Time to 'fess up! (Un)Proudly Presenting my SOA...

Will_I_ever_learn?

Hi All,


This is my SOS to all you lifesavers out there! I have been in a LBM throughout January, although I knew things had to change before, but decided to bury my head rather than ruin Christmas. Our household is me and my OH (both late 20's), our 3 year old daughter and 2 cats.


I should explain that a lot of my debt is due to major house renovation, but just as much is due to my OH and I having lived beyond our means since we started working! Ten years later and we owe scary sums. However, there still needs to be some spending on the house (the garden is quite literally a building site), but I'm aiming to do this by liquidating any assets (e-bay!).

Probably doesn't need saying, but we are also working v.v.hard to increase our earnings and have both just secured promotions of one sort or another. Our incomes should rise a bit further this year and I believe that this very much part of reaching our DF goal! (one day...)


Any advise is very welcome, even if it might be uncomfortable! This post is to help my husband also, as his LBM hasn't come to a head yet and also when he does look at the facts he tends to react badly :mad: and cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel...


I know this is all my fault, but I want to change and I can!


Below is my SOA


Monthly Income
My Monthly Net Pay £950.00 to £1,175.00
My additional Monthly Net Pay £185.00
OH Monthly Net Pay £1,293.00
Childcare Vouchers £486.00
Child Tax Credit £42.90
Child Benefit £72.40
Total = £3,029.30 to £3,254.30

Monthly Expenditure
Mortgage (I/O) £880.00
Secured Loan (Picture) £342.73
Council Tax (£1,366.57 annual) £136.60
Water (metered) £30.00
Electric £30.00
Gas (pre-payment card) £40.00
TV Licence £11.29
BT Telephone Line £11.57
Sky TV, broadband and phone c.£25.00
Mobile (just dropped tariff from £30) £20.00
Car insurance £39.99 - selling car so this will go
Petrol £40.00 - selling car so this will go
Rail Travel £80.00
Childcare - average (taking into account Gvnt Funding) £517.35
NSPCC £5.00
Life Assurance £18.09
Income Protection £13.50 (have just written to them to cancel, as work is stable and I can't afford it!)
Home Insurance £23.00
Storage Garage (will be going soon hopefully) £30.00
Groceries, take-outs, coffee - APPROX (need to do a spending diary to be sure) £600.00

A&L Credit Card £11.91
A&L Current Account Overdraft - £0 now, but often up to limit
Abbey Credit Card £92.70
Barclays Credit Card £0.00
Egg Credit Card £0.00
GE Edge Credit Card £44.00
GE Laura Ashley Credit Card £20.30
GE Money Credit Card £50.24
Halifax Credit Card £0.00
HSBC Credit Card £0.00
Ikea Store Card £30.79
MBNA Credit Card £0.00
Next Store Card £58.71
Tesco Credit Card £108.00
Virgin Credit Card £148.83
Total Outgoings = £3,459.60 (updated, thanks Lynzpower)

Debt Balances, Balance, APR, Credit Limit
A&L Credit Card, £4,417.72, 15.90%, £4,500.00
A&L Current Account Overdraft, £0.00, -, -
Abbey Credit Card, £4,641.25, 15.90%, £8,000.00
Barclays Credit Card, £0.00, 14.90%, £2,300.00
Egg Credit Card, £0.00, 16.90%, £0.00
GE Edge Credit Card, £198.30, 29.90%, £900.00
GE Laura Ashley Credit Card, £507.39, 29.90%, £1,250.00
GE Money Credit Card, £2,020.06, 15.90%, £625.00
Halifax Credit Card, £0.00, 19.52%, £1,250.00
HSBC Credit Card, £0.00, 15.90%, £1,500.00
Ikea Store Card, £615.77, 12.90%, £950.00
MBNA Credit Card, £7,600.58, 15.90%, £7,800.00
Next Store Card, £476.00, 26.49%, £1,500.00
Tesco Credit Card, £157.29, 17.47%, £3,500.00
Virgin Credit Card, £6,615.08, 27.90%, £6,300.00
Unsecured Debts Sub Total = £27,249.44

Picture Secured Loan, £38,000.00, 8.40%, 24.5 Years remaining
Abbey Mortgage *Interest Only*, £188,000.00, c.6.00%, 24 Years remaining
Total Debts = £253,249.44

I have listed all CC, some are new and I will be completing B/T's in the next couple of days to reduce the debt on the high APR ones.

I have also snowballed all my CC debts and.... my DFD is currently January 2021 :eek: or 155 months away :eek: . I am hoping to switch to a repayment mortgage when I hit 35 (5.5 years away), but I absolutely want to do this by the time I reach 40!!


Many Thanks!

tifnstav

i'm not an expert on SOAs but i personally wouldn't have included the mortgage and secured loan in my debt list.

These are priority debts which need to be paid each month cos your home depends on it but I think psychologically you would feel better if your balance of £253000 was reduced to exclude at least your mortgage - unless you want to include it in your snowball of course.

you've got quite a few cards with nil balances, is there any balances on high aprs that you could move over to the nil balance cards for lower aprs?

i'll have another scoot at what you've put and see if i have any more thoughts.

Triker

Ooooooh you know what I'm going to say don't you

Ahem well get yourself over to the oldstyle board and let's get those £600 grocery bills cut down eh.

My top tips are to use a breadmaker and a slowcooker and I guarantee you won't spend so much.

Bagpuss741

£600 on groceries and take out is a lot, head over to the old style board
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33 Lots of gorgeous recipes and helful hints and tips to reduce food and cleaning costs. Also the spending diary is a fab idea, I keep one and it's surprising to see where all the money goes. Good luck with your DFW journey

Triker

Bagpuss741 wrote: »

£600 on groceries and take out is a lot, head over to the old style board
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=33 Lots of gorgeous recipes and helful hints and tips to reduce food and cleaning costs. Also the spending diary is a fab idea, I keep one and it's surprising to see where all the money goes. Good luck with your DFW journey

Great minds eh?:D

Bagpuss741

Great minds think alike Triker:D

tifnstav

sorry, i've just read that you're intending to move balances to cards with lower aprs - great minds think alike and all that.

also, cancel the NSPCC for now, charity begins at home! once you are debt free you may be in a position to increase to £10 to make up for your time off so you don't need to feel guilty about this.

and £600 is alot for groceries and bits and bobs, although there are only two of us in our house we manage on around £115 to get a huuuuuuge shop once every 6 weeks, i meal plan like crazy and we get our fruit and veg from the market (its much nicer and you eat seasonally so get a wider range in your diet).

try to look at the demotivator (used this to check various bits and bobs and now we no longer buy daily papers, saving about £135 a year), as well as the downshift challenge when buying groceries (buying branded instead of finest etc, save a fortune and its often made in same factories anyway).

i just mainly want to say good luck and i hope you get your OH on board - I love it when my OH grabs a packet of value baked beans! and its great to be working as a team to get debt free.

Bagpuss741

Are you reading my mind:eek: :eek:

Triker

Bagpuss741 wrote: »

Are you reading my mind:eek: :eek:

I was going to ask if you were following me?;)

tifnstav

check out how many of us said "great minds"!

thats spooooky!

Bagpuss741

tifnstav wrote: »

check out how many of us said "great minds"!

thats spooooky!

That's because the DFW ethos has been well and truly drummed into us:rotfl: :rotfl: