My SOA

whoopsydaisy

I have booked my court appointment for Wednesday morning. This has probably been THE most stressful week of my life, compounded by the fact that my 5 year old has cottoned on that things are going to be tight. We had tears for hours when I explained that the car that Granny had bought for us to use (£1800, in my mothers name) was going to replace our lovely (HP!) one- whilst I was trying to hold it together too.

Anyway, this is my SOA, all comments gratefully recieved, I can't see how I can tweak it anymore...

Me plus 5 year old

Income
Wages £684.01
Working & Child Tax Credits £355
Maintenance £75
Total £1114.01

Expenditure
Board £300
Housekeeping £200
Fuel £160
Car Insurance £36
RAC £11
Car Tax £15
MOT & Maintenance £40
Union/Professional Fees £6
Phone £30
Clothing £40
Holidays £40
Sports/Hobbies £20
Hairdressing £15
Dry Cleaning £5
Children's Activities/Trips £8
Pets £15
Childminder £23
Medicines/Prescriptions £7
Pocket Money £6
Repairs/Maintenance £20
Life Insurance £7 (Am I allowed this???)
Total £1004

Leaves £110.01 (Argghh) left I understand this would lead to an IPA and although this is obviously better than the £1000 plus minimum payments I have, could I/have I forgotten anything?

thank-you x

betterlatethannever

Hi Whoops,
only got a quick minute, but at first glance wheres the council tax/tv licence/water rates? are these included in your board?

fermi

Is child benefit included in the £1114 anywhere? Or have you left it off since the OR can't count it towards an IPA anyway?

I'm rubbish at SOA's, but isn't housekeeping a bit low?

whoopsydaisy

I didn't include it in the SOA because (if i'm right) it can't be included. Council tax, electric etc.. is all in with board. I kept housekeeping low as I thought that the OR might think that it's a bit high anyway, seeing as I live with my parents??? Thank-you so far...

fermi

You are correct. Child Benefit cannot be included by the OR in their calculations.

If you are currently with your parents, then yes you are probably right that you can't push housekeeping too high.

I'm sure others here who are better at SOA's will have some suggestions.

DEBTMONKEY1A

Hi-got this from an insolvency practitioner-check out the debthelpuk forum & find the 'ask the expert' section. Simon Wiggins on there gave me all my figures-none queried at all!!

Ok.....housekeeping in my opinion too low. As a single guy I put £235-so i would definately up your figure (you could ask these questions on that web-site just to be clear in your own mind). I also put £35 for clothing/shoes-so your £40 is too low again. Repairs & maintenance-again i was allowed £25 as a single guy-up yours to this at least. Misc. personal expenses-I put down £50-this was allowed. As fermi says-get some breakdown cover too!

It does not matter if it shows your outgoings are more than your income...it gets you below that magic £90 odd quid that could mean an IPA for 3 years instead of a max term of 1 year with probable early discharge after 6 months!

Again...if you want advice on specific figures it won't hurt to post on the other site I mentioned.

whoopsydaisy

That the online bankruptcy forms only let you have 200 characters for other expenditure (which apears to be most of mine). They're going to think i'm a right plonker, because most of my expenditure items now look like text speak i.e. Holidays has become Hols, Maintenance= Maint, Insurance= Ins etc. It's all one big jumble of a line without any punctuation or anything! Maybe it's the teacher in me, but i'm not impressed. :rolleyes:

I have also produced a rather exciting tale for my reasons which starts. "In the beginning I had a Gap year....".

I might well bore the people at the court to death before I get my Bankruptcy order.

betterlatethannever

lol Don't worry about boring them, it can be quite theraputic to write down your reasons.

whoopsydaisy

Yes, I did find that!! Apart from a couple of "living beyond my means" it made me realise that actually, I had been trying to do the right thing and have just gone about it the wrong way. Maybe we should publish a book of "reasons" and hand it to people on their 18th. My Dad was a Bankrupt and I swore i'd never let a child of mine go through that, but I have. Sometimes I think you just need a constant reminder to "Just say NO!" to banks and credit companies.

whoopsydaisy

Well, I have just killed a small tree with all of the printing of my Debtors Petition and SOA and i'm all ready for tomorrow.

My daughter is being packed off to her fathers for the day, with a packed lunch and money for his bus fare to bring her home as he is "far too poor to provide her with any food" (He doesn't know where i'm going, and it made me chuckle when he was giving me speech on how poor HE is) :rotfl:

Aside from all of the forms, and the fee is there anything else I should do/take? I'm contemplating what to wear too, I would wear jeans and a smartish top, but my smartest pair of jeans have got a hole in a rather unfortunate place!

owetoomuch

Good luck for tomorrow. Dont worry about what you wear so long as you are comfortable, depending on where you are going there could be a lot of waiting around. When I went BR I wore a smart top and black pants, but there were some people there in tracksuits.