Please can anybody help me with my budget

daphne_descends

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Angela84

Hi Suzie, just wanted to say hi really, feel like our story is pretty similar, Im due our second baby soon, have a wedding booked for next May we can't afford, but my DS1 is off to school this Sept.
I also have my Very/Littlewoods account buzzing around still, annoying me! Tha was for mine and DS's beds when we had no money, and now we don't even have the beds anymore! Grr!
Don't have much advice, you seem to be stretching your budget the best you can, I know what you mean about fresh fruit etc, my craving is raspberries and cherries, costing me an effing fortune!
Simply the only thing I can suggest is Ebaying to get a bit of money together to clear the Very/Debenhams debts. I've just put on what I thought was rubbish (perfume with only 75% left as never really liked the smell, OH's old Playstation games, old camera etc) and I've just made £70 today!
Going to put on a bundle of maternity clothes, and got a good feeling I might make another £50-£100. All stuff I would have never have thought twice of just giving straight to the charity shop!

Also, if you did stop nursery for DS, or just find a nursery that accepts the term time 12.5 hours and thats it, you would have a bit more money, tax credits only pay 80% of fees, so each month that 20% of fees your paying would be saved. Its finding a nursery that accepts the government grant and thats it though, I couldn't find any, and then it was too late anyway as its not on for summer hols.

Good luck hun x

Suziebear_3

Hi,

Please could you tell me where to get the 3 months supply of contact lenses for £27?. That would save us a lot of money if they are suitable.

I can't get childcare vouchers as i only work part time at a school and i earn below the tax thresh hold so i don't pay any tax to offset the vouchers and i don't think they offer them where my other half works.

Feel like i'm doing well today, we've decided to cut the driving lessons so thats £110 saved, asked for council tax to be spread over 12 months so we will have about £20 a month extra from that and deffo looking into the contact lenses.

OH is tied into a contract with his phone but he thinks they may let him lower his tarriff after the first year so we will be trying that when its time. Also looking into getting a free account for my OH so he doesnt have to pay, apparantly the charge he pays is so he can have a small overdraft but we don't need that.

Really need to ring tax credits to weigh up if its worth holding onto the nursery place or not.

Its nice to talk to you Angela, its not a good situation to be in is it. Its so hard when things crop up unexpectedly and you NEED to have them but have no savings or spare money, very is evil really and i bet it sucks lots of parents in who really need things like with my washing machine and your beds. As soon as im debt free ill be putting money into a savings account so that i will actually have spare money for when things crop up and ill never have to rely on them.

I hope your wedding goes well next year!

Oh and looking for things to ebay!

Suziebear_3

Ok update is this, we have cut the driving lessons, it wouldnt be viable to spread our council tax over 12 months until the beginning of the next council tax year (they said to ring in February to arrange that) as it wouldnt really cut our costs, we already had the 2 months without any payments (as we chose to pay over 10 months) and they would need to change the direct debit date, currently we pay on the 31st of each month whereas they would need to change it to the 5th so we would have to stump up £100 at the end of August plus £100 immediately after on 5th September which we cant afford and it would only knock our monthly payments down by £10. It will be worth doing it next year though.

We tried to switch our home phone from BT to 02 but they refused my partner as he didnt pass the credit rating, on inspection though it seems we may be better off with post office for our home phone so i will try with them and we are looking into cutting the cost of our electricity and gas although we are finding it difficult to find a cheaper deal x

Angela84

Well done Suzie, really sounds like you are being proactive! Makes sense what you're saying about Council Tax, not worth the hassle right now. Good luck with Post Office and electricity/gas deals, Im a bit lost when it comes to that as well, Im sure there are better deals but I just imagine in a months time an even better one will come out and Ill wish I held on!

Have you thought about kleeneze/Avon/Virgin Vie etc for a bit of extra income? I just signed up for Virgin Vie, you pay £50 for the makeup kit, get the training and then you can arrange parties and earn about £50 an evening. Im gonna start mine when Ive had the baby.

When you due your baby? And whens the wedding?

Suziebear_3

Hi Angela,

Well i feel we are at least getting somewhere, we have already instantly saved £110 per month by my oh cutting his driving lessons and hopefully we will manage to save a bit more by switching our electricity/gas suppliers and changing our home phone.

Things will get better next year anyway when we have finally got married (20th May) and then we will have an extra £100 per month that we have been currently ploughing into the wedding fund, also my loan finishes next year and fingers crossed if Northern Rocks SVR stays the same then when i come out of my fixed term deal in March my mortgage will go down too so there is some light at the end of the tunnel!!.

I only have 11 days till baby will be arriving by c section, good job i'm breastfeeding, another money saving plan lol

danilou1910

Hi suzie,

I think pretty much everything I could advise has been said.

But in regards to your home phone, have you tried talk talk. We pay the bt line rental to them of 11.50 and it's only 6.99 on top for your calls, that includes unlimited landline calls all day everyday and free calls to 0845 and 080 numbers. So you will save when your calling the bank etc.

Also about the wedding, where is it booked for? Just me and my hubby had to cancel our wedding last year and then we ended up rebooking 6 months later and just budgeted and used local suppliers to the hilt. When we first cancelled we spoke to all our suppliers to explain we were in financial difficulties and they were happy to carry any desposits and payments made to the later date when we rebooked and alot of them gave us freebies to help which saved hundreds.

Anyway to get to the point, while planning my wedding I was addicted to wedding forums and found a few women in a similar predicament as yourself whole literally sold there wedding to someone else. I know that sounds scary, but they just asked them to buy the venue booking from them and carry on paying balance. As some people just wanna get booked and married quick and often can't get the venue they want.Just a possibility.

But looking at your replies so far you are already making great cut backs and to be honest have a pretty good budget in place in first place.

Oh and have you included the child benefit for the new baby in your budget as that is higher in the 1st year as well?

For food shopping I have found that local grocers and butchers are great as you can get a lot for your money. We also plan meals ahead and buy what we need to make meals, including my hubby's bait for work.

Good luck hope it is all sorted for lil one coming along

RoxieW

Hi Susie why don't you have a look at the august £10 a day challenge. It's basically a earning/ saving money challenge on this board and there are lots of good ideas for little things that you can do to boost your income. I'm on £190 already this month but I include money I've saved as well so I'm bait of a cheat but I have earnt about a hundred and I find it very motivating. Pop over and say hello (:

Suziebear_3

Hi danilou,

Thanks so much for the advice, we have already paid off our wedding and venue thankfully (which includes the meal and entertainment) and we have already paid for a cake. Really all the money we are left saving up for because the bulk is paid for is the extra, i.e dress for me, bridesmaids, suits, flowers. If we cancelled the wedding we would have to pay 100% of the cost to them so we might as well go ahead as that is already paid for as is the essentials like the meal for everyone etc so when it comes down to it i guess it's just a case of we will have to make do with what we can afford. If i can't afford flowers i won't have any, i'll have to make invites myself and if the worse comes to the worse then its ebay dresses for me and the bridesmaids and it will have to be ebay suits too. Maybe i should opt for a naked wedding, it would make things cheaper:P

I don't think the talk talk package would be right for me as it would be mostly for people who call landlines which i hardly ever call, i call mobiles mostly, as i ring my oh when he is at work and i also need to talk to my little boys father on a regular basis and he doesnt have a home phone to ring. We have decided though that oh will ring me instead using his free minutes on his mobile and me and my childs father will take it in turns to ring eachother. Its why i thought post office would be a good deal though as it included some mobile calls. To be honest i could probably live without the home phone but we are really happy with our broadband provider 02 and only pay £7.50 per month for it but obviously we need the land line for the broadband.

Deffo cracking on with the planning of meals and doing better although im still finding it hard to plan healthyish meals on my budget of £40 per week for the shopping. At the moment there are NO extras at all which is fine, its literally milk, bread, 7 meals for evening meal, fruit (which is a must for my little one) and things for my other halfs dinner. No snacks or biscuits or anything nice in there at all and its still hard!. Finding meat the most expensive so i shall do as you said and find out where my local butcher is and hopefully that will help, will go to the market for my fruit and veg too as should be a bit cheaper!

Wish i could hire martin lewis for the day though so he could show me more money saving ideas!

Suziebear_3

Thanks Roxie i shall go and check it out!!