Gentle advice please on SOA

Grumpelstiltskin

The problem is you only show £85 to pay debts of £42K. 

If you are going to pay when you get defaults you need to work out the % to pay each one, to make it fair.

Scarlet_to_Black

Emmia said:

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?

Mobile phone includes £31.00 for payment for an iPhone that I’m tied into, and three SIM only for me and the two youngest and £10.99 phone insurance because my ADHD means I’m highly likely to misplace my phone! 

Satellite TV is on contract until August 2026. I can definitely cut clothing down, the kids do sometimes buy their own and some of the Xmas presents budget goes on clothes now they are older. 

Again, I think I was trying to do a reasonable yet overgenerous SOA for the benefit of any creditors when actually I can shave some of it by a good amount. I would then have a surplus to add to emergency fund whilst keeping creditors happy. My mistake! 

Scarlet_to_Black

fatbelly said:

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?

I do get single person discount and have for many years now It’s still £126 unfortunately! 

Scarlet_to_Black

ManyWays said:

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. 

I’ve already said no to the protein drinks, he’s set up his own subscription so that’s good!  He’s learning about healthy eating so hopefully the lower cost protein will make a difference! I definitely think I can cut groceries a bit. 

I can’t sell the caravan. I know that this might leave people shaking their head but I have such a stressful job that I really do reach breaking point (I also suffer anxiety/ ADHD) and just going to spend some solitary time has rescued my mental health on many occasions and allowed me to gain perspective and carry on at work. The cost will be £100 by September, which I personally think is not a huge amount as it’s my only holiday during the year and is so beneficial. 

I will trim other bits though from my budget to allow me to keep this, particularly when the contracts are all ended for the TV etc. 🙏

Scarlet_to_Black

Emmia said:

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.

I can’t rehome the dogs. My kids would be devastated, as would I 🥹. There will definitely be no more pets though!

Grumpelstiltskin

If your older kids would be devastated if you got rid of the dogs ask them if they would be prepared to pay food and vet bills for them.

Smudgeismydog

As others have noted, you don’t have much left over after your expenses and your income is going to reduce shortly.

From looking at your SOA, I noted the following;

- pocket money: I stopped paying it to my 2 kids after their GCSEs and told them that they would need a summer/weekend job (both stayed on at school for A Levels and kept their jobs)
- clothes: you can find some great clothes on Vinted to reduce this cost, and while you are on there, do any of you have anything you can sell?
- hairdressers: that looks quite high, can you go longer between cuts? 

- mobile phone is high, although you have noted you are in contract on yours, when does this end?
- grocery bill is high, batch cook and meal plan with the kids to reduce this
- satellite; sorry but I just don’t think you can afford this for the time being
- Christmas & birthday budget needs to be reduced. We’ve moved to making a real effort in spending time to do something together, instead of buying ‘stuff’, or even try a family secret Santa with an agreed spend but only 1 person to buy for
- £200pm for entertainment and holidays is currently unaffordable, unless you can increase your income and decrease your expenditure 

I can see you are trying to put money away for your rainy day fund, this is really important as life happens, and you will feel so much better knowing you have available funds for an emergency, so please keep prioritising this.

Well done for taking the first steps, you can do this

Scarlet_to_Black

Grumpelstiltskin said:

The problem is you only show £85 to pay debts of £42K. 

If you are going to pay when you get defaults you need to work out the % to pay each one, to make it fair.

I think I can definitely trim the SOA. I think I should have done the ungenerous version for you guys. 

I reckon I could definitely put more to the debts but keep this to a limit that lets me save each month in emergency fund. I’m not sure how I work out the percentage to the creditors though? Is there a calculator somewhere that I can input amounts or is this something I should be able to calculate?! 🫣🤪

Emmia

Scarlet_to_Black said:

Emmia said:

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.

I can’t rehome the dogs. My kids would be devastated, as would I 🥹. There will definitely be no more pets though!

If you had to choose between the caravan and the dogs, which would it be? I'm sorry if it seems cruel, but these are both in some ways "luxuries" costing you money which you don't really have.

Grumpelstiltskin

How to work out how much to pay, you don't have to do this to the penny.

Say you owed £40K in total. 
1) £20K
2) £10K
3) £5K
4 ) £2K
5) £1K
6) £1K
7) £1K

You would pay 1 20/40 ( makes 1/2 )
 2 10/40 (makes 1/4 )
3 5/40 (makes 1/8 )
4 2/40  (makes 1/20 )
5, 6, 7 1/40 ( makes 1/40 each )

Try it on a piece of paper to give yourself an idea.