Gentle advice please on SOA

fatbelly

Scarlet_to_Black said:

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 🫣🤪

I hadn't twigged. Combination of multiple threads and me not checking. There's a plan in there. It's going to be a bit of a journey but you'll get there 

Scarlet_to_Black

fatbelly said:

Scarlet_to_Black said:

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 🫣🤪

I hadn't twigged. Combination of multiple threads and me not checking. There's a plan in there. It's going to be a bit of a journey but you'll get there 

Thank you for your kindness 🙏🥰

Scarlet_to_Black

Grumpelstiltskin said:

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.

Thank you 🙏. I also asked ChatGPT and it gave me numbers for £150 debt repayments split which is great:  I’m sure I can manage £150 and still save into an emergency fund. It did allocate 75p though to the Next, so think I’ll have to increase that one a bit 😳

I also put £50 a month into Help to Save so will have that and the healthy government bonus by February 2026. 

katsu

This 10.99 a month insurance. What about buying a tracker like a tile/samsung tracket/air tag for apple? Be willing to own a cheap handset from CEX if its damaged/lost? You are spending 130 ish a year on this.

Go sim only on anything not in contract and call the satellite TV and ask what they can do to help you. Explain that you can't pay all your debts so need to cancel/ reduce. 

Scarlet_to_Black

katsu said:

This 10.99 a month insurance. What about buying a tracker like a tile/samsung tracket/air tag for apple? Be willing to own a cheap handset from CEX if its damaged/lost? You are spending 130 ish a year on this.

Go sim only on anything not in contract and call the satellite TV and ask what they can do to help you. Explain that you can't pay all your debts so need to cancel/ reduce. 

Everything is SIM only (£11 each unlimited everything).  I did try to stop the Sky TV package back in January or February but they said there was nothing they could do. I might try again though. If I say I’m going to have to default unless they do something maybe they’ll take pity 🫣

I don’t know anything about Trackers or AirTags. I’ll look into it. However, I’m the scatty, find your phone in the washing machine kind of person so I need something. I’m paying off the IPhone at £31.00 per month and can’t get out of that and there is still a good while to go, so rather than lose the phone and buy a crap handset, but still be paying it off, I thought the £10.99 accident/loss Apple cover was worth it.  

fatbelly

Read this before you phone Sky

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/broadband-and-tv/digital-tv-deals/#existing

katsu

What about your contents insurance? I bet you're phone doesn't cost you an extra 130 a year on the contents insurance.

Scarlet_to_Black

katsu said:

What about your contents insurance? I bet you're phone doesn't cost you an extra 130 a year on the contents insurance.

I never thought of that to be fair 🤣. I’ll look into it! 

Scarlet_to_Black

fatbelly said:

Read this before you phone Sky

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/broadband-and-tv/digital-tv-deals/#existing

Problem is I’m in contract until August 2026?!

Scarlet_to_Black

Sorry, I missed this earlier. Just re-reading the thread now…

Smudgeismydog said:

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)

Ive only just started giving them pocket money 😬. But I think my son’s will stop now he has his little job. 

- 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?

I do buy and sell on Vinted and this is my go to for anything needed. Failing that, Primark or supermarket only. I’ve done a generous estimate for ‘creditor’ SOA, so I can cut this down 

- hairdressers: that looks quite high, can you go longer between cuts? 

My maths is rubbish - this is for the three of us and I go 6-8 weeks, my son probably 8 weeks and my daughter even more infrequent with her long hair so I’ll reduce this 

- mobile phone is high, although you have noted you are in contract on yours, when does this end?

Not in contract, all three sim only unlimited everything, £11 a month each. But this amount included £31 repayment to Sky for my IPhone I purchased on credit and I can’t reduce this and £10.99 insurance because I am very likely to lose my phone with my ADHD. I will look into adding to the contents insurance though as suggested by someone else 
 
- grocery bill is high, batch cook and meal plan with the kids to reduce this

I can probably reduce this a bit 

- satellite; sorry but I just don’t think you can afford this for the time being

Unfortunately, in contract until August 2026. I’ve tried to stop this in February but the answer from Sky was no 🫣

- 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

I will look into this. I don’t spend as much on the older kids and only my mum to buy for then the odd friend’s birthdays, etc

- £200pm for entertainment and holidays is currently unaffordable, unless you can increase your income and decrease your expenditure 

I added £50 for entertainment to bump up the SOA. I don’t go out, don’t drink alcohol or smoke, the only holiday is in my van a weekend or two a month then my six weeks annual leave are spent there, so I think the £100 a month for the van (£50 storage will be cancelled soon) is actually pretty reasonable as it is quite literally my sanity and only enjoyment in a life of being a single parent with a stressful full-time job

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.

I promise I will do this. I’ve religiously added £50 to my Help to Save since February and after an expensive few months I’ll be setting up standing orders for my defaulted debts (all but Next currently and the NW ones with ombudsman as he found just the higher loan to be unaffordable so I escalated) and adding to an emergency savings pot each month

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

Thank you 🙏 and also for taking the time to help me. I will do another SOA with more realistic figures for my own benefit so I know exactly where I stand, taking on board all points raised in this thread, but will keep debt repayments around £150-£180, which I know I can manage.

I feel better having it organised and in black and white, even if some of the harsher comments such as rehoming the dogs was upsetting (an absolute red line I wouldn’t cross and would rather live in a tent 🥲). That would be like me and the children were being punished for my predicament, which has been made worse by my ADHD and bereavement of my lovely dad who was such a help to me with budgeting and finance matters. I’m doing my best to try to address the mess and unfortunately my creditors may get low payments until I can put more money towards it in the future (inheritance, god forbid, or downsizing, or lottery win!).