House renovations have landed us in debt

MrsTinks

I may find you can save with a water meter - here there is me, hubby and a 20 week old baby - the amount of water needed for the baby is minimal - and she loves baths and showers with mummy and daddy
Mummy and daddy both have minimum a shower each a day - and probably 2 baths each a week in the evenings to relax... you can reduce your water usage by sharing the bath water or having less baths and using the shower instead. If you want to get extreem you could even use a timer to see who could have their shower the quickest whilst still getting clean - set it as a challenge
Washing and dishwashers use loads of water - make sure you don't do half loads and wash things that are not really dirty on a quick wash...

It may not seem much but if our bill is anything to go by you could save £20+ a month on this - or £240 a year just a thought obviously...

Main point for attack though - 4 people - ONE income... unless your wife would only qualify for minimum wage then you may have to face up to the fact that she needs to get a full time job... My DH earns a darned bit more than you and I'm sorry to say that we can't afford for me to stay at home with our daughter past 9 months... We need both incomes. Yes there is the daycare cost so you need to do the maths, but every penny counts for you right now... Hard work though being a mum is - sadly it's an unpaid profession

WASHER

DO NOT CANCEL THE LIFE INSURANCE OR THE MORTGAGE INSURANCE, THIS IS FAR MORE IMPORTANT THAN A MOBILE OR £60 ON PRESENT EACH MONTH.

I have a water meter, 4 of us, its £49 per month and increasing, my advice don't get a water meter, I have to really watch what I use and it still increasing. We shower every other day, and the washing machine is on every other day.

WASHER.x.

WASHER

I'm just reading your SOA, your mortgage seems very high, are you on a SVR or a fixed rate?

I'm not going against Mrs Tine here, she is far more knowledgeable than I on the DFW board, but childcare for two children is very expensive and with your salary you will not be entitled to much tax credit, you earn approx the same as my husband, I cannot afford to work, it simply doesn't pay for me to work as the childcare costs are so expensive, it will pay for your wife to do an evening job or weekend work. (Mrs Tine, I'm really am not going against your post, but I have worked full time, and as the government only pay out after the first approx, £100 in childcare a week, it simply didn't pay for me to work during the day/full time unless she has the earning power above £15K approx per year, even with one of my children at school it still didn't warrant me having a second car having to get to work etc, as they average the tax credits out over 52 weeks, during the summer holidays, I actually paid more in childcare a week than I earned).

hettiecarro

Hi
I haven't got anything to add other than I TRULY hope you find your way through this. Some people come onto this forum but don't really take the advice to heart (maybe their Light Bulb moment hasn't arrived) - but your posts show that you are taking all of this very seriously - and that being the case I am sure you will succeed. You certainly have mine and all of our best wishes to do so.

Only one thing constructive I can add - look at the 'Old Style' board - in the forums to get ideas on how to save on food etc. AMAZING what you can do with one small chicken.:rotfl:

Good luck - keep posting!

Catzpaws

Sounds like you're making solid progress so far - well done. And, to echo what's already been said, it's a good thing to be reining things in now.

Definitely free scratch cards/quidco are very easy ways to get something for nothing.

Not sure about the water meter in your circumstance. we saved when we got one but we've no kids. I know when we got a water meter, they said that if it was right for us, then we could change this within a certain time period. Best to check with your water company?

CP xxx

Little_Vics

I just wanted to add something - we are in debt to about the same amount for exactly the same reason - bought a house in a lovely area to have a family and had to do some work on it. We believe it was SO worth it to have a secure and safe place to call home, and by remembering that it makes the debt payments bearable. Hope that cheers you up a little bit.

Foundational

Thanks folks for your ideas and encouragement. We've decided not to pursue the water meter issue. We think most families with growing kids are more likely to lose out or have to be very, very careful.

We are trying to be creative with cooking from scratch more, and as we are vegetarians (we'd try to bring the chicken back to life..!) we can be quite frugal when we do this. You have to watch the price of lentils though. I say we but it's DW who does most of this.

DW is a full time mum and although we are looking at possibilities of earning extra cash/evening or weekend work, full time work isn't on the cards. We feel very fortunate we have been able to do things this way, though it's not easy when money is so tight.

DW got a couple of fab clothes bargains in local charity shops this week for her and DS, and we will now make the most of our good fortune in having 5 or 6 charity shops just a few minutes away, and all good causes.

I think one of our challenges is that we have been pretty frugal, or at least not extravangant, in day to day living for quite a while. We are finding new opportunities to save, though, and I think we are getting out of the trap of thinking we were being frugal when we got a bargain on something that we didn't really need!

It would be nice if we had finished all the work on our house, but we still have tiling the kitchen, decorating and some carpets to sort out. How we plan to do this is still a topic for debate - more slowly and cheaply is the aim.

We have looked at Quidco briefly but found it a bit confusing... we need to study it properly! We have rethought on life insurance and now intend to keep it going.

It is really helpful to hear from others in similar situations or simply concerned, and reminding us of what we did this for.

Foundational

I forgot to answer WASHER's question about our mortgage - it is fixed rate till May next year at 5.65% (I think). Would be a bit lower on variable rate. We are conscious that a hike in interest rates would be a problem for us with our extra borrowing, so we really do need to drive down this debt.

MrsTinks

Washer - that would be why I said they had to look at the maths

Prudent

I choose to live pretty frugally and am also vegetarian. I think you could probably get the food budget down. I feed myself, dd and sometimes my partner (doesn't live with me) plus two cats for about £140 per month. The Old style board has great tips.

If your dw has free time might be worth her entering comps on the comps forum. My 'luxuries' and a lot of pressies come from comps. It is fairly easy to win tickets for local events which makes for a nice day out which is a treat on a tight budget. I have won around £7500 prizes so far this year.