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

p00hsticks

ScrimpingandSaving wrote: »

Husband loves reading newspaper during his break.

Which newspaper ? If he's not prepared to give it up, could he save money by getting a subscription ? I love my paper too, and have a subscription where I pay every three months - they then send me three months worth of vouchers which I exchange for the paper each day at my newagent, and it saves about 40% on the face value of the paper.

Alternatively, as others have suggested, if he's mainly buying it for the crossword, then a book of crosswords would work out cheaper

(and you could always buy him the subscription and/or crossword books as a birthday / christmas present to cut back on presents as well !)

Spendless

How old are the kids re your grocery budget? Feeding 2 teenagers (especially if they are boys IME!) is different to feeding 2 kids of 4 and 6. I can't work it out from your amount for school trips £120 per year each for primary age seems too high and for Secondary seems too low -lol, based on my own experience of 1 at each.

We have a similar income to yourselves and at times I've wondered exactly the same thing about where this surplus on paper money gets too. If you are going into an overdraft each month it can be hard to play 'catch up'. we only become sorted after an unexpected amount of money came to us to set us straight.

ljonski

I need to be careful with my pc as this is my business. I can't scrimp on important things like anti-virus.

standard avg is free , although i use Avast. Go on the techie section and search or post there about what the geeks think, whether you are paying for something that you don't need

suki1964

Welcome aboard btw, believe it or not everyone here is friendly and will give as much help as possible, even if we can be a tad blunt

Wine, I'm a lush so drink anything, but have you popped into lidl? There wines are very very good, win awards, and are often very very well priced

Do try making ginger beer at home, it's a great one for the kids to help with, plus you can make yours alcoholic

Another way of getting a half decent bottle - meal deals. I will always get the whole chicken ( will feed 3 adults 3 times) and the best wine available. Those two items alone are worth the £10, the side and dessert always come in handy as well


Re the walks and drinks. I don't know where you live but can you not plan new walks where there's a cafe? Two coffees and two cans of pop a lot cheaper then a round in a pub

Let hubby have his paper, but buy multi bags of crisp and bars and let him take those. A four pack of chunky kit kat is £1 in Tesco ATM, a single chunky kit kat is 60p - that's a huge saving

Me and hubby only have the treats that are on special. I prefer one kind of pop, but refuse to pay full price for it, so either go without or buy what it is on offer that week

Meal planning is a doddle when you get your head around it. I go by what we are having as a roast and work around that. This week I have fed 3 adults for 4 days from a £7.77 chicken. Tonight is Asda finest range outdoor reared pork sausages I bought reduced for a quid over Christmas. Veggies have been seasonal or very very reduced

I always look at the reduced area and see what's there in the way of meat, fish and veggies. Using my phone I can have a quick browse of recipes whilst out as well, see what I can do with a big lump of pork that's at a giveaway price:D

There are ways and means of having a good standard of living without breaking the bank. Vouchers for days out, special price cinema days, meals out vouchers. Even Princess Anne has been known to use restaurant codes :rotfl:

lovelife79

i also dont think you drink that much, and i know what you mean about soft drinks costing so much in pubs! can you not get the kids on to diluting juice in the pub? much cheaper... with a bit of soda water as well its fizzy pop but with less cost

try not to get to hung up on people commenting about the amount you spend on alcohol. they are trying to help. after all, alcohol is a luxury so naturally can be seen as the 1st thing to give up (for a while)

i cant remember who's idea it was to go through your reciepts and see what you buying, you mentioned that you buy magazines/workbooks/comics/hair slides/bits n pieces for the kids in with your weekly shop, that probably mounts up.

with the execption of their school clothes/underwear needs could you not incorporate this into their pocket money? not sure of their ages but it could be a game/teach them value of money and their belongings.... ie, well if you loose all you hair bobbles/slides you'll need to replace them with your pocket money. (but buy a set amount at start of each term so they have a base to work with)

also why do they need maths/english workbooks? are they not given these in school? and if what they are given is too easy, maybe speak to their teachers for harder homework? or go to library and borrow books etc?

I cant really help with the groceries cost as im just on my own, but i would suggest that you join in the grocery challenge. a lot of people in the same boat trying to figure out what they spending.

remember everyone has to start somewhere and the most important step is realising a problem. like someone else has mentioned before, you are seeing a potential problem and trying to solve it before it becomes a reality. kudos to you!!

oh and please remember that you are not alone, a wee scan through the boards will show how often people are asking for help/advice

notanewuser

No contents insurance? Are you insane?!

Honey_Bear

Have you had a look at the Grocery Challenge thread? The first few posts are an amalgamation of people's best tips for saving money and budgeting. I've been able to cut down from an average of £250/month in 2011 to less than £130 and we honestly haven't noticed the difference, despite the incredible rise in prices over the last year.

lauroar

Hi SaS

Well done for posting! Try not to be too downbeat about cutting back on a few things, I'm sure with a few small changes you can meet the shortfall.

Here's what I would cut back on in your situation:

Food shopping: [STRIKE]600[/STRIKE] 300 (To include food and household items - this will probably be the most difficult adjustment) Saving £300
Drinks at home: [STRIKE]90[/STRIKE] 40 (~£10 p/w bottle of wine) Saving £50
Shopping for fun: [STRIKE]90[/STRIKE] 0 (what have you been buying? Can you sell any of it on ebay) Saving £90
Regular savings: [STRIKE]100[/STRIKE] 0 (it's not saving if you're using it every month!!) Saving £100
Drinking out: [STRIKE]65[/STRIKE] 40 (one less trip to the pub p/m maybe?) Saving £25

The only thing being cut out here is shopping for fun - you can still do all of your other leisure activities, just at a slightly reduced frequency/outlay.

In addition I'd up your present budget to £100 to cover both xmas and birthdays if you're buying presents at the supermarket. Having a stricter budget for this should reduce your supermarket bill. You have to be realistic about how much you spend if you're buying for lots of family/kids friends. Increase of £29 p/m for presents.


So running total to now = saving of £536.
This is £138 more than your shortfall, so this could be split into savings, kids clothes, higher grocery budget for the first month or so, an extra bottle of wine a month - wherever you see fit.

Hope my maths is right but I think you have plenty of room for maneuver within your budget without 'feeling' the hit too much. Good luck bringing the food shop down, others will have pointed you in the right direction for this I'm sure.

ScrimpingandSaving

My kids are aged 12 and 9

No contents insurance. Over the years we have saved a fortune. We have been burgled just once - they stole my parrot. You can't replace that. No fires, no floods (not on a floodplain) and in a safe area. If I had the spare money I probably would get contents insurance but we've never needed it and yes we might have a huge fall, then again we might not. The worst that could happen is that the house burns down, with 2 non-smokers and everything turned off at night + 2 smoke alarms this is unlikely.

Multipack crisps and chocs for hubby a damn good idea.

Will look into making ginger beer.

Petrol is a lot as he travels 60 miles a day just getting to work and back. The motoring costs quoted are for both cars. I have considered going without one but because of where we live, this would be impossible.

Internet and phone is combined.

No kindle I'm afraid. We usually go to the library but every now and then I will get them mags and newspapers such as First News and National Geographic Junior. They also have bookcases - we're a "bookie" family and we love our books.

School shoes, uniform, PE kids, bags are all expensive. My daughter's school has a second hand shop now but you take your chances with that. My son's doesn't. Shoes are a nightmare cost and this is my daughter's second bag this school year. Most just fall apart no matter how expensive they are because of the weight of all her books.

I have to buy her art paper, pens, art equipment, etc. She gets other subject writing books from school.

She has school trips that I can't not allow her to go on. Last year was a language trip to Germany at a cost of £180. This year it is to Belgium at a cost of £150. My son has his first residential this year at £130 and a day trip to Salisbury Cathedral for £10. These costs will only get higher but what can you do?

Our phones just make calls and send texts, no internet access on our phones.

Newspaper, generally that ipaper? The cheap one? But we get Sunday Papers too which mounts up.

Butterfly_Brain

We live on £1,050 pm and that is for four adults, DH in a low paid job DS at college DD who is on a 4 hour a week contract because there are no jobs around here, we can't afford a holiday.
We do have days out in the summer and that comprises of a visit to a local beauty spot with a packed lunch.
What I am trying to say is that you can survive, and you don't necessarily have to feel that you are doing without. My two only had 50p a week pocket money because that was all we could afford, but they learnt to save if they wanted something. If they wanted something desperately such as something on special offer then we would lend them the money and they had to pay it back.
Birthday parties were always done at home and I made the cake. They do not feel that they were hard done by and if I don't make a cake on their birthday (DD 24 DS 18) they get really upset, they hate shop bought cakes. There was only ever one meal cooked, fussiness was not allowed, they had to eat what was put in front of them and had a weekend treat of HM pizza apart from that it was good wholesome old fashioned food.
They are very money savvy and love trawling round car boot sales and charity shops and love finding bargains and have been that way from tots.
We don't smoke, grow our own veg, batch cook and only have wine on special occasions usually Christmas and our anniversary we buy it from Aldi whose wine has one many awards see here:
http://www.aldipresscentre.co.uk/Awards.aspx.

The trouble is that more and more of everyone's disposable income is being eaten up by hikes in gas, electricity, water, petrol, food and VAT. Not to mention cuts in benefits etc. We are all tightening our belts even tighter than before.

The best advice that I can give is to make a Meal plan, write a shopping list and only take cash to avoid impulse buys (I keep £20 extra in the back of my purse for things that are a bargain such as if meat is reduced I can take it from that money). At the end of the week empty your purse into a pot and leave it, this will help pay for holidays and Christmas.
Look for cheap meals on the index thread there are some really tasty ones on there. I can recommend D &DD's apple braid, twinks hob nobs and Curry Queen's recipes.
Books to read:
The Takeaway secret
Feed your family for £5 a day
The paupers cook book
Economy Gastronomy

HTH x