Advice on SOA

TUS

rachelet wrote: »

I have been on MSE for a while now but have never posted before now giving some advice on a SOA, but I just had to on this one. I am married and have 4 kids, 2 of which are in nappies so I do know what am talking about with the expense of kids.

With regard to your cost of nappies at £10 per week, I don't spend this on two children in nappies. What nappies are you buying? I use Tesco own brand (not the value range) and have just worked out I spend £36 a month on nappies for two children. Tesco own brand are just as good as the named brands and are a lot cheaper. Also the tins of baby milk, I estimated that whilst the baby is having I use 1 tin a week at just over £7 per tin. I don't see how you are getting through two tins of milk a week and also feeding your baby jars of food. My children love their milk as well so its not that they don't drink very much.

With regard to the clothes, my kids grow very quickly as well and although I have three girls, so the clothes have been handed down and are getting well used, for my son, we bought a job lot of second hand clothes from ebay for £50. This should keep him clothed for a few years, with me only having to buy underwear, socks and maybe a few t-shirts each year. I know babies grow quickly but £1200 a year on clothes is a lot and I think this can be reduced. I probably spend less than half that on all four of my kids a year!

With regard to the washing as well, I only do one load of washing a day with perhaps two loads a day at the weekend. This is with four kids, one of which seems to change clothes three times a day!

I know what you are saying about the jars of baby food, I fed my first two on them as it was more convenient for me, but the second two I cook for them myself. I did have a few jars in the cupboard in case of emergencies, but I have found with my son, who I have fed mostly whatever we have eat, eats far better than my older two and actually prefers my cooked food to jars! You don't have to cook separately for your baby, just either puree whatever you are eating or do a batch cook and freeze mini portions. I do this a lot as well. I tend to cook a meal for us, then if I have a little bit left, I put it in a plastic tub in the freezer and there's a meal ready for my son without wasting any food.

With regard to your business, it is only making a profit at the moment because it isn't paying you a fair wage for the work that you are doing. If you were to pay yourself a fair wage, then it would obviously be making a loss. Do you see the business turning around any time soon?

I hope this helps!

Good post, as a fellow parent (and a scrooge!) I entirely agree. I spend £3.79 per week on nappies and, when he was drinking forumula, £6.95 per week. We get clothes from eBay or FOLK for peanuts compared to store prices. We got a bundle of Next baby clothes for £10 which would have retailed for over £60!

I spend £220 per month or there abouts for a family of 5 (2 adults, 7 year old, 1 year old and a newborn).

OP needs to start being VERY strict. As someone in business, apply the logic of a budget to your homelife. Plan a year ahead - budget ahead of time for things. Keep a spending diary and check against your online banking regularly to ensure you are meeting targets.

It takes work, but has saved me so much £££. I will be debt free in 5 years and hopefully have around £20k in savings within 8 years.

Triggles

There are so many little things that you can do to help yourself.

- your OH (and possibly yourself) will probably need to get a part time job. Even if it's just 8 hours on a Saturday or Sunday for you. And maybe a few evenings a week for your OH. I note the comments there isn't much out there for the both of you, but honestly - supermarkets and food places are hiring all the time! There are ALWAYS jobs out there - but often people feel certain jobs are a bit distasteful or beneath their skills. A job is a job - money coming in pays the bills - whether it comes from an IT place or McDonalds. Income is income.

- making the food for your baby is unbelievably easy. As your child is only 5 months right now, they'll most likely be starting with simple foods anyway (introducing a few days apart to weed out any allergy issues) such as rice cereals, bananas, and things that are relatively easy to puree or mash up well. Why pay the price of jarred foods when your little one can simply be eating foods you most likely have in the house (or can buy cheaply) and then soon start eating all the foods you are already cooking anyway? It costs NOTHING for them to eat what you're eating! And it's not an extra effort as you're already cooking it for your family!

- not sure how old your older child is, obviously school age if you're talking about school lunches. But what specifically are the bus tickets used for. You work at home... your wife isn't working... one child is an infant... where is your school? Is the bus used for transport to school? Or do you go to a local school that is within walking distance. What specifically in a month do you use the bus trips for that you both need a monthly pass? (trust me there is logic to this question - so if you can answer it, we'll go from there..)

- £100 per month on clothing??? why??? your wife doesn't work, you work from home. So it's not like you're needing dressy office clothing or anything. Children do outgrow clothing - but not THAT fast!! What, for example, do you buy clothing-wise in a month that you spent £100 on?? Can you give an example for a couple months so we can have an idea why this is so high? (helps to understand so can tailor *oh a pun!* our suggestions to your needs and such)

- you can cut quite a bit off your grocery budget without living on basics (although to be honest, I wouldn't sniff at basics if I were you - a lot of them are actually just as good as brand name!!!). Personally, I think your reaction to the suggestion of cutting back your grocery budget (as well as a few other "luxuries") is telling - your main response is that you're not prepared to live on basics and cheap nasty stuff. That tells me that you basically want to "have your cake and eat it too" if you see what I mean. You want to have the money saved, but don't want to personally sacrifice for it at all. Can't be done. Sorry, but let's be reasonable. Sometimes you have to make a few compromises in order to cut back. And as for your food dislikes, it certainly wouldn't hurt you to try to set a good example for your children and be a bit more adventuresome and try some foods that are good for you and inexpensive.

- I have to agree with other posters that you may want to seek outside advice on whether or not your business is actually viable. I mean professional business advice. Sometimes having your own business is a luxury you can't afford.

- when you say you "are upsizing" and your house is on the market. Have you already found the house you are looking for? I am astounded at the number of people I have seen lately that have their house on the market and are looking to get a bigger house (and most likely a larger mortgage) but are up to their eyeballs in debt at the same time. A bit of crowding in the home is not fatal - children CAN share rooms and survive!! (ok rant over - this is one that drives me nuts!) Is it absolutely necessary that you upsize now, when you are having debt problems? Especially if the house you are in is paid for?? And have you considered how a move will affect your finances? Will it increase your council tax? There will be charges for moving and switching services... and a bigger house generally costs more to heat!

- 2 loads of washing per day? Yikes!! insane!! We have 2 adults in our home, plus a 3yo (potty training - so he goes through lots of clothing!) and a 10 month old who wears just about as much food as he eats normally, and we don't go through that much! I'd say 1 load per day, maximum, including sheets and towels weekly (and 3yo sheets more often LOL).

Raggs_2

You also need to stop looking at other peoples SOA's and thinking to yourself "If they can spend that much on it, so can I", because it doesn't work that way. Everyone's situation is different, and I suspect that most of the SOA's your looking at are the first post, rather than the final slimmed and trimmed version when they've taken on board the advice.

If anything you should look at it as "If they can spend that little on it, so can I."

thestealer

cycloneuk wrote: »

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

Don't reduce it...bin it! Save another £138 a year.

I'm going to perhaps try to put things into a slightly different, more general light for you because I sort of see a bit of what I was before I faced up to my debt problem.

Consider this...

Bin sky, switch energy suppliers, reduce grocery bill, use car boot sales for kid clothes, implement little savings like cutting out snacking, that sort of thing. I am confident you could comfortably save 140 quid a month without even noticing and with a bit of dilligence make that 180 quid.

...now consider this...

That 180 quid will pay off your credit card and small loan in under two and a half years...ish. That will then free up even more capital to eat into your big loan, by which time the kids will be older with potentially less costs associated, your business may well have picked up...more cash available, your OH may well have found work...more cash available.

= Debt free in 5-6 years...or theareabouts. Hell you could even go for the full sky package then.


The alternative is to tinker round the edges of the problem and have the millstone of debt round your neck for, potentially decades.

cycloneuk

The bus tickets are for visiting family, i like to go and see my mum once a week and also my brother. They live a 5+ miles away so not walking distance, we also go to the carboot and visit town a few times a week. I worked out that it is cheaper to get weekly bus tickets, return journeys to town are £4 for an adult.

Our house is on the market and while i'm upsizing, we are selling a 2 bed detached bungalow in a sought after retirement area and going to get a 3 bedroom semi detached house on the outskirts which is still a nice area but cheaper. So will be left with enough money to clear the big loan and pay all removal costs and estate agent fees.

We could probably bring the grocery budget down to £65 a week if we are carefull, will put that into practice this week and remember not to go when hungry lol. Last time i did the shopping on my own, i spent nearly £100 and couldn't really see what i spent it on.

Clothing could come down to £75 maybe, i can't get rid of Sky, i would be bored crazy.

ciderwithrosie_2

cycloneuk wrote: »

The bus tickets are for visiting family, i like to go and see my mum once a week and also my brother. They live a 5+ miles away so not walking distance, we also go to the carboot and visit town a few times a week. I worked out that it is cheaper to get weekly bus tickets, return journeys to town are £4 for an adult.

Our house is on the market and while i'm upsizing, we are selling a 2 bed detached bungalow in a sought after retirement area and going to get a 3 bedroom semi detached house on the outskirts which is still a nice area but cheaper. So will be left with enough money to clear the big loan and pay all removal costs and estate agent fees.

We could probably bring the grocery budget down to £65 a week if we are carefull, will put that into practice this week and remember not to go when hungry lol. Last time i did the shopping on my own, i spent nearly £100 and couldn't really see what i spent it on.

Clothing could come down to £75 maybe, i can't get rid of Sky, i would be bored crazy.

Can you mum and brother not come and visit you instead now and again? And if you don't go to town several times a week then you can't be tempted to spend money in the shops. Go to the park with your kids, or a walk in the country, take a picnic (sandwiches and a drink), build a tent out of blankets in the back garden - things which are free. Your kids will remember this sort of thing much longer than over-priced bits of plastic.

The clothes budget can be cut hugely by buying for one adult/child at a time in rotation. I just went on the Tesco website and bought (virtually not actually)

3 bodysuits
2 bibs
4 T shirts
denim jeans
denim shorts
2 piece shorts set
3 piece trouser set

Total cost £45 (and you could probably get all that cheaper still elsewhere) - your baby surely can't need much more than this spent on clothes every so often. Pyjamas, rather than sleepsuits have a longer lifespan as they don't squash their toes if they've outgrown them a bit. School uniforms for your older child are dirt cheap these days and as someone said if you and the missus are mostly at home then you don't need to spend a lot on your clothes, only replace when worn out.

Money was really tight when my kids were little - DS2 ate a lot of cauliflower cheese:rotfl: frozen cauli florets (cheaper to buy it this way) made up formula, bit of grated cheese - heat, whizz up, serve.

As for your wife going mad about the money-saving, surely you're in this together? What's hers is yours and vice versa hopefully

regards CWR

tbourner

patchwork_cat wrote: »

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

Actually we do about 3 loads every 3-4 weeks, we just pile everything up and do it all at once. I have lots of undies and stuff, 5 shirts for work that I wear for 2 or 3 days and t-shirts for Friday, 1 pair of jeans for work and combats for home, these are worn all the time and washed on the wash weekend. Towels don't get washed very often at all. We only change the bedding when the cat sicks on it!! Actually that's not true but it doesn't get changed often.
I don't understand people who think it's scanky to wear jeans for more than a few days, and shirts for 2 or 3 days, I don't smell, they don't go yellow, what's the problem!
Maybe we should get a water meter.

patchwork_cat

tbourner wrote: »

Actually we do about 3 loads every 3-4 weeks, we just pile everything up and do it all at once. I have lots of undies and stuff, 5 shirts for work that I wear for 2 or 3 days and t-shirts for Friday, 1 pair of jeans for work and combats for home, these are worn all the time and washed on the wash weekend. Towels don't get washed very often at all. We only change the bedding when the cat sicks on it!! Actually that's not true but it doesn't get changed often.
I don't understand people who think it's scanky to wear jeans for more than a few days, and shirts for 2 or 3 days, I don't smell, they don't go yellow, what's the problem!
Maybe we should get a water meter.

:eek: You wear 2 shirts a week and 1 pair of jeans? You wash the bedding when the cat vomits on it and don't change your towels often and reckon you don't smell, I wonder if your colleagues agree?

tbourner

Why do you need to change towels often? You only use them when you're clean! They should be the cleanest thing in the house!!

JohnD76

cycloneuk wrote: »

Sorry, i'm trying . Never struggled with money before, ran a successfull business before this one which i sold to fund the house purchase and put the rest towards a new business.

If your company is making a profit but you can only pay yourself minimum wage, then it is only breaking even once you have paidd your salary. You need to up your income and either leave the dream of running your business behind and get another job or get the business to actually start making some money.

How many hours a week do you work? Most people who run their own businesses put in a lot of hours, and the salary you are posting it pittance really. You need to assess if the business is actually working and not let pride get in the way.

As for baby food, why not make it instead of buying it? Get a hand blender for £20 maximum, don't use spices or salt and pepper and blend the food for make baby food. Anything prepared for you will cost many orders of magnitude more than making it yourself.