SOA newbie :)

Legacy_user

Hello, I am not sure if I am posting in the right place, so apologies if not. I have attempted a SOA to see what people think and where I can cut back. I am worried I am not really tackling my debt very well it never seems to go down. My partners income is only included as £350 as that is the amount he sends me, I sort out of finances. He is a student with his own debt/petrol etc to pay. I have two children and work part time in the NHS. The 'benefits' are £137 child benefit and £63 per week child tax credits.

Household Information[/b]
Number of adults in household........... 2
Number of children in household......... 2
Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1300
Partners monthly income after tax....... 350
Benefits................................ 370
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2020

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 652
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 90
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 28
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 37
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 10
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 5
Internet Services....................... 30
Groceries etc. ......................... 240
Clothing................................ 80
Petrol/diesel........................... 80
Road tax................................ 1.75
Car Insurance........................... 28
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 40
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 5
Life assurance ......................... 5
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 40
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1463.75


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1300
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 1300

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mbna...........................3900......50........0
Barclay card...................4600......104.......18
Next...........................1950......98........22
Santander loan...............1960....207.......22.3
Overdraft and interes..........1760......65........0
Tax credits over paym..........1200......35........0
Total unsecured debts..........15370.....557.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,020
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,463.75
Available for debt repayments........... 556.26
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 557
Amount left after debt repayments....... -2.75

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 1,300
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -15370
Net Assets.............................. -12,110
Please be kind, thank you!

Therese1

Hi,

Good work on pulling your SOA together ...you've certainly come to the right place...there will be plenty more knowledgeable folk along to advise you soon.

There are only a couple of 'queries' to me... Do you really need £80 of new clothes every month? Even with growing kids can you do 'hand me downs' to the little one and possibly among your friends?

Also, you have 2 cars but seemingly low mileage? I appreciate with kids 'taxi' runs its probably not easy but is there any re-jigging you could do to cut to one car? This would save on insurance/MOT/servicing too.

Good luck!

joedenise

Do you have a 25% discount on the council tax as you are entitled to it as your partner is a student? Also do you pay over 10 or 12 months? If 10 months then contact your local council to arrange to pay over 12 months which will make you payments a bit less each month.

Clothing seems very high at £80 per month. Stop buying new clothes; if new clothes needed then use charity shops or bay of E. You can get bags of kids clothes fairly cheaply. Anything that doesn't fit your kids you can then put back on the bay of E and probably make your money back. My DD used to do that - she had 4 kids when she was doing that (grown up now!).

They are the things which stand out to me.

Denise

ada-or-ardor

Do you know how you go into debt in the first place? Do you still rely on CC/finance to fund your monthly outgoings? My initial impression is your SOA is very bare and potentially more aspirational than realistic? If so, you need to do a realistic one and see where your shortfall is. If you're sure it is a real reflection of your spending, then you need to look at ways of a) increasing your income (surveys, a second job, selling things), and b) moving the interest bearing debt to hopefully 0% to cut down on interest.

Regarding your partner, I appreciate he has his own debts too and is a student, but £350 isn't a lot to be contributing based on your outgoings. Does he have a part-time job, or could he get one? Could he do surveys etc to bring in a few extra pennies? Every little helps? Is HE aware of where his debt came from so you can both be making sure this going down, not up? Have you both had a conversation of your desire to get things on track, and is he on the same page?

I hope that is all helpful, and wish you the best of luck. You'll find loads of support here, and I wish you well on your journey!!

Ada

KxMx

Running two cars is quite a lot on just one working P/T and one student.
Can you realistically afford to keep both going, especially as you both have debts?

System

Thanks everyone for your replies I appreciate it. I would love to just have one car, but unfortunately I work 20 miles away from my home at unsociable hours so public transport isn't an option plus it probably wouldn't be that much cheaper than running my cheap car. My husband does work, he fits in his hours around uni, he has about £150 left over a month once he's paid his debt and petrol ect which his incoming are around £1000 a month, so uses his car a lot for work/uni. His debt is from before we met I do net even know how he did it, just being reckless. Mine is from being a single parent at uni I couldn't work as my course was intense and I had childcare fees to pay, I did get help for this but just ended up putting my short fall onto credit card. The other debt is from getting married in hindsight this was really stupid we should have waited till we could have afforded it but I thought we would have managed better than we do. Our daughter together is 16 months old so more debt was added when I was on maternity leave. I took unpaid leave as I have bad anxiety about leaving her she's very clingy. I don't think I can work more than 24 hours ATM as we work around each other to avoid child care costs plus I'd lose my child tax credits so don't think we'd be better off? I think we are at a point now I'm back to work that we can manage without adding to our debt and I just need to be more careful with what I spend. That is a realistic budget expect I have just been spending more on stuff like days out/top up groceries which I'm going to try to avoid doing. I did used to do surveys and mystery shopping when I was a student so maybe I'll look into that again.

pmlindyloo

You say that your partner 'sends' you £350 a month.

Does this mean that he is not currently living with you?

System

Also I am not sure if I even spend that much on clothes a month I was just trying to estimate over a year? I do think my husband lives in a dream world sometimes, he thinks everything will be okay and turns his nose up when I suggest cheap meal ideas, he prefers expensive food but I'm trying to convince him round, I am more into sorting things out than he is but he doesn't have to deal with it all like I do, maybe I'll switch all the Bills ect into his name! We do get discounted council tax too.

System

No he does live with me, we keep our finances seperate he transfers that much a month to my bank

DCFC79

What about ditching the TV licence and the TV package, use Netflix or Now TV for things to watch, could use the savings to put it towards the tax credits over payments.

Re meal ideas, depends if he wants to stay as it is and buy expensive food or does he want to reduce the debt, get rid of it quicker and still eat.

Where do you shop ?
Do you buy yellow stickered items ?

pmlindyloo

Anniee88 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for your replies I appreciate it. I would love to just have one car, but unfortunately I work 20 miles away from my home at unsociable hours so public transport isn't an option plus it probably wouldn't be that much cheaper than running my cheap car. My husband does work, he fits in his hours around uni, he has about £150 left over a month once he's paid his debt and petrol ect which his incoming are around £1000 a month, so uses his car a lot for work/uni. His debt is from before we met I do net even know how he did it, just being reckless. Mine is from being a single parent at uni I couldn't work as my course was intense and I had childcare fees to pay, I did get help for this but just ended up putting my short fall onto credit card. The other debt is from getting married in hindsight this was really stupid we should have waited till we could have afforded it but I thought we would have managed better than we do. Our daughter together is 16 months old so more debt was added when I was on maternity leave. I took unpaid leave as I have bad anxiety about leaving her she's very clingy. I don't think I can work more than 24 hours ATM as we work around each other to avoid child care costs plus I'd lose my child tax credits so don't think we'd be better off? I think we are at a point now I'm back to work that we can manage without adding to our debt and I just need to be more careful with what I spend. That is a realistic budget expect I have just been spending more on stuff like days out/top up groceries which I'm going to try to avoid doing. I did used to do surveys and mystery shopping when I was a student so maybe I'll look into that again.

Perhaps I am old fashioned and I do realise that people these days keep their finances separate.

However, your partner's actual income is less than your and he has £150 per month left over after paying for his own 'outgoings'.

Whereas you, whose income is more has no money left over!

Your partner is not contributing to his share of the household outgoings. He is not even paying half the rent!

Something has to 'give' here. You are a family so should be tackling this together.

I am basing this on what you have said so forgive me if I have made some incorrect assumptions.

In my opinion it would be far better to combine your incomes and debts and sort this out together. A debt management plan might be suitable for you both.

Is your partner receiving all the grants/loans he is eligible for?