1st post and 1st step to clearing £19k in 18 month

MissF87

Thanks Loken - was good to read your story and it does give me hope. I can't wait to start having that feeling of paying things off and ticking it off the list! Congratulations - it must feel amazing.

I've spent today looking at suggestions for surveys and mystery shoppers - I've signed up to 2 of the suggested survey sites on here & downloaded their apps. I've also applied to 3 companies for mystery shopping to.

I'm not about to go and write my SOA....I'll be back.....!

MissF87

Here is my SOA:
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2300
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2300

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 345
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 95
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 60
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 20
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 60
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 52
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 40
Petrol/diesel........................... 100
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 19
Life assurance ......................... 15
Other insurance......................... 12
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 60
Entertainment........................... 100
Holiday................................. 50
Emergency fund.......................... 50
Total monthly expenses.................. 1378


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 0
Shares and bonds........................ 100
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 100


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 77213....(345)......2.14
Total secured & HP debts...... 77213.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Next Directory.................1350......75........22.9
MBNA...........................4988......60........0
Halifax Card...................1880......25........19.2
Loan 3.........................2000......65........23.6
Loan 2.........................1000......23........22.6
Loan 1.........................6959......178.......12.9
AO.com.........................810.......33........23.15
Total unsecured debts..........18987.....459.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,300
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,378
Available for debt repayments........... 922
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 459
Amount left after debt repayments....... 463

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 100
Total HP & Secured debt................. -77,213
Total Unsecured debt.................... -18,987
Net Assets.............................. -96,100


Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.[/i]

theoretica

From what you say of your clothing situation I would suggest you assign that £40 to debt. If you want to spend anything on clothing earn it first by selling stuff.

Dobbibill

Well done on completing the SOA
You have a surplus at the end of the month which is good.

MissF87 wrote: »

Here is my SOA:
Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 1
Number of children in household......... 0
Number of cars owned.................... 0

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 2300
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 2300

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 345
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 95 is this over 10 months - if so change it to 12 to free up more funds monthly rather than having 2 'free' months
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 60 are you on the cheapest deal for these - use a comparison site and see if you can get a better deal/some cashback
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 20
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 60 this could be cut/change to SIMO at end of contract - less than £10
TV Licence.............................. 0 you have satellite/cable but no licence?
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 52 this is high - switch to freesat/freeview
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 200
Clothing................................ 40 cut to bare basics for a few months, easily halved
Petrol/diesel........................... 100 what is this?
Road tax................................ 0
Car Insurance........................... 0
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 0
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0 none? you should have this
Contents insurance...................... 19 at renewal check if you can get a better deal/cashback using sites like TCB/Quidco
Life assurance ......................... 15
Other insurance......................... 12 what is this?
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50 this is alot - £600 a yr
Haircuts................................ 60 check out collages, go less often
Entertainment........................... 100 can you reduce this?
Holiday................................. 50 can you afford this?
Emergency fund.......................... 50 as a homeowner this is a must!
Total monthly expenses.................. 1378


Assets
Cash.................................... 0 are you only now starting the emergency fund - this needs to be £1000 minimum ASAP - you don't want to rely on credit if something goes wrong and set your debt busting back a step
House value (Gross)..................... 0 what is your house value?
Shares and bonds........................ 100
Car(s).................................. 0
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 100


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 77213....(345)......2.14
Total secured & HP debts...... 77213.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Next Directory.................1350......75........22.9
MBNA...........................4988......60........0
Halifax Card...................1880......25........19.2
Loan 3.........................2000......65........23.6
Loan 2.........................1000......23........22.6
Loan 1.........................6959......178.......12.9
AO.com.........................810.......33........23.15
Total unsecured debts..........18987.....459.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,300
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,378
Available for debt repayments........... 922
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 459
Amount left after debt repayments....... 463

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 100
Total HP & Secured debt................. -77,213
Total Unsecured debt.................... -18,987
Net Assets.............................. -96,100


Reproduced on Moneysavingexpert with permission, using other browser.[/i]

Thoughts in red above - aim at clearing the highest APR then snowball those payments onto the next debt and so on. You will make inroads steadily.

All the best with your debt busting journey.

enthusiasticsaver

You have a surplus so I do not think you need to go down the routes of DMPs. You just need to keep a more careful grip on your money and when you spend think of whether you really need to or whether you are just paying out on wants. Selling stuff is a good start.

What is your credit rating like? Are you able to get any 0% cards to move some of the higher debts like Next, Halifax or AO? I would tackle these first as the MBNA is 0% and the loans are going down as per agreements. Overpay those once the cards are gone.

Having extended your mortgage term I strongly suggest you focus on clearing the debt asap rather than using the money freed up to fritter away. The sooner that is gone the sooner that £1000 will be back in your pocket each month rather than your lenders.

MissF87

Thanks for the comments/advice on the SOA - not totally accurate against what is on my actual budget (will share from my excel sheet when back online tomorrow). There is no clothes budget on my budget, I also don!!!8217;t have presents on my budget either - I usually just manage out of Spends to be honest so that!!!8217;s £100 already which isn!!!8217;t on my !!!8216;official!!!8217; budget.
In terms of mobile phone - no negotiation until October this year on that despite my best efforts with o2. The £52 listed for TV covers my landline, line rental, TV etc and I am in contact on that for another 12 months too so again can!!!8217;t make any changes there as I!!!8217;m on the lowest that I can be with them. I forgot TV license for some reason, I do have one and it is on my budget! Gas/diesel is my private mileage - I have a company car so hence no other car costs listed as this comes of my wage before it!!!8217;s paid. Other insurance is my cover for electricals in the Home which I have thought about cancelling but not sure. The £19 for buildings cover contents and buildings but it!!!8217;s combined. Just renewed and went with the best deal I could get and also have £70 cashbank pending in my TopCashback account. Electric I!!!8217;m in contract until September and my gas is calor gas. Where I live it!!!8217;s the norm to not be connected to a gas main, everyone is on either oil or gas cannisters. My parents have a new build which has something called airsource. I have shopped around and checked a million places online and there is nowhere that comes close to the current price and service which I get - 2 cannisters connected, always keep a spare so that when they run out you switch to the spare and ring them to order 2 more which they come and deliver and install for you on set days of the week. It!!!8217;s £57 a canister at the moment so I!!!8217;ve worked on an average there for what I!!!8217;ve used over a year. I will probably buy 2 cannisters in March then no more until October. Council tax is over 10 months so I!!!8217;ve factored this in for next year. £50 for hols isnt on my budget either. My holiday in June is paid for, just need some spending money which I will obviously be severely shopping around for. I think that answers all the questions?

In terms of my house, I bought it for £96k. a house a couple of doors down sold for £95k 2 days after it was listed and my property is far superior - the £95k needs considerable work doing etc so that!!!8217;s positive for me.

With the home emergency fund it really is £0. I am lucky that if I had an issue that my family can and will provide support however it!!!8217;s a priority to get this money in the bank as soon as debts are paid. I laid them out in order this afternoon based on APR and some of the suggestions on here, so thank you for those.

enthusiasticsaver

presumably you are posting on an apple device as there are numbers instead of apostrophes in your posts?

Go to settings then keyboards and then turn Smart Keyboard off to post normally.

MissF87

I am on an iPhone, sorry, I can't see an option to turn off Smart Keyboard only smart punctuation so hopefully that's worked.....

MissF87

So here's an update on my SOA:
Income - £2300
Council Tax £95
Sky £52
Phone Bill £59
Gas £60
Prescription £10
Mum & Dad £100
Electric £40
Water £18
TV License £12
Home Insurance £19
Life Insurance £14
Mortgage £345
Loan £271
Fuel £75
Food £200
Debts £750
AO.com £12
TOTAL OUT £2,132
Remaining £168

When my partner moves in:
Income £2300 + 500
Council Tax £125
Sky £52
Phone Bill £59
Gas £60
Prescription £10
Mum & Dad £100
Electric £45
Water £25
TV License £12
Home Insurance £19
Life Insurance £14
Mortgage £345
Loan £271
Fuel £75
Food £250
Debts £1200
AO.com £12
TOTAL OUT £2,639
Remaining £168

This is the order in which I've planned to pay things off:
Priority List
AO.com
Loan 2
Loan 3
Next
Halifax Card
Loan 1
MBNA

My student loan will by paid off by December this year the latest, that free's up another £100 after tax also. Based on this, my last payments will be August 2019, meaning that my September 2019 wage will be my first debt free wage and my opportunity to start getting some money in the bank.

Thoughts/Opinions welcome.

Thanks

MissF87

Wanted to come and post again just to give an update, and because I promised this was how I would stay on track with things. First month has arrived and I've made a monumental f*ck up which I'm annoyed about as I've always (believe it or not) been really savvy with my wages and tax code etc but when I ordered my new company car I did all the calculations based on 20% tax, as I though the bracket for 40% was £45k, however it's actually £36k meaning that my new car is costing twice as much as I thought which brings my take home pay to just below £2,200. The good news is that the tax free allowance goes up slightly from April so that's going to give me a teeny bit more, but still almost £100 less a month than I thought which is annoying. My work is due to "re-benchmark" us all in April though as they do this every 2 years and I'm hoping that will mean I get a pay increase. In other positive news I've got 3 mystery shopping assignments booked in the next 3 weeks, plus I've seen 3 more I can book once I've got a few bits of paperwork back, I've also been doing well on the survey front. Aiming for 14k on Swagbucks to get me a £100 voucher which will go towards birthday presents/christmas or food shopping, something necessary. So far in 3 weeks I've got 2,500 points & I'm averaging between 200 & 300 a day on there.

So this month I have paid all my loans as normal then an additional £500 has come out/is set to come out on my credit cards/accounts.

My boyfriend has an interview coming up with someone I know and it's looking like he will probably be offered the job so hopefully he'll be moving in by July (he has 3 months notice at work which is ridiculous) and that will mean more can start getting paid off. Still on track for September 2019 bein debt free month 1.