Help with SOA please

elljay

Having become bankrupt a couple of years ago I'm finding it very hard to make ends meet though I don't have any debt. I'm paying an IPA (payment agreement) of £70 a month towards that but if I try and find more work I'll only end up having to pay all of my earnings into the payment agreement so the alternative is to tighten my belt further. My SOA is below. The most extravagant thing is car related expenses but the car is old and needs an increasing amount of work doing on it, and also I have to visit elderly mother every month, round trip of 300+ miles. Would be very grateful for the advice of experienced people on here on any way I can cut back.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1084
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1084

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 390
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 75
Electricity............................. 52
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 50
Water rates............................. 11
Telephone (land line)................... 50 (inlcludes broadband)
Mobile phone............................ 28
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 108
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 200
Road tax................................ 21
Car Insurance........................... 27
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 10
IPA..................................... 70
Total monthly expenses.................. 1172[/b]


Assets
Cash.................................... 272
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 1272

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Total unsecured debts..........0.........0.........-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,084
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,172
Available for debt repayments........... -88
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0
Amount short for making debt repayments. -88

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 1,272
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 1,272

Thank you

EJ

Joshuaa25

Hello,


First of all look at your house hold bills, broadband & phone line £50 a month? drop to a basic package for a contract get it for around £15-£20 at the moment with black Friday deals. Mobile phone is £28 ring them and see if they can reduce your tariff due to the financial difficulties. You also spend a lot on petrol/diesel is there any reason maybe try walking a few trips or get the bus?

Dobbibill

Are your council tax and water rates over 10 or 12 months, if only 10 then alter them, it will balance your budget better.

landline & broadband are on the high side, can you compare and switch. mobile too, I've got a sim only deal for £20 with 16gb of data, shop about. If you are still in contract then ring and ask them for a better/cheaper deal. It will cost you a phone call and a 30 mins of your time but could save you a substantial amount over the year.

How long are you going to be paying the IPA? has it just started or is it nearing the end?

bellaboo86

If you know you will be visiting your mum every month could you start booking train tickets 3 months in advance to get good prices or see if there is a mega bus?
If not could your mum contribute to the petrol for every other visit or could you even make your visits every 6 weeks (not ideal, I know).
As suggested could you get the bus to work and save the car for longer trips. In my area weekly tickets are less than £15?

elljay

Gosh thank you so much. So many quick suggestions.

Unfortunately I live in a very rural area with few buses and anyway, as a pensioner I have a bus pass. I do use them whenever possible but my job involves evening work and the last bus is 5.30 and anyway doesn't go where I need to! Also when I visit my mum I need my car as she needs to be taken to places as well as bulk shopping etc. She's 90. I don't feel I can ask her for petrol money though she does pay for stuff while we're out and about (meal out etc) as a thank you which is nice but doesn't help my finances! Don't really want to cut down frequency of visits as although she's pretty well, I can't be sure how long she's going to be around!

I will look into the phone contracts, I didn't think I could get them any cheaper with landline rental alone costing £17. I think my mobile has quite a long way to go with the contract but I'll look into that again, thanks. I know I waste the free calls as the signal is so poor where I live that I rarely use it.

My council tax is over 10 months so will investigate that too. Lots of ideas to be going on with (and why didn't I think of them? I was thinking more about cutting down on food etc, not the obvious!)

The IPA has a year to run.

Thank you so much everyone, will get to work!!

Dobbibill

Sometimes looking from the inside, out is a different view/thought process to looking from the outside, in.

At least you have a starting block, if you are able to find a different BB provider, check on TCB for any cashback they may be offering.

Depending on how much you use the BB and what devices you have, it may be worth asking to cancel it and just having extra data on your mobile and using that to connect any wireless devices

Smodlet

Hi. Your electricity seems a little high to me though, admittedly, my deal is so good all other prices seem so. I suppose you have checked you are on the best deal? Sorry if that is a silly question.

I agree about the broadband and mobile costs. Have you looked into a SIM only deal? How about https://www.samknows.com/broadband/broadband_checker to see if you can improve on your BB deal?

Other than that, the good, old, Old-Style board has loads of ideas/recipes for cutting down food costs. HTH and good luck.

TheGardener

You could take your SoA to the OR and ask them to look again. The amount you pay is not set in stone and petrol has gone up steeply in the past 12 months. If you are running at a deficit I would ask them to reassess the IPA amount, the purpose of the IPA is not to get you into debt again...

The landline/BB is very high - I pay £53 pm and get a big broadband/TV and unlimited daytime phone calls package for that.

I know oil can be expensive but I only pay £80 pm for a 3 bed semi with a family for a dual fuel tariff so yours does seem high.

I know spending more is not the plan but I would urge you to consider basic contents insurance. I would certainly add it to the SoA if you go back to the OR.

comeandgo

Hi, I take it you are getting the council tax discount for single occupation. You mention your bus pass. Do you also get winter allowance? I think your oil use is fine, we are on between 80 and £100 per month though we have a four bedroom house but have coal fire too.

elljay

Thank you again everyone. Yes oil is expensive, though it did come down a bit in the summer. I bought half a tank a couple of weeks ago at £210 and that will last me 3 months running for a few hours a day with an ancient boiler. And still it's freezing. This is an old house and although cheap rent has solid stone walls so icy to touch! I did check my electricity against the MSE thingie and didn't get a much cheaper result. Elec-only seems to work out quite dear.

At least I couldn't get into debt again if I wanted to as according to the MSE calculator I have 0% chance of getting a credit card!

I will def look into broadband etc again, I need it to work from home and the mobile signal is poor so can't use that for bb. Who do you get your deal from TheGardener? I have plusnet.

I've been an avid reader of the Oldstyle thread for years, some amazing ideas on there! Hopefully I've also been able to contribute a bit in return.

Thanks again all. Am also looking into benefits which I've never claimed in my life before (other than state pension and child benefit when it was family allowance!!!!) and will think about discussing the IPA with the OR. However not too keen to rock the boat there as I think they were quite generous over visits to mum which isn't really an allowable expense.

Thank you everyone so much! EJ

DCFC79

You mention the phone signal is poor where you are, have you looked at other networks ? Signal could be better on another network. Look at the other main network providers eg 02, EE, Vodafone, Three.