Any advice welcome - need to cut weekly shop costs

springdreams

ska_lover wrote: »

Hi there, sorry to hijack the thread, but do you have to pay to get a water meter fitted, anyone? cheers

According to Martin in his television series on money saving - no.

lushlifesaver

georgia1 wrote: »

Do you use childcare vouchers to pay for any of your childcare? That could help towards the cost. Have a look here:

http://www.which.co.uk/money/tax/guides/tax-and-your-children/childcare-costs/

I was coming back to suggest/mention this too. Just a brief bit of low down (where I work administers the childcare voucher scheme for a number of companies) they are based on salary sacrifice from pre tax pay, you will save on tax and NI as will your employer. You then use the vouchers to pay for childcare from ofsted registered providers (which before/after school clubs will be) either direct or with cheques/vouchers.
If any of the children aren't currently paying with vouchers it is very quick and simple for the school to set themselves up to accept them :-)

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi, I can sympathise, I find it hard juggling everything and I am not a single parent. Living on a tight budget is hard.

Just a thought. Do you use the credit card or are you just paying it off? And do you keep proper track of your finances so you know exactly how much you have spent and how much you have left at the end of every month? This is where I was going wrong in the past and its so easy to stick your head in the sand, especially if you have got a lot of other stuff going on.

I would suggest setting up a spreadsheet recording income and outgoings and religiously check it every day - I do it when I eat my breakfast every morning and seeing it in black and white really stops me spending.

As for food, meal planning works for me. If your son has a proper hot meal every lunch time at school then something simple like soup or a jacket potato should be enough for tea.

Good luck, it sounds like you are making good progress already.