Sorry old chap, the money has run out!

Elmo1985

Hi just though id pop in and say that we manage on £150.00-£200.00 a month on groceries which includes all cleaning products and toiletries - thats for me, OH and step son and we have a baby due any minute and costs for milk and nappies will come out of this budget too. -I'm sure we could cut this down even further - we had this at £100.00 per month a few years ago but we can afford to spend a bit more on nicer things now our budget and debts are under control.

We eat well, dont always buy the value products - though smart price beans and chopped tomatoes are a staple in the cupboard and they cost pennies - i honestly cannot tell the difference! - and the budget also covers the occasional bottle of wine or two each week as a treat. We meal plan and rather invite friends round than go out for a meal as we usually over spend if we do this.

Sky tv - we cut out the sports package over the summer months when its not the football season and this saves a little for a few months - it all helps. not sure if this will help yourself? Try and cut the package down to the bare minimum, get dvds from your local library it'll work out cheaper.

I'm subscribing to your post and will follow - good luck im sure you'll get there x

jpwhittle

if you struggle to keep your shopping in budget try doing it online. I know it seems silly but go online with your list and order what you need and just that. When we started doing this we used a shopping list from the old style board that ment us cooking from scratch, adjusted it to some other bits for us, and we stuck to it, my shooping bill went from over £400 for a family of four to £150 for a family of four and honestly we ate better than ever, and the kids had so much fun helping to make things from scratch. It made a massive diffference to our budget. I only dont do it now as we live in cyprus due to my husbands job, but as soon as we get back ill be doing the same thing. As much as its £5 delivery we knew it cost us that to drive to the supermarket so we just factored it in. Shopping online means your less likley to buy all the extras you would be tempted to in the supermarket, And other than whopsies all the offers in the shop are also available online.
The other bit we lied and would regulerly find happening, is sometimes you can have a bit more luxury for less, as if the item you order isnt available on your day they have to replace it for something of equal or higher value at no extra cost. so sometimes we ordered asdas own cake and got mr kipling, was great and very money saving

MummyEm

Regarding the groceries, there are definitely savings to be made. Have a look at the grocery challenge on the old style board for ideas, recipes etc. Perhaps this is something your OH could take on as part of the debt busting?
My DH and I used to spend £600+ per month easily. Prior to kids it was always the top brand ready meals in the most expensive supermarkets. We both worked, had no debt but spent everything we earned every month on groceries, clothes, expensive holidays, cars etc. We now have 2 young children, a big mortgage, and are renovating our home on just my DH's salary. We have had to make some enormous changes to the way we think and spend money. It is still a work in progress. This month I have managed to stick within the £450 grocery budget I set myself on the grocery challenge. I have a long way to go as I would love to get it down to around £300 but for us cutting it too quickly is a false economy as we would fall off the wagon if we went too hardcore too quickly!

You mentioned shopping at Sainsburies, why not try aldi or lidl or other budget shops? Most things can be bought in these stores cheaper and I find often better quality than the bigger stores. Write a mealplan and shopping list, go buy everything you can from it (nothing extra!!) from a budget store, then try why not try Asda for anything that's left on there (again no extras!!).

good luck

donnap83

NeverAgain wrote: »

The good news is your biggest and most important debt - your mortgage - is relatively low in relation to your income.

You also have a good grasp of your budget, which many people don't.

But I'm afraid some hard decisions will have to be made.

Most obvious is bin Sky and the third car/garage, which will raise a small amount of cash and put a useful £100+ into your monthly budget.

You appear a little more on board with debt reduction than your partner, but you both need to grasp the nettle more firmly.

She 'won't consider' proper nappies.

I'm afraid Mrs T is going to have to consider an awful lot in the coming months and years.

If she doesn't, people outside your control will do it for her.

This post is bang on. Whats more important to you, keeping on top of your debts, or keeping a few sports channels and a rusty car and rented garage?

tony_ack

Sorry if I appear reluctant - to be honest I agree I am somewhat - not necessarily because I don't want to reduce my standard of living, but more because I've tried things before and they haven't worked for one reason or another. This is partly because most of my other plans to reduce debt were pretty close to the bone and left no room for contingency, so if something goes wrong, the whole plan fails, I give up on it and we're back at the start. Again, it's not the way to go.

There are two problems I need to deal with - finding money to make ends meet this month, and then controlling the budget from next month onwards, and reducing the debt.

I have identified a number of items I have that, although I'd loathe to part with, could be worth a fair amount. I'm willing to sell some of these to get this month's budget under control, but I would hate to sell this stuff if it makes no overall difference to my situation, and I'm in the same position again soon. This is why I know that reducing monthly bills HAS to happen.

Project car is now up for sale. Listed for £300 but I've said I'll take offers.

I haven't used my mountain bike for months - time to get it up for sale, worth £150-£200 with a bit of luck

I'm considering selling my guitar as well - it's a special edition so may be worth a couple of hundred pounds. It's nice, but I use my cheap guitar more anyway.

Sky will be cut down to just the variety pack (keeping the broadband and line rental). If they offer me a half price deal for a few months then great, I'll take it, if not then I'll press ahead with the reduction. I can live without 'greed is good' league football, to be honest I only really have Sky Sports for the cricket and watch football occasionally.

Online shopping - another good point about the cost of the delivery being offset against the cost of the travelling to the supermarket. With our little girl now becoming more aware she is getting very interested in the shopping experience, and starting to understand that things that go in the trolley end up at home. It won't be long before she starts wanting to put things in herself, so it will be good to remove temptation. It's also a lot easier to stick to a budget when you can see the running total on the screen, and to remove items when you've overspent (compared to doing the same at the supermarket!).

I already shop smart on a fair bit of stuff - we always get budget chopped tomatoes, own brand ketchup, etc. We have tried some own brands which haven't been great, but generally if they're good enough, we switch to them. Our main problem is the' oooh I fancy that' effect. I avoid Sainsbury's as it's pricey, we usually go to Asda or Morrisons. I don't mind Netto and used to go there all the time in my uni days, and also went to Aldi when I lived in Germany, but again it's hard to get the missus on board.

Garage will go once the project car is sold. Tools can be stored in the spare room for now.

I will keep an eye on my partner's spending on clothes. I've been reluctant in the past to be too draconian on her - the uni debts weren't her fault, so I always felt she shouldn't be responsbile for them, but in truth a lot of the debts since then (which are the vast majority) have been down to both of us.

DVardysShadow

tony_ack wrote: »

I will keep an eye on my partner's spending on clothes. I've been reluctant in the past to be too draconian on her - the uni debts weren't her fault, so I always felt she shouldn't be responsbile for them, but in truth a lot of the debts since then (which are the vast majority) have been down to both of us.

Someone suggested yesterday listing all your monthly expenditure in decreasing order of necessity - and drawing a line once you income is reached. Spends from below the line have to be paid for by cuts above the line. I think your partner needs to be involved in this and in choosing how to split her clothes spend across the line.

In your case, your monthly repayments need to go above the line, plus some more to start getting the debt down.

bosseyed

The main issue is clearly the amount of money going out on loan/credit card repayments - £800 odd quid is a huge amount, and this is the area you really need to look at tackling, espcially for future stability. Swapping balances around might help.

From looking at your finances, your general outgoings, ie phone bills, utilities etc aren't massively OTT, in fact some of them are less than mine. My wife and I (and our 14 month old son) are on a combined household income (my salary only) of £1,600 net so your income of £2,660 should be ample if you can reduce the repayment outgoings.

As others have said a good start is to trim the fat right off, so ditch the project car, trim down the sky bills, shop around for better utility prices bla bla. The usual. Its not fun, but its do-able. To get to our state of frugal but just about financially stable spending my wife and I have had to cut right back, sell off everything not required, including the car and we buy a lot of stuff 2nd hand - especially kids clothes and toys, theres really no need to buy new here.

Good luck anyway, I know its not a good situation to be in, but you'll make the changes you need to and come out the other side. Its just takes time but you'll get there.

fishooX

DVardysShadow, you are a "Deliciously Dedicated Doubly Diehard MoneySaving Devotee"?
That made me laugh, although I'm having a bad day so far. This forum is great.:j

RAS

tony_ack wrote: »

Sorry if I appear reluctant - to be honest I agree I am somewhat - not necessarily because I don't want to reduce my standard of living, but more because I've tried things before and they haven't worked for one reason or another. This is partly because most of my other plans to reduce debt were pretty close to the bone and left no room for contingency, so if something goes wrong, the whole plan fails, I give up on it and we're back at the start.

You actually need to be more realistic about some costs. I really cant see that £240 per year is going to cover the cost of maintaining two older cars?

How much did you spend last year on servicing, tyres, new wipers, MOT? Divide that by 12 and adjust your budget. And keep that money in a separate account, maybe an ISA.

Ditto house maintenance - at the very least you need enough over 12 months for a boiler check and one other repair.

In that way you can self insure for incidents like the dog.

At the moment, there is nothing in the budget, or not enough to cover known eventualities.

dancingfairy

I hate to say it but you owe 32k (and your mortgage as well). That's a lot of money and is going to take some time to to pay off - you really need to get to grips with things now because frankly mortgage rates are not going to stay low forever and if you want to have another child....
I think you are begining to realise how bad things are but your wife needs to get on board now as well.
The good news is that there are some easy savings to be made in the SOA - sky for instance - this can be cut, mobiles - surely your wife can manage for say 15 a month contract? and you similarly. Entertainment - even if you only save 20 a month here, plus your wife really needs to try and go clothes neutral - ie selling her old clothes to make money to buy new ones - you can't really afford a new top each month plus clothes for the little one. Groceries - again seems rather high - not sure what your little one is eating but for 2 adults we spend about 250 (and that is considered excessive by many and there are many things in there we could go without/compromise on if we needed to).
Best of Luck
df