Statement of Affairs

PCNSlayer

Hi all,

I have been a passive viewer of MSE for some time now but thought I should now become an active member to gain as much useful insight and helpful suggestions.

Attached below my SOA. 

Some background info. 

Our household is currently myself, my wife, our 2 year old, our 2 month old and our dog.

I am in full time employment, my wife is on maternity leave. 

2 cars, one is owned outright and one is 3 years into a 5 year HP. 

We have a dog who unfortunately is very ill hence the high vet/dog insurances. 

The full amount of excess money goes to overpayment of the credit cards. 

Welcome any comments. 

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Household Information

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

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

Number of cars owned.................... 2

Monthly Income Details

Monthly income after tax................ 3931

Partners monthly income after tax....... 616

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

Other income............................ 0

Total monthly income.................... 4547

Monthly Expense Details

Mortgage................................ 791.3

Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 246.32

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

Management charge (leasehold property).. 45

Council tax............................. 186

Electricity............................. 86

Gas..................................... 86

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

Water rates............................. 33.98

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

Mobile phone............................ 72.22

TV Licence.............................. 13.25

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 38

Internet Services....................... 0

Groceries etc. ......................... 450

Clothing................................ 0

Petrol/diesel........................... 250

Road tax................................ 16.93

Car Insurance........................... 104.8

Car maintenance (not including MOT)......... 19

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

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

Childcare/nursery....................... 306

Other child related expenses............ 0

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 13

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 118.17

Buildings insurance..................... 0

Contents insurance...................... 15.37 (includes buildings & contents)

Life assurance ......................... 60 (includes critical illness covers)

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

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 100

Haircuts................................ 20

Entertainment........................... 13.98

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

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

Savings................................. 400

Pet Food................................ 75

Total monthly expenses.................. 3560.32

Assets

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

House value (Gross)..................... 295588

Shares and bonds........................ 611.92

Car(s).................................. 9381

Other assets............................ 4500

Total Assets............................ 310080.92

Secured & HP Debts

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

Mortgage...................... -233,546..(791.3)....1.97

Secured Debt DFS.................. 774......(16.12)....0

Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 5524.08..(230.2)....6.8

Total secured & HP debts...... 6531.63

Unsecured Debts

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

Tesco Credit...................7921......92.72.....0

HSBC...........................198.93....12.78.....21.9

Total unsecured debts..........8119.93...105.5

Monthly Budget Summary

Total monthly income.................... 4,547

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 3,560.32

Available for debt repayments........... 986.68

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 105.5

Amount left after debt repayments....... 881.18

Personal Balance Sheet Summary

Total assets (things you own)........... 310,080.92

Total HP & Secured debt................. -6,531.63

Total Unsecured debt.................... -8,119.93

Net Assets.............................. 295,429.36

Thanks all. 

Created using the SOA calculator at www.stoozing.com. 

PCNSlayer

*edit to above

Secured & HP Debts

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

Mortgage...................... -233,546..(791.3)....1.97

Secured Debt DFS.................. 306......(16.12)....0

Hire Purchase (HP) debt ...... 5524.08..(230.2)....6.8

Total secured & HP debts...... 6063.63

Grumpelstiltskin

According to your SOA you should have no problem paying your debts so where is the £800 + surplus going?

I  think you need to go through your last 6 months statements to see exactly what you are spending on.

PCNSlayer

Hi @Grumpelstiltskin, thanks for your reply. Fortunately we don’t have issues paying down the debt, the full £880 goes to overpayment of the CC. I was hoping for more insight with regards to expenditure against individual items and if I should be saving more than overpaying?

Grumpelstiltskin

OK A quick look on what you can cut down on.

Groceries £450 plus £75 pet food, way too much for 2 adults a toddler and a dog.

Mobile phones 2? If you are still in contract look to going Sim only when they end.

Presents, £100 too high.

Emergency fund at least £1000 needed here, not to be touched only in emergency.

fatbelly

Hi. That all looks pretty good.

On the expenditure side is your council tax paid over 12 months? Allow £3-5 per person per week for clothing so maybe put a 50 in there.

The savings figure must be aspirational as you hold nothing in cash.Sorry, is that the £4500 other assets? If so, that's fine as an emergency fund.

Even though most of the credit card debt is at 0% i think i would concentrate on clearing it.

You have the same two credit cards as me! I use the hsbc one for online purchases and the tesco one for other shopping, clearing both every month and getting some clubcard vouchers as a bonus. You can get into the same position in 12 months with some planning

Hopefully your mortgage fix still has a bit to run as you won't be seeing 1.97% next time

Is your car on proper HP or is there a big balloon payment coming up in 2 years?

PCNSlayer

Hi @fatbelly, thanks for the reply. Council tax is over 10 months and the car is proper HP, so no balloon payment required in 2 years. 

Fortunately the mortgage is fixed until 2027, hopefully things would have normalised by then! 

As for the savings, the £400 is probably only more like £100-£150 savings and the rest for general expenses such as days out clothing etc. Unfortunately the car has just packed up and the washing machine followed it hence the savings were used for these occurrences!

We are aiming to overpay credit card as much as possible as maternity leave pay finishes in April hence we would be -£616 a month. 

As for food spending @gru@Grumpelstiltskin, we recently had to increase our food allowance from £300 to £450 as found we were often overspending. 

We have a 2 month old who drinks milk like it’s water so this has added an extra £70 odd to the bill hence higher. Unfortunately the dog has veterinary diet food hence the high cost of this! 

I appreciate the fortunate position I am currently in, I don’t want to seem insensitive to others also on their own journey. I have come through the worst of my own debt over the last 7 or so years and the help this forum has provided is invaluable! 

I still think I can do better hence the post so thank you both for the early replies!

savergrant

Hi. Fatbelly's question again really. You are budgeting for savings but have no cash in an account and only £611 in shares. You also have a surplus of £900 after your £400 savings per month which hopefully means you have been paying off sizeable chunks of your debts for some time.  So I would suggest you keep an eye on things like regular saver accounts and find a balance between earning interest and paying off interest. My concern is that there is no actual figure for how much extra repayments you have been making, and also that you are budgeting for putting money into a savings account but don't have any money in one. 

NeverendingDMP

I think phones,food,c tax etc have all been mentioned already. Clothes budget will get higher when you have two walkers especially if they are at nursery and you are asked to leave certain clothes there, although wellies can be passed on.
Have you decided what's happening after maternity leave ie childcare/working. Tax free childcare is worth looking at as well as the rules on free hours for two and three year olds.

Presents wise there are blogs and f book groups where bargains are shared throughout the year. E.g Christmas bargains year round group on f book.  Or something similar might be in these forums too. This will also come in handy when the children get older and they end up being invited to most of the class b day parties! As long as you don't get too carried away it's possible to have a good bottom drawer stash at a reduced price by the time the next birthday or Christmas comes about.
The good news is you are in a position to get the debts down a bit now to ease the pressure. 

elsien

PCNSlayer said:

Hi @fatbelly, thanks for the reply. Council tax is over 10 months and the car is proper HP, so no balloon payment required in 2 years. 

Fortunately the mortgage is fixed until 2027, hopefully things would have normalised by then! 

As for the savings, the £400 is probably only more like £100-£150 savings and the rest for general expenses such as days out clothing etc. Unfortunately the car has just packed up and the washing machine followed it hence the savings were used for these occurrences!

We are aiming to overpay credit card as much as possible as maternity leave pay finishes in April hence we would be -£616 a month. 

As for food spending @gru@Grumpelstiltskin, we recently had to increase our food allowance from £300 to £450 as found we were often overspending. 

We have a 2 month old who drinks milk like it’s water so this has added an extra £70 odd to the bill hence higher. Unfortunately the dog has veterinary diet food hence the high cost of this! 

I appreciate the fortunate position I am currently in, I don’t want to seem insensitive to others also on their own journey. I have come through the worst of my own debt over the last 7 or so years and the help this forum has provided is invaluable! 

I still think I can do better hence the post so thank you both for the early replies!

If you’re having to dip into savings for days out, general spending and clothes, then your SOA isn’t accurate because that should be covered by the headings already in there.
Have you gone back and checked what are you are actually spending? 

The reason I ask is that most of my clothes come from charity shops, but when I added up the total it’s a heck of a sight more than I realised. I think I’d got into the mindset that they’re cheap so I can buy without really thinking about it. Which turned out not to be the case. I’m just putting that in there as an example of where spending can get away from you.

Little_bit_taller

Hiya @PCNSlayer. Surely you could knock the HSBC debt on the head? Are you allowed to make overpayment on the car? Is there any benefit to this? 

I would do some projections for your mortgage I.e. working out what you will owe when your deal finishes & see if you can get yourself down to the next bracket so the Apr will be that bit cheaper. Ax savergrant says look to funnelling spare cash in regular savers. First Direct offer 7% (up ro £300 a month) & nationwide 8% (up yo £200 a month). Also First Direct give you £175 for switching.