Smack in the face

andyfromotley

Hi David,

as suggested previously you should chat to Stepchange, Christians against poverty, to National debt line. These are all charities which are very experienced, will not charge you and get rave reviews on this forum. Thats not to say that you can't do this yourself but if there is expert help available why not take it i say.

Post an SOA. Its not that complicated, just take your time and work it out, and people will be able to save you tons on your monthly expenses

david756

For some reason I can't find the SOA... I know I've had it up before, but can't for life of me rememebr where.

Can someone point me in the right direction

12_month_challenge

Hi and well done for clearing one debt.. Even if its the smallest at least its gone. You should tackle one at a time and get rid of them all this way.

Stick around and keep posting. It will help to keep you motivated.
Many on here, myself included have debt the same amount or even higher than yours but are dealing with it also.

With honest, non judgemental support and advice on here you will get there.

Good luck

edwink

Hi David

Just wanted to wish you all the best and to say well done for paying off one of your debts already. You certainly are determined which is great to hear.

I agree with andyfromotley that if you post your SOA many on here will help you knock loads of it. I have seen it many times on here before.

Will be following you to see how you get on and will hopefully be able to help you when you post your SOA to get your monthly spends down.

Edwink

Pixie5740

david756 wrote: »

For some reason I can't find the SOA... I know I've had it up before, but can't for life of me rememebr where.

Can someone point me in the right direction

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

david756

Monthly Income Details[/b]
Monthly income after tax................ 1400
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1400

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 400
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 89
Electricity............................. 50
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 30
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 20
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 16.6
Groceries etc. ......................... 50
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 0
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 441
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 5
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 5
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 20
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1168.6


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
LOWELL.........................5516......20........0
MOORCROFT......................4087......0.........0
PAYDAY (ALL TOGETHER)..........6164......0.........0
Total unsecured debts..........15767.....20........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,400
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,168.6
Available for debt repayments........... 231.4
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 20
Amount left after debt repayments....... 211.4

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -15,767
Net Assets.............................. -15,767

david756

Hmmm is that okay?

Monthly income can fluctuate a bit. If we hit our targets, I can get an extra £300 a month. That is not guaranteed though.

enthusiasticsaver

Hi David and good luck on your debt busting journey. There are two things that stand out on your SOA and that is that on the face of it you look like you can manage to pay all your bills as you have almost a £250 surplus every month so has it been the repayments on the debt which have been tipping you over or are there things you have missed off the SOA. The second is the extortionate other travel costs? Is that a rail season ticket or something which you need to get to work? You do have to be totally accurate on an SOA so you can pinpoint how you got into debt in the first place. Has the debt escalated from when you were out of work and had no income or was it down to overspending?

david756

Yeah it is a rail season ticket. Travel Brighton to London everyday. It was a loan from work, and they take it out of my wages before tax

It was down to both really. I was stupid, and at times needs must.

FireWyrm

david756 wrote: »

Hmmm is that okay?

Monthly income can fluctuate a bit. If we hit our targets, I can get an extra £300 a month. That is not guaranteed though.

So, is your SOA based on potential fantasy income, or actual guaranteed income? If the former, you will need to adjust your thinking a little and deal with reality. Just because you might earn an additional £300 a month does not mean you will and banking on it (literally and figuratively) does you no favours at all. The key to getting out of messes like this is telling yourself the absolute, unvarnished, brutal truth. If you spent it, you have to account for it. If your income is less than your outgoings, then you need to know that and plan accordingly. If and when you get a nice bonus of £300 a month, THEN you can throw it at the debts without affecting your current standard of living.

So, given your wake up call, what else have you done? Do you know exactly how much you spend a month and on what? I dont mean the optimistic numbers you used to fill in that SOA, I mean the actual truth? Have you kept a spending diary? Have you determined exactly how much you have spent on travel, food etc over the last few months? If not, I would suggest your first port of call is your bank, request you statements going back at least a few months and a box of highlighters. Go through it with a fine tooth comb and do the maths to get a realistic picture.

According to your SOA, you should have north of £200 a month 'spare' but clearly this is not the case. Therefore, your accounting is incorrect and therefore, useless. You need the truth, not whatever fantasy numbers 'seem' right.

You should also look very carefully at proper accounting software (or the nearest normal people need to get to it). You Need A Budget dot com will get you what you need. The price seems high, until you get yourself in a mess like this, then it's worth it's weight in gold. I've been using it for several years now and I cannot imagine a day when I will go back to not using it or something like it. Absolutely essential in our modern world and especially if you dont use cash. It is too easy to lose (lie to yourself) about transactions and then end up in the mess you are in. This will put a stop to it. At least get yourself a spreadsheet from https://www.vertex42.com and do some proper accounting. You would not expect a business to run without accounts and HMRC for sure wouldnt tolerate such behaviour, so why do you imagine you can run a mult-thousand pound annual household budget with finger in the air estimates and guesses?