Income not enough to pay for my outgoings. Not sure what to do

kaom

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

Someone recently gave the following link to a recipe site, for feeding two adults and two teenagers for £100 a month. They said it was well respected posters from this site that put up the recipes.
http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/

The debt free wananbee board and old style board will be able to help you money saving ideas.

superb. thanks

TOBRUK

kaom wrote: »

My credit card debt is £6k. My o/d is £2k (but growing). I've looked at the credit card debt which costs £120 or so per month. I could get rid of my credit card debt at an immediate cost of 30,000 shares which is a big chunk of my future deposit (18%) - but I would "only" be saving £120 per month. Do I sound like an idiot trying to justify this? I'm trying to weigh up the present with the future. I'm genuinely scared of having to rely on the state and if I end up having no deposit to buy a house because of a squeeze now I will regret it for ever more (and always rely on the state)


Thanks for your input. I hope I dont sound dismissive regarding your comments. I'm just trying to justify my position and reasoning so that you or others can "see" my thinking process and then offer counter-advice

Not at all kaom, I can completely see your thinking as you believe that your shares will provide a future for your family. However, in a way you are denying that you have debt and it is growing. I suppose you can try and carry on the way you are now but try and budget hard to see how things are in a few months.

I would definitely sit down and list EVER penny in your true outgoings and cut down drastically on your spending. No buying daily papers, take away food, ready made meals and other treats. When you go shopping make a list and stick to it. For spending money (which you didn't mention) take out x amount each week and stick to it. There may be things you are buying which are luxuries and not essentials, although I may think something is a luxury and someone else may class it as essential!

There are things you could do to bring down your outgoings and many good tips on the debt thread, and 'old style moneysaving'. Cooking your own meals from scratch is something to do - if you don't already. Meal planning works (moneysaving) very well and you soon get used to it.

pelirocco

dmg24 wrote: »

I agree with TOBRUK, it would be easy to decrease your outgoings - cut £100 off the food shopping, stop the clothes spending and the charity donations.

decrease food to £180 a month ???????

Oldernotwiser

Have you and your wife discussed her getting a part time job, possibly when you're at home to look after the children? A couple of evenings or a day at weekends, even if at NMW would come to a couple of hundred a month, more if she has marketable skills and could earn a higher rate.

Oldernotwiser

pelirocco wrote: »

decrease food to £180 a month ???????

Perfectly manageable if someone is at home all the time and able to cook from scratch.

dmg24

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Perfectly manageable if someone is at home all the time and able to cook from scratch.

And probably be much more healthy as a result!

Dognobs

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Perfectly manageable if someone is at home all the time and able to cook from scratch.

Yep I feed a family of 5 WELL on this. Make a menu every week and buy form aldi!

goggle

kaom wrote: »

I'm in a right old pickle. My monthly outgoings are significantly higher than my income and I'm at a loss as to what I can do.

2 options - reduce your outgoings or increase your income!

The people on this site are fab at offering suggestions on reducing outgoings, but you have to be willing to change. For instance you surely don't need £50 on clothes EVERY MONTH - what are you buying?! If your wife is a housewife, she needs to be doing her share to contribute to the family by cooking from scratch etc - your food bill can be cut by a fair amount if she's wililng to do her share of effort.
Unlike others, I won't tell you to stop the charity payments as I believe strongly in giving to others & *always* give a proportion of my income to charity - if I am bringing in £1000 a month it's significantly more than if I'm bringing in £100 a month, but your £11 a month shouldn't be insurmountable if you are willing to cut down in other areas - like clothes!

I would suggest that you take out of your shares whatever is needed to pay off the credit card - that will give you £100 a month or so to cover your "emergencies" (aka things you knew were coming but hadn't budgetted for!) AND you won't be racking up interest.

dmg24

Dognobs wrote: »

Yep I feed a family of 5 WELL on this. Make a menu every week and buy form aldi!

Aldi is so bad for my diet - their crumbly mints are addictive, and the jelly beans (80p a pack) are better than any of the big brands!

Bargain_Rzl

While I agree with pretty much everything that has so far been suggested (including the fact that this thread should be on the DFW board) I must say I don't think £50 is at all excessive for clothes, other than in the sense that everything is excessive if you can't afford it. The poster is the sole wage earner for a family of three, one of whom likely has to dress neatly for work (must be quite a decent job to be bringing in £35k in an area where a family home costs £850pm) and one of whom is a growing child. Nobody is saying that people need new clothes every month, but when one does need new clothes, one doesn't necessarily only need one garment at a time... Basics like underwear, socks and (if applicable, this is a biggie) school shoes would swallow up much of that budget all by themselves.

If it was a single person struggling to make ends meet then I'd think £50pm was excessive. For a family of 3, I think it's frugal.

As for the rest, I think you can shave a lot off the food bill. You can get much cheaper internet, and maybe reduce your petrol usage. But you must budget for the things you've missed off your list (things paid annually, and things that come up every so often but which HAVE to be paid when they do, like car and appliance repairs) or it'll never work and you'll always be playing catch-up.

Also, don't you get any tax credits?