new comer just opened months worth of mail

mumindebt

Please help i have taken the first step tonight and opened approx 30 letters demanding money. We have been living a lifestyle we cannot afford for a long time and not paying bills or anything that we didnt need immediately or have an immediate affect for a very long time. I have just added up and worked out we have around £11000 worth of debt. We are a low income family and are really struggling below is monthly income and outgoings underneath I have listed the debts but not with any payment amounts as I havent been paying them just ignoring them. I know very stupid, I feel like an idiot and am so ashamed. I am hoping to talk to national debt line tomorrow or at the weekend and discuss our options with them. I wonder if a debt relief order might be appropriate. Just wanted to share and hopefully get advice I am and always have been rubbish with money same with my husband, we have 3 small children (5,3 and 1)


Statement of Affairs and Personal Balance Sheet
Monthly Income Details
Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,046.67
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 918.67
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00
TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.10
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Garden Maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2.00
Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Council Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150.00
Overdraft Cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Bank Account Fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404.91
Plumbing/Boiler Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage Payment Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00
Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Car Tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Car Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00
Car Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.83
Rail/Bus/Taxi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
Breakdown Cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit Card Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hire Purchase Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal Loan Repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car Loan Repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension Payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying Shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mini Cash ISAs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump Sum Saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family
Pet Food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
School Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
School Meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Pocket Money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Laundry/Dry Cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby Sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Play Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family Days Out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
Cinema/Theatre Trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big Days Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for Fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
IT/Computing (eg Anti-virus etc). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD Rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating Out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary Therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical Bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Beauty Treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare Cashplans. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Medical Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
New Children's Clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00
New Clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Education & Courses
University Tuition Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School Fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your Courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One Offs
Funeral Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding Expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Winter Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer Holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Odds & Sods
Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular Charity Donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,965.34

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,919.84
Priority Debts £ Owed Offer
Rent 550.00
Mortgage 0.00
Other secured loans 0.00
Magistrates' court fines 0.00
Council Tax 1,217.00
Maintenance or child support 0.00
Gas 0.00
Electricity 0.00
Hire purchase or conditional sale 0.00
Other 0.00
Other 0.00
Total Priority Debts 1,767.00

Non-priority Debts £ Owed
water park road 138.34
school 3,214.92
gas station 1,785.58
electric station road 611.56
loan sains 1,646.31
bank 1,750.00
water crown 142.82
water station ccj 617.98
water station 417.07
Total Non-priority Debts 10,324.58

Thanks for reading hope someone can help

InDeepDebt

Welcome to the forum.

When we made the decision to get our debts under control, there was a sense of relief as well as an element of fear.

Looking at your SOA, I have a few questions:

Mobile phone - that seems high. Is that for phones under contract and do you need to make loads of calls for work? Could you go PAYG, either now or at end of contract(s)?

TV Licence seems high - does that include Sky and, if so, can you cancel it?

Clothing - we get some of ours off eBay. Just got a £40 school coat - brand new - for £8.99 plus about £3 postage. Other stuff we have to pay, for example got to get shoes this week coming. We've found that decent shoes do last longer but got a decent discount last year by going to the factory shop in Cumbria (we were up there anyhow).

Are you on a water meter? We are two adults and two children on a meter and our bill is now £29 a month.

Last, smoking. Are you able to give up? If you were then I believe that you can get patches for free on the NHS (may be wrong on that).

Not sure if any of the above appeals but it may get you a few extra pounds a month to throw at some debt.

Good luck

Jim

MrsTUS

Mobile Phone(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55.00 - as someone else has suggested, could you go PAYG?

TV Licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29.10 - can you elaborate a little more on the expense of this? A TV license spread over 12 months is £12, do you pay in some other installment plan? Are you including something other than the TV license?

Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Home Phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 -If you've included any Sky/Cable allowance in the above (TV Lincense) then you could look at making a saving here and getting a better deal on basic TV package, phone and broadband bundle or save even more by having cable TV removed completely and getting a freeview box and then getting an even cheaper phone and internet package - loads of great deals about..

Cleaning Products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00 - This is really high per month, are you sure this is correct? Also, I add cleaning products into my mothly grocery shop - I'll go into my grocery spends at the end)

Household Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.00 - What is this for? What exactly does it cover? Can it be cut?

Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35.00 - reasonable price on these. Regularly check for a more competitive deal and make sure to submit regular meter readings on line to keep bills as accurate as possible to avoid getting DD put up as a nasty surprise

Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00 - is this metered or is this a standard rate for the size of your house/family members?

Home Insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00 - Check to make sure this is a competitive price for what you want. Is it as comprehensive as you'd like?

Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404.91 - I'm confused by this as further down you state that rent is £550 - so which is it?

Food and Household Shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 400.00 - This can be cut, I will explain at the end, as mentioned in 'household cleaners'

Drinks for Home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00 - are these alcoholic drinks? Could they go for a while, just until you get yourself sorted? Also, really I would include these in groceries amount - explanation at end.

Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250.00 - Is this all for essential travel? i.e. commute to work? Is your car fuel economic? Do you drive as economically and fuel efficient as possible?

Nappies/Baby Extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40.00 - I'll comment on this at the end along with groceries etc

Newspapers & Magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00 - Could this go? Afterall, who needs to buy newspapers and magazines when you have the internet at your fingertips? Most papers and mags are free online... Deff cut this for the meantime..

Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60.00 - Well, I won't say anything, but I've highlighted it, I think you know what could be done here, but I won't lecture, as I;m a smoker who is struggling to quit - I keep quitting for 6 months at a time and then ashamedly returning to the filthy habit.. One of these days though...

Ok, those are what I can see so far..

Now, on to my explanation re groceries. You're a family of 5 and collectively on groceries, cleaning products, drinks for the house and nappies/wipes for kids you estimate you spend £485 per month.

I'm a family of 5, with similar aged children, ages 8, 2 and 1 and we spend £220 per month for ALL of those things, including nappies and wipes for our babies - we use Asda own brand and they are EXCELLENT - I have converted many friends who didn't have trouble forking out for branded nappies.

We plan all our meals for the month ahead, including breakfast for everyone, lunch AND dinner AND snacks! We eat a healthy, balanced diet, with lots of fresh veg and fruit.

The above includes all household cleaning products and drinks of different varieties - soft drink wise. Alcohol is something we treat ourselves to, very occasionally a) becuase we can't afford it and b) becuase who wants a hangover when you have babies to look after? (not saying you get trollied of course!! I'm just a light-weight, one glass of wine and my cheeks go numb haha!)

Get yourself over to the Old Style board for tips and recipes and meal ideas or check out https://www.cheap-family-recipes.org for some great cheap and tasty meal ideas for brek, lunch and dinner AND great snack ideas too!

Hope I've been some help adn given you something to think over.. Good luck!

mumindebt

Firstly thank you so much for your replies. The household amounts are close to current spending and thought that would be where we could make some decent savings.

Thought it would be helpful if I replied to all your points, not in a defensive way but just to see where we can make savings.

Mobile phone this is for one contract (£35) me and one PAYG (£20) my husband. My contract ends at the end of the year and I could change to PAYG then.

TV licence is so high as my bank twice refused to allow the direct debit to be set up which meant that we are now in theory are in the first year of payments which are higher because you pay in advance (think this is right) I got the amount from my bank statements so the amount is right. We dont have sky or cable etc just normal channels!

Internet and home phone is a package together at around £35 a month

I thought it was a little odd that cleaning costs wasnt in household expenses! I think I have probably over estimated here, I buy the cheapest per wash non bio washing powder or liquid, washing up liquid (value), and then all the other normal cleaning stuff. May probably be around £20 a month. Is this still high?

Household Maintenance- was using this to cover paint, shelves, picture hooks (we moved into new house in March)

Glad the electricity and gas looked reasonable as we are now on pre payment meters, I am however very concerned about the gas going up and colder weather approaching.

The water is metered.

Home Insurance was taken out in March and seemed a good quote for what we wanted at the time but will look again when we approach renewal.

Our rent is £93 a week (£404 a month) the £550 below is our arrears which have occured as housing benefit changing our benefit rate 6 times since March. (Grrr dont get me started about housing benefit applications!)

Drinks did include 2 bottles of wine a month but these will definately be going now!

I am really hoping to cut down petrol costs, most of this is essential travel commuting to work but all the non essential and trips out will be reduced and/ or made closer.

Would be really interested to here other peoples experiences with tesco nappies (our only local supermarket). I tried Asda nappies 4 years ago and had a bad experience when I was out for a family birthday meal. My son was sat on my knee when he filled his nappy which missed the nappy completely and landed in my lap! Since then have been using pampers or huggies depending on which is on the best offer but am prepared to give own brand nappies another go!

Newspaper and magazine expenses will definately go, just thought I had better point out where we are currently spending. I sometimes buy a particular paper to look for new jobs but will keep this up online.

I dont smoke only my husband and I have pointed it out and showed hom our budget and where money needs to be saved. We are hoping to cut it to £40 a month to start with. He knows he needs to give up really but I dont think my nagging is going to help!

I have started a budget list on the fridge with all purchases to be written on it and am hoping to cut household spending to £70 a week initially and then possibly even further fingers crossed.

Thank you so much for all your help and advice and thank you for not judging I am so ashamed of our situation and of not facing up to it sooner

RAS

mumindebt wrote: »

Priority Debts £ Owed Offer
Rent 550.00 - you need to sort this out urgently
Council Tax 1,217.00 - if this is not sorted out, you will get visits from bailiffs. Do you understand how to minimise their effects?
Total Priority Debts 1,767.00



Non-priority Debts £ Owed

You owe debts for the old house and the new one?

water park road 138.34 - this is a priority debt
school 3,214.92 - how come you owe the school?
gas station 1,785.58 - Utilities are priority debts.
electric station road 611.56 and annother priority debt if you still live there?


loan sains 1,646.31
bank 1,750.00
water crown 142.82 - priority
water station ccj 617.98 -priority
water station 417.07 - priority
Total Non-priority Debts 10,324.58

Do you owe the water bills to the same company? If so you need to get the total debt below £750 as soon as possible.

DizzyDizzy

mumindebt wrote: »

Would be really interested to here other peoples experiences with tesco nappies (our only local supermarket). I tried Asda nappies 4 years ago and had a bad experience when I was out for a family birthday meal. My son was sat on my knee when he filled his nappy which missed the nappy completely and landed in my lap! Since then have been using pampers or huggies depending on which is on the best offer but am prepared to give own brand nappies another go!

I buy Wilkinsons own brand nappies and can recommend them. They feel a bit plastic on the outside but baby has never seemed uncomfortable! We also buy their wipes at 36p a pack, can't complain!

mumindebt

Thanks Dizzy Dizzy will give them a try!

We dont have any arrears on our utilities for our current house (thank god electric and gas are pre payment) We have moced a lot in the last 4 years and the debts have just followed us and stupidly I have never sorted them out I just buried my head in the sand. Money is owed to a school as I was paid maternity money on the condition I returned to work afer my maternity ended. We decided that it would be best for my husband to continue full time work and I stay at home with the children, 3 weeks later he lost his job! I then returned to a job with the same council and was told I would not need to repay the extra maternity money as I had returned to a job within the council, turns out this was the wrong advice.

Council are taking the council tax owed through an attachment of earnings.

We are in close contact with the housing association they are aware of our situation and have now worked out a payment plan to cover the £550 owed. Just waiting for Local authority to confirm eligibility to housing benefit. The housing association have been superb and very helpful

jellybean39

hi mum and welcome.
sorry but had to laff could imageine you with a lap full of xxxx! anyay well done for facing up and joing us lot who want to be debt free. When your little ones grow out of there clothes stick them on ebay kdis clothes always go well or even a carboot. dont forget xmas is coming omg and kids toys will always sell so dont forget to the boxes in the loft when they have new things for when they grow out of them, they sell better then.
good luck with your journey. lots of peeps will be on here to help im sure x

mumindebt

Thanks Jellybean thats kind, try and sell bits and pieces on e bay but all so often the pictures I have taken in the evening are rubbish or I miscalculate postage! Although I am getting better at this and have found little girl bits have sold well.
Will be doing another car boot this weekend with my Mum, the best part is that she brings really good stuff I bring the childrens tat and we still split the money 50:50!

Magpie23

I have just added up and worked out we have around £11000 worth of debt. We are a low income family and are really struggling below is monthly income and outgoings underneath I have listed the debts but not with any payment amounts as I havent been paying them just ignoring them. I know very stupid, I feel like an idiot and am so ashamed.


Didn't want to read and run.

You're NOT stupid, nor are you an idiot and if you feel ashamed it proves you care and will do whatever it takes to put things right. We have all behaved like ostriches in the past, which is why we're all here too . But you've taken the first steps and they're always the hardest! Remember, when you hit rock bottom the only way left to go is up .

Best of Luck on your Debt-Free journey,

-x-

InDeepDebt

Just another area where you can maybe save money. If you have an ALDI, LIDL, discount freezer shop like Iceland, Wilkos, B&M close by - do not rule these out.

I am quite fortunate in that I work shifts. This means that I have time available to go shopping when it's not too busy. What I now do though is, instead of going to Tesco or Sainsbury's once a week - I do a fortnightly shop which starts in ALDI, then to LIDL, then Iceland and finally Tesco or Sainsbury's. Takes about three hours :eek: but I'm only going fortnightly - in fact, last couple of times have lasted three weeks (have to top up on fruit and veg). Also, I spend about the same per fortnight as what I used to spend per week. It takes a while to work out where is cheapest and what is quality and what isn't - we've now been doing it about 8 months and are getting quite good at knowing how much every item in our trolley will cost across the various shops as well as which substitutes are worth it.

I also often have a wander around B&M and Wilkos in town every now and then as they have the odd thing here and there that save that little bit extra - for example, our washing liquitabs - Fairy non-bio - are £4 for 11 in most places. B&M are £2.99. It may only be a £1 saving but if I can get the same across the whole shop then £400 a month is closer to £300.

Jim