Brighter Fairy light and a five year plan

chocolatebum

todays plans

1. do SOA ( a true one not the type where i fudge the numbers lol) work in progress as need to find a few amounts to add in
[STRIKE]2. wash school uniforms[/STRIKE] all done
[STRIKE]3. make a start on decluttering living room[/STRIKE] cleared laundry from its home on the sofa

whilst i didn't get my SOA finished. i have organised my list of debts, makes for depressing reading especially since this time last year we only had 2 creditors outwith our defaulted accounts that are with lowell.

some sighs as i was typing this up but whats done is done, no point stressing about it, can't change whats gone before can only change how we approach it and what we do in the future. we currently pay £600 i think it is to service our debts could do lots more with that money but hey ho we are where we are. some of my accounts have varying rates a few i know but 1 or 2 i am uncertain about so need to find out that information

some really high interest rates going on here but luckily even though we have a couple of defaults we have managed to get a 0% balance transfer card that we can utilise and the account we are taking it from also has an offer on that so September will be spent doing some juggling

simply be 40% £633.93 £25 p/m (priority to get rid of this over the next 12 weeks)

CC1 35.95% £845.83 £30 p/m

CC2 0% £340.00 £10 p/m (0% until november)

CC3 34.08% £387.51 £15 p/m

CC4 34.06% £2,670.24 £170 p/m (a portion of this is at 9% need to find paperwork to check how much it is, plan is to transfer 1200 from this to CC6 after the transfer to new card goes through as there is a 0% offer waiting to be used.

CC5 30.34% £3,439.74 £125 p/m (i think some of this is at a lower % but not sure)

CC6 27.45% £3,610.12 £90 p/m (1900 of this is actually at 4% rate ending july 2020, transferring another £1200 which is at 27 % to the new 0% card which is for 18mths)

credit union 12.68% £769.15 £15 p/w, provisional plan if we can't move things to 0% then we will apply for lower rate loan to clear accounts once this is cleared but still pay the higher figures to clear this quickly

lowell 1 0.00% £320.00 £10 p/m

lowell 2 0.00% £870.00 £10 p/m

lowell 3 0.00% £1,450.00 £25 p/m

lowell 4 0.00% £5,150.00 £30 p/m


my lowell accounts just tick along nicely, i've never had any problems with them and as one finishes then we roll the amount paid to another one. lowell accounts are all defaulted accounts due to fall off reports in next couple of years.

other accounts are all up to date and i have direct debits set up for them of a fixed amount each month, it was previously the minimum with anything extra going towards highest apr however with recent changes i decided to make them a fixed amount. i may revisit this but for the next few months it will stay as this.

chocolatebum

Sitting down to finalise SOA and remembering that September is a really rubbish month. we are coming off the back of a greatly reduced income from the last 3 months due to no student finance and this is one of the reasons for using the credit cards during these months. i say every year i will try to save something to offset this but it never ever happens. Hopefully this year will be the year, even if its something that i start in January once a few debts are paid off then its always something. DH's earnings do increase during this time as i am around to cover childcare but we do still have a shortfall each month.

Anyway, things to plan for september. check out house insurance as it is up for renewal beginning of october and i know i can get it for less than we are paying just now. plan is to use my extra student finance payment for this month to pay it in full and then save every month for next years which will hopefully save me some interest. Car is due its MOT at the end of the month which is always a wing and a prayer and normally parents help out with the cost of this but hoping to end this practice and sort ourselves out. unfortunately the car is old and always needing something done. hoping that extra student finance this month will help with this.

todays to do list
1. finish decluttering living room
2. 3 loads of washing (nice day here so hoping to get it pegged out)
3. clear some paperwork ( i have a tendency to just pile up paperwork as it comes in and not file it away)

Have a good day all

Mnd

Looking forward to your SOA. you sound determined this time

chocolatebum

So here goes, i don't think i have ever posted my SOA before probably due to denial about what we actually do with our money and knowing that we can and should be smarter about it.

few notes beside some of the points. a bit of copy and paste from my earlier notes on the debts, hopefully i have the right notes beside the right cards as it changed the order that i put them in. oops simply be debt is 633 not 663, not much difference but it all helps

Help and advice always welcome but i can be a bit stubborn and defensive so apologies if my replies are like this. i am trying to change :rotfl:

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information
Number of adults in household........... 5
Number of children in household......... 3
Number of cars owned.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 763 Student finance
Partners monthly income after tax....... 900 this is the bare minimum that he can make, some months it is double this, plan is to use the good months to build up a buffer for summer months when i have no income
Benefits................................ 671 tax credits and child benefit
Other income............................ 455 income contributed to house from adult children, this will reduce as they move out and hopefully the bills will reduce too
Total monthly income.................... 2789

Monthly Expense Details[/b]
Mortgage................................ 451.6
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 127 paid over 10 months, plan to pay free months to debt rather than just absorbing it as we normally do
Electricity............................. 137 underestimate of previous usage plus lots of bodies with lots of equipment gives us this, needs to be reduced.
i track our usage and we use about £90 per month
Gas..................................... 45 a result of low payment and high usage in the bad weather earlier this year, plan to use extra student finance this month to clear debit on this and reduce monthly payment
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 0 live in scotland so included in council tax
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 147 the big one for us, this is for 4 mobiles, 3 contracts finish early 2019 so will be reduced and down to paying for only 3 as 1 child will be paying their own once EMA is sorted out
TV Licence.............................. 12.43
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 71.99 everything included, tv/phone/broadband.
tbh i don't think this will reduce very much if at all. plan is to reduce tv package as a lot of the channels we don't use but this is DH's domain and its a gently gently approach when it comes to him and technology
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 600 includes everything, food, household, pets, toiletries for 8 people so i don't think we do too badly with it but i'm always browsing for bargains
Clothing................................ 10 this is a moving forward part of the SOA in that its happening from this month lol, we do all have plenty of clothes which will cover us until christmas at least
Petrol/diesel........................... 60
Road tax................................ 19.25
Car Insurance........................... 18.58
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 10 another moving forward amount and tbh it should be more, hopefully can increase as we reduce other outgoings
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 93.6 my travel to uni
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 88pocket money and clubs
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 46.2 up for renewal shortly and on the to do list to get cheaper
Contents insurance...................... 0 included with buildings
Life assurance ......................... 10
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50 christmas has always been on a wing and a prayer and some cards, this isn't enough for what we spend hoping to boost this amount via decluttering and selling so we don't need to add to the cards
Haircuts................................ 10
Entertainment........................... 25 netflix and spotify which is our entertainment as we try to do free things or use hist scotland membership card
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 20another new thing for moving forward so no cash assets
ME spends............................... 50 ours to do with as we wish, i rarely use all mine and it normally gets absorbed into household spends, changing this and taking it out in cash so that if i don't spend any then it can accumulate and i can make a decision on what to do with a larger amount
DH spends.............................. 50 football, games
historic scotland....................... 5.58 worth it for us as allows DH, Me and kids in for free to lots of places,
yearly cost covers what it would cost us for one trip to edinburgh castle
gas service plan........................ 29.43
Total monthly expenses.................. 2187.66


Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 105000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 1000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 106000


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Mortgage...................... 66000....(451.6)....5.2
Total secured & HP debts...... 66000.....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Simply be......................663.93....25........40 (priority to get rid of this over the next 12 weeks)
CC1............................845.83....30........35.95
CC2............................340.......10........0 (0% until november)
lowell4........................5150......30........0
lowell3........................1450......25........0
lowell2........................870.......10........0
lowell1........................320.......10........0
Credit union...................769.15....60........12.68 provisional plan if we can't move things to 0% then we will apply for lower rate loan to clear accounts once this is cleared but still pay the higher figures to clear this quickly
CC6............................3610.12...90........27.45 (1900 of this is actually at 4% rate ending july 2020, transferring another £1200 which is at 27 % to the new 0% card which is for 18mths)
CC5............................3439.74...125.......30.34 (i think some of this is at a lower % but not sure)
CC4............................2670.24...170.......34.06 (a portion of this is at 9% need to find paperwork to check how much it is, plan is to transfer 1200 from this to CC6 after the transfer to new card goes through as there is a 0% offer waiting to be used.
CC3............................387.51....15........34.08
Total unsecured debts..........20516.52..600.......-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 2,789
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,187.66
Available for debt repayments........... 601.34
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 600
Amount left after debt repayments....... 1.34

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 106,000
Total HP & Secured debt................. -66,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -20,516.52
Net Assets.............................. 19,483.48

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

chocolatebum

Mnd wrote: »

Looking forward to your SOA. you sound determined this time

Thanks Mnd, i do feel more determined than previous attempts, hopefully i keep it up

Mnd

Well then, you've made your plan out, now the sticking to it..I will keep reading so good luck

chocolatebum

Another lovely day here today therefore plans are

1. washing and pegging out.
2. finish decluttering living room as didn't get it all done yesterday
3. declutter bathroom and check what is needed
4. food shopping
5. update whats the cost as a few things have been paid today.

on the downside tax credits was a much lower payment today as one DC turned 16 in the summer and although i had informed Child Benefit they were remaining in school schedule showed lower payments as Child Benefit didn't inform tax credits, i should have learned my lesson and called both as had experience of this happening before. When i got new letter through i had contacted them and they said it would be sorted for first payment in september however todays was much lower and i have to get a one off payment in 2 days, then a higher amount from next week but still lower than we have had earlier in the year so will need to readjust my budget. it will be about 9 pound a week less, not a great amount but will mean a change to where our money goes.

Mumoffourkids

I had the same with tax credits. I told child benefit int he summer. Then I had an online chat with tax credits who said that child benefit would automatically inform tax credits. Come 1st Septmber, I check my app and the 16 year old has been removed from the claim and my payments have drastically reduced. So I phone tax credits and they say that child benefit din't let them know my 16 year old was staying in education.

So I tell them and my payments then are reduced by £20 a week from next Monday as to what they were previously, but I get an extra payment this week on Thursday? I don't know why they do this. Give an extra payment one week and then reduce the weekly amount down?

Hopefully you can balance your budget with the lesser amount of tax credits.

chocolatebum

well been MIA for a few days as we had a family emergency that knocked the stuffing out of me tbh. back now and refocusing on my plans to help me through things.

tax credits payment now sorted and i know whats happening for the rest of the year hopefully and can budget until at least december hopefully.

back tomorrow with an update on plans and next steps to get this show on the road again

chocolatebum

well renewed house insurance and managed to get it for just over 400 pound less than my renewal quote. Paid it in full using extra student finance from this month and the plan is to save monthly towards it and pay annually again next year. this is less monthly than i have been paying which will hopefully help balance the budget with lower tax credit payments.

Plans for today

1. Redo SOA for the rest of the year.
2. Declutter one room
3. Finish rough christmas list