Need to tighten our belts!!!

roversbabe

Daddy to 3,

Personally - I would keep the charity donations as it is something both you and your wife feel strongly - I donate £2 PM to the nspcc and won't cancel, I also donate directly from my wages.

BTW, you're on a great mobile tariff - are your minutes off peak? I'd suggest that if you're still in contract (I'm assuming you're on double minutes so within contract) - use the mobile instead of your land line until you've used up your minutes.

Also check out NTL's 3 for £30 deal - saved us loads going for that option.

Good luck

rb

Spendless

Daddyto3 wrote:

Thanks frosty, it's reassuring to know the tips on this site do work. :j

Right been working on this for an hour, so stick with me, 'cos its long!

INCOMINGS;

ME £1,500.00
HER; £ 500.00
CHILD BEN 159.20
WORKING TAX £ 137.06
CREDITS.

OUTGOINGS

DIRECT DEBITS;

CAHOOT £53.56 (loan 8.4% apr)
SCOT POWER £100.00 (gas & lec,gone up from £53, as we were a little in arrears, even Tho once a month I enter true rading on-line)
COUNCIL TAX £103.00 (10 Months)
MORTGAGE £206.47
3 MORT LOANS £180.47
CAR INS (HIS) £ 23.45
IMP, CANCER £ 2.00
02 MOBILE £17.50 (500 FREE TXTS, 1000MINS MONTH)
NTL £26.99 (PHONE)
NTL COMM £35.64 (INTERNET)
ROYAL LONDON £38.25 (ENDOWMENT & LIFE !!!!!!)
OXFAM £ 2.00
HOME & CONTS £28.01
CAR INS (HERS) £25.89
WATER £30.67
TOTAL £873.90

FOOD £220.00
PETROL £100.00
MILKMAN £25.00
PRE-SCHOOL £64.00
SWIM LESSONS £25.00 (£52 FOR 2 KIDS FOR 10 WEEKS)
SPENDS £80.00 (£40 EACH – USUALLY GOES ON KIDS)
EATING OUT £40.00 (£10 WEEK FOR CHIPPY/MCDON)
MISC £50.00 (EMERGENCY CASH AT HOME)

TOTAL £604.00

My money just about covers all the outgoings for a month. (ALL LISTED ABOVE)

Then my wifes wage, and benefits for the children now go into a seperate account;-

TOTAL: £796.26

Out of this she pays;-
Sky; £33.00 (20% REDUCTION FOR 8 MONTHS)

A&L CC - £1238.56 - 0% TILL MARCH 06
HSBC CC - £916.00 0% TILL MAY 06
TESCO CC- £2455.58 - AWAITING CARD FROM HALIFAX TO TRANSFER - 0% 12 MONTHS.

And as much as possible of the above 3 cards, along with a couple of cheque Next (£90.11 o/s and Vertbaudet about £44 o/s)

So, this is only the 2nd month my wifes money will be getting paid into a seperate account along with benefits, as we felt it was getting swallowed up with the direct debits, so werent paying as much as we should have to debt!

Now we have written it all out, it seems we have a little more money than we thought, as we had forgotten about benefits.

But even though it looks more written down, we don't actually plan for mot's, maintenance to cars, birthdays, parties, xmas etc. We tend to sort it when it comes to it. Instead of paying every last penny to your debtors, what do you all do? Should we keep money aside for these events or not?

On the account which my wages get paid into, and all the bills come out, I am actually £700 overdrawn? So even tho' it should balance, because of Xmas, overdrew a little bit (!) :eek:

Waffled enough, going for me tea! Got a right headache now! :rotfl:
be back tonight, cheers guys!

hi i notice you receive tax credits -do you receive help from them with the pre-school costs? You both need to do work at least 16 hours to qualify. if not there is non means tested funding term after childs 3rd birthday or you could look into childcare vouchers as suggested.
knock off the take-aways and the spends. do you shop at tesco? you could use their clubcard deals to have days out with the kids.
i buy pressies all year round in sales, check out the other boards for when boots have offers on, also the freebies-had plenty of stocking fillers from there.
reduce the milk from milkman if you dont wish to cancel.
look into all the suggestions for reducing costs first,if you dont want to stop your charity donations. if youre still struggling look to cut these too, perhaps by donating financially to one charity and giving your time to the other.

thriftychick

You don't say what age your pre-school children are but if they are 3 or over you can get the nursery grant for 5 free sessions free for each of them which will cover all the fees at a community playground or go towards fees at a private nursery.

Your swimming lesson fees are very high, I pay £32 for 2 kids x 1O lessons at our local leisure centre where the lessons are subsidised by the council from the council tax.

Have you filled in Martins budget planner? I think you need to budget for everything, especially when you have children, birthdays and christmas are much easier to pay for when you save some each month towards them.

*Louise*

Daddyto3 wrote:

How do you all budget for annual things like Mots, Birthdays, Xmas, Holidays etc. Do you put a monthly amount away? We have never really done this, do you think it is something we should? Or do we use the moneyto pay debts 1st?

I put the child benefit money into a seperate account, and let it build up as savings. Not much, but it's handy for emergencies. I also don't even consider holidays - I've never been abroad with my family, because we have other things that need to be paid, we tend to go on day trips with the kids instead.

Obviously debts are important, but birthdays and christmas are inevitable, and they have to be paid for somehow, preferably not ending up with more debt, so saving is the best thing to try.

Btw - agree with getting rid of the milkman, but keep the charities, it doesn't amount to that much, especially if it means a lot to you.

jcr16

hi daddy to 3 , i been reading everything. and trying to work out how u can go about £700 a month over sometimes,when u have enough money and the only thing i could thing of is that your spending extra when u don't realise.

when u go shopping do u ridgely stick to your montly money or do u go over and not even notice. also if u use atm to get a takeaway do u take a bit more than needed , or when u need something do u pop to atm or use are debit card for little bits at shop etc etc. i know how easliy this can happen. my hubby and i were always in a pickle and never knew why on paper we had enough but it never worked out that way. then one day i sat down with every bank statement , and found my hubby had been using his debit card for £4.30 a day for fag's or for buying lunch ( even tho i gave him a packed lunch ) or i would pop to shop for milk and buy a few extra bits and there was another £5 gone. once we realised this, it stopped. and we started coming back into the black.
also have u tried internet shopping. u don't get tempted with other things u don't need. i didn't really like internet shopping. but since november i have only done this and i have kept to my food budget every month now.or if u like to go round shop , take a calculator and add up as u go ( it amazing how many people inculding me , i see doing this ) then once your getting to your limit head to checkout.
my hubby is also of the opinion i have worked for my money , life is hsort if we want it why dont we have it. but since we have made a budget and stuck to it , we have found we can now have the things we want but also we can afford them without getting into anymore debt , and that is an amazing feeling.
also i agree with how u feel about a milkman. but our milkman told us he doesn't make any money hardly on milk, but it all the extras he sell's so my mum had £1 saving stamp a week from him and used this at xmas to buy all her meat. and she said it was a really good qaulity meat.

anyway i hope this helps. well done in all your doing so far.

No1Alicat

I just wanted to stick up for milkmen really!
It's a 9 mile trip to out nearest supermarket and I've found I've saved money since having a milkman - because if I suddenly run out of basics, I dont have to nip to the supermarket where I then try to justify my round trip by thinking "oh I'll just get some more...while I'm here" and hence spending on more than just a pint of milk etc. So I think there's a bit more to consider than just the shelf price of a pint.

donnalove

also something i have picked up from this sit e is to put 10% of total income into a seperate account

at the moment im giving it to my dad as we cant yet open a savings account as just completed an iva.so he has opened an account in his name.

we have found that we have more than enough to live on now even i go out bingo but we have been wasting money cos you can see it. i am terrible with money but thanks to this site i am now saving between £150- £250 a month by doing this.

Daddyto3

Hi all. :hello:

Wow, many thanks for taking your time to respond, been a busy weekend here with kids, so will keep this quick, as will be needed soon, to help with bath/bedtime.

BTW, you're on a great mobile tariff - are your minutes off peak? I'd suggest that if you're still in contract (I'm assuming you're on double minutes so within contract) - use the mobile instead of your land line until you've used up your minutes.

- Wife has had this contract since day one, and gets a new phone every year (sells the old on ebay for about £70, so it doesn't cost too much in the long run - I have a work phone, which is paid for by work, although can't make too many calls!....Yes she does use it in the evening to catch up with friends/family.

Also check out NTL's 3 for £30 deal - saved us loads going for that option.

- Yes are going to do. Cheers

been reading everything. and trying to work out how u can go about £700 a month over sometimes,

It's not £700 every month, this started as £50 here and there, then has just risen, but we know we need to clear asap - but no council tax feb/mar so this will add to the funds!

In regards to budgeting for birthdays, christmas , mot etc. I think most people tend to figure out what thy spend over a year and then divide by 12 to find out the monthly amount to put away...though I tend to budget £100 per month per car because of repairs etc that can happen when you least expect it

Yes will make a concerted effort to do this religiously, will have to wait till we get a bit straighter though.

On another note, and after taking about insurances and shopping around.
We had our renewal from Direct Line through the post yesterday...Are y'all sitting down! It's risen from £28 a month to £51.29. We did put a claim in last April when the kitchen ceiling fell in around us, caused by a leaky dripping cold water tank/boiler in kitchen, which had been dripping for some time, then came gushing down around us! We had to have a plasterer in to the kitchen, and a new boiler fitted in Bathroom! - Think this as why insurance has sky rocketed! Been on to confused.com, and spent ages answering questions on line, then got an email saying "sorry we can't beat your current quote, the best we can come up with is £821 per year!" :eek:

So will have to surf' som more, perhaps alter things like excesses etc. We also usually get accidental damage, but thing we may give it a miss for now? - (Watch the roof - accidentally blow off!)

Anyway loads of great suggestions from you all, we are considering them all, will print off, and get our *MONEY* book out, and a pen to slash costs..........(How addictive is this).

Although we are quite careful, theres always room for improvement. We started looking at this about 6 months ago, and have made loads of changes upto now. Wife sells on ebay, and any money she makes is used for replacing clothes, trainers, coats etc for us - we don't go mad and usually shop in the likes of Asda. Wife has also stopped getting her hair done every couple of months, she now just buys her own colour for about £3, and does her own. She also trims the girls, and uses the clippers on mine. She doesn't go mad on make-up or expensive creams or anything, in fact she really spends on herself at all. We have cancelled ALL unnecessary debits. She has thrown all her catalgoues away, to remove temptation. The next and vertbaudet weren't storecards, they are catalogues and are going to be paid off this month - then binned!

May be back later tonight,

Cheers all!
PHIL

Daddyto3

One potential worrying point is .. do you have an endowment mortgage, is there a shortfall. If so you need to plan for that.

No have a repayment mortgage - but would appreciate if anyone would care to read my first ever posting about a policy we have at the moment which costs us nearly £40 a month.

Never posted a link, but see if this works?
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=134572

Cheers

Conor_3

Is the policy just to cover the outstanding mortgage if one of you dies?

I have a life insurance policy that currently pays out £26k on my death, rising £2k a year for no additional cost. It's an on death only payout but it's only £1.99 a month. You save a fortune by not having critical illness cover and if you're that bad that you'd qualify, you'd probably be living on State Benefits which would pay the interest on the mortgage.


It's with Norwich Union and started off at £20k cover. You can increase that amount by £20k a time for an additional £1.99 a month so if you only wanted a life policy to cover the mortgage in event of your death, it'd cost each of you £8 a month for £80k.