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Time to wake up and smell the free work provided coffee...
Comments
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The £500 a month groceries jumps out at me, there are absolutely tons of ways to save money on groceries. Even with 2 adults and 2 children it should be possible to get this down to £300 a month and still enjoy tasty, healthy food.
My husband and I spend about £125-£175 a month and eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, nice meat and other luxury items.
Good luck to you and well done for making the start on changing thingsThis is a system account and does not represent a real person. To contact the Forum Team email forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com0 -
flubberyzing wrote: »Yes, the first one to jump out at me was the lottery. £80 a month?! I'd stop that right away.
What is the "Other insurance" you're paying? If it's for something like a mobile phone, stop it and take your chances. Ask your self "have I made a claim on this in the past 5 years?" If you haven't, chances are you won't miss it for a year.
And your food bill. That could probably be halved and you'd never know the difference. Do you waste a lot of food? Or spend a lot on takeaways? There are some useful boards further down the forum, like "Old style" and "food and groceries" that are full of good ideas for cutting the food spending.
Good luck!
We have redundancy insurance in there, boiler cover and cooker cover.
The cooker cover allows us 1 free service on the cooker per year, I would not want to be without boiler insurance and I think the redundancy cover is important.... It covers my wife and I and will make the minimum payment to our mortgage provider if either of us were ever made redundant.
The food bill is something I really do want to get down. I have made a list of all the food in our freezer and we are going to try and live out of that and what we have in the cupboards until we need to buy anything.
We have plenty of frozen veg and meat, it goes back to me saying that I was lazy... I do cook a lot and this month we have had probably 3 takeaways. Our month runs form the 26th of each month to the 25th following as that is when my wife gets paid.0 -
katykicker wrote: »The £500 a month groceries jumps out at me, there are absolutely tons of ways to save money on groceries. Even with 2 adults and 2 children it should be possible to get this down to £300 a month and still enjoy tasty, healthy food.
My husband and I spend about £125-£175 a month and eat lots of fresh fruit and vegetables, nice meat and other luxury items.
Good luck to you and well done for making the start on changing things
I tend to shop between Asda, Tesco and Aldi. aldi's fruit has gone down hill of late, or maybe it is just our Aldi...
Where do you buy yours as I find that most of the time I am paying, or feel I am paying, over the odds for fruit.
Veg isn't so bad as I have a local market that does great deals on veg0 -
Do you have a home bargains or a B and M bargains near you? Id say try and cut down the shopping at Tesco unless you are buying the everyday value items. Home bargains is an excellent shop, it sells branded goods very low price.
I agree with the people who have said stop the lottery, paying £800 plus a year when you have debt isnt really a good idea, mobiles, can you get cheaper mobiles.
Again, takeaways, 3 a month, cut them down and cook your own, even for a while.0 -
Oh and clothing, unless you really need it every month, again, £500 plus a year on clothing when you are in debt, not really necessary. I know you have kids and kids need clothes, but for now you could cut down on that sum, to even £30 a month.
Haircuts, look around and see if you can get a cheap haircut, local colleges, training salons.
Also, childrens savings, I appreciate you want to save for your kids, again, putting £150 away a month when you have a lot of debt, you could cut that down, unless you are in a fixed plan where that sum has to go in.0 -
Do you have a home bargains or a B and M bargains near you? Id say try and cut down the shopping at Tesco unless you are buying the everyday value items. Home bargains is an excellent shop, it sells branded goods very low price.
I agree with the people who have said stop the lottery, paying £800 plus a year when you have debt isnt really a good idea, mobiles, can you get cheaper mobiles.
Again, takeaways, 3 a month, cut them down and cook your own, even for a while.
Mobiles are tied in, mine until may, I chose a higher priced plan to get out in 12 months... Wy wife has another 12 months on hers.
When my contract ends I will be getting a cheap sim only plan.
Takeaways will be cut down, if not out. As I was recently diagnosed with Gluten intolerance, so I cannot eat from pretty much any takeaway, apart from Chop n Wok who do GF food. but I don't like their prices
I will have to take a look at B&M and Home bargains.0 -
Oh and clothing, unless you really need it every month, again, £500 plus a year on clothing when you are in debt, not really necessary. I know you have kids and kids need clothes, but for now you could cut down on that sum, to even £30 a month.
Haircuts, look around and see if you can get a cheap haircut, local colleges, training salons.
Also, childrens savings, I appreciate you want to save for your kids, again, putting £150 away a month when you have a lot of debt, you could cut that down, unless you are in a fixed plan where that sum has to go in.
To be honest we aren't spending that every month. But if there is a special occasion when the kids need something nice to wear we would spend that... I haven't got myself anything new other than work shoes for 2-3 months and the wife is the same.
I put it in there as a potential spend, kids socks, pants and vests aren't cheap these days, these tend to be the items we buy most often.
Kids savings was an area I didn't want to touch if we could help it, but I suppose we could reduce it down to the bare minimum and then "pay it back" when we are out of debt.0 -
Mobile phone............................ 96 :eek:
I am assuming that this is for for 4 x contract phones? How old are your children? When do the contracts end? You need to keep your existing phones and go sim only and you can knock half or more off this amount. If your children are teenagers, can they get jobs to contribute towards this?
Clothing................................ 50
Are you sure that this is all that is spent? its not a lot for a family of 4, but you need to be wearing existing clothes and only replacing items as they wear out, not as they go out of fashion.
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
You probably spend something here, but you do need to be careful and only spend on the children, while you are in so much debt.
Entertainment........................... 30 Again, is this what you really spend, or what you would like to spend? It could well be more than this?
My money................................ 65
Wifes Money............................. 130
What is the above for? Can it be reduced? Does it cover work lunches and can you take pack up instead? Are you spending lots on takeaway coffees etc that you can't afford?
Childrens savings....................... 150
Nice to do, but can you stop this for a while, until you have your debt and spending under control? How much is saved and how long before they are likely to need it? Can you 'borrow' it to pay your debts off, as the interest on your debts will be loads more than they are getting on savings. Perhaps 'having' to borrow your childrens savings will be the prompt you need to get your spending under control.0 -
I know.... I looked at it last night. It used to be £40 a month but they obviously doubled the price recently....
It is hard to cancel it as it would be just our luck for the blooming numbers to come up the following week!
(
In that case, best borrow heavily and buy far more tickets...
If that seems like crazy advice, then please realize that that's what you are in effect doing right now, you are adding to your debts to gamble.
Stop that. Stop it now.0 -
catwoman73 wrote: »Mobile phone............................ 96 :eek: This is for 2 phones...
I am assuming that this is for for 4 x contract phones? How old are your children? When do the contracts end? You need to keep your existing phones and go sim only and you can knock half or more off this amount. If your children are teenagers, can they get jobs to contribute towards this?
Clothing................................ 50
Are you sure that this is all that is spent? its not a lot for a family of 4, but you need to be wearing existing clothes and only replacing items as they wear out, not as they go out of fashion. We don't buy clothes that often, and we certainly aren't dedicated followers of fashion, to be honest we tend to wear the same clothes constantly... Washed of course.
Presents (birthday, christmas etc)...... 0
You probably spend something here, but you do need to be careful and only spend on the children, while you are in so much debt. Just the kids and a little token present for each other
Entertainment........................... 30 Again, is this what you really spend, or what you would like to spend? It could well be more than this? This is what we spent on cinema this month. 2 films out we both wanted to see
My money................................ 65
Wifes Money............................. 130
What is the above for? Can it be reduced? Does it cover work lunches and can you take pack up instead? Are you spending lots on takeaway coffees etc that you can't afford?This is our spending money, the wifes will be going to pay off her small overdraft, then it will be reduced, mine covers a gym DD that I am tied in until September next year and the little left over is spent on lunch, I do bring lunch to work but once a week I have food form our local cafe
Childrens savings....................... 150
Nice to do, but can you stop this for a while, until you have your debt and spending under control? How much is saved and how long before they are likely to need it? Can you 'borrow' it to pay your debts off, as the interest on your debts will be loads more than they are getting on savings. Perhaps 'having' to borrow your childrens savings will be the prompt you need to get your spending under control.Addressed above, there is not that much in accessible savings, it is all in government isa's so can't be touched until they are 18, but we will be reducing this to the bare minimum
Thanks for all the replies. So much to do!0
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