Suggestions greatly appriciated!

freshstart11

I think that £200 idea is fantastic! In fact its what I have started doing recently Best thing I think in your situation.

Dont know if its something you have ever done but when the kids had friends round I used to make up a batch of pizza dough and then put all scraps (cut up sausage, bacon, onion, pinapple, tomato, pepper, chick etc) in to bowls and ask them to make their own pizzas, thin base cooks really fast and it used to cost (I THINK) £2 for 8 of us on avg x

time_to_get_motivated

That is a great idea i do have a bread maker in the depths of the cupboard think that does pizza dough! Also need to bake more to save on puddings but have a bad habit of nibbling things I bake!

bargainbetty

Have a look at cheaper recipes and menu options - what do you currently do for breakfast and lunches? Porridge can work out cheaper than cereal for instance, and can be cooked in bulk. Mini-muffins can be made quite cheaply, and the older kids should be able to get involved in things like rock cakes and cookie-making, which will save on buying snacks/treats for them.

Home made bread, soups, mild curries, stews etc bulked out with veg and pulses can be a very cost effective way of feeding the five thousand! You could find a local wholesaler (I have a good chinese one) and invest in big bags of rice, lentils, chickpeas etc. Meat goes a lot further bulked out. Also, do vegetarian options, which are very healthy but cheaper too. Portion control is also going to reduce your expenditure!

Do you have a garden or patio? Can you grow small vegetables/fruit there? The kids would probably love to be involved with that (send them home with a tomato each, cook and eat the rest etc).

If you have the space for it, I would seriously consider obtaining a small chest freezer or something. A secondhand one would be fine with a good scrub out, and you would be able to batch cook lots of things in advance and save money on bulk purchases. Frozen veg is cheap, easy to prepare and doesn't go off, therefore saving on waste!

You could also look at getting a trade account at Costco for bulk purchase if you don't already have one.

Best of luck

Tommymax81

Hi,

I am currently trying to reduce my own debt and outgoing so here is my take on your SOA -

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1560
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1157
Benefits................................ 146
Other income............................ 270
Total monthly income.................... 3133

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 300
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 118
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 52
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 80 - can you move to a cheaper tarrif?
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 30
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 600 - this is really high - could you halve it to £300??
Clothing................................ 40
Petrol/diesel........................... 300
Road tax................................ 40
Car Insurance........................... 110 - for 2 cars??
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 20
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 200 - Can you bring this down to £100?
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
boiler cover............................ 13
tax etc................................. 270
Total monthly expenses.................. 2376


Assets
Cash.................................... 392.81
House value (Gross)..................... 185000
Shares and bonds........................ 5687.5
Car(s).................................. 5000
Other assets............................ 2002.76
Total Assets............................ 198083.07


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 137313...(300)......2.6
Total secured & HP debts...... 137313....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
1 .............................688.53....0.........0
2..............................186.1.....0........ .0
3..............................145.......0........ .0
11.............................7999......25.5..... .0
10.............................1000......0........ .0
9..............................2900......420...... .0
8..............................600.......100...... .0
7..............................1482.96...185.4.... .0
6..............................14000.....0........ .0
5..............................480.12....0........ .0
4..............................585.2.....0........ .0
Total unsecured debts..........30066.91..730.9.....-

Are all of your debts really interest free??



Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,133
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,376
Available for debt repayments........... 757
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 730.9
Amount left after debt repayments....... 26.1

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 198,083.07
Total HP & Secured debt................. -137,313
Total Unsecured debt.................... -30,066.91
Net Assets.............................. 30,703.16

time_to_get_motivated

Breakfast tends to be weetabix with fresh fruit/yogurt and toast (need to start making bread have loads of yeast sachets etc will dig out the breadmaker)
snacks is where the baking could help tend to grab prepacked cheeses/croissants/dairylee dunkers muffins sausage rolls etc!)
Lunch is beans/egg on toast/ or meat sandwiches with salad and again yogurt/fruit, ( I cant stand giving them reformed meat so end up buying deli maybe I need to start cooking more joints and slicing)
Dinner is where it gets huge generally a couple of pieces of fruit when they come in and then full dinner and pudding again end up buying ready made puddings/ yorkshires etc think I need to get my organized head on and get them all involved in more baking! Along with all this comes loads of washing as sofa needs doing frequently and lots of washing up liquid loo rolls and dishwasher tablets. Im sure I could be better with energy as well as the appliances have timer settings that I always forget to do and we are on economy 7 and am known to use the tumble dryer way more than i need to as its there and I dont have to spend time hanging it out and then worry about rain! Think Im just running around like a headless chicken when actually if I got some sort of checklist made up it would be a lot less stressful!

time_to_get_motivated

Are the savings good at costco? I have thought about this before and never found out is membership expensive? I would love a chest freezer but would have to get electric put out to the garage as have no room inside!

time_to_get_motivated

We do have a big garden so could start growing things any suggestions as to where to start? I seem to manage to kill pot plants so not sure I would make a terrific gardener but would be fun to try! Also hubbie keeps going on about chickens due to the amount of eggs we use any ideas on what the cost of chickens as opposed to buying eggs is? I wont buy the caged ones!

time_to_get_motivated

Tommymax81 wrote: »

Hi,

I am currently trying to reduce my own debt and outgoing so here is my take on your SOA -

Monthly Income Details
Monthly income after tax................ 1560
Partners monthly income after tax....... 1157
Benefits................................ 146
Other income............................ 270
Total monthly income.................... 3133

Monthly Expense Details
Mortgage................................ 300
Secured/HP loan repayments.............. 0
Rent.................................... 0
Management charge (leasehold property).. 0
Council tax............................. 118
Electricity............................. 40
Gas..................................... 52
Oil..................................... 0
Water rates............................. 35
Telephone (land line)................... 15
Mobile phone............................ 80 - can you move to a cheaper tarrif? Will look into this need to work out what we actually use
TV Licence.............................. 13
Satellite/Cable TV...................... 30
Internet Services....................... 10
Groceries etc. ......................... 600 - this is really high - could you halve it to £300?? Going to try £200 a week for everything variable
Clothing................................ 40
Petrol/diesel........................... 300
Road tax................................ 40
Car Insurance........................... 110 - for 2 cars?? yes both for business use
Car maintenance (including MOT)......... 20
Car parking............................. 0
Other travel............................ 0
Childcare/nursery....................... 0
Other child related expenses............ 0
Medical (prescriptions, dentist etc).... 10
Pet insurance/vet bills................. 0
Buildings insurance..................... 20
Contents insurance...................... 10
Life assurance ......................... 0
Other insurance......................... 0
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 50
Haircuts................................ 0
Entertainment........................... 200 - Can you bring this down to £100? again included in £200 a week
Holiday................................. 0
Emergency fund.......................... 0
(Unnamed monthly expense)............... 0
boiler cover............................ 13
tax etc................................. 270
Total monthly expenses.................. 2376


Assets
Cash.................................... 392.81
House value (Gross)..................... 185000
Shares and bonds........................ 5687.5
Car(s).................................. 5000
Other assets............................ 2002.76
Total Assets............................ 198083.07


Secured & HP Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
Mortgage...................... 137313...(300)......2.6
Total secured & HP debts...... 137313....-.........-

Unsecured Debts
Description....................Debt......Monthly.. .APR
1 .............................688.53....0.........0
2..............................186.1.....0........ .0
3..............................145.......0........ .0
11.............................7999......25.5..... .0
10.............................1000......0........ .0
9..............................2900......420...... .0
8..............................600.......100...... .0
7..............................1482.96...185.4.... .0
6..............................14000.....0........ .0
5..............................480.12....0........ .0
4..............................585.2.....0........ .0
Total unsecured debts..........30066.91..730.9.....-

Are all of your debts really interest free?? Yes luckily they are except for 7 which the interest is already on the balance



Monthly Budget Summary
Total monthly income.................... 3,133
Expenses (including HP & secured debts). 2,376
Available for debt repayments........... 757
Monthly UNsecured debt repayments....... 730.9
Amount left after debt repayments....... 26.1

Personal Balance Sheet Summary
Total assets (things you own)........... 198,083.07
Total HP & Secured debt................. -137,313
Total Unsecured debt.................... -30,066.91
Net Assets.............................. 30,703.16

Thank you have added blue bits :-)

freshstart11

Tomatoes are REALLY easy, salad leaves as well x

JustinCredibleGillespie

Have you thought about trying a weekly shop from Aldi to see the difference? They also have alot of fresh fruit & its generally quite cheap

JCG

xx