Soa

builder_man_3

Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1500
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1500
Benefits................................ 0
Other income............................ 0
Total monthly income.................... 3000

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 1200
Secured loan repayments................. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 120
Electricity............................. 90
Gas..................................... 60
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 32
Telephone (land line)................... 35
Mobile phone............................ 40
TV Licence.............................. 10
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 0
Internet Services....................... 0
Groceries etc. ......................... 500
Clothing................................ 100
Petrol/diesel........................... 400
Road tax................................ 15
Car Insurance........................... 50
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 50
Car parking............................. 20
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 0
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 25
Contents insurance...................... 15
Life assurance ......................... 25
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 25
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 0
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
Total monthly expenses.................. 2812

Assets
Cash.................................... 0
House value (Gross)..................... 250000
Shares and bonds........................ 0
Car(s).................................. 15000
Other assets............................ 0
Total Assets............................ 265000

Secured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 250000...(1200).....6
Total secured debts........... 250000....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
CREDIT CARD....................10000.....90........0%
CREDIT CARD....................7000......145.......15.9%
LOAN.......................... .0.........210...... .19.9%
CREDIT CARD....................4000......100.......15.9%
Total unsecured debts..........21000.....545.......-

Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,000
Expenses (including secured debts)....... 2,812
Available for debt repayments........... 188
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 545
Surplus(deficit if negative)............ -357

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 265,000
Total Secured debt...................... -250,000
Total Unsecured debt.................... -21,000
Net Assets.............................. -6,000


AS YOU CAN SEE THIS IS HORRENDOUS I HAVE HAD SO MANY SLEEPLESS NIGHTS OVER THIS AND I DONT KNOW WHERE TO START.I CANNOT GO BR DUE TO VARIOUS REASONS BUT ANY ADVICE WOULD BE MOST GRATEFUL THANKS

Cleosmum

You have your loan amount down as zero, so once thats updated Im afraid its going to look a bit worse

Is the grocery budget for 2 adults? Kids? Animals?

Gemmzie

Hi builder man, will have a look at your SOA in a second but first quick question, how many in your household?

beanielou

Your grocceries amount is huge as s petrol.
Can you cut these down at all?

whitewing

You should be able to bring mobile bill down to £25 a month or even lower.

You will be able to make changes.

I will also say get into the habit of rounding up on budgets (TV lic £12 not £10) as these differences all add up, and it can be confuddling to wonder where money is disappearing.

I bet you can halve your grocery bill. Try a month of using up what is already in the cupboard ('shop from home'). Take sandwiches to work. (Probably) cut down on alcohol. Don't go grocery shopping on a Friday night after work (we always 'treated' ourselves,

LucyTheDwarf

Don't panic! You've taken a very positive step in sorting out your finances by posting this! Now's the time to sit back, and calmly look at every area of spending, and work out where you can cut back.

Your fuel and groceries spend is massive - read the following articles, I am positive that these articles can help absolutely everyone:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheaper-fuel (www.petrolprices.com is genius)
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/cheap-supermarket-shopping

Also, try supermarket shopping online (via a cashback site, such as Quidco), as you will be far less tempted to impulse buy. When you can't see/smell/touch what's on offer, temptation is easier to resist

Good luck

Jacks_xxx

:wave: hiya sweetie,

Things look far from hopeless to me hon - there's still a bit of wiggle room in there.

What really helped us was to keep track of a months spending and then compare it with what we *thought* we spent.
It was a bit of an eye opener. :eek:

The basic problem was that we spent more than we earned - so the very simple solution was to earn more - or spend less. (preferably both!)

And that way we have managed to pay off most of our HUGE debt in about two years. (We owed £96,700 in August 2006, and that didn't include our mortgage. Now it's about £15k and dropping - ona combined income of about £2600 a month.)

On your SOA the first thing that jumped out at me was that your petrol spend is pretty huge - how much choice do you have about that? (We spent about £210 a month cos my hubby drives about 600 miles a week.)

Likewise the food bill. We were spending £650+ every month until we joined the Grocery Challenge on the Moneysaving Old Style board. Now it's more like £300 and we're not even particularly hardcore about it - we still have treats!

And then clothes...Decide not to buy any for a couple of months, and then only to buy what you need until things are more under control - and use that money to pay down your debts instead.

Is the Council Tax over 10 months or 12? What we do is pay it for 10 months and when the two free months com around we throw the £150 at the debts instead. Although most people do the opposite as they find it helps the monthly budget to pay over 12 months. Would either of those help you guys do you think?

Gas and leccy look pretty high. If you've never switched suppliers then have a look at doing that - and check your bills. EON over charged us £1000 last year, along with lots of other people. Npower are no better

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/jun/18/regulators.utilities

It kicked us up the @r$e when we did the Snowball Calculator. It told us that at the rate we were going we'd be paying off this debt until 2028. (I'd post the link but the site seems to be down.)

The basic principle is that once you've been through your budget and made changes you pay extra money off the debt with the highest interest rate until that's gone - and then you start paying the amount you were paying off of that debt onto the next highest interest debt and so on until one day it's all gone! (it's working for us!)

Have you tried doing a balance transfer to a 0% or lower interest card? It made the world of difference to us. That's the first thing I'd do in your case.

Then I'd take the clothes £100 and the £100 you could probably shave off the grocery budget this month just by putting a bit more thought and planning into it and start throwing that at the highest interest debt.

We set the DD 's to come out right after payday and we manage on what's left. (this was a difficult new concept for us to grasp but eventually we got it! )

Chin up honey, even with the debt amount that seems to be missing on your SOA (£210 a month but no total?) it looks doable.

Take it one step a time and things will start to look better I promise.

Love Jacks xxx

doodledo_2

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Jacks has pretty much covered everything already but the two things that jumped out at me was your petrol costs and your food.

Obviously food depends on how many in your household but still seems quite high, I bet with some meal planning and budgetting you could easily bring this down.

Good luck with your debt free journey you have come to the right place.

builder_man_3

Hi To All The Money Savers That Have Taken The Time To Look At My Soa I Really Appreciate It .it Brings A Lump To My Throat That There Are So Many People Out There That Can Offer Some Advice In Whatever Way They Can. In Addition The Loan Amount On My Soa Is £8000 With Cahoot They Are A Real Pain.tomorrow I Am Going To Call The Cccs And Just See What They Have To Say. I Would Prefer To Pay All My Debts Off In Full If I Can But Am I Fooling Myself .i May Be Able To Do Overtime And I Get A Small Rise In Dec.thanks Once Again To You All

builder_man_3

My Grocery Bill Is For 2 Adults And 1 Child

MYLITTLESISTERLOLA

I agree with the other posters, food & petrol costs can be cut ( we have 2 adults & a 4 year old and I spend about £175/mth and the cupboards are always fully stocked), cashback websites help, perhaps downsizing the car (say it's for environmental reasons), 0% credit cards could be an option also
Good Luck and stick with this site its a wealth of knowledge. Good on you for taking the first step to solvency:T