Any advice?

emmysmum

We're looking to cut back to maximise on having one of us at home with our baby. I'm on maternity leave at the moment, so income has taken quite a drastic hit. The current income is my DH salary plus my SMP.
This is our SOA.

Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,400.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 87.97
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.13
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.67
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184.56
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.17
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607.00
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37.50
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300.00
Family
Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
lottery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.67
tes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.75
AG. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.67
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
Education & Courses
University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One-Offs
Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.33
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
Odds & Sods
Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,497.97

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,311.56

Noticed the life insurance is missed out, its 6.72 per month I think.
In total we put £300 per month aside for car maintenance (for both cars), holidays etc.
The £50 for nappies etc includes buying reusable nappies, which I hope will save some £ in the long run!
If anyone has any ideas on how we can cut things back further, I'd much appreciate it. While I was working we were making large overpayments to the mortgage, which I miss doing!

Scottishmummy

The biggest thing that struck me was £50 for garden maintenance! That definately needs cut back on.

Others will be along with wiser info in a sec

TTC40

You say the £300 is for car & holidays, but these are both also in the SOA, is this correct?

Petrol/ diesel is high - can this be cut or is it commuting costs?

emmysmum

Ttc40, yes, they are included in the soa.
Our garden was almost am actual jungle when we bought the house and we are trying to mainly do it ourselves, but we've needed tree surgeons eetc just to have access out the back door! As its our first garden, we've had to buy the tools etc that we haven't managed t acquire from family etc, but I am hopeful that it'll be reduced in a few months time to a much smaller amount, mainly bits and pieces for growing fruit n veg :-)

emmysmum

And yes, unfortunately the petrol is pretty unavoidable at the moment :-( we live in quite a rural area, its a 10 mile round trip to the nearest shop, and dh works 30 miles away.
I'm hoping he may be able to life share even one day a week, but even then, if he contributed to the petrol, it may not actually save that much.

mum2one

emmysmum wrote: »

We're looking to cut back to maximise on having one of us at home with our baby. I'm on maternity leave at the moment, so income has taken quite a drastic hit. The current income is my DH salary plus my SMP.
This is our SOA.

Income from Employment (after tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,400.00
Income from Self Employment (before tax). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
State Pension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private Pension / Annuity Payout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Benefits (Inc. Child Benefit/Tax Credits & Income Support). . . . . . . . . . . 87.97
Income From Savings & Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Gifts From Family / Friends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00
Monthly Expense Details
In Your Home
Mobile phones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17.00
TV licence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12.12
Internet. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4.13
Home phone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.67
Cleaning products/Cleaner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Garden maintenance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 - that seems high, will it be that amount for long?
Household maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00
Gas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45.00
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 youve not got anything for water??
Council tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184.56
Overdraft cost. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Bank account fee. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Home insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14.17
Mortgage/Rent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 607.00
Plumbing/Boiler cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Mortgage payment protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Life insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Food and household shopping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200.00
Drinks for home . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Motoring & Public Transport
Petrol/Diesel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 360.00
Parking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car tax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20.00
Car insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37.50 - always worth shopping around at renewal
Car maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66.67
Rail/Buses/Taxis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Breakdown cover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Debt Repayments
Credit card repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Hire purchase repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Personal loan repayments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Car loan repayments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Savings & Investments
Pension payments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Buying shares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Investments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cash ISAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Lump sum saving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular saving. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300.00
Family
Pet food. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School meals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pocket money. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Nappies/Baby extras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00 - are you bulk buying nappies etc, join all baby clubs, look out for offers
Laundry/Dry cleaning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Children's travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Baby-sitting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Childcare/Playgroups. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Travel insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
lottery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8.67
tes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.75
AG. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.00
Entertainment
Satellite/Digital TV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Family days out . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Cinema/Theatre trips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Books/Music/Films/Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Big days out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Shopping for fun. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Pet costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Hobbies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30.00
IT/Computing (antivirus, etc) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
DVD rental. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Drinking out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Eating out. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15.00
Clothes, Health & Beauty
Complimentary therapies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Optical bills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Haircuts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6.67
Dentistry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Beauty treatments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Healthcare cash plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Dental insurance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Private medical insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Fitness/Sports/Gym. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Work clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
New children's clothes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00 ??? you've got nothing allocated here?
New clothes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16.67
Education & Courses
University tuition fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
School fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Your courses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Big One-Offs
Funeral expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Wedding expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Sofa/Kitchen/TV . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Birthdays . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25.00
Winter holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Summer holiday. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83.33
Christmas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41.67
Odds & Sods
Newspapers and magazines. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.00
Tax & NI Provisions (self-employed only). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Regular charity donations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Meals at work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Smokes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.00
Coffees/Sandwiches/Snacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.00

Total monthly income. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,497.97

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,311.56

Noticed the life insurance is missed out, its 6.72 per month I think.
In total we put £300 per month aside for car maintenance (for both cars), holidays etc.
The £50 for nappies etc includes buying reusable nappies, which I hope will save some £ in the long run!
If anyone has any ideas on how we can cut things back further, I'd much appreciate it. While I was working we were making large overpayments to the mortgage, which I miss doing!

Seems like you have cut a lot to the bone, the garden jumps out, but hopefully that will sort itself out soon.

Water - I noticed there wasn't anything in for water in the SOa.

x

pennypusher

You could cut back on your mobile phones. I know it's not a lot but you may not need to spend £17 a month. Check out car boot sales for garden tools and also freecycle. Your Gas and Electricity are fairly high - you could probably shave some off of those. Go on a comparison site and make sure you are on a cheap supplier.

Check your council tax against others and make sure you're on the correct band for your house.

Are you on a good deal for your mortgage. Maybe a trip to a mortgage broker could help you save money there by going on a better repayment plan.

Can you get your credit card debts on a 0% card so that you aren't paying any interest?

Scrap your lottery payments - you are never going to get rich on that.

Maybe instead of saving £300 each month you could pay off your debts first and then save.

You will need something for children's clothes.

Summer holidays? You will need to decide on your priorities, after shaving what you can off utility bills you will need to decide whether to pay off your debts or save for things in the future.

Don't forget when you get straight to start saving for replacing your car, central heating, washing machine etc as these are the things that often catch people out.

Hope these ideas help.

emmysmum

Thanks for the replies :-)
Re water, we're in Scotland so its included in the council tax.
I did ask for the council tax to be rebanded, it was denied, we appealed and lost :-( total sickner as its over 180 a month :-(
Have just transferred the credit card onto a 0% balance transfer for 17 months, not that much on it, so the 25 a month will have it paid off by the end of the interest free period.
Dd baby clothes are included in the 50 a month baby extras, I've been given quite a lot of hand me downs, so just having to buy weather appropriate clothes , plus gradually building a stash of reuseable nappies..
Hoping to cut our usage of gas with the warmer weather! Checked tarrif quite recently, we have a fairly large house,so think its just expensive to heat!
Mortgage fix comes to an end in Jan, going to see about booking a new fix for then, thinking of reducing term to 20 years from 22, on a lower rate it'll cost the same as now.

Will investigate the mobile phones, dh has a cheapo phone with a payg sim, spending around a tenner a month, my contract smartphone is 7.50. I df don't use all the minutes etc, but needed a new phone as old one broke.