HELP! Have cut back all I can but am still over-spending!

Mara_uk7

chambta wrote: »

What strikes me about threads like this is that there are people who take a perverse pleasure in being miserly and depriving themselves of things they can actually afford!

And your point is ?? If you cant say something nice or helpful, say nothing ... Or is this trollish and I dont speak that lingo ?

pelirocco

ScrimpingandSaving wrote: »

Just a quick update:

I've been in touch with the B&B and am doing some work tomorrow and some next week which should give me a little extra. That's welcome as my pay this month was just £350.

I have applied for another job but got a rejection email today, however I will keep looking.

I've signed up to pay the water bill in 10 monthly instalments and we are paying our council tax bill over 12 months as from April.

The shopping is going well although I'm struggling to keep to my £60pw limit I must admit. Still it's lasting 8 days.

We've cut right back on heating. We never had it on at night anyway and now we're just putting it on for an hour and a half in the mornings and just for an hour every other evening for bathnight. Other times we light the fire.

I'm also becoming more inventive with packed lunches so that nothing goes to waste. And....wait for it....we're getting some chickens! A friend has promised us a henhouse and we can get young hens for around a fiver each so we can start keeping hens in the Spring and this will save us buying eggs. Plus we can start selling any excess eggs to neighbours (am planning to put an honesty box outside).

So still a long way to go but we are slowly getting there and I hope that our outgoings by the end of March are significantly reduced.

As an ex hen owner I can say that we ate the most expensive eggs in the country lol, it seemed to cost us a fortune in food etc .

newmee

ScrimpingandSaving wrote: »

Hi Chev

As for bringing in more money, that would be excellent. Unfortunately our wages are just over the threshold for any benefits of any kind. We get child tax credit but earn too much for working tax credit which would enable us to have subsidised school trips, free school meals, free prescriptions, etc.

Hello :wave:, ive enjoyed reading your diary. Just to say though; I get both child and working tax credits (I work 2 part time jobs to make 1 f/t!) and it doesn't entitle my DD to free school meals etc. The only people I know who get free school meals are those whose parents are unemployed. Prescription costs are available if you earn less than £15k (or was when I did) and I got them free then but have never ever had free school meals.

Good luck with all your hard work.

chambta

Mara_uk7 wrote: »

And your point is ?? If you cant say something nice or helpful, say nothing ... Or is this trollish and I dont speak that lingo ?

If you need the 'point' explaining then I really don't think it's worth bothering.

satchmo1

chambta wrote: »

If you need the 'point' explaining then I really don't think it's worth bothering.

Hope you keep to that promise, then.

dktreesea

ScrimpingandSaving wrote: »

Now that my daughter is 12 it is actually quite hard to cut back. For instance she has been out twice since I started budgeting. Once another mum took her and her friend to Bath and I had to give her money for lunch, etc. Then another time a friend again had her for the day and again, it wouldn't be fair to send her without giving her some spending money as I knew the other girl would be shopping and they would all be going out for lunch.

What do you do in that situation? I don't want my daughter to be the one saying she can't afford to buy anything (although she is careful with money and what she did buy were things for us) as she's having a hard enough time making friends as it is. I also can't expect other mums to buy lunch for her.

Our children both have their own bank accounts and have had for years. When they were younger than 11 we had to go with them if they wanted some money to spend, but once they were 11 they drew out their own money. We give them £15 each a week. It goes out by DD each week. If they want to go out socialising and spending, they use that money. They have cineworld unlimited cards, so don't need to pay for movies. And we cover their phones. There have been times, when they have complained about how low their funds are getting and I have suggested they eat at home before they go out or take a sandwich, that I was told this is "naff". However, lately I have noticed them following my advice.

Not sure about the comments on your grocery bill. I just added up what I have spent for this week just gone and it comes to £123 for 4 people. And that's just the food:

leg of lamb£15.00,
2 x chicken£10.00,
3kg potatoes£4.50,
cauliflower£1.29,
broccoli£1.60,
lettuce£1.00,
3 punnets tomatoes £5.25,
cheese £4.50,
margarine£1.70,
bread £9.45,
7 * 2litres of milk£9.03,
jar of coffee£4.79,
1 kg fish£14.90,
1 packet wedgies£1.50,
1 carton cream£1.29,
special K £2.00,
curry powder£1.20,
Pepsi (32 cans)£8.00,
Fruit juice£5.37,
gravy granules£1.30,
yorkshire puddings£2.00,
Branston pickle£1.00,
1 kg mince£7.99,
two punnets strawberries£4.00,
two punnets grapes£3.00,
bananas£1.49
Total: £123.15

I don't consider that particularly expensive.

Spendless

I keep the huge majority of my veg in my salad tray in the fridge. I put a layer of paper towel at the bottom and it's not often I have to throw stuff away. If I take veg out of the plastic bag they came in and it feels 'wet' as carrots sometimes do, I dry each one with paper towel before putting them in fridge.

I bought a potato sack from poundland last summer and until recently it was working very well in making potatoes last longer before sprouting. Am not sure if I need a new bag, or it's due to the spuds not being as good quality at min.:cool:

I had some bits of peppers, 1 sprouting onion, some mushrooms that needed using up and 1 tomato left and cut them up, drizzled with olive oil and baked in oven to go with tonight's tea.

I like thinking of veg as being 'double duty' so a mix of spuds, white cabbage, carrots and onion can be the veg for a roast dinner or become wedges and HM coleslaw for a diff meal. You could also put some leftover veg into omelettes or quiches, if you eat them.

When eldest was in reception, he made a fruit salad and I still use the same fruits to this day, oranges (or satsumas etc), pineapple, grapes and kiwi fruit with a little fruit juice (though I've been known to use squash if it's all I have in). This seems to last longer, as there are no soft fruits like berries to go mushy or fruits that brown eg apples or pears. I currently have both oranges and kiwis that won't last till my family get round to eating them, but put them in a fruit salad and they'll eat them up. :rotfl:

TinaBallerina

Hi Scrimping and Saving, I read your thread with great interest two nights ago, as I'm in a similar situation to you and the advice from all the other MSEers has been really helpful. I wanted to pop back today to give my tuppence worth. I think it was your other half who had psoriasis, I have psoriasis too and was previously using the tubes of Dovonex cream and getting through a lot of them and it was costing me a lot in prescription charges. I then discovered, via reading about it in a magazine, that it also comes in a scalp solution (which I use on all my patches, not just those on my scalp) and a bottle lasts much longer than the tubes of cream did. I had to ask my docotor specifically for the scalp solution, it was never suggested by him - I assume this is because it's more expensive to prescribe. It might be worth your other half speaking to his doc to see if he can try the Dovonex scalp lotion to see if it works for him too, if he's not already tried it. It might save you some money on prescriptions. Good luck with your continuing money savings endevours.

Dolly_Mixture

Hi Scrimping and Saving, I have read your thread from the beginning and it has been a roller coaster of a ride! I am truly sorry to hear of your difficulties but you have had some good advice and seem to have taken it on board. At the end of the day you are the one who has to live your life, so just ignore those whose advice you do not agree with.

Yesterday I read a blog called "A girl called Jack" which I thought might interest you. She is a single parent who is blogging about her struggles to find work and how to feed herself and her son for £10.00 for 5 days. She has now received interest from the national press and has finally got a job. Have a read and see what you think.

All the best for you and your family.

Dolly

Seen_the_light

I use the little orange lentils to bulk out mince dishes, as well as regularly make dhal and lentil soup. I also try to cook double the quantity at least once per week and freeze. This has two benefits, it can cut down the time in the kitchen for when time is short and also cuts cooking times (costs) as only re-heating is required.

I think you should be really proud that you have recognised there has been an issue with out-goings exceeding in-comings and chosen to do something about it - so well done! You never know, there may come a point where you enjoy the challenge, especially when your hard work starts to pay off!