StressedSteph's SOA & Debt Diary

StressedSteph

Hi all

Well.....We are in abit of a mess . In 2004 I packed my job in to have a baby and then another one in 2006 :rolleyes: . We planned to really cut back once I packed in work, but it never really happened and have been over-spending, begging & borrowing money from Credit cards, loans etc ever since.

Well it came to a head November when I realised that I had'nt saved enough money to pay the Tax bill in January

I decided that it was time to take stock and REALLY cut back drastically to get us out of a fix. I think if we carried on as we were then by the end of 2008 we would be losing our home. Hubby is selfemployed and work could dissappear at any time which scares me to death and keeps me awake at 3 in the morning. This is another definate reason why we need to reduce our cost of living asap.

Currently this is our SOA

A&L Mortgage £125,000 - £820pm (now spread over 30years)
A&L Loan £15,000 - 360pm (removed PPI as usless being selfemployed)
MINT cc £4200 - £150pm
EGG cc £4000 - £150pm (used to pay that unexpected tax bill )
Overdraft we never seem to climb out off £2500
Catalogue £565 - £100pm
Home phone £32 (included internet connection)
Gas / Electric & Water £127 (Uswitch'd with SEC which is cheapest)
Tax (saving up for next payment in July £400)
Healthcare £22 Cheap healthcare for 2 adults / 2 children CANCELLED
Sky & Tv License £45 (reduced SKY to £35 hubby won't give up Sports:mad: )
Car & Works Van Insurance £105 (Car 35 / Van £70)
Council Tax £105
Food £200
Mobiles x 2 £50 (both got 12months contract left that can't get out of)
Diesel x 2 £175
House Insurance £31
Life Insurance £13
Lottery £9 (can't bring myself to cancel this :rolleyes: )

TOTAL Income £3,611.00
TOTAL Expenses £2,906.00 Ammended

= £705 per month left / £176.50pw

Need to sort out the van insurance as that is Way too high. It does'nt run out till May but new insurance is only £23 pm so will call them to see if cancelling this policy is cost effective or not.

Apart from cutting down on shopping & fuel now, and misc spending, I can't really see where I can reduce the bills anymore.

I can't really get a part-time job as I use my tax allowance on hubbies business as i do his accounts. I never see any wages, but it reduces his tax bill. We also get Tax credits, so I feel any money I earn will be taxed straight away and then I will also lose some Tax credit too. Abit stuck really.

If anyone has any tips on something I may have missed, then PLEASE let me know.

Lucy1982_2

Now you are saying that you have £600 odd left over, but I'm betting that you never see this money?

try keeping a spending diary, list everything you spend as you can then see where you are spending un-necessarily or where you can cut back. but with that amount available to you, you could beat your debt really well.

Try having a look at the snowball debt calculator as it will give you an idea of what a change that money could make - http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx?country=uk

Good luck, hopefully more people will be along soon with more advice

x

linniestorm

StressedSteph wrote: »

Currently this is our SOA

A&L Mortgage £125,000 - £820pm (now spread over 30years)
A&L Loan £15,000 - 360pm (removed PPI as usless being selfemployed)
MINT cc £4200 - £200pm
EGG cc £4000 (used to pay that unexpected tax bill )
Overdraft we never seem to climb out off £2500
Catalogue £565 - £150pm
Home phone £35 (included internet connection) Could you get your phone and bb through Sky as well if hubby won't give up sports, they do a 3 for £30 I think which even with the sport on top would be cheap than 2x £35!
Gas / Electric & Water £127 (Uswitch'd with SEC which is cheapest)
Tax (saving up for next payment in July £400)
Healthcare £22 Cheap healthcare for 2 adults / 2 children Do you really need this at the moment? There is an NHS out there, which can be a bit rubbish (I know, I work for them!) but can make sure nothing drastic happens while you're getting out of debt, and you can always start up the private stuff again after! If there aren't any particular conditions you need this for, might be worth dumping short term.
Sky & Tv License £45 (reduced SKY to £35 hubby won't give up Sports:mad: ) See above re: phone
Car & Works Van Insurance £105 (Car 35 / Van £70) When you are in a position to change, use quidco! Cashback!
Council Tax £105 Are you paying over 10 months or twelve? Maybe switching to twelve might give you more cash month to month to play with.
Food £300 Again old style board can help you reduce this as you mentioned!
Mobiles x 2 £50 (both got 12months contract left that can't get out of)
Diesel x 2 £175 Check one of the comparison sites to see which is the cheapest station in your area might shave a bit off this?
House Insurance £31 Is this cheapest, check and go through quidco next time you renew?
Life Insurance £11
Lottery £9 (can't bring myself to cancel this :rolleyes: ) My weakness as well I won't say anything about this, as there's something about people in glass houses that comes to mind!

TOTAL Income £3,611.00
TOTAL Expenses £2,945.00

= £666 per month left / £166.50pw

Welcome StressedSteph! Congrats on starting to deal with the debt! Have made some comments in red above, but looks like you're already starting to tackle some of the common stuff, with switching etc. Did you use quidco for that to get some cashback? Might want to consider that if you're switching other stuff! I'm sure others will have some better advice on stuff I haven't noticed!

LittleMissAspie

Do you really need private healthcare? I'd get rid of that.

Could you change your internet connection to a lower speed?

I also wouldn't bother with the lottery.

£650 a month is a lot to have spare though, especially as you are also paying off several debts. Put the £600 towards the one with the biggest interest rate and I think you'll get your debts down in good time.

MissEyre

Welcome! Some great advice already, how do you feel about keeping a spending diary/saving all your receipts and adding them up each week, to see where the money is going? £600 a month is a lot to be disappearing on mystery spends, and it will be more than £600 a month if you make the changes already suggested, so it would great if you could pin this down and start using the cash to get the debts cleared...

PasturesNew

StressedSteph wrote: »

... I decided that it was time to take stock and REALLY cut back drastically to get us out of a fix.

Currently this is our SOA

£127 - Gas / Electric & Water - seems high - might be a £40-50 saving to be made here
£22 - Healthcare - luxury, although to be fair with OH s/emp and with you having so much disposable income it's not worth the risk of cutting it.
£45 - Sky & Tv License £45 (reduced SKY to £35 hubby won't give up Sports) - to be honest, with your disposable income this needn't be dropped right yet (although you DID say "REALLY cut back" in your starting lines.

£300 - Food - a fortune! Should be able to at LEAST halve this.
£9 - Lottery £9 - a tax on the poor, but you've got lots of cash so no need to drop it at the moment (.. but, you DID say "REALLY cut back")

TOTAL Income £3,611.00
TOTAL Expenses £2,945.00

= £666 per month left / £166.50pw

StressedSteph wrote: »

I can't really get a part-time job as I use my tax allowance on hubbies business as i do his accounts. I never see any wages, but it reduces his tax bill. We also get Tax credits, so I feel any money I earn will be taxed straight away and then I will also lose some Tax credit too. Abit stuck really.

Is this just your belief or have you actually checked the sums?

duchy

I think you really do need to identify where that £600 a month is actually going. Maybe put away the debitcards and only draw out cash -somehow it seems to make you think twice when spending real money rather than putting it on plastic. I think a spending diary might help too. If OH is out and about working-is he spending on food-could sandwiches and a flask of soup save a bit there as it all adds up.
Well done on your lightbulb moment. You've taken the biggest and hardest step by posting your SOA.

doodledo_2

Hi and welcome to the board.

You have come to the right place.

I think the first thing you need to do is find out where the £600 spare each month is going as this is a big chunk of cash and a lot of this could be ploughed into clearing debts. Maybe take a look at your bank statements.

Have you got much you can Ebay to raise some quick cash. Baby and kiddie stuff sells really well on Ebay.

Good luck with your journey.

StressedSteph

Thanks so much for your replies all.

Well I have gotten abit frustrated with BT, as Sky will do Broadband the same as what I have with BT for £5pm. Bt are currently charging me £19.99 :eek: .
When I asked to cancel the BT Broadband they claim that I am still in contract till September 08, even though I have been with them for over 3 years?????:mad: . I can reduce my package with them down to £14 pm (still rubbish) but to do this under contract they want £40 to change it :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: It's made me so annoyed.

So I am stuck paying £19.99 for Broadband for most of 2008

I have moved my calls to Sky though as this will save me some money. So at least I have managed something.

I have also cancelled my Extra health insurance as some of you mentioned we do have the NHS and it only pays a percentage of the private health costs, and we are so broke now we could'nt afford to pay the extra anyway.

Rang the Van insurance people, but they want a further £348 to cancel the policy and it only has until May to run so have to wait that out also.

The house insurance was renewed automatically in October, so stuck there also.

I do agree though, even though I have that disposable money on paper, I never see it. We have been suckers for buying things off Ebay, which is officially banned in our house now. I also often over-spend on the food bill and we used to have a indian takeway every Friday night which was £100 pm gone straight away.

It's not happening anymore.

StressedSteph

Wow PasturesNew is £300 alot on food Per month for 2adults / 2 children? I am REALLY going to try and cut this down though as I feel it is one of the main areas left to tackle. I am trying £75 per week to start with and will try to get it down to £50per week. I must look at the food cost cutting threads to get some ideas. The kids drink a pint of milk per day and the little one is still in nappies. It really adds up.

Doodledo - I have a tonne of kids toys to can Ebay, will make a change making money, rather than spending it on Ebay.

Thanks for all the ideas xxx

bank_of_slate

Hi Steph,
I really would ditch the lottery!
It's a poor man's pipe dream
£9 per month x 12 = £108
...Linda xx