Bathgatebuyer SOA - give me some ideas please

bathgatebuyer

Righty-ho, I've not done an SOA before despite being on this site a lot.

So, here goes, I'm looking for some suggestions on some additional money saving ideas:

Mortgage - £732 (Remaining sum is £100K on a £200K property which isn't bad for a single 30 yr old with 18 yrs remaining on mortgage!);
Car Insurance - £27 (fully comp with 5 yrs no claim);
Broadband / Phone - £25 (Talk Talk usually);
Electricity - £30 (Scottish Power - storage heaters so not many other options);
Council Tax - £120;
Gym - £54 (go 6 times a week);
Mobile - £35 (unlimited texts so send about 30 a day!);
Fuel - £50 (Mum lives 140 miles away - visit twice a month);
Food (for me and the cat!) - roughly £100;
Income Protection - £20;
Property Management fees (gardening, cleaning, building insurance) - £30
Setanta TV - £5

Debts:
Cahoot Loan - £205.65 (ends in Feb 2008 after 4 years! Original loan was for £8K);
RBoS c/c £1900 balance with payments of about £100 per month;
Halifax c/c £800 balance - paying about £100 per month;
Sainsburys c/c balance £2.5K paying about £100 per month.

Others:
Pay TV Licence annually;
Pay home insurance annually;
car loan is paid up (WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!:T )
Pay professional membership fees of £600 per month but can reclaim these on expenses.
Oh and football season ticket of £300 paid up front for a mid-table Scottish football team!

Income is about £1800 per month after deduction of pension contributions of £150, £20 lunch subs and £2 on company lottery.

Due to change of job recently, things are a bit tight as some direct debits have doubled up because of the timing of payments and things. Since May 2006 I've went from £31K of debt, to just over £5K. Do I continue along this path, or is there anything else I can do to speed this along a bit?

I've probably missed some deductions off, but would be happy for any suggestions from a 'fresh eye' over things.

:money:

floss2

bathgatebuyer wrote: »

Mortgage - £732 (Remaining sum is £100K on a £200K property which isn't bad for a single 30 yr old with 18 yrs remaining on mortgage!);
Car Insurance - £27 (fully comp with 5 yrs no claim);
Broadband / Phone - £25 (Talk Talk usually);
Electricity - £30 (Scottish Power - storage heaters so not many other options); no gas?
Council Tax - £120; over 10 or 12m?
Gym - £54 (go 6 times a week); can this be reduced in cost? seems a lot for a gym membership....
Mobile - £35 (unlimited texts so send about 30 a day!);
Fuel - £50 (Mum lives 140 miles away - visit twice a month);
Food (for me and the cat!) - roughly £100;
Income Protection - £20;
Property Management fees (gardening, cleaning, building insurance) - £30
Setanta TV - £5

Debts:
Cahoot Loan - £205.65 (ends in Feb 2008 after 4 years! Original loan was for £8K);
RBoS c/c £1900 balance with payments of about £100 per month;
Halifax c/c £800 balance - paying about £100 per month;
Sainsburys c/c balance £2.5K paying about £100 per month.

Others:
Pay TV Licence annually;
Pay home insurance annually;
car loan is paid up (WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!:T )
Pay professional membership fees of £600 per month but can reclaim these on expenses. £600 PER MONTH! sorry to be nosey but what do you do to pay that amount?
Oh and football season ticket of £300 paid up front for a mid-table Scottish football team!

Income is about £1800 per month after deduction of pension contributions of £150, £20 lunch subs and £2 on company lottery.

Ok - what about car tax / MOT / repairs....clothes...presents/Christmas...social life?

Jada

bathgatebuyer wrote: »

Righty-ho, I've not done an SOA before despite being on this site a lot.

So, here goes, I'm looking for some suggestions on some additional money saving ideas:

Mortgage - £732 (Remaining sum is £100K on a £200K property which isn't bad for a single 30 yr old!);
Car Insurance - £27;
Broadband / Phone - £25 (Talk Talk usually);
Electricity - £30 (Scottish Power - storage heaters so not many other options);
Council Tax - £120;
Gym - £54 (go 6 times a week);
Mobile - £35 (unlimited texts so send about 30 a day!);
Fuel - £50 (Mum lives 140 miles away - visit twice a month);
Food (for me and the cat!) - roughly £100;
Income Protection - £20;
Property Management fees (gardening, cleaning, building insurance) - £30
Setanta TV - £5

Debts:
Cahoot Loan - £205.65 (ends in Feb 2008 after 4 years! Original loan was for £8K);
RBoS c/c £1900 balance with payments of about £100 per month;
Halifax c/c £800 balance - paying about £100 per month;
Sainsburys c/c balance £2.5K paying about £100 per month.

Others:
Pay TV Licence annually;
Pay home insurance annually;
car loan is paid up (WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!:T )
Pay professional membership fees of £600 per month but can reclaim these on expenses.
Oh and football season ticket of £300 paid up front for a mid-table Scottish football team!

Income is about £1800 per month after deduction of pension contributions of £150, £20 lunch subs and £2 on company lottery.

Due to change of job recently, things are a bit tight as some direct debits have doubled up becuase of the timing of things, and I've probably missed some deductions off, but would be happy for any suggestions from a 'fresh eye' over things.

:money:

Hi bathgatebuyer

I've just had a quick look and really, when that Cahoot loan is finished in the next couple of months that'll really ease the strain.

A couple of things I'd suggest though: Re your mobile, who's the contract with? What inclusive mins/texts do you get with it? If you're just a big texter, why not read Martin's Free Texts article as that could possibly save you loads.

Also your gym membership, £54 is REALLY high. Could you get a coorporate membership through work? Or try the Pruhealth Loophole.

I'm sure others will come round with more tips, but in the grand scheme of things you're not doing too badly (but we could all do better! )

:staradmin Jada :staradmin

bathgatebuyer

Gym membership works out at £2.25 for each class - switched to Edinburgh Leisure a few years back to try and save money but never went as the equipment was poor and they didn't do any of the classes I like so I went 3 times in 4 months, put on 2 stone! Other gyms in Edinburgh were pretty much the same (some WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY more expensive!) and mine is withing running distance of home so doesn't cost anything to get there. I'm there 12 hours a week and it helps manage and relieve depression problems I've had without needing tablets or anything.

Orange mobile on Dolphin (I think or whatever animal it is!) - 500 mins and unlimited texts.

Car repairs I tend to pay as and when they are needed - last one was £90 a few months back, but needing new tyres shortly which will be paid when I get my expenses back for my professional membership fees (using blackcircles and quidco so I can get my cashback, of course!). The remainder of that is being put aside as emergency money in case there are car probs, unexpected bills, etc.

Council Tax is over 10 months. One of the 'free months' is when I pay my home insurance (of about £100) and my road tax (with the following 'free month).

Clothes - buy only second hand or ebay. Haven't bought anything new in about a year or so. Typically £20 or so every second month or so.

Social Life - Go to the gym. Don't drink or smoke, haven't been in a pub or club since, well, 2006! (God, time to get out more!) and watch Setanta Sports almost constantly. Go to football matches every second Saturday. Season ticket is paid in a one-r at the start of every season using birthday cash and some Ebay profits.

Gas - Never had gas - everything is electric.

Professional Fees - I'm a Fellow of an insignificant engineering institute which does absolutely nothing for me other than send me bills and a poxy magazine once a month. Unfortunately if I'm not a member, I can't work. (Can you feel the resentment?!)

Xmas / Birthday presents - Through Ebay mostly. Have bought almost all pressie this year, and the remainder will be through Ebay using proceeds from sales, and also two other using a Boots voucher and HMV voucher from Pigsback and Valued Opinions respectively.

Cheers for suggesting the Pruhealth thingy, although the Virgin gym is not really ideal for me as it's the other side of town, and would need me to take the car into work to go there on the way (while I cycle in at the moment).

floss2

bathgatebuyer wrote: »

Professional Fees - I'm a Fellow of an insignificant engineering institute which does absolutely nothing for me other than send me bills and a poxy magazine once a month. Unfortunately if I'm not a member, I can't work. (Can you feel the resentment?!)

Wow....my DF is a member of RSChemistry, IRQA (quality auditors institute) & one of the management societies...he pays that much for all of them in a year!

Are you on the correct level of membership? Or is it because you're a Fellow? Is your profession so rigid that it needs the membership as a prerequisite of employment? Sounds a bit harsh!

bathgatebuyer

Yup. If I was not a member, I would be sacked as professional indemnity cover is part of my fees, and I'd be opening my company wide open to legal dispute if I was signing off jobs as an 'unqualified' professional.

That's only one of my professional memberships too - gave up two others as my company is only willing to pay for one lot of fees.

dsljfreeman

bathgatebuyer wrote: »

Mortgage - £732
Car Insurance - £27 (fully comp with 5 yrs no claim); this is really good quote, but my hubby had cover with swift for £23 a month and he had 5 yrs no claims, might be worth getting another quote, I know it's only a fiver a month but it's a fiver in your pocket.
Broadband / Phone - £25
Electricity - £30
Council Tax - £120;
Gym - £54
Mobile - £35
Fuel - £50 Is this weekly or monthly
Food (for me and the cat!) - roughly £100;
Income Protection - £20;
Property Management fees - £30
Setanta TV - £5

Total £1228

Debts:
Cahoot Loan - £205.65 (ends in Feb 2008 after 4 years! Original loan was for £8K);
RBoS c/c £1900 balance with payments of about £100 per month;
Halifax c/c £800 balance - paying about £100 per month;
Sainsburys c/c balance £2.5K paying about £100 per month.

Total £505.65

Others:
Pay TV Licence annually;
Pay home insurance annually;
car loan is paid up (WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!:T )
Pay professional membership fees of £600 per month but can reclaim these on expenses.
Oh and football season ticket of £300 paid up front for a mid-table Scottish football team!

Total outgoing £1733.65
Left over from £1800 = £66.35

Income is about £1800 per month after deduction of pension contributions of £150, £20 lunch subs and £2 on company lottery.

Not a lot of change, but just thought I would give my thoughts on it. It wont be worth having a shuffle round if you will be £205 better off in 3 months time, due to paying off your cahoot loan

bathgatebuyer

Fuel costs of £50 is monthly, not weekly. Some months it can be £30, some £70, but £50 is about average.

Car insurance has just went down from £37 due to reaching the 5 yr no claims. Suppose it depends on the car - will look into it further, but Tesco was cheapest on confused.com

skintscotslass

Are you a Jambo or a Hibbee BB? I'm a Jambo for my sins lol

Determined

bathgatebuyer wrote: »

Righty-ho, I've not done an SOA before despite being on this site a lot.

So, here goes, I'm looking for some suggestions on some additional money saving ideas:

Mortgage - £732 (Remaining sum is £100K on a £200K property which isn't bad for a single 30 yr old with 18 yrs remaining on mortgage!);
Car Insurance - £27 (fully comp with 5 yrs no claim);
Broadband / Phone - £25 (Talk Talk usually);
Electricity - £30 (Scottish Power - storage heaters so not many other options);
Council Tax - £120; - 10 or 12 months?
Gym - £54 (go 6 times a week); - cuold be chucked at CCs but I think you may be hooked
Mobile - £35 (unlimited texts so send about 30 a day!);- who is this with? I need this!!!
Fuel - £50 (Mum lives 140 miles away - visit twice a month);
Food (for me and the cat!) - roughly £100;
Income Protection - £20; - i presume iwth this you dont need PPI on CCs and loans - if you have them then cancel & claim back if poss!!
Property Management fees (gardening, cleaning, building insurance) - £30
Setanta TV - £5

Debts:
Cahoot Loan - £205.65 (ends in Feb 2008 after 4 years! Original loan was for £8K);
RBoS c/c £1900 balance with payments of about £100 per month;
Halifax c/c £800 balance - paying about £100 per month;
Sainsburys c/c balance £2.5K paying about £100 per month.

Others:
Pay TV Licence annually;
Pay home insurance annually;
car loan is paid up (WOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!:T )
Pay professional membership fees of £600 per month but can reclaim these on expenses.
Oh and football season ticket of £300 paid up front for a mid-table Scottish football team!

Income is about £1800 per month after deduction of pension contributions of £150, £20 lunch subs and £2 on company lottery. - can you take a break on the pension and start back again after your loan is paid off?? chuck the same amount at your CCs?

Due to change of job recently, things are a bit tight as some direct debits have doubled up because of the timing of payments and things. Since May 2006 I've went from £31K of debt, to just over £5K. Do I continue along this path, or is there anything else I can do to speed this along a bit?

I've probably missed some deductions off, but would be happy for any suggestions from a 'fresh eye' over things.

:money:

You've done fantasically so far- you cuoud still make some savings and bring that Debt free date forward? Well done so far!!! :T

bathgatebuyer

I hadn't thought about saving on my pension contributions for a bit (may be a bit of a lightbulb moment there!). I'm due to get a refund of my pensions contributions from my previous employer. As I was only there for a year, my contributions are little more than a thousand pounds (after tax) but they ain't half taking there time getting it back to me! My new employer (God bless 'em) still give final salary pensions, so my contribution is about 6% of my salary and they put in an additional 9% which means that I can afford to use the refund of my previous scheme towards getting rid of some debt (but how much do I want a MacBook!?) without damaging my pension in the longer term.

The other thing I should add is that I'm in the middle of trying to reclaim £1991 in PPI from Halifax for a credit card which didn't cover me when I was unemployed. Everything else did, but at that point the Halifax card balance was at (gulp) £13,000 so the payments were huge. I cancelled it as soon as they said, "No we're not paying you", and have had an unsatisfactory response from them when trying to reclaim. They've sent me a copy of 'my' application form which suggests that I ticked the box and asked for it, yet strangely it's not in my handwriting at all, not to mention the inconsistencies that appear in the details of the form. It's now with their Chief Exec's Office to look into, but so far, they've treated me atrociously, and if I get even half of that money back, then that's another sizeable chunk of debt gone.