Need help with my budgetting/

Mummy_Sarah

Hi could any one please help. We are finding money stretched as a family of four. We have 2 young children. Me getting a job at the moment is not an option as my partner works shifts, we need someone to always be there for the kids and even if I got a part time job they would not cover the costs of childcare.

Income
1070 a month wage
103 a week child tax (412 a month)
134 Child benefit a month

1616 a month

Outgoings
rent 450
c.tax 100
Water 27
Gas and Electric 150
Mobile 22 (in contract for another year)
Car insurance 55
Petrol 120 (My partner travels to work each day and takes him an hour to get there)
Daughters dinner money 41.60 (10.40 a week:S) Cant have sandwitches until shes in year one.
Sons playgroup fees 60.00 (he goes 2 hours 2 mornings a week)
sky 50 (we are going to cancel tv subscription but feel as we have 2 children we need a phone) Any one know any landline deals let me know.
Interest on overdraft is £20 a month
£120 to mum in law a month due to her helping out paying for a new car when ours broke down last year. It was only a cheap one and Ill be finished next year.
£12 Tv Licence

Equals £1227.60

so £388.40

Our food bill is normally around £75 a week including rushing out and buying milk. We make all our dinners from scratch and this includes nappies for our son. Im know im lucky i dont have any major debts but Im finding it really hard with just £20 left over to clothe, and do stuff with the kids, and save to take them out. We go on cheap days out to museums but its still petrol getting there. We have a tent and hoping to go camping this year, its only about £40 for the weekend but dont think I can either afford that. Any advice would be great xx

Mummy_Sarah

Sorry if this is in the wrong thread, if it is, can you let me know where to post thanks x

grumbler

Car insurance looks far too expensive to me. It cost just £260 to my OH without any NCD - with about £80 quidco cashback making it about £160 p.a. I'ts a small Polo though and she has the license for 10 years already.

Energy costs us about £80 for a two-bedroom house.
Mobiles are virtually free.

Sky definitely has to be cancelled. See MSE articles:
Home Phones Line rental from £6.99/month
Cheap Broadband Get online from £6 a month

Mummy_Sarah

grumbler wrote: »

Car insurance looks far too expensive to me. It cost just £260 to my OH without any NCD - with about £80 quidco cashback making it about £160 p.a. I'ts a small Polo though and she has the license for 10 years already.

We look on confused.com and other insurances we have renault scenic 02. and before that a Volvo (and it was a similar price). I thought its expensive but hes only got 6 years no claims as he was on his parents insurance for a long time. :(x

grumbler

6 years NCD is close to the maximum one.

If the credit history is OK, try getting a CC with 0% on purchases and pay for the insurance for a year, not monthly that always costs more. This will help to clear the overdraft too, but you have to save money to pay the balance off when 0% expires.

Ynayesta

You seem to have your food shopping figured out what with you saying you make meals from scratch, and £75 is about right for a family of four, especially with nappies. However I really think you could stretch this, now it would take some serious planning but it means buying in bulk, beans chick peas and all that dried stuff making up a big portion of your meals, and UHT milk (if you can stand the stuff) often comes in cheaper when bulk.

Grats on not being in serious debt! and you're in the green which means you wont have to borrow to pay the bills and that's a brilliant thing, though I feel for you not knowing if you can take the kids out.

Do you save all your coppers and any silvers you have left over?

If i have change (anything less than £1) left over and I don't need to immediately buy anything, I put it in a jar. When anything unexpected comes along (it recently paid for my printer ink) then there's about £20 there. (that's if it's full, it's a small jar) it does help but it takes a small amount of time.

Is that car insurance £660 a year? you might want to call them up and make sure everything's in order.

you seem to have done your budget very well, the only thing that needs tweeking is how to get those outgoing numbers down. there's tons of calculators on here, to see if you could be paying less for gas/electric.
We pay £65 a month on each with BG and that's a little over our usage, so yours sounds like you might be able to save a few £s there.

and make sure you check the Up your Income board, I would certainly join up to OnePoll or valued opinions, as when you get a payout from those that's £40 you can use to take the kids out.

I'm glad you've got an underspend, I hope the gap between the outs and ins grows bigger for you ^_^ good luck.

Mummy_Sarah

grumbler wrote: »

6 years NCD is close to the maximum one.

If the credit history is OK, try getting a CC with 0% on purchases and pay for the insurance for a year, not monthly that always costs more. This will help to clear the overdraft too, but you have to save money to pay the balance off when 0% expires.

Our Credit history is fine. All we have is a 1500 overdraft. We always pay our bills on time. And hubby and me have never had a CC. We are a bit unsure about getting one because we don't want to get into temptation. lol. If its there we might use it. But thats an excellent point because our car insurance is £100 cheaper if we pay it up front xxx

supermonkey

Why is your gas & electric so high?
Sky - there is a Primus deal at the moment for Phone line & Broadband which works at £10.24 a month saving you £40 a month. If you get a freesat box and you can continue to enjoy TV, you'll just lose a few channels.

karenccs67

How old is your son? I thought all 3+ yr old are entittled to 2/3 free sessions a week, my son had 4 free sessions a week all be it a few years ago now.

Bloomberg

Mummy_Sarah wrote: »

Hi could any one please help. We are finding money stretched as a family of four. We have 2 young children. Me getting a job at the moment is not an option as my partner works shifts, we need someone to always be there for the kids and even if I got a part time job they would not cover the costs of childcare.

Income
1070 a month wage
103 a week child tax (412 a month)
134 Child benefit a month

1616 a month

Outgoings
rent 450
c.tax 100
Water 27
Gas and Electric 150
Mobile 22 (in contract for another year)
Car insurance 55
Petrol 120 (My partner travels to work each day and takes him an hour to get there)
Daughters dinner money 41.60 (10.40 a week:S) Cant have sandwitches until shes in year one.
Sons playgroup fees 60.00 (he goes 2 hours 2 mornings a week)
sky 50 (we are going to cancel tv subscription but feel as we have 2 children we need a phone) Any one know any landline deals let me know.
Interest on overdraft is £20 a month
£120 to mum in law a month due to her helping out paying for a new car when ours broke down last year. It was only a cheap one and Ill be finished next year.
£12 Tv Licence

Equals £1227.60

so £388.40

Our food bill is normally around £75 a week including rushing out and buying milk. We make all our dinners from scratch and this includes nappies for our son. Im know im lucky i dont have any major debts but Im finding it really hard with just £20 left over to clothe, and do stuff with the kids, and save to take them out. We go on cheap days out to museums but its still petrol getting there. We have a tent and hoping to go camping this year, its only about £40 for the weekend but dont think I can either afford that. Any advice would be great xx

My friend's wife did a child minding course, it did not take very long to complete. She looks after other people's children from home and pulls in two grand a month. You need to find out from your local council about the courses and requirements. If you think that you can tolerate more children during the day this could well be the way out of your hardship.

Mummy_Sarah

I really dont understand why we go through much gas and electric. The only reason could be that our house is big and spacious (i live in wales and lucky to get a lovely house for 450 a month) But downstairs we dont have carpet flooring. Our kids are always cold in the winter months so I keep the house on 18 on the thermostat. I turn it off randomly throughout the day to try and keep costs down. I have for weeks tried turning it off through the night but my kids wake up feeling cold with runny noses and coughs and I feel guilty and have started putting it on 16 through the night. My son is 2 years 5 months and be going to school in September so will save £20 a month as I will be paying for dinners not playgroup fees. I know some people who dont pay for playgroup and they take their children there everyday. But we need to as dean works. Wow super monkey thats really cheap. How much is line rental do you know? Do they still accept you if you are already with them for this new deal? Bloomberg, I looked into doing a child minding course but can only tolerate my children. Hopefully there may be a slim chance when my little boy is in full time school I can find a part time job. But my partner has been trying to switch jobs himself for the last year so not sure whats out there xx