Can anyone help?

elainec

Hi, Thanks for all the replies.
Think the tax credit situation is slightly bonkers as they base it on a full year when things change throughout the year it does not take your situation at that time into account.
The benefits adviser at job centre told my OH we would get a lot more under universal credit when that comes in!
The home phone includes broadband so we cannot get that lower in our area.
My mobile phone is £15 and my husbands is about £35 at moment- we can reduce that in July when his contract ends.
We are currently wading through our 2nd set of forms for council tax as they now want more up to date income and outgoings than what they previously asked for. This is all for about £5/month off!

FutureGirl

My internet is £20pm, and this is Sky with Free Evening and weekend calls. If you have mobiles, I don't see why you'd need a home phone. So you can reduce there.

I'd switch bank accounts, so you don't have to pay the fee each month.

I would stop the pocket money for the time being until OH is back in work.

Can you do without childcare? That is a big cost.

DVD rental £7pm - scrap it. This is probably NetFlix or something that you want, but do you NEED it at the moment?

Between changing internet provider and bank, cutting childcare and pocket money and the DVD rental you'd save around £240pm.

You're also paying a lot in car tax. What car do you have? Could you downsize? Tax on my 1.4 Clio is half that pm. If you got a smaller engine car, that would be less fuel you would use too.