Would anyone mind having a quick look at SOA?

DebtFreeDuo

I have a diary on here already and have been trying to cut back where I can, out of ideas on cutting further but would like to try if at all possible. I'm a student so my income isn't actually monthly and I paid off a big chunk of debt (£1800) a couple of weeks back from this terms student finance which left me with a really strict budget.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1398.11
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 361.22
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1759.33

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 580
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 20
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 10
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 9
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 3.25
Internet Services....................... 1
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 40
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 37.5
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 15
Car parking............................. 20
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 49
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 6.5
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1136.25


Assets
Cash.................................... 4400
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 8400

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................2065.32...153.8.....4
Car loan.......................2432.89...140.......4
CC.............................1064......28........0
Total unsecured debts..........5562.21...321.8.....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,759.33
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,136.25
Available for debt repayments........... 623.08
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 321.8
Amount left after debt repayments....... 301.28

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 8,400
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,562.21
Net Assets.............................. 2,837.79

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

bexster1975

Hi

I'm not sure I can cut this further. Your water rates are impressive. I thought I was doing well at £17 a month. Your grocery bill seems a bit high, but it depends how old your child is and what it needs to pay for. The old style board will help you reduce this to some extent.

I'm also impressed by your internet and satellite costs, mine are much, much more currently. No TV licence? Is that correct?

Sorry I can't help more.

Bexster

Karonher

The main thing I see as high is the food budget. If your child is young I would imagine you could cut back at least £20 - £30. Also start an emergency fund. If you don't have the £301 at the end of the month start a spending diary and log everything. Are the licence, internet and cable prices right?

DebtFreeDuo

bexster1975 wrote: »

Hi

I'm not sure I can cut this further. Your water rates are impressive. I thought I was doing well at £17 a month. Your grocery bill seems a bit high, but it depends how old your child is and what it needs to pay for. The old style board will help you reduce this to some extent.

I'm also impressed by your internet and satellite costs, mine are much, much more currently. No TV licence? Is that correct?

Sorry I can't help more.

Bexster

Thank you for your response, I got a discount on my water rates this year because of a low income so this year was actually only £23 for the year, this will go up next year and I imagine it will be a little higher than I estimated here.

My grocery bill is high, I'm working on cutting this down this month and its currently on target for £100 for this month, I'm really trying hard to keep within this budget.

I only watch TV via amazon prime (£39 for the year student rate) and netflix (sisters account) therefore I don't require a TV licence. I've also just paid just under £150 (including £50 cashback) for my line rental and then I will pay £1 per month for internet for the next 12 months.

Thank you again for taking a look, I'm determined to clear this debt once and for all.

DebtFreeDuo

Karonher wrote: »

The main thing I see as high is the food budget. If your child is young I would imagine you could cut back at least £20 - £30. Also start an emergency fund. If you don't have the £301 at the end of the month start a spending diary and log everything. Are the licence, internet and cable prices right?

I know the food budget is high, I am working on this but wanted to put the actual figure in rather than a hopeful one, some months it would have been slightly more :eek:

I have a help to buy ISA which has £4400 in which I can access if needed so this is kind of an emergency fund but I would be extremely reluctant to touch it with the government bonus I will get when I can eventually buy a house.

I won't have £301 left at the end of the next 3 months after the overpayment of £1800 I made a couple of weeks back, when I received my student finance for the next 3/4 months I worked out what I could afford to overpay and cleared one of my cards completely which has left me with a very tight budget until January.

Read above for TV/Internet. Thank you for your response.

whiteguineapig

you could try aldi for a week if theres one near, i can't get everything there and i stay away from their "basic" range, but if you can start with a few bits to try, then a few more you would see a difference in the food bill i think

DebtFreeDuo

whiteguineapig wrote: »

you could try aldi for a week if theres one near, i can't get everything there and i stay away from their "basic" range, but if you can start with a few bits to try, then a few more you would see a difference in the food bill i think

I'm reluctant to swap to Aldi, I have tried them in the past but I've never been that impressed with them. I buy organic food mostly (not very MSE I know) I feel like I want to make a real effort to cut down on my shopping first before I consider buying cheaper.

System

In regards to the food bill, according to ONS figures £56 a week is the average spend on food for a family.

EssexHebridean

A quick skim through your SOA suggests that for the most part you're pretty much "on it"
anyway - but full marks for asking for further input - definitely the right way of looking at things!

DebtFreeDuo wrote: »

I have a diary on here already and have been trying to cut back where I can, out of ideas on cutting further but would like to try if at all possible. I'm a student so my income isn't actually monthly and I paid off a big chunk of debt (£1800) a couple of weeks back from this terms student finance which left me with a really strict budget.

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

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

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1398.11
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 361.22 You've checked that this is everything you're entitled to?
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 1759.33

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 580
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0
Electricity............................. 30
Gas..................................... 20
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 10
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 9
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 3.25
Internet Services....................... 1
Groceries etc. ......................... 200 You've already addressed this - you can easily knock £80 a month off it, and with a little more effort probably £100.
Clothing................................ 20 Trim this to absolute essentials only and you might be able to shave it a bit although I appreciate with a growing child it's a challenge!
Petrol/diesel........................... 40 Read Martin's guide on driving economically,
combine journeys where you can, and walk everywhere possible.
Road tax................................ 0 Zero rated for tax?
Car Insurance........................... 37.5
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 15 Do hyou actually set this aside each month? I'll be honest, it seems rather unrealistic to me - are you accounting for things like tyres, wiper blades, even screenwash as well as servicing and MoT Test?
Car parking............................. 20 Can you cut this at all? Park further away and walk?
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 49
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 6.5
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40 Do you actually set this amount aside each month regardless if you spend anything in this category or not?
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0 I note you've said that this is covered by your ISA
Total monthly expenses.................. 1136.25


Assets
Cash.................................... 4400
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 4000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 8400

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Loan...........................2065.32...153.8.....4
Car loan.......................2432.89...140.......4
CC.............................1064......28........0 If you haven't already, and you're not using the card,
set the DD at this level and leave it there if that would otherwise be set at minimum payment.
Total unsecured debts..........5562.21...321.8.....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,759.33
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,136.25
Available for debt repayments........... 623.08
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 321.8
Amount left after debt repayments....... 301.28

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 8,400
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -5,562.21
Net Assets.............................. 2,837.79

Created using the SOA calculator at https://www.stoozing.com.
Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using Firefox browser.

So I guess the main question is do you actually have that £300 odd surplus each month? If so, then with a few more tweaks and savings that's the CC cleared inside 3 months, and you can then turn your attention to either overpaying on the loans, or setting money aside to pay them off early. (OK - seen your note above on this now - be VERY careful paying up ahead like this - if you treat your income and outgoings as monthly expenses then probably better to do the same with debt OP's.)

Bearing in mind your current debt situation can I ask your reasons for buying Organic food? And can I also ask what level of research you've done on the subject? There are some areas where it is reckoned to make a difference, but a lot of others where for assorted reasons it's reckoned that Organic is not necessarily better than standard (or in the case of meat & poultry, higher welfare).

DebtFreeDuo

EssexHebridean wrote: »

A quick skim through your SOA suggests that for the most part you're pretty much "on it"
anyway - but full marks for asking for further input - definitely the right way of looking at things!



So I guess the main question is do you actually have that £300 odd surplus each month? If so, then with a few more tweaks and savings that's the CC cleared inside 3 months, and you can then turn your attention to either overpaying on the loans, or setting money aside to pay them off early. (OK - seen your note above on this now - be VERY careful paying up ahead like this - if you treat your income and outgoings as monthly expenses then probably better to do the same with debt OP's.)

Bearing in mind your current debt situation can I ask your reasons for buying Organic food? And can I also ask what level of research you've done on the subject? There are some areas where it is reckoned to make a difference, but a lot of others where for assorted reasons it's reckoned that Organic is not necessarily better than standard (or in the case of meat & poultry, higher welfare).

Thank you so much for the thorough response, you make a lot of great points.

Clothing is just for the small and luckily I haven't had to buy anything in months and have a pile of clothes for when he grows a bit, hes 4 but over the summer he was still in his 2-3 stuff, now hes still in 3-4 and his bigger clothes are far too big so I don't anticipate actually buying clothes for some time.

Both fuel and car parking, I go to uni right in the middle of a city centre and so its virtually impossible to avoid car parking charges, I have however started cycling in which I'm hoping will save me a small fortune and bring both of these areas right down. My car does have zero road tax so isn't too expensive to run.

You make a great point on the car maintenance, I don't put anything aside at the moment, every spare penny I can save goes right into my ISA, I did have a car 'pot' but I have just used this to pay for my insurance, I think I will need to factor this in properly and set aside a budget for this so that it doesn't hit me too hard and I won't have to withdraw anything from the ISA, my MOT is actually only a couple of months away.

I don't currently set aside anything for presents, over the last couple of months I have been wokring on building up my amazon balance to cover Christmas, there is currently a little over £80 in there but I have already bought a few presents from this.

I don't have any surplus this term as I used it all to pay off some debt when the 0% was ending, if I hadn't have paid this off then I absolutely would have had the surplus. I don't treat my income as monthly, I have a spreadsheet where I have put the 3 payments into and work from that, I leave enough in my account to cover all bills for that period and then transfer the rest over to a seperate account. I think next term I will be able to work with it a little better and put aside money for things as I won't have a big debt that requires a speedy payment.

I think my first focus is my car loan as it is the one that will cost me the most, in January the balance will be around £2000, I'm going to try and see if I can afford to pay off the whole of it then, then in May I will pay off the second loan which should only be around £1200. My CC is 0% until April 2019 so it makes more sense to me to pay off the ones where I could save some money first.

I have done some research into organic, I know some things aren't really any different and try to buy only the things that are of a better quality, for example I can really tell the difference with the chicken, it tastes so much better, no added water and one piece of chicken does both of us one meal each so while it is more expensive I do feel I can justify it at the moment because we don't get through a huge amount although if I do find myself starting to struggle then I will have to reevaluate this.

Thank you again for your great advice, I will absolutely take this on board, especially the car maintenance.

EssexHebridean

Where your budget (SOA) accounts for putting things aside monthly (presents, car stuff etc) be really careful to make sure that you do - otherwise it;s creating a false picture and it's easy to slip into the habit of "false accounting" as it were. It's great that you paid your car insurance up front for the year but again, make sure that the money is set aside monthly to ensure that next year you can do the same - add 10% to what you paid this year to cover premium increases, I'd suggest. We set aside £80 ish a month each for our cars - this will cover everything from tax (but only £30 a year on ours) insurance (a wee bit lower than yours) servicing, MoT test and just about everything else. It gets siphoned off to a dedicated account each month so we know it's there. Definitely sets the mind at rest knowing stuff is paid for ahead of time.

Chicken by the way - have you shopped around the various free range options? We found we actually preferred FR to Organic! Might be worth a try anyway.

Absolutely agree on the CC if your 0% period has that much remaining on it. You'll have chopped a decent lump off it just paying the £28 a month anyway! :T