SOA - where can i save money

saving123

Hiya,

I have been looking on this board for quite a while and thought it was time to post a soa to see if anyone has any ideas where we can save money as we seem to keep getting in overdraft.

Our income/spends are as follows per month:

INCOME
Salaries £2780
Child Benefit £82
Child Tax Credit £70
Total = £2932

EXPENSES
Mortage £780
Loan £275
Council Tax £216
Gas/Electricity Combined £100
BT £20 (in contract)
Sky £20 (in contract - this includes broadband)
Life Insurance £18
Contact Lens £21
Pension £103
Regular Savings £150 (this covers car insurance * 2 cars, road tax * 2 cars, home insurance, tv licence, car services)
Mobile Phone Bills £37 (for 2 phones - both on contracts)
Cancer Research £2
Travel Costs £122
Childcare £465
Weight Watchers £18
Shopping inc Nappies etc £335
Petrol £65
Clothes £40
Presents £93 (to cover presents for peoples birthdays, christmas, mothers day etc)
Hairdresser £43 (total for both myself and husband)
Money for going out with baby (e.g soft play areas, swimming) £35
Total £2958

I think i have included everything, had to estimate for some things.

Also does anyone have any ideas for extra income. I've sold everything I can think of on ebay, signed up to various survey and cashback sites and enter as many competitions as I can.

Thanks for your help.

Horace

It sounds mad but ditch the £2 donation. Cut back on presents - lots of ideas over on the special occasions board for inexpensive presents.

Can you ditch the Weight Watchers? It seems an unnecessary expense. Hair cuts are expensive - try going on a trainee day when its cheaper (don't worry the trainee will be supervised).

You are spending £40 a month on clothes - cut this right back. Have a clear out at home of any clothes that remain unworn and toys etc, and sell them on ebay or at a carboot.

Your childcare costs are high as are your travel costs.

Look at moneysaving oldstyle for tips on meal planning, grocery challenges and weight loss.

Keep a spending diary.

dfw844

Martin has an article on the main site about cheap contact lenses - you may be able to save a really decent amount there. I have moved to Daysoft after reading Martin's article, and been using them very happily for about 6 months now. I just reordered and got 4 month supply for £40 (though I don't wear them every day so these will last much longer). I was paying £25 a month whether I wore them or not!

This might not be possible if you have a complex prescription, but definitely worth looking into.

Good luck.

x

IWantToBeFree_2

Your gas and electric looks high, I pay less than half of that a month... Are you on the best tarrif? Could you switch and get cashback via quidco etc?

saving123

thanks for the replies. My gas/electric is for a 4bed house and i have the heating on quite alot for my baby. I try to use the tumble dryer as much as possible and avoid leaving things on stand by. I fixed my gas/electric recently and went through quidco at the time. The tariff i switched to was the cheapest according to the comparison sites. Not really sure how else I can reduce this?

Will have a look at contact lens article. Going to try another couple of months at weight watchers to get down to target weight then it will be free. If i dont manage it then I think i will give up. Already sold all clothes that are unused. The clothing costs are just an estimate and are mainly for my baby, dont buy anything for myself or my husband apart from birthdays/christmas now or unless we need something for a special occassion like a wedding.

thanks again for replies

slummymummyof3

Have you thought about doing the childcare vouchers that Martin has detailed on this site. You could save quite a bit of money that way.

saving123

the figures for childcare are based on using the maximum vouchers that i can get from my work. My husband is self employed so cant get vouchers so that is the most I can get. thanks for the suggestion.

saving123

Any ideas on how I could make more money apart from surveys/cashback sites. At the moment I use one poll, lightspeed and you gov for surveys. thanks again

Jacks_xxx

:wave: Well I guess it depends how far out of your comfort zone you are prepared to travel and how urgent the need to cut back is, honey.

I have a few ideas for you:

Given that you only use £65 of petrol between you each month and also have other travel expenses have you ever done the sums to work out if you'd be better off getting rid of one of the cars?

And even a step further - Would you be better off if one of you didn't work? :eek:

I know it sounds crazy but we added the costs of childcare to the costs of running a second car plus work related expenses like work clothes, lunches, collections, enforced socialising and expensive hair cuts and found out that we'd be better of if I jacked in my job.

The electricity and supermarket bills got smaller as well cos I was home to cook from scratch or hang the washing out on the line.

I'd also bear in mind that babies are happy with free stuff like the park so you could probably cut the baby entertainment budget back quite a bit, and bundles of clothes for the next stage are available cheaply on eBay and free on on FreeCycle.

Add to that the fact that the Credit Crunch is hitting a lot of people hard so I see no reason why you couldn't halve your Christmas & Birthday budget. Any adult with half a brain will understand, and the baby is too little to care for years yet.

In a real pinch could you suspend the pension payments for a while?

And finally, the mobiles and the contacts wouldn't make it onto my list of essential expenditure. (but Sssh! the haircuts would!) Did you know that you can often get out of your contracts if you offer to give the phone back?

That's all I've got for now honey,

Love Jacks xxx

MissShoes

Could travel costs be reduced? Car sharing, walking, public transport??

Also, for weightwatchers, could you attend fortnightly instead of weekly?

Other than that, I think the food could definitely come down

Hope that helps

xx

RAS

saving123 wrote: »

My gas/electric is for a 4bed house and i have the heating on quite alot for my baby.

I try to use the tumble dryer as much as possible and avoid leaving things on stand by.

Hi

If you are a couple with a baby and a bedroom house, have you got individual thermostats on each radiator? If so, turn those in the unoccupied bedrooms down to frost stat. If not, turn them off. And shut both doors.

Ditto if you have loads of space downstairs. Turn off the heating in some rooms and turn the thermostat down a couple of degrees. Put another jumper on the baby (and yourself). it is actually healthier for you all. Aim for a temperature of 68 degrees when you are home in the day-time. Use the timer to turn the heating off half an hour before you leave for work and go to bed.