newbie has light bulb moment - Advise please

Tinker_belle_2

I am no expert, but two things really jumped out at me.

£200 a month on clothes. You don't have to shop (although it will bring the figure down even more) at Primark, Charity Shops or even ebay to bring that figure down. We shop at all the norm high street stores e.g. Topshop, River Island and ASDA/Tesco is great for kiddies clothes. We spend on average about £200 a year on our clothes and about £100 twice a year on kiddies clothes, my children have mountains of clothes. I am a shop aholic and would spend endlessy on it, but that can't happen. If I go clothes shopping now, we save the money and pay for it in cash. Hit the sales for things like T-Shirts, Jeans and shoes.

Also your shopping bill. I don't but lots of economy foods, some foods I do, cause they are quite tasty, but I just buy Tesco/ASDA/Sainsbury's own food and we spend max £200 a month on shopping and that includes feeding 4 cats and cleaning stuff and 2 children. It helps that I hate ready made foods so I make everything from scratch - I always have done

We are in debt, so I don't mean to preach, but I hope the above helps a little

apples101

well we have three kids 2 teenagers & 1 child therefore my wife needs a mpv to get around and work. i need a reliable car to get me to work and back so swapping for something more economical would work out more expensive as my car is only worth a couple of grand max.

we shop for food at asda & lidal every week so sometimes only spend £70 a week and we cook every meal from scratch. everyone takes pack lunches to work/school.

Gas and elec are estimates as we havn't had a bil yet (new build house and !!!! up with meter nos....)

estimate on clothing was a guess as we shop at he next sales (getting up at 4 am just after christmas not good lol) but i would guess for a monthly budjet of 120 - 150 is probably more realistic.

The swiming is split between the eldest who swims for the local county and the youngest for her swimming lesons.

mobile phones i require one and i have 500x minutes a month and generally use all plus a few more due to my job. my wife's we could look at. which would reduce it to £10/m.

Bestthingsinlifearefree

HI apples,

The good news is you have a good level of income so you should be able to have a good standard of living and be able to tackle the debts.

The bad news as you know, is to much is going out.

You need to maximise whats coming in & minimise whats going out.

The mortgage is huge £1416. What is the value of the house and how much is the mortgage for? Is it interest and capital repayment or interest only ? How long is the term left ?

£60 per month on mobiles is crazy ( the wife and I have pay as you go mobiles and spend less than £5 per month on cals. Emergency / essential call only !!!!!)

serena

I have three children, 15, 13 and 11 and have transported them everywhere in a Micra...

mrnomoneybags

Look at argos pet insurance .......... for our medum sized puppy its £7.12 per month.

Might help a little

jesster_2

we were a family of four kids, and we never had anything bigger than a metro or renault 5.

I know you feel that you need certain things, but really, you don't. Once you shift your mind-set to getting a buzz out of saving, you'll get more of a buzz out of that than out of gazing at your nice shiny motor.

And if you think these small things like petrol and insurance costs don't make a difference... just try adding them up over a year, and you'll see!

apples101

my wife picks the children up from school and at the same time hasthe child minding children with her so we need the seven seats.

i need my mob on contract as i use it extensivly for work and as i am a contractor i have to providit myself.

the house is worth 320K and is our dream home. mortgage is just over 273k tried to remortgage to a better deal which would have reduced the mortgage to 1041/m but didn't work as house got undervalued.

we have pet plan insurence for the dog as it works out alot cheeper if you have to claim.

Bestthingsinlifearefree

Hi apples,

Sorry to ask the same qu again.

Is the mortgage an interest and capital repayment mortgage or interest only ?

apples101

mortgage is intrest only at this stage. need to get debts out of way to make headway against capitol, just planned on having two incoms instead of just one, and not the additional debt caused by the ex.

brindles01

one tip I would swear by, and any other MSer worth their salt, is to only by what you regularly use around the house or food wise if it on BOGOF or other money saving offer. It means a bit more effort at first but you soon get an eye for it and it REALLY does put pounds in your purse! The money won't come to you.