Learning to Live on Less!

Norfolk_Jim

Frighteningly many similarities between my family / situation and yours except I pay way more electricity - you seem to be doing very well on that front. I completely understand how you are about the dogs, I'm very much in the same boat there. Mine got the sausages from under the grill! You'd think they'd burn their noses wouldn't you? One also got a 1kg pack of marge, got the lid off and licked all the marge out with astonishingly few ill effects. Insurance is a must - the younger of mine ran out in the road 5-6 weeks back and was run over and fractured his pelvis. This same dog cost me over 1000 to get his broken leg fixed the day after I decided to let the insurance wait till pay day - part of why I'm in such a lot of debt. But I have friends who view their dogs like a table, break its leg? get rid, buy another, much cheeper - I couldn't treat mine like that, they're like children, so I'm behind you on that one. I've thought of rehoming - well meaning advice would be to - but unless I knew it would be a genuinely loving home I'd be stubbornly refusing; they're both rescued like yours and both have problems that would make them unsuitable for all but dedicated and patient dog lovers. Good luck to you.

White_Iris

Norfolk_Jim wrote: »

Frighteningly many similarities between my family / situation and yours except I pay way more electricity - you seem to be doing very well on that front.

Hi Norfolk_Jim, the more I read on here the more amazed I am at how many people are in almost the same situation as us. I was watching the news a few weeks ago and they were talking about the 'squeezed middle' - they were described as families who earn around £40k, shop at Tescos and drive a Ford Focus... I laughed out loud as it described us perfectly! Not sure how we're managing to do well on the electricty front - I'm dreading a letter say 'sorry your bill is wrong, you actually owe us ££££££££!'. We did have an electric fire in the front room which we used a lot but that broke this winter and we decided to live without rather than pay £100 to replace it, hopefully that's the reason for the small bill.

Norfolk_Jim wrote: »

I completely understand how you are about the dogs, I'm very much in the same boat there. Mine got the sausages from under the grill! You'd think they'd burn their noses wouldn't you? One also got a 1kg pack of marge, got the lid off and licked all the marge out with astonishingly few ill effects.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Norfolk_Jim wrote: »

But I have friends who view their dogs like a table, break its leg? get rid, buy another, much cheeper - I couldn't treat mine like that, they're like children, so I'm behind you on that one.

:eek::eek::eek:

White_Iris

I've just checked the balance on our 'other' credit card and it's way more than I thought :-( We keep it for spending overspills e.g. if we need to put fuel in the car or groceries and it's still a few days until pay-day. We usually try to pay off what we've spent each month but it's becoming increasingly difficult. It often carries a balance of a few hundred but the interest rate is low and we don't tend to worry too much about it. Hopefully I'll get a lump sum from child tax credits once I renew my claim (if I ever get my renewal pack!) which was going to go in the conveyancing pot but now has to be used towards this card. DH also has some money due from some extra hours he's been working so that should also help to reduce the balance. I'm cross with ourselves for letting it get to this - looking at the statement there are some legitimate purchases but also too many non-essentials...bad, bad, bad :-(

Itsadogslife_2

I can honestly say I have no idea where our debt came from, I have often promised myself that I would sit down and maybe go through all of the statements to try and see where it has actually come from.

if I think about it, I think me and my OH who have been together for nearly 10 years have never been together and not had any debt, when that day finally arrives it will be amazing. I often get cross and annoyed as if I had known and lived like I do now in years gone by we would probably be quite well off

chevalier

Hi White Iris.

Some random thoughts for you. Do you have friends with older children, who might hand me down their outgrown clothes, or other members of the family. It never ceases to amaze me how people turn their noses up at second hand! My kids like your live in them!

Secondly oats and lentils are your friends, for making grocery go for longer.
If you put a handful of each in a spag bol mix it will stretch it enough for another meal. You just have to have enough time for them to cook down..

Now your little ones are getting bigger, a great money saving tip is for them to eat what you eat, pureed up. Ie no jars. For one thing the stuff in jars is generally really bland. I got little pots or large icecube trays and made up mini portions of pureed stuff. Saved me an absolute fortune.

Ref the ebaying. Someone earlier suggested going to car boots to get things to sell on ebay. If you do this you should register as self employed to keep it legal as then you are not selling your own stuff.

I haven't looked at your SOA yet, but will go back and do that. Just wanted to get this jotted down before I forgot!

Right had a look at the SOA. Can you get a payment holiday on the mortgage, would that get you enough breathing space to pay a card or something off, and thus free up some money.
Council tax is this over 12 months or 10. If over 10 you can ask to pay it over 12.
Whilst I know that as a SAHM you work very hard, could you fit surveys in around the wee ones?

You seem to have £177 each month left over. But do you really have this? Perhaps a spending diary would help you see where this was going?

chev

White_Iris

Itsadogslife wrote: »

I often get cross and annoyed as if I had known and lived like I do now in years gone by we would probably be quite well off

I know exactly what you mean - if I could just go back and stop that first credit card or loan...oh well:o

White_Iris

Hi Chevalier, thank you for your comments :T.

chevalier wrote: »

Some random thoughts for you. Do you have friends with older children, who might hand me down their outgrown clothes, or other members of the family. It never ceases to amaze me how people turn their noses up at second hand! My kids like your live in them!

I never refuse clothes - if it's not suitable it gets donated or ebayed - but the supply is getting low. When they were small we were given lots but I think now the novelty has worn off and people assume we can/should cope on our own and don't need handouts.:(

chevalier wrote: »

Secondly oats and lentils are your friends, for making grocery go for longer.
If you put a handful of each in a spag bol mix it will stretch it enough for another meal. You just have to have enough time for them to cook down..

I use to do this a lot but like many Old Style tips I've fallen out of the habit. When the twins were smaller I didn't have the time or energy to batch cook but it's something I really must start again.

chevalier wrote: »

Now your little ones are getting bigger, a great money saving tip is for them to eat what you eat, pureed up. Ie no jars. For one thing the stuff in jars is generally really bland. I got little pots or large icecube trays and made up mini portions of pureed stuff. Saved me an absolute fortune.

The babies have never eaten much shop bought baby food. DS didn't (and still doesn't) like being spoon fed so we were forced in to baby-led weaning almost as soon as we started solids. It was much easier to just feed them small chunks of fruit, veg, bread, cheese etc. and now they're over one and I don't have to be quite as vigilant about salt etc. they eat pretty much what we do.

chevalier wrote: »

Ref the ebaying. Someone earlier suggested going to car boots to get things to sell on ebay. If you do this you should register as self employed to keep it legal as then you are not selling your own stuff.

Visiting car boots is probably not going to happen. There aren't any nearby and I really don't fancy the idea of dragging the family out at silly-o'clock to stock up on [STRIKE]junk[/STRIKE] treasures to sell on ebay!

chevalier wrote: »

Right had a look at the SOA. Can you get a payment holiday on the mortgage, would that get you enough breathing space to pay a card or something off, and thus free up some money.
Council tax is this over 12 months or 10. If over 10 you can ask to pay it over 12.
Whilst I know that as a SAHM you work very hard, could you fit surveys in around the wee ones?

Sadly, we can't get a payment holiday - we looked in to this a while ago but it's something to do with the type of mortgage we have. The council tax is over 10 months - changing it to 12 would save about £20ish a month but I look forward to the extra cash February and March and usually have it earmarked for something. I do surveys at the moment - not as many as I could but I tend to stick to companies that offer surveys that I usually qualify for (Pinecone, Ipsos, MySurvey, OnePoll, ACOP) some of the companies used to screen me out everytime I started answering - very frustrating!

chevalier wrote: »

You seem to have £177 each month left over. But do you really have this? Perhaps a spending diary would help you see where this was going?

A spending diary is an excellent idea as I have no idea where the extra money goes each month:o

White_Iris

Well it's taken me nearly 4 hours but I now have another 24 items listed on eBay. I usually use turbolister but to take advantage of the free listing weekend I've had to do each one individually and with our village wind-up/please-feed-the-hamster/super-slow broadband it's taken ages! Plus DH is out for the day and evening, so I've had to work around the children all day. Never mind - it's done now and should hopefully net me about £40 if it all sells. Still another big box of baby clothes to go though by which time they'll have grown out of their current clothes which can all be listed...it never ends, I don't even want to think about the box full of out-of-season clothes I've got to list in the autumn!!!

Cliff1805

Hi there,
I have just been looking at your SOA. The great thing is that you know exactly what you have coming in and going out and hence what is left over. It is also good that you are saving for foreseeable expenses like car and dogs. I dont think £177 is too bad actually to be left with. the main thing is that all your bills are paid and you have food on the table and a roof over your head. You can do all this on your husbands salary and run a car. I think you are doing really well. As you start to clear your debts you will have some more money to increase both your savings and your discretionary spending money. There is one area that jumps out at me that seems to cost you an awful lot of money each month and that is your dogs. Only you can decide whether you can really afford to spend over £80 per month on dogs. We all make different choices but if that were me I would increase my emergency savings to £75 per month and add the remaining £30 to spending money which would give you £207 per month to spend as you wish. Please dont think I am telling you that you shouldnt have pets. I am just pointing out that we all decide where we allocate our little parcels of money and we can change that if we want to. Best wishes with clearing your debts. You are doing really well!!!

saterkey

Just wanted to say hi and just working around 2 little ones is a feat in itself. Have you tried competitions, I do between 500-1000 a month and this year so far have won about 600 pounds worth. You could try to win stuff to sell or food, clothes that you could use.

This works out to be about 30ish a day for about an hour and if you just do internet ones it wont cost you anything. Try the MSE competitions board.

Try woman and home magazine forums for people in your area who might want to swap stuff, veggies, etc

Look into mystery shopping perhaps to fit in with a family outing on a weekend that way you get to go for free and possibly get paid for it too. Im sure they look for family units too.

Hope it all works out for you.
Julie