Learning to Live on Less!

White_Iris

Hi nannyplum, thank you for your comments!

nannyplum wrote: »

Hi, i am also living on a budget with two kids, i look out for the sales in the supermarkets for clothes, i shop months ahead, even for xmas and birthdays, i keep a small fund building in a separate account up for every bargain i see, i only buy things that i know i need, ie kids presents or clothes. Some times you can pay £1-£2 for a brand new item! Tesco have a clothing sale right now, got a few bits for xmas, also argos have end of catalogue sales where you can get toys for half price, i just bought two large items for xmas and saved £20 on there full price! Just have to hide them well!

I try to buy ahead where I can but I'm also trying to create some space and not buy too much stuff, too far ahead. I'd love to keep a small savings pot for shopping bargains but at the moment we just don't have the spare cash to do this - everything gets spent, every month :eek:

nannyplum wrote: »

also i was thinking, what type of car does your husband drive, could you make petrol and insurance savings by down sizing? Just a thought!

We only have one car and it's about as small as we can go and still fit in the two behemoth car seats and our monster pram and the dogs. It's not that old but has a lot of miles and wear and tear, so would be worth nothing to trade in/sell on. Plus we're still paying off the loan we used to buy it and I'm determined to keep it until it either dies or we've paid for it fully!

Iris .x.

missymoo81

hey white Iris, fingers crossed on the house front for you, I hope they do have a second viewing.

claireforest

hey, fingers crossed on the house. your doing so well on decluttering- i really should take a leaf out of your book- i may try and read some of the blogs.

x

White_Iris

I hope everyone else had a nice weekend - we had a lovely time, visiting friends, a bit of gardening, a bit of cooking and sitting around playing with the children

Still no news on the house though - we'll give the viewer until Wednesday to get in touch with the estate agent (a week since the viewing) and then assume he isn't interested and drop the price

Managed to get DH to take his textbooks in to school today, so now the bookshelves are neat and tidy and anything that can be chewed or ripped is out of reach of the children. I've also cleared out a few kitchen odds and ends and have another piles of old photos to scan and the ditch once they are safely stored digitally. I've spotted my next de-cluttering project as well - the small cupboard in our garage is my next target, as according to DH everything in there can be thrown away :T

White_Iris

I've been scanning a box of odd photographs today and it occurred to me that we've almost done all the obvious de-cluttering but now we need to start refining the things we have. There is a cupboard in our box room and that's where I've been stashing the things that I think we will probably keep and soon it'll be time to go through it and be really ruthless about what stays and what goes. When I put things away it gives me a bit of breathing space so that when I eventually go back to them I should be able to thin things out more easily, rather than having to decide about everything in one go. This 2 stage clearing process is really working for me - even DH remarked yesterday about how easy it is to tidy up when there isn't stuff everywhere :-)

White_Iris

Got a letter from HMRC this morning confirming that I wouldn't be getting anything extra from last years child tax credits. Even though I earned around £5k less than I had estimated it had no effect on the amount I was due. I'm yet to hear from them about whether we qualify for tax credits this year, although I did have a mystery £1.49 show up in my bank account from them a few weeks ago - don't know whether that was to do with last year or this year, guess I just have to wait for another decision letter.

White_Iris

Woo hoo, got my confirmation letter this morning from HMRC and we will be getting child tax credits this year. It's only £41 a month but this will actually help a lot (and the mystery £1.49 was part of this years credits)!

White_Iris

Revised SOA

White_Iris wrote: »

No. adults...........2
No. children.........2
No. cars..............1

Salary.................0
Partners salary.....2338.71
Benefits..............176.66 (increased by £41.86)
Total income........2515.37

Outgoings
Mortgage............582.71
Council tax..........131
TV licence...........12.37
Water.................23
Sewerage............18.89
Electricity............20
Oil......................50
Phone.................16
Broadband............16
Life insurance.......22.44
Home insurance.....23.06
Pet insurance........35.90 (increased by £5.16)
Sky......................22.50
NASUWT...............13.95
Mobiles..................30 (increased by £10)
Emergency savings...25
Dog savings............50
Car savings.............75
Childrens savings........0 (decreased by £20)
Grocery shopping.......200 (increased by £50)
Petrol.......................200
Total outgoings.......1567.82

Debts
Credit card.....150 (0% until Dec 2011) Balance - 4400

Loan 1..........483.17 (11.9% until Oct 2013) Balance at last statement (Jan 2011)- 12928.70 (no over-payments allowed)

Loan 2..........200 (7.79% until July 2027!!!!!) Balance at last statement (Mar 2011) - 19019.48 (over-payments allowed)
Total debt................36348.18
Total monthly debt repayments.........788.17

Total outgoings (bills + debt).........2355.99

Money remaining.............................159.38 (decreased by £17.79)

So although our bills and cash in have changed, leaving us slightly poorer in terms of expendable income each month, I think we'll actually feel better off.

The main change has been increasing our grocery budget by £50 (or 33%). Only spending £150 (or actually £130 in the last few months since our tax credits have been on hold) has been really difficult - giving myself £50 a week will mean I can start adding a few luxuries (oooh, steak!), which should mean we won't feel quite as hard up :T

White_Iris

Just had a look at the Approved Foods website and I have to admit I'm not that impressed. The prices were good but there was very little for sale that we actually buy. I'll keep checking back, as it seems that stock will change but I think I'll be sticking to supermarket shopping for the moment.

LianneH

White_Iris wrote: »

Just had a look at the Approved Foods website and I have to admit I'm not that impressed. The prices were good but there was very little for sale that we actually buy. I'll keep checking back, as it seems that stock will change but I think I'll be sticking to supermarket shopping for the moment.

what is the approved foods website for? had a look at you SOA - you are doing good and good for you that your getting some tx credits as I know they are really cutting back! Steak... mmmmm!