Advice on SOA

cycloneuk

zarazara wrote: »

I think the OP's budget is good. I cannot see any extravagance in it anywhere. I think the best solution would be to get a part time job and use the oney earned to pay off the loans. Maybe the OP's wife could work evenings or even full time for a short while,just to earn enough to pay off the debt.

Thanks, i have looked at loads of SOA'S on here to see what other households like us spend and thought ours was fair and realistic.

Food is expensive these days and probably an area most struggle with.

cycloneuk

iamana1ias wrote: »

I don't think anyone suggested you live on food like that.

They did suggest you ditch the jars of baby food and premium nappies though.

I know there are areas i can save but i'm sure someone said they could half it which would be £40 a week, that must be near impossible for a family of 4 unless they buy all smart price products.

iamana1ias

cycloneuk wrote: »

I know there are areas i can save but i'm sure someone said they could half it which would be £40 a week, that must be near impossible for a family of 4 unless they buy all smart price products.

Depends what you eat. Will be cheaper if you have some veggie meals. You don't need to buy for 4 - your children's food needs are miniscule. Drink water or squash instead of pop, buy reduced (protein) food and freeze it, bulk things out with rice, pasta or spuds (all cheap). Plenty left over for fruit and veg, none of it value.

dancingfairy

Hi Cyclone Uk - you have had quite a lot of comments regarding the food budget. It appears that there are a few things that you could try out and definitely try the OldStyleBoard as well for loads of ideas for cheap, and healthy family friendly meals. It's going to take a bit of reorganising /trying new things and it can take a while but I'm sure you'll get there.
Do you have any business advisers for your local council near you? or anything like that? perhaps the business line of National Debtline can help out with regards to your business. Perhaps there are courses you could go on or people you could speak to, to make more from the business?
I also think that due to your health/business situation that your wife will probably need to go out to work part time if possible as well.
Good Luck sorting everything out.
df

cycloneuk

Well just got my Sky reduced to £11.50 for next 6 months, good result.

clang_uk

Well done - it's a start in the right direction!

I think my last post never actually posted so apologies if you have seen this before but here goes:

You should see about getting friends family to hand down old clothes as your child is just going to ruin anything you buy! Trust me!

Try the taking lunch into work think I was spending £3 a day on sandwiches and another £1 on crisps and drink , thats £20 a week, £80 a month. bringing is sarnies has saved me well over £60! Give it a go - I know its dull but that's budgeting for you !!

Don't take too many of these comments to heart - try re-reading them and see that they make sense, and they're not being personal.

Keep posting

DaisyClaire

My two penneth regarding the baby food, and its not to criticise, just understand.
Why do you HAVE to buy jars of food? Is it for convienience? Baby food is so expensive, you are paying for essentially the packaging.
In a couple of hours you can easily prepare enough baby food for a 5 month old for the week. All you need is a load of ice cube trays which you can buy from a poundshop or similar. Cook up a load of root veg (or extra when cooking dinner) potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips etc. Once cooked, puree with a stick blender, in a processer or just with a good old fashioned masher! Then cool and add to the ice cube trays. Freeze. Then when you need baby food simply open the freezer, take out whatever 'veg cube' combo you want and heat. You could even re-use your empty jars you may already have to put cubes in when you are out and about. At 5 months I am assuming you child has not been on solids long, therefore as he/she gets more advanced in solids you can add a bit of pureed chicken, fish etc to the cubes. My little ones used to like porridge to. You don't have to view it as a sweet meal either, buy a bag of porridge oats and use them as a base to mix the veg with. As long as its not sweetened porridge its ok.

Pampers are stupidly expensive as well and they come up smaller IMO, I always found Tesco own brand (not value) to be better anyway and cheaper. Asda do bulk boxes as well.

ETA: Purees can be fruits to like apples and pears, you can mix these with porridge to or semolina. Stew up and pop in the ice cube trays as above

patchwork_cat

tbourner wrote: »

We do less than 1 load of washing a week!! There's only 2 of us but still.

Seriously! :eek: what with towels, bedding and clothes? What colour load is that?

If you don't feel confident about the baby food I advocate Annabel Karmel books - the library should have them. However at 5 months my 2 loved our food particuarly roast dinner! We did have jars too, but the eldest that had more jars because I had to go back to work is pickier. It just needs a bit of tweaking to make it right for a baby.

MyLastFiver

cycloneuk wrote: »

I know there are areas i can save but i'm sure someone said they could half it which would be £40 a week, that must be near impossible for a family of 4 unless they buy all smart price products.

You haven't been reading the replies, have you? Or at least, you've only been reading the ones that tell you what you want to hear.

So: You don't want to cut down on your spending, you don't want to consider any other work options: It doesn't leave a lot left to suggest, does it?

MustBeatThis

cycloneuk wrote: »

Don't see how we can cut groceries bill, works out at around £75 week. 2 tins of baby powder is £16 and then nappies another £10 and jars of food about £12 just for baby alone. I don't actually like a lot of foods, veg and all that - i had a very poor diet as a child so i blame that. The council tax should be for 10 months only so will need to correct that, stuck with Sky for time being and that is for the basic package really.

Just a suggestion: but do you need to buy jars of baby food? It's darned expensive.

I never bought any; when the kids were starting solids they just ate versions of what we cooked for us (obviously no salt or anything nasty).

I also saved a lot of money when mine were younger by using cloth nappies - they sometimes turn up on freecycle and are worth watching out for.

I know neither of these things will make huge differences to your budget but as they say every little helps.:)