Gentle advice please on SOA

Scarlet_to_Black

Please can you kind people look at my SOA?

I’ve been completely honest with what I’m spending. I am a single parent of five, age 34, 25, 23, 17 and 14, the last two live at home. Birthdays are a moderate £60-70 each, Xmas £150 each, and this hasn’t changed with inflation for many years! 

Mobile/internet/TV all in contract. Mobiles, I have my two at home kids’ phones to pay for (their dad literally gives the designated Child Maintenance Service amount and NOTHING extra. If the kids ask for anything, he says he gives me enough every month) so I cover pocket money for the younger two as well at a moderate £20 a month but they do occasionally need stuff throughout the month but are generally very good at not asking for money. My 17-year-old has just got himself a little job between sixth form hours, so that’s some pressure off but I wouldn’t have him paying for clothes, etc, yet with him being in sixth form still.  I’ve included in ‘clothing’ school uniforms and sixth form attire too. 

I know grocery looks a lot but I genuinely spend that in Aldi. Food is so expensive and feeding two teenagers is ridiculous. I’ve rationed the amount of sausages even 🤣🫣 and my son has started a health kick and wants protein, £££! 

I have two shih tzu dogs and three cockatiels. I don’t go out and I’ve given up alcohol for good four months ago’, but I do have my little caravan (£4k listed in assets) that I pay £100 a month for on seasonal pitch and this is the only thing that keeps me sane.  At the moment I’ve also got a storage plot at £50 a month but I’m making a decision on what to do with this once I know what’s happening with the seasonal as new owner is taking over in September.  I cannot stress enough how important this is for my mental health…please don’t make me get rid! 🫣🙏 I’ve only ever holidayed in my van since 2022, so no other holiday travel expenses. My car is a 2016 KIA Sportage and it has a service plan and warranty and is generally reasonable to run and reliable. I need it in case I need to tow the van off site, so don’t want to downgrade and think it would be false economy as it’s so reliable and pretty economical. 

All debts have defaulted apart from Next. I paid the Sainsbury’s one to Advantis £18.50 (!) a few days ago as they are absolutely hounding me. Not heard from any of the others yet on who to pay apart from NW but that’s all with ombudsman. 

Any more observations, fire away, but please be gentle! 

font=courier new][b]Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet[/b][b]

 

Household Information[/b]

Number of adults in household........... 1

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

Number of cars owned.................... 1[b]

 

Monthly Income Details[/b]

Monthly income after tax................ 1888.06

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

Benefits................................ 546.75

Other income............................ 618.75[b]

Total monthly income.................... 3053.56[/b][b]

 

Monthly Expense Details[/b]

Mortgage................................ 450.8

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

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

Management charge (leasehold property).. 0

Council tax............................. 126

Electricity............................. 116.03

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

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

Water rates............................. 48.3

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

Mobile phone............................ 79.03

TV Licence.............................. 14.54

Satellite/Cable TV...................... 63

Internet Services....................... 49.99

Groceries etc. ......................... 650

Clothing................................ 150

Petrol/diesel........................... 95

Road tax................................ 3.06

Car Insurance........................... 36.33

Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 60.02

Car parking............................. 45

Other travel............................ 23

Childcare/nursery....................... 0

Other child related expenses............ 215

Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 64.71

Pet insurance/vet bills................. 110

Buildings insurance..................... 25.02

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

Life assurance ......................... 22.67

Other insurance......................... 12.5

Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 125

Haircuts................................ 83

Entertainment........................... 50

Holiday................................. 150

Emergency fund.......................... 100[b]

Total monthly expenses.................. 2968[/b]

[b]

 

Assets[/b]

Cash.................................... 200

House value (Gross)..................... 250000

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

Car(s).................................. 8000

Other assets............................ 4000[b]

Total Assets............................ 262200[/b]

[b]

 

Secured & HP Debts[/b]

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

Mortgage...................... 69268....(450.8)....0[b]

Total secured & HP debts...... 69268.....-.........-   [/b]

 

[b]Unsecured Debts[/b]

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

NatWest Credit Card............4273......0.........0

NatWest Credit Card ...........3289......0.........0

NatWest Loan ..................12946.....0.........0

Next Directory ................210.81....0.........0

Sainsburys Loan................2768......0.........0

PayPal Credit..................2879......0.........0

Lloyds Credit Card.............6711......0.........0

NatWest Loan ..................9301......0.........0[b]

Total unsecured debts..........42377.81..0.........-  [/b]

 

[b]

Monthly Budget Summary[/b]

Total monthly income.................... 3,053.56

Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,968

Available for debt repayments........... 85.56

Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 0[b]

Amount left after debt repayments....... 85.56[/b]

 

[b]Personal Balance Sheet Summary[/b]

Total assets (things you own)........... 262,200

Total HP & Secured debt................. -69,268

Total Unsecured debt.................... -42,377.81[b]

Net Assets.............................. 150,554.19[/b]

 

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

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

 

 

 

Grumpelstiltskin

You need your monthly repayments and interest rates on your debts to give us the full  picture, and block any phone numbers, ignore texts and E Mails and don't fall into the trap of paying money to the ones who shout the loudest, you should threat all your creditors equally.

RAS

You've got a situation where you're spending all your income and have very little to contribute to some very high debts. So you need to cut back on your spends, even if you don't want to.

Of more concern is that your 4th child is 17 now. So when he finishes school, you are going to get a large cut in income and simply not be solvent on a monthly basis. If he's hoping to go to university, is he hoping for support from you, if not is he going to be able to contribute to the family budget? 

You're going to have to make some hard decisions and you'd be better starting to make adjustments now so that you don't hit the wall hard.

fatbelly

First thing is to move all banking to somewhere where you don't have debts.

Your good points are a decent income, low mortgage, all debts nonpriority, car should be good for a few years

Difficult points are very little surplus and benefit income reducing.

You seem to have some complaints in with FOS. Definitely a good thing to be doing

You also know that some of those expenditure items are high and every one needs to be looked at.

Short term, get used to shouty letters from creditors and understand that making payments only encourages more of the same

Longer term, you will need a dmp or IVA. Either way,  you could do with a stable situation and 3-figure surplus before starting

Emmia

Mobile phone, clothing and satellite TV all seem high and in the case of the latter two unnecessary.

The present budget and entertainment could be trimmed... And possibly haircuts.

What are your child related expenses of £215 a month?

ManyWays

No one will tell you you HAVE e to do anything. But you have a stack load of debt and almost no spare income at all to pay monthly to it on that SoA. So something has to change. It's up to you to decide what the least painful changes are. 

This is made the more urgent by the fact your benefits will reduce next year when son is over 18. How much is he making in his part time job? 

The groceries expenditure looks reasonable to me (but do Aldi sausages actually have much protein in them? Have look at beans and pulses for healthy and low cost protein. Say No to expensive protein drinks.)

I think you need to tell the older kids that presents are dropping to £20 max for xmas and the same for birthday. 

Also make a resolution about no more pets. 

Are you getting UC? If you are, look at changing to a social tariff  for broadband, you can normally change whicle you are still in contract. https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/saving-money/social-tariffs

I would sell the caravan to give you an emergency fund, so you can drop the emergency fund line down to say £30  and that will also lose the £150 monthly costs. Sorry. It is the only simple big improvement you can make. 

Emmia

And if you don't have the caravan, you could potentially sell the car and buy something less expensive.

Could the (some of) pets be rehomed or given up? I know rescues are overwhelmed with pets that people have given up as they're not affordable - and I appreciate they're probably part of your family so it's a nuclear option.

fatbelly

If the elder three are definitely resident elsewhere you should be getting a single adult discount on your council tax.

You could argue that it should be backdated to whenever you became the sole adult

https://appealsearch.valuationtribunal.gov.uk/Home/Download?ApAppealNumber=VT0001440637

You are paying around £10 per week on car parking. Is it unavoidable? Not somewhere near where you could park and walk?

Scarlet_to_Black

Grumpelstiltskin said:

You need your monthly repayments and interest rates on your debts to give us the full  picture, and block any phone numbers, ignore texts and E Mails and don't fall into the trap of paying money to the ones who shout the loudest, you should threat all your creditors equally.

I haven’t added them as all have defaulted and I don’t know them any more and no interest? 

gwynlas

Given that your older children have left would it be possible for you to take in a lodger either Mon-Fri or full time, this would give you additional tax free income?

Scarlet_to_Black

fatbelly said:

First thing is to move all banking to somewhere where you don't have debts.

Your good points are a decent income, low mortgage, all debts nonpriority, car should be good for a few years

Difficult points are very little surplus and benefit income reducing.

You seem to have some complaints in with FOS. Definitely a good thing to be doing

You also know that some of those expenditure items are high and every one needs to be looked at.

Short term, get used to shouty letters from creditors and understand that making payments only encourages more of the same

Longer term, you will need a dmp or IVA. Either way,  you could do with a stable situation and 3-figure surplus before starting

Banking I have with Monzo and Starling. I haven’t paid towards any debts since February so most have defaulted. I’m just waiting to know who to pay and will set up standing orders on my self-managed DMP. Hence I paid the Sainsbury’s to Advantis which has defaulted and I logged online and sent a payment.  I don’t have details for any of the others, so haven’t started payments yet. 

(You replied in my recent post (thank you) and suggested the SOA and possibly trying to get write off once my formal psych diagnosis is back). 

I know some of the totals are high so I think I can try to reduce clothing, groceries a bit, car parking gets taken out of my wages but I added some on for trips to the shops etc!  Kids Xmas presents I do only give the older ones about £80, but they’ll understand if I reduce this further; they probably have more surplus cash than I do! 

I think I was trying to do a generous SOA with the opportunity then to pay a smaller amount to debts and try and build up a fighting fund.  I may have over egged some bits too much 🫣🤪