Time for change

Ermac87

Good evening all.

Im new here and I have been reading some of the threads in this forum and felt inspired to start my own journey & thread. I have been constantly living well out of my means and have just slowly built up a debt of around 26k on loans and cards over the last 10 years...it cannot go on! 
I want to draw up an SOA tomorrow, can someone direct me to the template every one uses? Apologies if its somewhere obvious I have tried looking! 

MidsHollie

Welcome! 

Here you go https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/financecalculators/soa.php
Click on format for MSE.
Try and look At your spending across a 12 month period to make it accurate, but that may be hard. You may have to do your best and adjust later, once you do know what you spend. 

Good luck

Ermac87

Ok, so put this together - some of the amounts look strange because me and my wife split the bills about 40/60 due to difference in earnings, I am only accounting for my own expenditure/income as its my own stupidity that got me into this mess.
To give an idea of why we are here today, I had been earning around £23k while living with parents where I only took care of the house bills but no rent so had quite a bit of spare money and got very used to it. I decided to have a career change and study in the evenings and my change in job to something geared to what I was studying meant I was only earning around £16k but this was at the time me and my wife bought our own place. Because I had banked on earning a much better salary  in future I didn't really watch my spending and its only been the last 2 years I have been earning a better salary (£31k). All of this along with having 2 kids in fairly close together and the expense that comes with it means we are here today!
 At the moment, I am one of the lucky few who can work from home permanently so I have put my fuel cost at a worst case scenario, so would currently put me approx +150 until we are asked to go back to office which does not look like it will happen any time soon.
Credit options are pretty bleak at the moment, I was considering rolling everything into a secured loan and cutting up all the cards but reading through this forum has put me off this completely. 
My cards with 0% still have over a year before the 0% runs out and I am worried about the 5k balance as if I don't get a grip of this, I am going to be further in the red.
Any advice or suggestions will be massively appreciated.
[font=courier new][b]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet[/b][b]

Household Information[/b]

Number of adults in household........... 2

Number of children in household......... 2

Number of cars owned.................... 2[b]

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 1870

Partners monthly income after tax....... 0

Benefits................................ 0

Other income............................ 0[b]

Total monthly income.................... 1870[/b][b]

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

Mortgage................................ 267.5

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0

Rent.................................... 0

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 50.98

Electricity............................. 26.58

Gas..................................... 0

Oil..................................... 0

Water rates............................. 10

Telephone (land line)................... 0

Mobile phone............................ 32

TV Licence.............................. 4.8

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0

Internet Services....................... 9.28

Groceries etc. ......................... 80

Clothing................................ 20

Petrol/diesel........................... 180

Road tax................................ 12

Car Insurance........................... 28

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 25

Car parking............................. 0

Other travel............................ 0

Childcare/nursery....................... 211.22

Other child related expenses............ 50

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0

Buildings insurance..................... 6.45

Contents insurance...................... 0

Life assurance ......................... 8

Other insurance......................... 0

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 40

Haircuts................................ 10

Entertainment........................... 200

Holiday................................. 0

Emergency fund.......................... 0

Football................................ 82.76

Playstation............................. 7

Gym..................................... 28[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 1389.57[/b]

[b]

Assets[/b]

Cash.................................... 0

House value (Gross)..................... 190000

Shares and bonds........................ 0

Car(s).................................. 1500

Other assets............................ 0[b]

Total Assets............................ 191500[/b]

[b]

Secured & HP Debts[/b]

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Mortgage...................... 142000...(267.5)....NaN[b]

Total secured & HP debts...... 142000....-.........-   [/b]

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

Description....................Debt......Monthly...APR

Loan A.........................4981.04...171.7.....4%~

Loan B.........................4448.18...116.6.....9%~

Loan C.........................2101.27...68.75.....24%~

Card 6.........................5435.06...95........Various%

Card 5.........................2974.16...30........0

Card 4.........................2275.59...23........0

Card 3.........................1760......18........0

Card 2.........................1978......53.96.....26

Card 1.........................550.......25........0[b]

Total unsecured debts..........26503.3...602.01....-  [/b]

[b]

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]

Total monthly income.................... 1,870

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 1,389.57

Available for debt repayments........... 480.43

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 602.01[b]

Amount short for making debt repayments. -121.58[/b]

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]

Total assets (things you own)........... 191,500

Total HP & Secured debt................. -142,000

Total Unsecured debt.................... -26,503.3[b]

Net Assets.............................. 22,996.7[/b]

[i]Created using the SOA calculator at www.LemonFool.co.uk.

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

Ermac87

So after a day of giving this some thought, I've come up with a plan of attack. As of Wednesday when I get paid I am going to keep a detailed track of my spending to see what non essential things/"entertainment" I am spending my money on, because in truth I really don't know what I am actually spending it on. I have a hunch its a couple quid here and there every day which builds up which can mostly be avoided. I imagine by the end of the month I will see what I need to reign in, starting with my football spend, most of that is having a beer after the game which I will stop doing after every game and go just once or twice a month, this should save me another £30/40 a month 

Second plan is I've asked my employer to stop my contribution into my pension for 12 months which should increase my income by around 120 at the after tax, after 12 months my eldest will be out of nursery and my youngest will get 30 free hours which will reduce outgoings drastically. 

I will be back in a months time with my findings and will update my SOA, but will continue reading this forum for inspiration.