SOA please help

emylou

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1687.23
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 82.8
Other income............................ 800
Total monthly income.................... 2570.03

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 998
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 53
Council tax............................. 121
Electricity............................. 35
Gas..................................... 39
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 36
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 25
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 64.49
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 160
Road tax................................ 23.68
Car Insurance........................... 44
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 8.8
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 20
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1827.97


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 200000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 201000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 171000...(998)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 171000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Monies owed....................7250......250.......0
Nationwide.....................3460......77.23.....15.9
Halifax........................2923......29.23.....0


NB
I didn't add in my OH's wages; he pays £800 (other money in) into my account on his pay day that goes towards his half of the bills- would it be worth us opening a "bills" account together and both paying into that?
I wasn't sure where to write it above but I have a 1200 overdraft facility & at this point in the month (1 week until payday) I am 1100 overdrawn I usually get a charge of about £21 each month for this.
I don't currently put any money away each month for car mot and I pay tax and insurance monthly.
I live in a flat so my buildings insurance is organised by the council but I will dig out the info to see how much it costs.
Contents insurance is due in a fortnight- I have been quoted £154 with my current insurer More than.
I don't put any money away for birthdays/presents etc- there are at least 2 birthdays/anniversaries in our family each month; with July holding our record for 6 birthday's & my parents anniversary!
Thankfully I don't have any child care costs as my Mum looks after my LB whilst I work 3 days a week.
I am with Virgin for my tv/landline/internet so I bulked that all together as £64.49.
Any questions/pointers welcome please!

andyfromotley

emylou wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1687.23
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 82.8
Other income............................ 800
Total monthly income.................... 2570.03

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 998
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 53
Council tax............................. 121
Electricity............................. 35
Gas..................................... 39
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 36
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 25 Needs reducung when out of contract aim for about £10 pcm
TV Licence.............................. 0 Where is this? £12.12 pcm
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 64.49 Pretty high for someone with £15k of debt?? Cancel and get netflix 7pcm and interner for about £10pcm
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 160
Road tax................................ 23.68
Car Insurance........................... 44
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 8.8
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 20
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0 No Insurance?
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 Really? Something needs to go in here.
Haircuts................................ 0 Home haircuts?
Entertainment........................... 0 You must be spending something on entertainment?
Holiday................................. 0 Never?
Emergency fund.......................... 0 If you dont have £1000 put away then you need to put something in here until you do have it.
Total monthly expenses.................. 1827.97


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 200000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 201000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 171000...(998)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 171000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Monies owed....................7250......250.......0
Nationwide.....................3460......77.23.....15.9
Halifax........................2923......29.23.....0


NB
I didn't add in my OH's wages; he pays £800 (other money in) into my account on his pay day that goes towards his half of the bills- would it be worth us opening a "bills" account together and both paying into that?
I wasn't sure where to write it above but I have a 1200 overdraft facility & at this point in the month (1 week until payday) I am 1100 overdrawn I usually get a charge of about £21 each month for this.
I don't currently put any money away each month for car mot and I pay tax and insurance monthly.
I live in a flat so my buildings insurance is organised by the council but I will dig out the info to see how much it costs.
Contents insurance is due in a fortnight- I have been quoted £154 with my current insurer More than.
I don't put any money away for birthdays/presents etc- there are at least 2 birthdays/anniversaries in our family each month; with July holding our record for 6 birthday's & my parents anniversary!
Thankfully I don't have any child care costs as my Mum looks after my LB whilst I work 3 days a week.
I am with Virgin for my tv/landline/internet so I bulked that all together as £64.49.
Any questions/pointers welcome please!

Hi,

Please see my annotations on your SOA. You probably need to revisit it and adjust some catagories.

On your SOA you shoud have £416 pcm left over. I'm guessing that you dont? In which case you need to learn how to create and stick to a budget. There are tons of budget planners out there. For me and many others on here YNAB is the best of the lot. You will not make any progress until you you become queen of the budget!! That is your number one job.

Other thoughts.

You have 15K in debt. you should tackle this in the following way IMO.

1. Make minimum payments on everything and pile up all of your spare cash until you have £1000. Put this away for emergencies. (you can maybe do £500 each with your other half).ONLY use this for emergencies. NB Christmas, Holidays and car servicing are not emergencies!!!
2. Shove every spare penny at your overdraft until that is gone. They are usually expensive and just make budgeting etc a pain in the !!!. Overdraft be gone.
3. Then pay off your other debts one by one with the highest interest rate first.

This is going to take you about 3-4 years to clear this at your current rate. But you will only do this if you keep on top of your budget and do not take out any more credit, for anything.

On a seperate note, i hate seperate finances. Are you married? Is the child both of yours? Yet you keep your money seperate?? Pah, thats not playing the team game. (i know this isnt everyones view but it is mine)

Stick around these forums are hugely helpful for ideas and inspiration. Knuckle down for the long haul and good luck.

Mimi_Arc_en_ciel

I think you need to re-do your budget. You need to include your partners income (or at least, his half of the money for the bills)


There's a few places you could save money - but you have a surplus in your budget. If this isn't right you need to keep a diary to find out where this is going.


One this I noticed - You have Sky TV but no TV licence??


If your married I'm not sure why you have separate finances (If you were just "living together" I'd be on the other side of things though, I hate joint finances!)

louby40

Your car insurance is pretty high too. I only pay £19 a month for mine.

EssexHebridean

emylou wrote: »

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 1
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1687.23
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 82.8
Other income............................ 800 This is OH's "money in" - yes?
Total monthly income.................... 2570.03

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 998
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 53
Council tax............................. 121
Electricity............................. 35 Assume you've checked you're on the cheapest deal for this and your gas?
Gas..................................... 39
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 36
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 25 If you're as desperate as you sound then if you're not in contract you can lower this. I assume this is just yours, not OH's as well?
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 64.49Again, this can be reduced - when desperate Freeview becomes very appealing! ;-)
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 0
Petrol/diesel........................... 160
Road tax................................ 23.68
Car Insurance........................... 44
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0 You're got to start budgeting for this - that's the way forward and out of your current mess.
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0 Have you investigated whether any of your travel is cheaper done on public transport? Any chance of losing one of the cars?
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 8.8
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 20
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0 You're got to start budgeting for this - that's the way forward and out of your current mess.
Life assurance ......................... 0 With a child in the equation you really ought to have something in place here...
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0 You're got to start budgeting for this - that's the way forward and out of your current mess, especialluy with the amount of birthdays etc it seems you buy for.
Haircuts................................ 0 Nope - there must be something here surely?
Entertainment........................... 0 You never go out for a meal, grab a takeaway, have a day out with the little one?
Holiday................................. 0 Once you've got things under control financially start putting aside something here, even if only a small sum at first.
Emergency fund.......................... 0 This needs sorting - having something behind you just in case should be a priority, again, especially where there are children involved.
Total monthly expenses.................. 1827.97


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 200000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 201000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 171000...(998)......0
Total secured & HP debts...... 171000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Monies owed....................7250......250.......0
Nationwide.....................3460......77.23.....15.9
Halifax........................2923......29.23.....0


NB
I didn't add in my OH's wages; he pays £800 (other money in) into my account on his pay day that goes towards his half of the bills- would it be worth us opening a "bills" account together and both paying into that? There can be all sorts of reasons for people not throwing their finances in together - as long as you are both contributing fairly in comparison with what you earn, beyond that I'd say you need to work out what works for you, in your circumstances.
I wasn't sure where to write it above but I have a 1200 overdraft facility & at this point in the month (1 week until payday) I am 1100 overdrawn I usually get a charge of about £21 each month for this. has this just crept up without you really noticing it or was there a single spend that pushed you into this position, and you're now struggling to get out of it?
I don't currently put any money away each month for car mot and I pay tax and insurance monthly. Get this sorted - otherwise you're going to be in even more problems at MOT/Service time. Paying tax monthly is more expensive than paying in one lump I believe? And again you'll be paying a premium for monthly payments on the insurance. Long term you need to budget to have enough standing by to pay these as they arise, outright.
I live in a flat so my buildings insurance is organised by the council but I will dig out the info to see how much it costs. No point, there will be nothing you can do about it if it's a block policy as it will be in your lease that it has to be done that way. worry about the stuff you can make an impact on, not the stuff you can't. :cool:
Contents insurance is due in a fortnight- I have been quoted £154 with my current insurer More than. Go and see the meerkats. (other comparison sites are available) I pay under £100 a year for ours, and it sounds like we're in similar types of property.
I don't put any money away for birthdays/presents etc- there are at least 2 birthdays/anniversaries in our family each month; with July holding our record for 6 birthday's & my parents anniversary! Time to be brutal I'm afraid - which if these can you stop shelling out for? In your position I'd be loking at steering it towards only buying for very close family's children, and your own immediate family perhaps. Those that love you will understand - you would, in their position, wouldn't you!
Thankfully I don't have any child care costs as my Mum looks after my LB whilst I work 3 days a week.
I am with Virgin for my tv/landline/internet so I bulked that all together as £64.49.
Any questions/pointers welcome please!

Notes in red as always. On the bank account question I'd suggest that if your main account lets you do it, opening a selection of online savings accounts off the back of it which you can use for budgeting may be the way forward - it makes it very easy to find what belongs where.

First task though is to work out where your money is actually going - the simplest (and cheapest) route being to go back over your bank statements with a notebook and pen and this SOA in front of you - note anything that adds up to more than you thought, and anything that you've not included. Then re-do your SOA even if just for yourself. To put it into perspective, according to your SOA you never get a bus, pay to park your car, buy a bottle of water on a hot day, grab a coffee while you're out, or need new underwear - I'm guessing (hoping!) that at the very least ONE of those isn't true?!

Good luck!

EssexHebridean

louby40 wrote: »

Your car insurance is pretty high too. I only pay £19 a month for mine.

The £44 may well be for both cars Louby?

anna_1977

I pay £60 per month for car so £44 seems cheap to me!

Smodlet

The £44 car insurance jumped out at me, too. If your car is worth £1000, that seems high unless it is, indeed for two cars.

Birthdays are a luxury and there are plenty of ways to show love without spending money; plenty of ideas how on this forum. You could do things for people instead of buying them things, babysit, garden, wash cars, those just off the top of my head. Spending time with people is worth far more than money, imho.

emylou

EssexHebridean wrote: »

Notes in red as always. On the bank account question I'd suggest that if your main account lets you do it, opening a selection of online savings accounts off the back of it which you can use for budgeting may be the way forward - it makes it very easy to find what belongs where.

First task though is to work out where your money is actually going - the simplest (and cheapest) route being to go back over your bank statements with a notebook and pen and this SOA in front of you - note anything that adds up to more than you thought, and anything that you've not included. Then re-do your SOA even if just for yourself. To put it into perspective, according to your SOA you never get a bus, pay to park your car, buy a bottle of water on a hot day, grab a coffee while you're out, or need new underwear - I'm guessing (hoping!) that at the very least ONE of those isn't true?!

Good luck!

Thank you for all the pointers!

I used to do a spending diary years ago so will resume that as of now!
You are right; I do need to re-do the SOA with some amendments.
Good point about the online bank accounts, I will sort them asap so I can start putting some available money away for car tax/mot etc.
Re parking- whenever possible I park in free places and walk into shops etc, but I do have to pay to park once a fortnight (for chiropractor appointments which I forgot to add in before and at £45/hour they are not cheap but I literally could not move the first time I went and was being prescribed tramadol and diazepam by my GP which just spaced me out and didn't help whereas since seeing the chiropractor I can almost state "it's a miracle!") So parking is 60p/month.
I usually take a water bottle with me or if out near a pub/coffee shop I will ask for a glass of tap water or make do until I get home.
And to be totally honest; I have no idea when I last bought myself new underwear!

I can't remember who asked the rest of the questions/made comments but here are the answers;

The £44 is just for my car insurance. I have my OH on my policy to lower his insurance however he had an accident in 2013 it is due for renewal in September so I will start shopping around for a new lower quote.

The phone has actually just been reduced from £50 so I was quite chuffed it was so "low" but I will look to reduce it further.

The overdraft facility has been on my account for years. I was on maternity leave last year and when I went onto SMP the overdraft was used or we wouldn't have been able to pay our bills

I am calling SSE tomorrow to check our account is in credit so that we can switch providers as according to U switch we could save £185/year.

emylou

Forgot to add;

My MIL is a hairdresser so whenever possible I ask her to trim my hair, but after a couple of uneven cuts I have in the past used local hairdressers but no more than £20 and more often than not I just ask MIL.

Yes, we are guilty of take aways/eating out, so that's probably £50/month.

We have two 3yr old cats, they are indoor only but we pay insurance for them (which I often wonder whether we should be or not but know it would be sods law that something would happen and we would face a huge bill if we cancelled it?)

p.s yes the "other income" is my OH's half of the bills which he pays into my account.

Thanks again.

datlex

OP I noticed you are paying £64 per month for Virgin Media what package are you on? I pay a total of £44 a month across a range of services (Virgin(Big Bang package)/Now(movies and entertainment)/Amazon/Netflix/TVPlayer Plus). The Now/Amazon/Netflix/TV Player are all portable and I can watch at no extra cost on a second TV in my home. A change like that would save you £240 a year!!

As for phone contract, you can get cheaper but you need to look at your usage- no point in going for a cheaper contract if you are likely to go over the allowances and face the consequential charges. Look at what is on offer from other suppliers and see if your company will match it.