My first SOA, all ideas welcome

mstopham

Well I have put together my SOA.

A few points to note. The Unsecured Loans are on lower rates than the credit cards and I am figuring I will have these repaid before I have repaid my credit cards hence not a massive amount of detail there.

I share my rented house and my housemate pays half to rent and bills. (Other income 400). Part of his agreement to this is having Sky Sports and Movies. That with all phone calls and broadband are included in the bill is why it is 60. We live in a new estate that doesn't have cable installed. (I was on NTL before moving and couldn't take it with me)

The Electric and Gas are with SP and joint costs. I am in the process of getting this sorted as I am showing as £255 in credit and have worked out my actual 12 month usage as £60 a month. I wasn't providing meter readings until recently so hopefully should get a refund and a lower monthly cost there soon.

I am intending on putting all surplus cash onto my credit cards. I have an account setup on www.whatsthecost.com for managing these and which to pay first etc.

Some limitations. Due to the debt amount and range of cards etc I don't feel I am in a position to get any further cards at 0% etc.

I am paying approximately £75 in interest on my credit cards at the moment but deals run at the end of the year.

What I am after: Suggestions on where I can save money on the expenses.
Any ideas for making extra cash around a full time job (I have started MS already though that is slow going currently).

Look forward to hearing any thoughts ideas.

Anything you want clarifying for an idea or suggestion let me know!

Monthly income after tax................ 1590
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Other income............................ 400
Total monthly income.................... 1990

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Rent.................................... 525
Council tax............................. 85
Electricity............................. 82
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 22
Telephone (land line)................... 11
Mobile phone............................ 37
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 60
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 250
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 90
Road tax................................ 3
Car Insurance........................... 30
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 10
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 50
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1312



Credit Cards
Description Debt. Monthly
Natwest CC 3827 73
IF CC 5289 107
A&L CC 4489 5
Mint CC 2325 53
Tesco CC 1670 50
HSBC CC 831 20

Total Credit Card debt 18431 308

Unsecured Loans

Hitachi 125 p/m Expires March 09
A+L 168 p/m Expires June 11
Student Loan 155 p/m Deferred however will start May 09
Total Unsecured Loan 293 p/m

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1990
Expenses (including debts)....... 1312+308+293 = 1913
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 77

becky_rtw

H mstopham,

Welcome! I'm not an expert at this money saving yet, but the first thing that grabs me is your grocery's bill - how many people are you feeding for £250 a month? Take a trip over the old style boards and see if you can cut down - I've managed to halve mine from £250 to £125 a month!

Also you might want to check out spendingdiary - its great to help you keep track of all those little bits that add up throughout the month.

I'm sure more people will be along soon with loads of other suggestions.

phildamb

mstopham wrote: »

Well I have put together my SOA.

A few points to note. The Unsecured Loans are on lower rates than the credit cards and I am figuring I will have these repaid before I have repaid my credit cards hence not a massive amount of detail there.

I share my rented house and my housemate pays half to rent and bills. (Other income 400). Part of his agreement to this is having Sky Sports and Movies. That with all phone calls and broadband are included in the bill is why it is 60. We live in a new estate that doesn't have cable installed. (I was on NTL before moving and couldn't take it with me)

The Electric and Gas are with SP and joint costs. I am in the process of getting this sorted as I am showing as £255 in credit and have worked out my actual 12 month usage as £60 a month. I wasn't providing meter readings until recently so hopefully should get a refund and a lower monthly cost there soon.

I am intending on putting all surplus cash onto my credit cards. I have an account setup on www.whatsthecost.com for managing these and which to pay first etc.

Some limitations. Due to the debt amount and range of cards etc I don't feel I am in a position to get any further cards at 0% etc.

I am paying approximately £75 in interest on my credit cards at the moment but deals run at the end of the year.

What I am after: Suggestions on where I can save money on the expenses.
Any ideas for making extra cash around a full time job (I have started MS already though that is slow going currently).

Look forward to hearing any thoughts ideas.

Anything you want clarifying for an idea or suggestion let me know!

Monthly income after tax................ 1590
Partners monthly income after tax....... 0
Other income............................ 400
Total monthly income.................... 1990

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 0
Rent.................................... 525
Council tax............................. 85 - Is this the split amount?
Electricity............................. 82
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 22
Telephone (land line)................... 11
Mobile phone............................ 37 - May be able to get this down if you upto 12 months.
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 60
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 250 - If this is just for you then this is very high.
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 90 - Do you have a points reward card? (ie shell)
Road tax................................ 3
Car Insurance........................... 30
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 10 - Get a quote with the AA surprisingly cheap.
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 10 - What is this for?
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 50 - Can you be more specific, cinema etc..
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 1312



Credit Cards
Description Debt. Monthly
Natwest CC 3827 73
IF CC 5289 107
A&L CC 4489 5
Mint CC 2325 53
Tesco CC 1670 50
HSBC CC 831 20

Total Credit Card debt 18431 308

Unsecured Loans

Hitachi 125 p/m Expires March 09
A+L 168 p/m Expires June 11
Student Loan 155 p/m Deferred however will start May 09
Total Unsecured Loan 293 p/m

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 1990
Expenses (including debts)....... 1312+308+293 = 1913
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ 77

If you can get the surplus to over £100 a month that would make it easier for you to deal with "surprises" such as a jump in fuel prices or energy prices. Have a look at the highlighted bits. Do you budget strictly to or just spend as you need to?

mstopham

Thanks for the advice! The £250 might seem a bit steep, I should try and qualify this a bit.

I am coming from a senario where a few months ago I was going out a lot and probably spending in the region of £6-800 on groceries (including take away) and entertainment.

I have managed to reduce this to the occasional trip to the pub with friends and instead have a few weekend drinks at home. I wasn't sure weather this expense would be groceries or entertainment.

becky_rtw

I understand - this used to my problem as well! I was frittering away about £500 a month on eating out/takeaways/entertainment.

I've found meal planning and taking a list to the supermarket really helps. I also do a meal swap deal with some friends i.e. I feed them one night a week at my place, they feed me at theirs another. Okay so its not the same as eating out, but its a pretty good compromise. I always feed them a really cheap (but very tasty meal) so that saves me money too (tee hee).

I also stopped taking money to work and cut my spending immediately by £5 a day! It amazing what you can live without when you have no money on you.

I also wonder about you car expenses - can you get rid of it? Bus, walk, cycle to work? I've never owned a car so I guess I'm addicted to walking everywhere, but when my friends tell me how much they cost each month I feel so much better.

Also your rent seems expensive for a shared house? Could you get somewhere cheaper? Just trying to think of all the options here..

Your surplus isn't very big each month and I suspect most months it doesn't really exist anyway so you'll need to look at ways of cutting back or earning more if you want to pay off your debts as fast as possible.

mstopham

phildamb wrote: »

Council tax............................. 85 - Is this the split amount?
Electricity............................. 82
Gas..................................... 0
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 22
Telephone (land line)................... 11
Mobile phone............................ 37 - May be able to get this down if you upto 12 months.
TV Licence.............................. 12
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 60
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 250 - If this is just for you then this is very high.
Clothing................................ 10
Petrol/diesel........................... 90 - Do you have a points reward card? (ie shell)
Road tax................................ 3
Car Insurance........................... 30
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 0
Contents insurance...................... 10 - Get a quote with the AA surprisingly cheap.
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 10 - What is this for?
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
Haircuts................................ 5
Entertainment........................... 50 - Can you be more specific, cinema etc..

If you can get the surplus to over £100 a month that would make it easier for you to deal with "surprises" such as a jump in fuel prices or energy prices. Have a look at the highlighted bits. Do you budget strictly to or just spend as you need to?

Council tax............................. 85 - Is this the split amount? This is the monthly DD that goes out.
Mobile phone............................ 37 - May be able to get this down if you upto 12 months. Due to the contract I am on (18m from Nov) I can't downgrade tariff untill 22nd August (Have it as an alert on my phone already)
Groceries etc. ......................... 250 - If this is just for you then this is very high.
Entertainment........................... 50 - Can you be more specific, cinema etc.. These 2 are a bit of a mixture as explained in my previous post. I could probably make use of a spending diary though. I buy some things like tinned food in bulk over several months. Some is bought daily like lunch.
Petrol/diesel........................... 90 - Do you have a points reward card? (ie shell) No. I usually get diesel at ASDA though this depends on what the petrolprices weekly email says is the cheapest.
Contents insurance...................... 10 - Get a quote with the AA surprisingly cheap. I signed up with homelet for £119 for a year in April. I will have to find my rental conditions as they put forward homelet. Might just be I have to have contents cover so can switch.
Other insurance......................... 10 - What is this for? I have a top up insurance on the car so I get its full purchase value (£10k) should anything happen that the main car insurance would not cover beyond.

I have only recently started controlling my spending. I do not budget mega strictly, what I do currently is take the cash my housemate gives me and have that as my grocery/entertainment and diesel budget. Prior to last month I was spending this, putting diesel on my CC's and still needing to draw out cash.

I have in a way budgeted in that I give myself £4 a day to spend and this is to include lunch, drinks, snacks etc. I have not done a big grocery shop since starting this either so that makes it difficult to know exactly what to put in the groceries field.

mstopham

becky_rtw wrote: »

I understand - this used to my problem as well! I was frittering away about £500 a month on eating out/takeaways/entertainment.

I've found meal planning and taking a list to the supermarket really helps. I also do a meal swap deal with some friends i.e. I feed them one night a week at my place, they feed me at theirs another. Okay so its not the same as eating out, but its a pretty good compromise. I always feed them a really cheap (but very tasty meal) so that saves me money too (tee hee).

I also stopped taking money to work and cut my spending immediately by £5 a day! It amazing what you can live without when you have no money on you.

I also wonder about you car expenses - can you get rid of it? Bus, walk, cycle to work? I've never owned a car so I guess I'm addicted to walking everywhere, but when my friends tell me how much they cost each month I feel so much better.

Also your rent seems expensive for a shared house? Could you get somewhere cheaper? Just trying to think of all the options here..

Your surplus isn't very big each month and I suspect most months it doesn't really exist anyway so you'll need to look at ways of cutting back or earning more if you want to pay off your debts as fast as possible.

I do eat at my girlfriends a fair amount but my evenings/weekends are often based around her workload so not the easiest to plan for. Before going out with her I was doing a meal swap deal with a friend but this used to be a slightly cheaper precursor to a night of drinking and clubbing!

The rent is reasonable for the area, I technically pay half that. So £262.50 but the other half is included in other income. I wanted to live alone initially but could not find a place for under £300 a month. So having a friend to live with then meant his choices needed to be considered as well as mine so there were places £50 a month cheaper that he was not willing to live in.

We did negotiate a £25 a month discount for 6 months but this has now passed.

The plan is to pay off debts to then buy a house with my girl. She owns her own but it really is too small for 2 adults to live in, barely any room spare with just her gear in there. And her decision is that she wants to live with me but for it to be in a place big enough and it to be purchased.

On the car front, I have been considering this carefully. Where I work currently I can bus it yes. However I am on a short contract and this may or may not get renewed. I have stopped using my car for lots of things and try and persuade my gf to drive!
Also I am about to start driving at the weekends as I have an HGV licence and that is 3/4AM starts about 20 minutes drive away. This would be either impractical without a car or would probably cost a similar amount to running the car in taxis.
I had considered selling it (it is a 57 plate) and buying a jalopy but on running the figures I think I would only be in the regions of £10-20 a month better off but driving a far worse car with reliabilty issues.

TotallyBroke

I notice on your SOA that your car tax is only £3 per month. You will have to adjust this.
Spending diary idea is great. I am starting mine now just typing into it makes me feel guilty.

falady

hi there,

Welcome to the board! :j Re making some extra money - i have just started to try doing this too, and have sold a lot of stuff on ebay eg clothes i don't wear anymore etc. Including a couple of big items, i made about £200 in May.

Also, sign up with Quidco - this is a cashback scheme where you get cashback for internet shopping via the site etc. I made £75 just for changing our pet insurance for our 3 cats to a new supplier (and the new cover is better and cheaper than the previous cover!).:D Also, you can make cashback when you sign up for new utilities, mobile contract etc - well worth a look. there are other threads on the forums about quidco for extra info.

You could also sign up to pigsback. This is a site where you earn piggy points which can build up and earn rewards. I have got £30 of highstreet vouchers since joining in april. (Cheeky note - you get points for referring someone, so if you would like me to refer you to join pigsback, PM with your email address and I can do it. Feel free to ignore though!) The website is www.pigsback.com There are threads on other forums with more info about pigsback too. It doesn't make you loads, but nice for the odd treat or buying essentials such as toiletries from boots etc.

Good luck with your moneysaving!


Ali

falady

PS - take a packed lunch!!!! This will save you loads of moeny - you just need to be a bit organised. If being so organised sounds a bit daunting (it did fopr me at first0 jsut staret slowly and take a packed lunch 3 days per week. You'll soon notice the difference.

Also, get less moeny out of the cashpoint each time you go. If there's only £10 in my purse i feel like i've got less to spend than if there was £40 and will be less frivolous.

Ali x

mstopham

TotallyBroke wrote: »

I notice on your SOA that your car tax is only £3 per month. You will have to adjust this.
Spending diary idea is great. I am starting mine now just typing into it makes me feel guilty.

Nope this is correct (well over actually) Car tax is £35 a year as its emissions are under 120g/km

I will have a look at the spending diary. Got utility company to ring, weeks laundry to do and prep 2 ebay items for postage tonight so might be later in the week but I think it will help me too.