Our SOA

Tabatha_Kitten

Lincs, your husband wont be better off without you, you really mustn't think like that. He's is going to be so proud of you when you get this sorted out. Your doing this for his benefit too !

I know Im harping on about the holiday but I use this as the main example for where you need to start.
You work out exactly what it costs you. Everything. Right down to the clothes you buy before you go, the transport to and from the airpoirt/destination. Parking, spends, drinks, food, everything.
I bet it wont come to the £50 per month in your budget. I also bet that £50 per month was never actually put away in the first place and I bet you feel sick to the bones when you've done it, but this will form the basis for your HONEST budget.
The same principle applies to every other category on that list.

Its only when you have the real figures in front of you that you can start to address your situation.
You concentrate first on the priority bills and the debt repayment and everything else is given a budget which you stick to religiously. This may mean holidays, haircuts and other luxuries have to be £0 for a while but eventually as things get better a small amount can be put aside for them. The key is, if its not in the budget and hasn't been saved for in advance then you cant afford it.

It took me two years before I managed to find £5 a month to put aside which paid for a long weekend in a tent in Wales. I can honestly say I loved every minute of that holiday because unlike those two weeks on the beach in Santorini it was all paid for.

You will get there Lincs I promise.
Have a good holiday, I hope it changes your life !

gfplux

An earlier poster mentioned whatsapp. This is FREE. we also use Viber also a FREE app. Using your wifi at home or your data when on the go you can send Photos, small videos, texts and phone to anyone else who have these free apps.
Also...for the long term you should be checking your data usage of your two phones every week and keeping a note of it. Say every Saturday morning do it together. You will then have a record of how much data you use and VERY important for the future, what sort of Data plan to sign up to. Phone company's love the all you can eat data plans that they sell to people ignorant of their actual data needs.

lincs1205

Tabitha kitten - trust me I already feel sick at the amount of money it's going to cost us to get down to the airport, I'm using the clothes that I wore when we went on honeymoon. We won't be going on any trips while we're out there, we're all inclusive so will not be getting anything that's not in that package.

Gfplux - funnily enough just been looking at the data package on my phone and am much more aware of how often I have been using it. Have deleted loads of apps that were taking up space and doing very little else.

In other news we've been looking at our mortgage and the current deal is due to finish at the end of December so going to arrange to go and see someone about our mortgage when we come back from our holiday.

lincs1205

Have just had a look at our mortgage online and have discovered that it stands at £114,074.96 interest rates are ridiculously high at 5.6% unfortunately there is nothing we can do to reduce it until our review is due at the end of December this year. I've also got Dh to ring npower today to get me added as the 2nd contact I've sent our meter reading in as it appears we've not had our meter read since February this year. Getting there still a long way to go though.

gfplux

Lincs, you are starting well. Many come here for advise and don't take it.

Pixie5740

lincs1205 wrote: »

Many thanks for your comments :
re the £150 per month no it isn't it's probably 6--8 monthly.
Going to ring the water company and look at potentially getting a water meter fitted will make us think more hoe much water we are using.
We don't use £50 per month for presents more like every 3 to 4 months. Haircut is going down to potentially £35 per 8 weeks as going to go to the college across the road,
not sure if I can cut my mobile phone tariff as I'm in contract til next November at least.

I think you need to redo your SOA. Instead of putting £50 a month for presents work out how much you spend over the year and divide by 12. Do that for any other expenses like hair cuts and car maintenance which you've currently entered as the cost at time of sale rather than the monthly cost. Also include OH's car insurance as cost/12.

That will give you a better idea of how much spare money you have each month to throw at your debts.

Cynical_Monkey

Lincs - Whatever happens, keep your chin up. That's the first and foremost thing that becomes a struggle when the mountain seems too big to climb. It'll take some time, but you'll get over it eventually.

As for your SOA, I think you need to re-do it. When I first did mine, everything looked pretty good but it's not until I went through 6 months worth of bank statements that I realised where the money was going. £5 here, £20 there, £10 for that and so on.

If you take the time to prepare everything correctly to start with, the rest of the journey is a lot easier.

It may not help but we took 6 months worth of bank statements and added everything up in a spreadsheet - We got the total amount spent in certain shops, total amount spent on entertainment and so on - This helped us work out the average per month that we should be budgeting and from there, we reduced the budget to a point where we were saving money but without sacrificing everything that makes life worth living.

Looking through your SOA, it appears that you have quite a high standard of living and really, why shouldn't you with almost £4000 coming in after tax each month? The reality is that you can keep the same standard of living going forward but in the short to medium term, you need to be a bit more "money smart".

You've done a few things already so forgive me if I'm repeating any ideas;

1. Forget going to the Halifax for a remortgage. Go to a mortgage broker to raise the number of options. They don't charge as they get their commission from the mortgage companies and they will include places like the Halifax in their searches.

2. Think about the cars. Do you need one on HP, would it not be more financially prudent to run a nice looking 10 year old car instead of a nearly new one? As for the hubby's servicing costs, you need to find a new garage - I'd suggest using choicemobilemechanics.com - They're not all mobile but they saved us a lot of money over the last few years. For example a full service with replacement pads and discs all round would have cost around £850 at my local garage. Through Choice, it was £522 at the exact same garage!

3. Mobiles - Most companies will happily renegotiate if you renew your contract for a further 18 months. This is definitely worth doing as the £30 a month saved is £360 a year for doing virtually nothing.

4. Phone / TV / Broadband - This is obviously a new(ish) contract for a year so there's not a lot you can do except ride it out and wait for it to end. When it does end, you'll find that you can get a reduction from Sky by threatening to leave them.

5. Gas/Electric - Sign up for Quidco and take out new deals through there, forget about staying loyal to one company and change supplier every time you can save money with a different one. Also make sure you provide meter readings at regular intervals to avoid big build up's of debt.

These are all starting points and there are loads more ways to save money without revealing to your friends etc that you're struggling. You also need to get into the habit of questioning whether each purchase is a WANT or a NEED and tackle the highest APR debt first. Service every debt you have and allocate the biggest amount to the one that is costing you the most in the long run.

I hope this helps and believe me, my last 7 years clearing debt have been tough at times, tougher than anything else I've ever had to do... but I now have 4 kids, 2 cars, a stay at home wife and most of all, we did it all ourselves.

gfplux

Lincs, you need to re-do and re-post your SOA with all the changes and updates. The fog covering your true situation will slowly be revealed.
I must also endorse what Cynical Monkey says. You have nearly £4000 every month. This amount of money can bring you lots of happiness, peace of mind and a wonderful fulfilling lifestyle if you start being and stay money smart.

lincs1205

Pixie , Cynical monkey, Gfplux - Thankyou for all your comments I'm definitely going to redo my son and repost it, please bear with me as I'm still getting used to using it. With regards to my car I can hand it back in June once I've paid over half the amount to the company, we are already looking at cars that we can get a lot cheaper. Cynical monkey - definitely going to sign up to quidco, can I just say your signature is amazing, do you have a diary or any other tips. I'd like to put everything onto a spreadsheet and do us a budget. When I first met dh I found his bank statements shoved everywhere no organisation to his paperwork, we've both got lessons to learn but we're both trying to be more money smart. I know it sounds silly but I went shopping today I wrote a list and I stuck to it rather than going off script. We are lucky in one respect in that dh works for a certain supermarket and we get 10% discount off our shopping. All your advice is gratefully received.

Tabatha_Kitten

Writing a list doesn't sound silly, far from it, it sounds like you have made a great start and have totally the right attitude to win this one. Keep it up