Budget Advice

stucosby

Hello I'm struggling to keep to my monthly budget. Can someone with a little more nous advise?! I think it's as lean as i can get it.

My budget is below; in addition i receive a bonus of around £1,500 every 2 months, which is great, but makes budgeting difficult. I try and use this bonus solely for things that aren't regular/monthly such as Christmas presents, car repairs etc. In reality, i find myself digging into this bonus money early to make ends meet.

The issue is my wife wants to reduce the amount she contributes. She's self-employed and with a little baby now here its very difficult for her to maintain her contribution level.

Monthly Incomings
£1,348.00 Salary
£500.00 Wife input
£80.00 Child benefit
= £1928


Monthly Outgoings
£525.38 Mortgage
£95.00 Council tax
£109.00 Gas & Electric
£45.70 Water
£35.99 Phone, TV & Internet (Virgin)
£7.72 Google Drive (Photos Backup)
£12.96 Building & Contents Insurance
£6.58 Pet Insurance
£7.32 Life Insurance
£158.00 My Petrol (66 mile round trip daily)
£40.00 Wife's Petrol
£15.75 My Car Tax Monthly
£17.94 Wife's Car Tax Monthly
£8.54 Breakdown Cover (RAC)
£36.72 My Car Insurance
£14.53 Wife's Car Insurance
£7.50 My Phone
£7.50 Wife's Phone
£8.00 Lotto Us
£8.00 Lotto Work syndicate
£400.00 Groceries, nappies etc
£100.00 My Pocket Money
£100.00 Wife's Pocket Money
£40.00 Son's Pocket Money (lunches out, toys etc)
£37.84 Credit Card
£64.58 Credit Card

= £1,910.55

= £17.45 leftover for the month

The 2 credit card payments are pretty much minimum payments for a car i bought on my credit card (foolish perhaps but i wanted a reliable car for my commute). The £64 one includes interest and should be cleared early next year. I try and pay more money every 2 months from my bonus money.

Thanks to everyone in advance. :beer:
Stu

Zola.

Do you need the Google Drive? Dropbox give you 2GB to use for free.

BudgetQueen14

Just had a quick look, but why not cut back on the lotto at home £8.00 saved, half the pocket money for both of you £100 saved, the google drive £7.72 and do you really need to have the TV for £40 why not just get the phone and internet and maybe do netflix instead if you can't survive? I don't know how old your son is but could that budget be cut. If your wife wants to contribute less to the budget something has got to give. If she's working less could you survive on one car? Why not check out Dave Ramsey and his baby steps. We started doing a written budget nearly 12 months ago and I can't believe how it has helped us to get financial peace. You work hard for your money so you have to tell your money what to do. Good luck I'm sure once you start looking at ways to cut back you will get on track and that £1500 bonus you get 6 times a year is going to really help!

avantra

Breakdown: £39/year from autoaid (that's for both of you in any car)

Water at £45/month for a couple and a child??!!- you shouldn't be more than £25/month with a water meter installed.

Gas/Elec for £109/month for a couple and a kid?? = £70 tops on a fix deal

£400 on food/grocery??!! = £250 tops if you buy in Lidl/Aldi etc'

Cell phones: get PAYG on 3 and you will probably pay a tenner every couple of month

I pay £1.7/month for 100 GIG on Goggle drive, why do you pay more?

You drive over 15k/year in your car, sell your Petrol and get a a pre 2008 Diesel without a DPF, you are probably going to save loads, a Diesel Fiat Panda of that ilk will only be £2800 and £30/year VED.

Get a phone deal from Plusnet for Broadband, calls etc, this will cost you 200/anm tops in the first year.

Get a Netflix/TV Now/Chromcast/Amazon Prime service, these are not more than a fiver a month.

I am sure you can probably find other car insurance deals.

I know as I have the same size family, basic earning more than you but less in total as I don't get any bonuses and my wife is looking after our child.

Our outgoings are £1600/month and we even save a bit.

Look around this site it's all about living with in your means and I am sure that after a year you will be well balanced if you use the advice here. I am part of this forum for over 10 years and I think during this time it saved me almost a £70,000 without leaving my couch.

bsms1147

stucosby wrote: »

The issue is my wife wants to reduce the amount she contributes. She's self-employed and with a little baby now here its very difficult for her to maintain her contribution level.

I don't understand this. The two of you are married. What happens when she brings in no money for the month, is she still expected to contribute £500 to the kitty?

Marriage is a partnership, treat it as one.

bouicca21

As others have said there are lots of points where you can make small savings. What sticks out to me are your gas and electric bills which are way too high, your child's pocket money (40 quid for a kid who seems to be in nappies!), and the pocket money you give yourselves. I think the groceries bill could be pruned too. Write down everything you buy in the way of groceries and look hard at where you can cut. You should be prioritising getting rid of the credit card debt and simply diverting pocket money to that would make a tremendous difference.

If your wife wants to earn less then you must both learn to live more frugally. The voice of experience tells me that she should learn to juggle a job and a child because no woman should ever be financially dependent on a man, but then I'm older, more cynical and divorced.

stucosby

avantra wrote: »

Breakdown: £39/year from autoaid (that's for both of you in any car)

- interesting. Including homestart?

avantra wrote: »

Water at £45/month for a couple and a child??!!- you shouldn't be more than £25/month with a water meter installed.

We've actually cut this down by a tenner a month recently. The only way i can see us cutting this back further is less reliance on the dishwasher...

avantra wrote: »

Gas/Elec for £109/month for a couple and a kid?? = £70 tops on a fix deal.

Again, we've switched twice recently - my wife relies on computer and hard drives etc to be on 24/7 due to nature of job.

avantra wrote: »

£400 on food/grocery??!! = £250 tops if you buy in Lidl/Aldi etc'

. I must admit we've never tried these 2 - could be worth looking at. We have implemented the Downshift challenge already though!

avantra wrote: »

Cell phones: get PAYG on 3 and you will probably pay a tenner every couple of month

. I need the data usage - i think our current Giffgaff deals must be the cheapest we can get.

avantra wrote: »

I pay £1.7/month for 100 GIG on Goggle drive, why do you pay more?

Not sure, although we have ore like 300 GB i think.

avantra wrote: »

You drive over 15k/year in your car, sell your Petrol and get a a pre 2008 Diesel without a DPF, you are probably going to save loads, a Diesel Fiat Panda of that ilk will only be £2800 and £30/year VED.

It's a 2007 Diesel already - pretty respectable mileage.

avantra wrote: »

Get a phone deal from Plusnet for Broadband, calls etc, this will cost you 200/anm tops in the first year.

I think we looked into Plusnet but to have anytime calls plus a decent, uncapped connection (for wife's work) i think our haggled virgin deal is better.

avantra wrote: »

Get a Netflix/TV Now/Chromcast/Amazon Prime service, these are not more than a fiver a month.

See above on the Virgin deal - we only have basic channels but its included with the phone and internet deal.

avantra wrote: »

I am sure you can probably find other car insurance deals.

i've tried all the comparison sites using Martin's advice.

I don't want you to think I'm being dismissive or ungrateful. I have tried my hardest to squeeze outgoings and i appreciate the advice. I'm pleased that it looks like we've managed to address some of the typical suggestions.

stucosby

bsms1147 wrote: »

I don't understand this. The two of you are married. What happens when she brings in no money for the month, is she still expected to contribute £500 to the kitty?

Marriage is a partnership, treat it as one.

Sometimes she brings in more, sometimes less. It's a budget that we try and stick to but due to the nature of the work its not guaranteed. If her earnings are less one month then we dip into the bonus money usually set aside for credit card repayments and general contingency.

stucosby

bouicca21 wrote: »

your child's pocket money (40 quid for a kid who seems to be in nappies!), and the pocket money you give yourselves.

I must stress that the baby's 'pocket money' is for toys, books, clothes, days out/lunches out to stop my wife going insane!

bouicca21 wrote: »

The voice of experience tells me that she should learn to juggle a job and a child because no woman should ever be financially dependent on a man, but then I'm older, more cynical and divorced.

. It's really tough at present. She managed to sit down and start work at 7pm yesterday, finishing at 1am to come to bed. She had to get up twice for the baby through the night and now she's back looking after him and trying to get jobs done around the house.

bouicca21

I work from home and am surgically attached to the intenet and a PC. My gas and electric are way lower than yours. I recently switched from virgin cable to broadband down the phone line. Hasn't made a noticeable difference except to my outgoings- which were in any case lower than yours as I didn't have tv as part of the package. Freeview is cheaper than a tv package.

Yes you need time to get out when you work at home let alone being stuck looking after a baby. It doesn't need to cost 40 quid on top of spending money of £100. A trip to the park is free. Making your own sandwich/picnic lunch is cheaper than buying lunch out. It's also an 'adventure' for a little one. Baby and toddler groups provide social interaction for mum and child for virtually nothing.

stucosby

bouicca21 wrote: »

I work from home and am surgically attached to the intenet and a PC. My gas and electric are way lower than yours.

Interesting. Other than possible difference in location (we're down South), I've used Uswitch and the MSE club, so I'm pretty sure we're on one of the cheapest tariffs - it must be our usage that we need to trim (remembering to turn off Virgin box when not in use etc). Our microwave is constantly running with all the sterilising we need to do - i wonder if this is partly responsible?!

bouicca21 wrote: »

I recently switched from virgin cable to broadband down the phone line. Hasn't made a noticeable difference except to my outgoings- which were in any case lower than yours as I didn't have tv as part of the package. Freeview is cheaper than a tv package.

I thought £36 per month for uncapped 50MB internet, anytime phone calls and basic TV package - all on no contract was pretty good. Maybe this needs looking into again.

bouicca21 wrote: »

Yes you need time to get out when you work at home let alone being stuck looking after a baby. It doesn't need to cost 40 quid on top of spending money of £100. A trip to the park is free. Making your own sandwich/picnic lunch is cheaper than buying lunch out. It's also an 'adventure' for a little one. Baby and toddler groups provide social interaction for mum and child for virtually nothing.

Excellent points. As above, though, this £40 includes clothes, toys etc too!!