SOA first draft

Santiago99

Hello! I’m a few thousand pounds in debt (under £5k) and I won’t go into the ins and outs of it, but recently I was paid backdated money that I was owed (after 13 months of waiting :mad:) and I’m using some of this to pay rent upfront at the new house in lieu of a guarantor, and then paying rent back to myself monthly.

That’s why I haven’t listed what savings I currently have, because I don’t know what I’ll have left over after:
—6 months rent upfront
—£400 car repairs
—£1k EF squirrelled away
= ???

Because I’ll be moving house next month, I’m hoping to draft a SOA based on the new house and, once I’m confident of all the bills, write to my creditors offering them a F&F settlement based on their pro-rata slice of whatever ??? is, or accept monthly repayments based on the money I have left over each month.

I’m haemorrhaging money in the current house because I’ve been considerably underpaid up until now, so next week will be the first time I’ve received the correct amount. I’m sure I’ve forgotten a couple of important things so I’d really appreciate some advice. Thank you

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.................... 1

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 0
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Benefits................................ 1047.92
Other income............................ 327.6
Total monthly income.................... 1375.52

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 475
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 0 (student exempt starting September; will absorb August’s liability into moving costs)
Electricity............................. 20 (estimate)
Gas..................................... 40 (estimate)
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 29 (checked with water company and it was £28-odd, forgot to note down the precise amount)
Telephone (land line)................... 0
Mobile phone............................ 20 (includes unlimited internet and hotspot, so don’t need to pay for broadband on top :money:)
TV Licence.............................. 0
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 5.99 (Netflix)
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 150 (includes pet food, possibly high but will try to cut this down over time. For now I don’t want to squeeze the budget so tight it affects my mental health)
Clothing................................ 20
Petrol/diesel........................... 60
Road tax................................ 12.5
Car Insurance........................... 211.87 (will hopefully go down after the move)
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25
Car parking............................. 10
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 5
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 50 (self-insurance)
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 0 (???)
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 10
Haircuts................................ 20
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 20
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Books................................... 30
Total monthly expenses.................. 1264.36


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

No Secured nor Hire Purchase Debts

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR
Universal Credit...............0.........74.86.....0
Total unsecured debts..........0.........74.86.....-


Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1,375.52
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,264.36
Available for debt repayments........... 111.16
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 74.86
Amount left after debt repayments....... 36.3

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 0
Total HP & Secured debt................. -0
Total Unsecured debt.................... -0
Net Assets.............................. 0

scaredofdebt

What does "self-insurance" for the pet insurance mean?



Obviously the car insurance sticks out, I assume you're young and/or have no no claims bonus or a bad history of crashing/speeding etc?


You only spend £60 a month on petrol/diesel, do you really need a car?

MovingForwards

Self insurance will be OP putting £50pm in the bank instead of having an insurance policy.

Without having the figures for your debts we can't offer any constructive advice on how best to manage them.

Haircuts find a cheaper place and have it done less frequently! I've used a mobile hairdresser and a unisex barbers only paid £20 to each of them.

What's with the books and holiday? Can that wait til your debts are paid or lower?

katsu

Are you saving the self-insurance money for your pets somewhere as you have no savings account showing?

[Deleted User]

Your figures are quite similar to mine in lots of ways, I don't think you're too far out

Big ones jumping out at me are as follows:

The pet self insurance - if your pet(s) are seriously costing you £50/month (or £600/yr) in vet bills, chat to your vet and see if they'll offer you a payment plan or an alternative treatment (this doesn't mean it will be poorer quality, but can be more budget appropriate). My bog-standard neutered mog is £5/month in insurance, but if she were to develop a long-standing condition, my vet would work out a treatment regime with me - it's definitely worth a conversation.

Books - I looove my books, but my library card is superb value - I can get ebooks out, every textbook I've ever needed and even cake pans. I think you can rein this one in.

Haircuts - ditto - are there any colleges near you? They often run salon sessions and they are truly value for money.

And one you need to spend on: Contents insurance - you NEED this. I rent and mine is around £4 a month, bought in the last few months, and the cover is far beyond what I'd ever need.

It's really tough when you're moving and don't quite know how much things will cost - so good luck and I'm sure it will all work out

Santiago99

scaredofdebt wrote: »

What does "self-insurance" for the pet insurance mean?

Obviously the car insurance sticks out, I assume you're young and/or have no no claims bonus or a bad history of crashing/speeding etc?

You only spend £60 a month on petrol/diesel, do you really need a car?

Self-insurance is putting cash into a separate bank/savings account and earmarking that account for emergency vet bills.

I’ve been qualified less than two years (so only have 2 years NCB — one earned while on a provisional, one earned in first year of driving) and in the first year of driving some idiot went around a blind bend far too fast and wrote my car off. :mad: I’m unable to add older relatives to my premium to bring the cost down because I’m the only one in the family who drives.

The £60 is an estimate as I’m not sure how much I’ll use in the new house, because it’s in a completely different area about a hour from where I live now. The car is unfortunately an essential — I have a back injury from the aforemented accident that means I can’t carry heavy shopping or walk long distances.

MovingForwards wrote: »

Self insurance will be OP putting £50pm in the bank instead of having an insurance policy.

Without having the figures for your debts we can't offer any constructive advice on how best to manage them.

Haircuts find a cheaper place and have it done less frequently! I've used a mobile hairdresser and a unisex barbers only paid £20 to each of them.

What's with the books and holiday? Can that wait til your debts are paid or lower?

With a bit of luck, if all the debts accept F&Fs, I could potentially pay them all back on what’s left from the backdated income. So that’s something to sort out once I’ve moved and know what I have available to offer the creditors.

The haircut also includes colouring and is on the cheap side for what I get. I had a colour and cut last month, which was the first time in about three years, and it’s made such a positive impact on my confidence and mental health that I feel it’s important to include it in my budget, even if that means sacrificing other things if necessary.

I haven’t been on holiday since err, 2007 _pale_ so I really want to put money aside to have one, even if it’s the cheap and cheerful kind. The books are something I went without for about five years due to not having enough money, so now I’m in a better financial situation I want to include them back into the budget.

katsu wrote: »

Are you saving the self-insurance money for your pets somewhere as you have no savings account showing?

I was self-insured and then in 2018, two emergency vet operations wiped out the money I had. I haven’t been able to put money aside for the last two years due to being considerably underpaid, but now my income has been corrected, I can start putting money aside again. So this would be starting next month once I have the correct pay and have moved into the new house.

Santiago99

[Deleted User] wrote:

Your figures are quite similar to mine in lots of ways, I don't think you're too far out

Big ones jumping out at me are as follows:

The pet self insurance - if your pet(s) are seriously costing you £50/month (or £600/yr) in vet bills, chat to your vet and see if they'll offer you a payment plan or an alternative treatment (this doesn't mean it will be poorer quality, but can be more budget appropriate). My bog-standard neutered mog is £5/month in insurance, but if she were to develop a long-standing condition, my vet would work out a treatment regime with me - it's definitely worth a conversation.

Books - I looove my books, but my library card is superb value - I can get ebooks out, every textbook I've ever needed and even cake pans. I think you can rein this one in.

Haircuts - ditto - are there any colleges near you? They often run salon sessions and they are truly value for money.

And one you need to spend on: Contents insurance - you NEED this. I rent and mine is around £4 a month, bought in the last few months, and the cover is far beyond what I'd ever need.

It's really tough when you're moving and don't quite know how much things will cost - so good luck and I'm sure it will all work out

My issue is that I have £0 money put aside for emergency vet bills, so payments will be higher to build up a buffer. Maybe next year, assuming no catastrophes, I can drop the amount down. I have three dogs so I wouldn’t get much change from £50 for pet insurance, so I’d rather have that cash available to me and not to an insurance company who have the power to decline claims for unreasonably minor reasons.

I used to live in the library but the one in my current area has an extremely limited selection of new releases. I do have their ebook app where the choices are a bit better but most of my favourite authors aren’t available. I will try and see if the new house’s library has a better selection, but with council budgeting cuts, my expectations are low.

I have visited college salons in the past and I might consider it for haircuts but not for colours — which the budget also includes — I appreciate students need guinea pigs, but my hair is difficult and a hairdresser is worth the expense for me.

Contents insurance is something I definitely want, but have no idea how much it will be — can’t have it at the current property because it’s not insurable, which is one of the reasons I’m moving ASAP.

[Deleted User]

Fair enough on the three dogs, although I think £50 is perhaps over-cautious, and I'd probably go for £30 for now, but it's far too easy to say that when it is someone else's pets! I'd still wager your vet would be worth talking to as well

Books - I'd also recommend some charity shop searching. Mine often have brand-new releases, and the most local one to me sells them for £1 per book. Definitely worth checking out, a book is very good for the soul, but a bargain one is even better Even if you knocked this budget in half - you'd probably cover your contents insurance with the rest. Yikes on your current place being uninsurable - very glad you're moving! :eek: You can do some quote searching on a price comparison site to give you some ideas. I did a few different scenarios through those tools before I moved to my current place, just to give me a ballpark figure.

Haircut - that's fine if it's worth it for you, it's pretty good if it includes colour too I've friends who have a colour in one place and a cut in another, and fair play to them, but I think that sounds exhausting!

Santiago99

[Deleted User] wrote:

Fair enough on the three dogs, although I think £50 is perhaps over-cautious, and I'd probably go for £30 for now, but it's far too easy to say that when it is someone else's pets! I'd still wager your vet would be worth talking to as well

Books - I'd also recommend some charity shop searching. Mine often have brand-new releases, and the most local one to me sells them for £1 per book. Definitely worth checking out, a book is very good for the soul, but a bargain one is even better Even if you knocked this budget in half - you'd probably cover your contents insurance with the rest. Yikes on your current place being uninsurable - very glad you're moving! :eek: You can do some quote searching on a price comparison site to give you some ideas. I did a few different scenarios through those tools before I moved to my current place, just to give me a ballpark figure.

Haircut - that's fine if it's worth it for you, it's pretty good if it includes colour too I've friends who have a colour in one place and a cut in another, and fair play to them, but I think that sounds exhausting!

In 2018, one of the dogs decided it would be lovely to present me with a bill for the vet’s holiday home an emergency out-of-hours operation, and even though her treatment was cost-price only, I still ended up with over £550 to pay for about 16 hours as an inpatient. I might put aside the £50 per month for now and then review after Christmas? :think:

I’ve never seen charity shops with anything newer than old, battered books — where are your charity shops?!

The contents insurance research will be a job for next week when I’m less frazzled. Also, all the comments pointing out the hair budget have just reminded me that I’m now moving a hour away from the best hairdresser I’ve ever had. :eek:

Karonher

Sorry if I have missed it but I cant see if you have already defaulted on your debts. If you have not then the companies will not accept full and final and if you do decide to do it - even dropping from the minimum payment - it will ruin your credit file for 6 years.

You will also have an issue with your budget as I am not sure they will allow some of the figures you have quoted in your SOA.

theoretica

It is tricky trying to budget before you have settled into a place and know your costs. My advice would be to keep records of everything you spend and record if it is a one off moving expense or not. Try to avoid signing up to any long term commitments you can avoid until you see how things are working out (like new phone contracts or the great gym near your new place).



Do you know how much back payment you are getting? It should then just be subtraction to work out how much you will have left after pre-paying rent and car repairs etc.


If you are paying rent upfront and then 'paying yourself back' the £450 a month, I would use that to kickstart the pet insurance savings and emergency fund.