 :eek:
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,244.53
Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 681.28
Underspend: £563!! :eek:
TV = Communal terrestrial aerial is rubbish in my flat, I keep getting an extremely blurry picture. Considered getting a freesat/Sky box secondhand or in a deal but the communal satellite aerial isn't installed in my flat :mad: While that's being sorted out, no TV-related costs
Bus = Am eligible for concessionary bus pass but keep putting it off, looking at the amount I spend as a maximum though I'm off to the county hall first thing next week :eek:
Internet = Currently tied into iPad sim-only contract, despite the fact I get no signal in my flat :mad: (Took contract out while living at mum's where I get a 4G signal) However, will cancel when it expires in June, and use the money currently budgeted for iPad to save for paying next year's broadband line rental upfront :A
Motoring = Car won't be paid off until the end of the month, then father is borrowing it for a month or two, so won't know what petrol costs are until I actually get it. Will need to take out breakdown cover this month thoughParking should be free -- work's car park don't charge and not planning to drive in town, although if I should need to, my dad works in town and his work reimburses car park fees
Food and pet expenses = As I don't have a consistent budget each month (spend fortune stocking freezer and cupboards and pennies on daily essentials eg milk, teabags, biscuits, while working through the lot, top up when cupboards are bare) I just spend using the money that hasn't been allocated to bills etc. Which probably explains how I'm always broke :rotfl:
Debt = No consistently monthly plan atm
FINANCIAL TO-DO LIST:
-Apply for concessionary bus pass
-Take out home insurance
-Take out breakdown cover
-Work on plan to pay off catalogue debt
Any other suggestions?
SPC #080
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Replies
Two points, first - Can you list your debts as well so we can have a lol at the best way to hit them ?
Second - food and incidental spends are a massive part of any budget. If you are not sure, look back at the past week and add up everything you spend in categories of food shopping, food spends out of the house, & other shopping and then multiply by 4.2 for a monthly average. And if you can make yourself do a spend diary for a month or two to see exactly where the money is going it will help you make a proper debt busting plan.
Do you really need a car if you can access public transport cheaply ?
Estimated DFD August 2018 - 2031 - now 2027 :T
Guide dog Tess, missing Scotland 2 years
DMP support no438.
Also your water, you should start setting aside money for this in case they suddenly hit you with a bill. Even if they don't backdate the bill, they will start charging you soon enough.
However, you do it (whether it's shopping daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly etc), you need to budget for it and put money aside
Same for the water bill - what are you going to do when they say you owe £x amount? You need to put money aside for this, even £20 / month so it's there when needed and it will either pay what's owed or go towards it
Why are you not paying for a TV licence?
You need to get home insurance ASAP as you've said
Who are you with that you pay £1.95 / month for phone & broadband?
Council Tax seems very low? Do you get benefit to cover part of this?
Car costs - read your comments but you still need petrol - and to put money aside to cover next years tax and insurance - and servicing / repairs
You've got a big underspend which is great BUT there's a lot of stuff missing from the SOA so until you add these in you're really not going to get a true picture
2016 Sell: £125/£250
£1,000 Emergency Fund Challenge #78 £3.96 / £1,000
Debt free & determined to stay that way!