Getting to know you........

prepareathome

Nice to meet you Blond across the pond, everyone everywhere ( well ordinary people ) all need to cut back these days so if you can find our tips useful ( well not mine I never can come up with any, but plenty of others do) I know they will be very happy. I was just talking with a friend this afternoon and she commented there is no Middle Class any more you are either poor or rich, and nothing in between and the gap is becoming bigger between the two every day.

So long as you are willing to be more imaginative with how you spend your money you can get by usually. Just try to buy things that with fulfil two purposes and be willing to try different ways with food. Good Luck I hope you find plenty of help here.

skintmum2012

Hello thought I would say hi as I have only just signed up. I have been looking for anyway to save money that I can. I am a mum of 2 Tom who's 3 and Heather who is 1. And up untill a week ago I have been working part time in the morning I was up a like 5am and then coming home to look after the kids Tom is very hard work we are in the process of taking him to DRS as we think he may have autisum. Anyway I was signed of work last week with stress it's just all to much for me working and looking after the kids and house. Me and Hubby have sat down and gone through all the bills and what we have going out and coming in and we can just about cope with me not working if we have a very diffrent lifestyle to the one we are leading at the mo. We would have £50 for food a week and £34 each for treats including petrol and his driving lessons and of course nappies. I wanted to know do you think this is possible or should I stop being selfish and go back to work?

universalady_2

:wave: Hello

JulieGeorgiana

I hate to read and run... but I have the school run...!

Yes it is possible x

No it's not selfish x

I will come on later if I can with suggestions...

Right now though go to the Debt Management Board and do a Statement of Affairs and they will offer advice on where to cut costs and save more money...

Look at the grocery Challenge on this board (old style) and get tips on shopping, recipies and loads more...

good Luck x

kippers

Hello, nice to see you are posting here.

£50 p/w for food can be done. I budget £300 p/m and manage it easily with all my toiletries and also all the things for allotment, there are four of us. However, you do need to be organised and not waste a thing. Have a look around the oldstyle board and you will see there is loads of information on here.

I gave up work to be at home for my two dd's and i don't regret it one little bit...no one can look after your children the way a mother can, it's not selfish at all...but it is hard sometimes when you are on a tight budget.

Good luck!:j

Ilona

Hi skintmum and welcome. Anything is possible if you have the will to do it. You have a good start in that you have sat down and worked some figures out, keep doing that week by week. If the two of you work together towards the same goals, you have a better chance than someone who has only one person in the partnership who is willing to make changes.

Look on the time that you would have spent going to work as the time you set aside for getting the best bargains, looking for the cheapest prices, and planning your finances. Basically you will become a book keeper, budgeting for every penny you spend. Your new job will be survival on less money. It's needn't be a laborious task, you can make it a challenge. Think of the benefits to you and your family if you can spend more time with them. You can always try it, then go back to work at a later date if it is not working out how you hoped it would.
Ilona

PixieDust

Hi and welcome :wave:

cdm

Hi skintmum! A very warm welcome here...you are in good company. We are all individual yet we share common aims and thoughts. Sorry to hear things have been challenging, especially of late. I have 3 girls, and I was a stay at home mum from the very beginning. We juggled very carefully in order to make this work (mainly due to DH's skill and talent with the finances) -- our priorities and lifestyle were probably a bit different from some of our contemporaries. Mortgage, food, bills were important, things such as holidays were not so. Lots of the baby goods and equipment which were considered ''de rigeur'' at the time did not even feature on our radar. We bought loads of stuff from NCT sales and similar, and appreciated anything friends and family bought or passed on to us. Lots of our furniture and such is 'pre-loved' too. Our own clothes have always been fairly ordinary everyday stuff, functional and durable, and have tried to bring up our girls to be a bit down to earth in those ways.

You do have a lot going round in your head at the moment...give yourself time and 'head space' to think about it all. You may find that things change again once you begin on the path with your son, and the answers will come to you by and by. Be kind to yourself, hon!! Make sure you take some time just for yourself, too, when you can.

HTH.

x

Butterfly_Brain

£50 is doable you just need to be prepared to shop around - we use Aldi instead of the big four and it saves us a lot of money and we eat well. We have also discovered a trade/shoppers club freezer shop.

Firstly check out if you are getting all the tax credits etc that you are entitled to.

Meal planning is a must as is making a list and sticking to it. take cash only - it is surprising how much it focuses the mind.


If you go to the market, just before closing at the weekend you can pick up some really cheap stuff.

HTH

JulieGeorgiana

So I was thinking about this while on the school run. I was made redundant twice (10 months apart) and was surprised at how much money we saved on food, clothes, presents etc.

So when we decided to expand our family instead of talking about part time work, we spoke about me being a SAHM. Yes, our lifestyle is so much different then if I worked... but when I worked after paying for the second car (commuting 60 miles a day... so petrol too) and childcare (on one child who was at school most the time) the money we had left paid for so little... maybe a holiday and the odd take-away and a little savings (and until June 2011 I paid for debts and then a wedding)!

Most the money was being used to buy people gifts, buying clothes and what I thought of as 'essentials'!

So now I buy second hand clothes (but I have time to shop around) if I have to buy new I buy in sales (and shop around). I buy christmas and birthday gifts in the sales (for £5 a head I normally get gifts worth £15 - £20, and I get what they want throughout the year instead of buying any old rubbish!). I shop around for my groceries and use two local supermarkets (and I compare prices online) and a local farm shop. I learned how to cook better, and how to bulk out my meals and make them stretch (I cut my bill from £70 to £50 a week for 2 adults, 1 childs food, toilettries, pet food for 2 cats and 2 rabbits).

I also did a statement of affairs and found I could cut back on things like sky and mobile phone costs (which saves me a fortune). I also keep a close eye on Gas and Electricity usage which means we are saving money there.

We are now living on one wage (45% drop in income) since August 2010... yet we are still managing to save a little... and my job is to make our house more effcient. DH is onboard with everything I do, which is an important aspect of making it work.

We are not as financially well off as we were, but we are happier. Using all the different advice on this site has made us more aware of what is important in life (family) and what is not (material posessions and holidays). My son understands the value of money, and has become a better child for me being at home and giving him time.

For us three... we are all much happier now then we ever were when I worked... The better holiday, the take-aways, the presents we bought others... the second car... the extra savings... we don't miss them. The new baby has everything it NEEDS, even if it won't have everything it WANTS in life... but it will have me, at home instead.

So I think you should do exactly what makes you and your family happiest, and not worry about the fact that society makes us feel like we should be working. I can tell you I do not regret it in the slightest and I am sure you won't either...