Turtlemoose's SOA

turtlemoose

Hi guys, long time lurker, thought it was about time I got up the courage to actually do a SOA and get some advice off everyone (hopefully)!

I'm not really in debt (only a little bit! plus the mortgage of course!), but I'm teetering on the edge and I figured that this would be the best place to post for a little bit of help in keeping on the right side of things!!

I have a 50% shared ownership house with a Housing Association. I currently have £2025 in a savings account (Norwich and Peterborough Headstart i think it's called). My ideal goal would be 10k by Aug 2010 (that's when my fixed rate mortgage ends).....so any help/ideas would be welcome!!!!

As you can see below, I already have a lodger. Unofficially I might add! Lodger reckons he is moving out sometime this year (sorry can't be more specific, wish I knew!), and boyfriend will be moving in when the lodger goes, sometime between Oct and Xmas. Boyf will be contributing 350 to house bills (taking over lodger's share basically) plus half groceries/anything else shared on top.

I work 8am-5pm and can't change from the car to public transport. Would have to leave my house at 6.25am to arrive at work for 8, and would not get home until 6.40pm. Driving travelling time is half hour each way! A metro/bus pass is £50 a month tho....so this is something I am considering but am not sure I can cope with losing my car quite yet!

The virgin media contract ends Aug 21st and I'm shopping around for deals at the mo. Also o2 runs out mid Oct this year so I'm also shopping for a better deal there...but to be honest I don't hold much hope in beating that, and I use pretty much all of the allowance each month too. Any suggestions greatly appreciated though if anyone knows a better offer!

I have a tesco clubcard and use it as often as possible, but my nearest big shop is an asda, it's a bit of a drive to a big tescos. I use my deals for the meals out etc. I also have a tesco credit card, I make a few purchases a month on this (usually groceries etc) but always pay off the balance before any interest is charged.

RIGHT! ok I think that's everything I can think of that would be relevant....so here is my SOA!


Income:
Wages: 1075
Lodger: 350

TOTAL INCOME: 1425

Outgoings:
Mortgage: 328
Rent: 110 (shared ownership)
Council Tax: 72
Electricity: 50
Gas: 22
Water: 33 (water company messed up bill so paying 6 months arrears grr)
Virgin Media: 30 (landline, broadband, tv)
o2: 30 (600 anytime mins, 1000 texts, 1mb wap, unlimited o2 to o2 calls)
Tv license - 11
Contents insurance - 12 (and i got £70 cashback on quidco!!)
Life insurance - 16
Groceries - 120
Clothing - 20 (i don't always spend this but i'm averaging it out for a year)
Petrol - 100
Car tax - 10
Car maintenance/mot/parking etc - 10
Other travel - 3
Medical/dental/optician - 10
Pet food/vets etc - 10
Birthdays/Xmas - 20
Holiday - 20
Toiletries/haircut etc - 8
Leisure, going out etc - 40
Savings - 65
Natwest Loan - 111 (see below)
Argos card - 65 (see below)


TOTAL OUTGOINGS: 1326
TOTAL INCOME: 1425
total leftover : 99 a month spare apparently - where oh where do i find this?!?!?!?!?!?!

DEBTS

Natwest Graduate Loan: balance 444.44, 0%, monthly repayment 111.11 (last payment sept 08 yay!!)

Argos Card: balance 537, two sets of 0% deals. First one being paid off at 65 a month ends Aug 08, so 65 being paid jun/jul/aug/sept, then once the natwest loan is paid off, that leaves 277 balance, and the money from the natwest loan that i won't be paying will go towards the argos - 175 paid off in October, 102 in November, leaving balance at zero! (as long as I don't buy anything else!)

turtlemoose

I think I should probably say a little more about why I'm posting here when I'm not really in that much debt......every week is a struggle, and every month I am just wishing for pay day. I go out rarely, and more often than not it's because the bf is paying. I take lunch in to work with me, or go without. Every time an unexpected bill comes up I struggle, and I can't seem to make any significant increase in my savings. Most of the time I have little more than a few pennies in my purse. Yet when I have sat down and done my soa tonight it looks like I have £99 a month spare......very confused and ever so tempted by those credit card offers that keep coming through my door!!!

tealady

Hi Have you tried a spending diary, it may help. Plus pigsback daily clicks are good, I get Boots vouchers from there and it pays for some of my toiletries (on 3 for 2 or better of course!!)

RedDino308

Hi Turtlemouse,

Welcome. The DFW is just the spot for you and there are so many people who can give you excellent advice.

I'm no expert but your looks pretty good. I would suggest keeping a spending diary as TeaLady suggests - for instance that coffee you could buy everyday on the way to work could cost you £100/month without you realising it!!!

Other things to consider...
- Are you sure that your current interest rates are 0%. If not then it may be worth clearing down your cards with your savings. The interest you tend to pay on credit/store cards normally dwarfes the interest you get on savings.

- £120 for groceries for one is fairly high.

Good luck

RD308

peb

Hiya

Again I don't think you are doing badly at all - once you have got rid of your loan and Argos at the end of the year you will be in a good position. A spending diary will be useful to see where the £99 goes; don't beat yourself up about it though - you may spend less when your boyfriend moves in and you can spend more nights in.

lilian1977

Re the O2 issue - I don't know if you are already, looks like you might be from your spend, but switch to the Simplicity tariff if you haven't, saved me about £30 a month!

I'm the same as you, I'm supposed to have about £200 left over every month but I have no idea where it goes! I've started on spendingdiary.com to try and track it all...

MinniMe_2

well done for posting your SOA.

Just a thought but do you really need life insurance? If something were to happen the bank/HA would own the house anyway so would it save you £16 a month towards that 10K savings target?

turtlemoose

Hi guys, thank you all for your comments!

Everyone: A spending diary seems to definitely be the way to go. I must have a secret naughty spending habit that is so secret I don't know about it!!! I spent £2 on lunch today as I was weak and went to the chip shop....so I shall start one tomorrow!! (11th Jun)

Tealady: I'm at work at the mo but I shall investigate pigsback later, thanks!

RedDino308: yep the debt is definitely 0% - the natwest one is a special graduate loan with fixed repayments - hence the 111.11 every month and the Argos is those deals they do if you spend over a certain amount - I was weak and bought a big shiny tv!

Also RedDino308 : Re my groceries, I guess that is quite high, but I feed the bf probably 3-4 times a week plus daytimes at the weekend, so i've accounted for that, plus also I put my weekday 'pocket money' for sweets and naughty things at work in to that total. Maybe I don't spend as much as I thought I did....I shall confirm against my shiny new spending diary!!

Peb - defo looking forward to lots of cosy nights in :D

lilian1977: I'll look up o2 later tonight, thanks.

MinniMe: It is a condition of my mortgage that I have the life insurance, I shopped around at the time and that was the cheapest one I could find. Shared ownership mortgages are a bit funny about things, more so than 'normal' mortgages (or so i've found anyway), so unfortunately that one is there to stay! Even if it wasn't though, I quite like the idea that if something was to happen to me then I'd still be ok - as mine covers disablement etc so if I became unable to work it would just pay off mortgage, same if something worse happened it would be paid off and then my family would have the value of the house after the HA buy it back.


Just want to say thanks everyone for comments so far, hopefully I can figure out where this missing £99 goes!

I'm putting 25 items of clothing that no longer fit or I don't wear anymore on to ebay tomorrow so hopefully I'll get a little bit of money out of that

lilian1977

turtlemoose wrote: »

I'm putting 25 items of clothing that no longer fit or I don't wear anymore on to ebay tomorrow so hopefully I'll get a little bit of money out of that

Wait until Thursday - it's 5p listing day!

turtlemoose

d'oh, got my days confused...wishing the week away!! I meant thursday