My SOA - Any advice?

Mountie

Monthly Income:

Salary job 1 £1865.75
Salary job 2 £262.00 (approx)

Total Income £2127.75

Monthly Outgoings:

Mortgage/Rent £760
Council Tax £90
Electric £30
Water Rates £10
Contents Insurance £9.90
TV Licence £11.61
Sky £26
Phone (hm) £10
Phone (mb) £30
Food £145
Gym £16
Car Insurance £28
Petrol £75
Misc £150 (includes birthday gifts, eating out, cinema etc)

Total £1391.51

Please note, these numbers are AFTER I sat down and revised my spending!! Beforehand it seemed I just spent more on food, petrol, eating out etc. However I have managed to reduce my contents insurance by £10, and reduced my visits to the gym to save a bit.

Northern Rock Loan £12000 APR 5.8% Length of term 72 months, 54 months to go.

Overdraft £300, at 0% (or thereabouts)

Alliance & Leicester CC £3000 APR 0% until July 08, paying this off at £50 a month.

I think I'm doing everything I can to dig myself out of debt now, however, any advice would be very much appreciated!!!

katglasgow

Hiya, the one thing that springs to mind is MOT/tax car repairs. I have a web saver and transfer £30 a month to this so I am never caught out.If might be worth withdrawing your food money and misc as 2 monthly cash amounts. Keep them in seperate wallets and see how you get on. Your figures suggest that if you live like pauper for a few months you could clear the OD and small CC quite quickly and I bet that would feel nice!

Mountie

Ah, yeah, definitely a good idea to put some money aside for car repairs etc. I got caught out with that this year, which is a major part of the CC debt. Will set up a DD into my savings account (it only has £30 in it at the mo ).

I'm trying my best to cut down on misc spending, but have had several birthday's and a christening to cater for recently! I'm going to give the home made cookies a go for christmas prezzies! <-- a brave move for someone who can burn beans on toast!