Oh Dear. Reality Check

Fredula

My husband, 14 month old and I have just moved into our first rented property after living with my parents for a year (I've never moved out before).

Our combined income is £1581.20 which is comprised of my income, husband's income and child benefit (we're not counting child tax credit as every time we write to them saying the same thing which they haven't put right, we end up getting a different amount so we know that more than likely we are going to have to pay money back at the end of this financial year).

After rent, our two contract phones, our Gas, Water, Electric, Broadband/phone/tv package, Savings for car insurance/tax/repairs/mot, savings for annual bills e.g. tv licence, home insurance, and our travel for work, we are left with £235.31 to spend on food shopping and anything else we need, e.g clothes etc. I had to buy new work clothes the other day as our company wears business dress and all my cardigans had holes in, which isn't very professional.

I'm a bit worried. Hubby says we can't save on anything else as we need the internet. We don't necessarily need the TV bit of the package but I do enjoy it. I didn't really understand the tv/phone/broadband package prices and got a bit stressed with it when we signed up, and we ended up going over our limit so we switched to unlimited broadband which was an extra £5 (we'd gone over the limit 2 weeks into it).

I don't really know what to do. £235.31 isn't a lot. I budgeted £250 for food this month and I am almost up to my limit. I'm not sure I can reduce our spending any more. I've already got rid of standing orders which aren't necessary, e.g baby's savings, holiday money savings, lottery etc. This is going to be really hard.

good_advice

Hello Fredula. You have joined the right club = mse. Lots of people on here struggling with bills.
Same bills for everyone.
My advice is to be careful with the heating. The bill will add up for gas and electric.

krustylouise

Hi,

I'm not as "up" on this as others on here but someone will be along soon with advice. 1 thing I will say is post an SOA up so people can see specifically how much you're spending on gas elec mobiles etc. have you applied for housing/council tax benefit?

Fredula

I earn £600 pm (it's £800 atm because I'm not paying tax as I was on maternity leave part of this tax year but it will go down to £600pm next month). OH earns £900. Child benefit £81.20 and then as I said, we don't count child tax credit because we're pretty sure we're going to have to pay some back at the end of this year.

We spend (we've only lived here for a month so not entirely sure on gas/electric but everything else is as accurate as I think):

My phone: £14pm (contract 24 months, started in feb 2013~)
OH's Phone: £14pm
Water: £53.08pm starting in may
Gas/Electric: Approx £120pm
Council Tax: £124.81
Rent: £650
Broadband Package/TV/Phone: £35pm
Petrol for Hubby's car (uses for work) £150pm
Bus for me: £25pm
Savings for car insurance/tax/mot/repairs: £130pm
Savings for annual bills e.g tv licence/house insurance: £27.50

BitterAndTwisted

It's very hard when you first set up home as you probably have no store-cupboard to speak of.

For grocery-shopping it pays dividends if you meal-plan, shop according to your plan only so you're not randomly buying things which catch your attention, pay very close attention to the special reductions/yellow-stickers at the supermarket and batch-cook for the freezer. This does require some discipline and basic cooking-skills, however.

Have a shufti at this site:

http://www.cheap-family-recipes.org.uk/


If they say you can feed a family of four on a hundred quid a month you can feed yours for £250 or less.

Any

Agree with Bitter.
You can feed family on £250.
Meal planning is essential! I only do it half heartedly (I try to meal plan but still spend money on "treats" like on Gu desserts the other day-shoot me, they were on offer:-)) I feed 2 adults and we have lots of wine on £250. That is the budget and I count cleaning stuff etc in that. And we only eat expensive chicken when we have some as OH is strong believer in their welfare and quality of meat. You can do better then me.
Clothes-that is a bit more complicated, but here for example you buy better second hand clothes then new in cheap shops. It's about finding good shop.
Congrats on your new place. Every time it gets tough going think of the privacy and your own space you get.
If you have tinternet and free time try to sign up to surveys and so on. I just completed assignment worth £45 in Amazon vouchers for Ipsos Panel. That was a one off, for regular users only, but without it I regularly get £10 every month or 2. Every little helps!

Honey_Bear

There's an Old Style thread called the Grocery Challenge - I seem to say this every time someone needs advice on how to get by, so forgive me if I'm boring people.

The first few posts are absolutely brilliant, stuffed full of how to get by for less. We all started out not knowing how to budget, and everyone's collected expertise is encapsulated in about 1,000 words. As the month wears on, people post randomly about spending, not spending, special offers and general all round housekeeping stuff. If you're new to it, that's the place to start.

Well done for realising your money isn't going to go as far as you thought it would. Most people get into debt before they realise what you've already worked out.

sonastin

Are you on a water meter? As its a rented property you will need the landlords permission to transfer if you're not but it could be a good way to cut some money off the water bill.

I second what Honey Bear says about the grocery challenge thread. The thread itself moves too fast for me to be able to keep up but the first few posts are invaluable for learning tricks to make the grocery budget go futher. Meal-planning is also essential. Its taken me a couple of years to really get on board with it because I was lucky enough to always have a bit of money in reserve. The reserve has gone now so I have to be more disciplined in order to build it back up again.

floss2

Fredula wrote: »

I earn £600 pm (it's £800 atm because I'm not paying tax as I was on maternity leave part of this tax year but it will go down to £600pm next month). OH earns £900. Child benefit £81.20 and then as I said, we don't count child tax credit because we're pretty sure we're going to have to pay some back at the end of this year.

We spend (we've only lived here for a month so not entirely sure on gas/electric but everything else is as accurate as I think):

My phone: £14pm (contract 24 months, started in feb 2013~)
OH's Phone: £14pm
Water: £53.08pm starting in mayGas/Electric: Approx £120pm
Council Tax: £124.81Rent: £650
Broadband Package/TV/Phone: £35pm
Petrol for Hubby's car (uses for work) £150pmBus for me: £25pmSavings for car insurance/tax/mot/repairs: £130pm
Savings for annual bills e.g tv licence/house insurance: £27.50

Water - ask them if you can pay over all the months, not just until January, it will make around £10 p.m. which is better in your pocket right now.
Council tax - same as for water, that will make a difference of £20 p.m.
Petrol used for work - Is this just to get to work? If it is to do his job, does your husband claim this back?
Bus - can you buy a weekly or monthly saver / season ticket?

Am sure others will think of things to add

midnight_express

The car seems to be a major problem, it is costing a third of your husband's salary.

Any

What is the car? What is your car insurance?
£1620 a year for insurance, mot, service, tax disc and repairs seems a lot to me.

My bills:
120 tax disc
100 service
40 MOT
500 insurance
300 back up for one off repairs, tyres

Sometimes a car gets into an age when it gets cheaper to buy a newer car then to keep the old one going..

Newer cars drink less fuel, have lower tax discs and don't get broken as regularly..
Perhaps could be worth looking at?