Oh Dear. Reality Check

Cariad9

If you both have mobiles, do you need a landline? I got rid of mine as never use it with the free mins on my mobile. You could then get freeview and if you're in a 3G area use your phones for internet (presuming you just use it for entertainment, FB etc). You could then get rid of the internet/tv/phone package completely.

There's 2 of us and 1 cat and we spend £50 a week on groceries. That includes cleaning stuff, cat food / litter and also quite a lot of alcohol Purely on food I'd say we spend about £25 (and could cut back if husband wasn't carnivore) - Pretty much all the meat we get is Whoopsied and goes straight in the freezer. Certain things I will only buy on offer e.g. tuna as all the major supermarkets go through cycles of doing the 1/2 price.

Clothes I nearly all get from ebay or occasionally charity shops. I'm a bit of a clothes snob and you can get nearly new higher end high street stuff for half the price of Primark. I have a lovely dress I wear for work from Zara that cost me £7.

We pay gas / electric quarterly and our last bill was £315 for winter months in a 2 bed house. I expect it to drop quite a bit through the summer (if it ever arrives ), so if you're paying DD and spreading it out it seems a bit high.

There seems a lot missing from your budget e.g. child costs, prescriptions, birthdays, entertainment etc. Do you have any credit cards, store cards etc? Do either of you smoke? There's a link on here somewhere to do a full SOA, I'll try and find it. It's mad how the little things add up!

Even if you're not in any debt it's worth reading through the Debt Free wannabe forum as there's guys on there who are experts on living off practically nothing.

Seakay

getting rid of the landline can save you money but I would just point out that it can be very hard for others who need to save; I had a friend who did this for a while and although I can afford a small monthly fee for anytime calling I could not afford to call her on her mobile.

Lots of good advice on here though and good luck with it all - realising that you need to do something is the first and largest step!

Cariad9

Seakay wrote: »

getting rid of the landline can save you money but I would just point out that it can be very hard for others who need to save; I had a friend who did this for a while and although I can afford a small monthly fee for anytime calling I could not afford to call her on her mobile.

Lots of good advice on here though and good luck with it all - realising that you need to do something is the first and largest step!

I used to ask people to text me and then I would phone them back. Although appreciate it isn't always easy, my elderly nan would never let me phone her back no matter how many times I explained about free minutes

Florenceem

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 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

There are no child care costs in the budget.

Florenceem

Fredula wrote: »

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.

Ask family for clothes instead of lots of toys for baby when they are talking presents. My Mum always bought me slippers for Christmas and Birthdays - so that expense was sorted.

krlyr

Charity shops can be a good way to save money on new clothes for work. I started a new job recently and needed to smarten up my wardrobe, so I just popped into my local charity shops a couple of times. If they have a £1 rail, or do sales, you can get some ridiculously cheap stuff - I've got new cardigans and tops for £1-2 each, really not breaking the budget and most in great condition.

saterkey

Try valued opinions for surveys nearly at my 2nd £10 Sainsburys voucher in about 2 months, not much but you could build up a storecupboard with small amounts. do lots of comps for days out and household stuff. Try freecycle/freegle/freeworld for free bits for the house, fruit, garden stuff going to waste. ask for vouchers for presents, use the points cards, ie tescos as much as you can and use the double up offers at certain times of the year. Go to dinner at parents quite often! good luck.

floss2

saterkey wrote: »

.... use the points cards, ie tescos as much as you can and use the double up offers at certain times of the year. ....

Tesco's isnt the cheapest place to shop - how else could they give all those points away?!

OP, do you have a Home Bargains, Aldi, Lidl or B&M near you? Get to know their food ranges - Aldi & Lidl are good for continental foods and generally good for fruit & veg, Home Bargains & B&M are good for tins, packets etc.

Fredula

We live directly opposite an Aldi. Every time I go in there I am always amazed at how much I come out with for what I've spent. The other day I bought milk, bread and vinegar and I was expecing it to be about £4 - £5. Nope! £2.something.

I noticed a couple of you mentioned I haven't said about childcare costs - at the moment my parents and OH's parents look after our son whilst we are working.

OH's car - I guess we could look into buying a more cost effective car. We over budget for the car because they do conk out quite a lot. I sold my car today! Very pleased. I will have a butchers on the web at cars. Oh, and he does claim his milage back as he uses it for work

floss2

Fredula wrote: »

..... Oh and he does claim his milage back as he uses it for work

That money needs to be included in your income...does it come back in his pay or does he claim separately?