My budget - whaddya reckon?

tyllwyd

SeaSmart wrote:

I am talking family stuff. For example. A cheap day out for us would be a picnic by the lake, kicking footballs about, my kids playing on the park. Hiring a boat.

Petrol -£5
Icecreams - £7
Boat Hire - £7

£19

that would come out of the £100

£5 petrol to go on a cheap day out??? That has to be an overestimate, surely. So if you didn't hire the boat, and took drinks and a snack with you (or just buy icecreams for the kids), you could have a day out for a lot less.

melt71

SeaSmart wrote:

This budget is going to be a kind of 'suck it and see'. I have put 50 for clothes since my boy needs his school unifrom next month which will be about 44 quid. After that it will probably go down but kids grow so quick nowadays and that inculdes shoes etc.

Have you got an ebay account? If so, sell your unwanted items and leave the money in your paypal account to be used to buy other clothes. You can new or virtually new items of clothes for next to nothing on ebay.

I do this whenever I fancy a spending spree. It clears out some clutter and you get new or nearly new clothes for nothing.

It probably won't work for the uniform (unless they have basic uniforms which can be bought very cheaply in supermarkets anyway) but for general clothes for all the family it will work.

Just a thought.

sanfrancisco

Things are not "really tight" if you have £30 per month to eat out. You need a reality check.

wanna-be-mortgage-free_2

tyllwyd wrote:

£5 petrol to go on a cheap day out??? That has to be an overestimate, surely. So if you didn't hire the boat, and took drinks and a snack with you (or just buy icecreams for the kids), you could have a day out for a lot less.

I would have to agree. My cheap day out is walking to the local park with the kids, playing football, going on the swings/climbing frame AND bringing home made sarnies with me - total cost £0!

SeaSmart

melt71 wrote:

Have you got an ebay account? If so, sell your unwanted items and leave the money in your paypal account to be used to buy other clothes. You can new or virtually new items of clothes for next to nothing on ebay.

I do this whenever I fancy a spending spree. It clears out some clutter and you get new or nearly new clothes for nothing.

It probably won't work for the uniform (unless they have basic uniforms which can be bought very cheaply in supermarkets anyway) but for general clothes for all the family it will work.

Just a thought.

That is a cracking idea thanks!

SeaSmart

wanna-be-mortgage-free wrote:

I would have to agree. My cheap day out is walking to the local park with the kids, playing football, going on the swings/climbing frame AND bringing home made sarnies with me - total cost £0!

Thats a fair point. I guess these sorts of things will have to go

EagerLearner

SeaSmart - you're doing well facing up to this and taking the time to really think about it. One major thing that helped me get out of debt was just getting my budgeted cash out for the week - and that was it. Leave the debit card at home and the reality soon sets in of what you can and can't afford depending on what's left in your pocket.

Join Quidco if you haven't already - you can make some easy money by switching gas/electric, £30 for joining bingos.co.uk, £20 for opening a Cahoot savings account and much more. Last month alone I got £108, but that's because I work in an office and am able to make full use of it - and it was a busy month.

If you have a chance change your mobile phone contract via Quidco (when your current one expires) you could get more mins + texts, plus earn £30 or more via Quidco. It goes without saying that if you could spend less than £15 by downgrading to Pay As You Go, do that instead.

Explain to family and friends that for say 3 months you will need to cut back on outings, presents etc etc - it goes by in a flash and will help you get back on your feet and feel in control.

Buy your shopping at Tesco online, saves money and avoids overspending with offers that you don't really need.

As someone else suggested earlier, only turn things on when you need them rather than leaving them on standby.TV and PC are big guzzlers.

Madasafish are doing a good offer on broadband here on MSE and they offer £1 off from normal price to MSER's - assuming you can switch soon that is.

I think overall your budget is a good start, could probably help alot if you downloaded Martin's budget from this site, if you have not done so already as it helps you be 'real' and not avoid little costs that sometimes you forget to budget for.

Best of luck ;o)

melt71

SeaSmart wrote:

Thats a fair point. I guess these sorts of things will have to go

They don't have to go seasmart, that's the point, they just have to CHANGE. You will probably think of all new exciting ways to entertain your kids for very little or no money once you start to think about it.

Remember young kids don't give a toss about money or 'things' they just want to spend time with their mum and dad.

SeaSmart

melt71 wrote:

They don't have to go seasmart, that's the point, they just have to CHANGE. You will probably think of all new exciting ways to entertain your kids for very little or no money once you start to think about it.

Remember young kids don't give a toss about money or 'things' they just want to spend time with their mum and dad.

Thanks for this. We have friends who are in dire straits with finances who go 'leaf kicking' with thier kids down the forest! Kids love it and costs absulte zilch lol.

Guess its all bout thinking up new ideas.

Prudent

You really don't need to spend that much. Read the old style boards for help with the food budgte. I feed myself, teen daughter and two picky cats for £90 per month. We eat well. I run a three bed semi, an estate car and the two of us plus cats for £950 per month. This includes £100 depreciation on the car because I like to replace it evry four years. We have two weeks holiday away per year plus 3 - 5 short breaks.

I achieve this by keeping my regular outgoings to an absolute minimum and following all the tips on here for utilities. I use freeview rather than sky etc. As has been posted there is a lot of regular outgoings you can cut back on. Once things like lower bills become a regular it will just be a habit. Then, after paying off the debt you will have spare money regularly.