How are we going to manage?

apprentice_tycoon

Water meters - Martins advice on this is: if you have more bedrooms in your house than people it's very likely that a meter will be cheaper for you, the logic being that your water rates are based on the size of your property, not the occupants

black-saturn

Well I've got 3 (5 at the weekends) people in a 2 bedroomed house and am still saving £140 per year so how does he work that out?

apprentice_tycoon

Black-saturn, I've read your posts before, you can do miracles with your budget and still have money left over :A ....do you dilute it?

Debt_Free_Chick

exessexmum wrote:

Thanks Pal. Since I posted that I have checked OH payslips and his pension is actually bang on 15% of his gross salary

Check what the normal contributions are - it sounds like he's paying extra. These are usually called Additional Voluntary Contributions or AVCs. If he's paying them, ask him to consider stopping them for a while. Yes, it's important to save for retirement, but not whilst you have debts to pay off. He can always start up the AVCs (or some other savings) later.

Willsnarf1983

black-saturn wrote:

Well I've got 3 (5 at the weekends) people in a 2 bedroomed house and am still saving £140 per year so how does he work that out?

maybe when u started saving to a water meter u were paying well over the odds to start with so what seems an apparent saving to u may actually not be?


Will

Pal

exessexmum wrote:

Since I posted that I have checked OH payslips and his pension is actually bang on 15% of his gross salary, after tax and NI it is more like 30%....

You do not pay tax on pension contributions - they are taken from gross income before tax is calculated.

As Debtfreechick has mentioned, it sounds like your husband is paying additional voluntary contributions. Look at the scheme booklets and find out what the minimum payment is. If it is an occupational scheme, then I suggest he just pays the minimum for a while.

If it is a stakeholder or personal pension plan to which your husband's company does not contribute, I suggest that you try and maintain the 15% contributions if you can, as you need to be putting aside money for retirement. Just don't get yourself into debt to do so.

black-saturn

apprentice_tycoon wrote:

Black-saturn, I've read your posts before, you can do miracles with your budget and still have money left over :A ....do you dilute it?

I don't know how I do it. I am in the process of working out a meal planner which I am going to put on O/S soon. Maybe that will give you some ideas.

exessexmum

Have had a read of the OS forum and today I have done a meal planner for the week (well 8 days actually) and have been to do the weeks grocery shop. We needed nappies this week (buy them every 3 weeks or so) so its normally and really expensive week food-wise and I would normally spend about £120-140, but by following the list I made and not buying extras and by doing a lot of stuff from scratch (ie a tin of tomatoes and some basil and garlic instead of a jar of bolognese sauce) my shopping bill was £48!!! I know it's not a huge saving when we owe £20K but its a start :-)

Tracey

black-saturn

Is that £48 for a week or a month?

Magentasue

Every little helps!

I find a meal plan and a shopping list essential for my frugal times. It's also reassuring to know that you have everything you need to eat for a week and ends that 'What can we have for dinner tonight?' nightmare.