Any advice anyone please??

dawnylou

Ok I really need some help here but don't know where to start...

Below are our monthly outgoings:
Mortgage £620
Phone £15
Internet £24
Gas & Elec £47
Council Tax £126
Water £32
Home & Contents Insurance £18
Life Insurance £15
Car Insurance £35
Fuel £80
Savings £250
Shopping £250 - however can very often exceed this!


= £1,512
Plus we both seem to spend about £100 per month on our credit card which we then pay in full the following month so as to not pay interest. Oh and £10 each to top up our mobiles.

Income between us £1,800

Is there any OS tricks we can use to try and reduce the outgoings??

The way things are going we can cover our outgoings - but only just.
It would be lovely to have some money left over to go out together every once in a while.

I try my hardest to keep my shopping costs down, as far as I can see this is the only area we can make any improvement on, but I am already cooking from scratch, meal planning, sticking to lists?

dawnylou

Or anyway to increase our incoming a little to help out?
I try to do surveys and cashback, but often forget where I have accounts and struggle to keep up with them all - there are just so many these days!

sweetmoneysaver

Could you get a better deal on your internet? Maybe a phone and broadband combined package?

Angelraesunshine

you might be able to reduce your internet depending as £24 seems a little high to me. Also you might be able to do something about your car insurance when it comes around next. If your already managing to save £250 a month you cant be doing too badly i wish i had that sort of money to put away lol.

dawnylou

sweetmoneysaver wrote: »

Could you get a better deal on your internet? Maybe a phone and broadband combined package?

Not sure - for £24 per month we get all of the below:
Up to 24 meg ultra-fast broadband
Up to 1.3 meg upload speeds
Unlimited usage


24/7 support hotline



Any recommendations for a provider that can give us the same speed and unlimited usage? Although having said that I also need to check to see if we are tied in for any amount of time too....

Angelraesunshine wrote: »

you might be able to reduce your internet depending as £24 seems a little high to me. Also you might be able to do something about your car insurance when it comes around next. If your already managing to save £250 a month you cant be doing too badly i wish i had that sort of money to put away lol.

Wow do you really think the car insurance is high? That's quite a bit lower than last year -
I wouldn't say we are managing £250 savings - if only we didn't have to maintain that we could use that to help us out but we are tied in to save that particular amount every month for a year as part of a special deal we signed up for. We have had to stop going out at all to pay that. No nights out at pub, no meals out or takeaways and no trips to pictures or any of the things we used to do.

Pink.

Hi dawnylou,

You may be better having your thread on the Debt-Free Wannabe board. Even if you aren't in debt the users there are great at helping people find ways to cut back their expenditure. Let me know if you want me to move it over there.

In the meantime these boards might help you to cut back on some of your expenses:

Utilities Board

Telephones Board

Insurance & Life Assurance

If you look through all the boards listed on the main forum...there are many where you'll find advice on how to cut back on your outgoings.

The best thing you could do is to take a look at the main site and have a read through any of Martin's articles that might be relevant to you. I've found the Shopping articles and Insurance articles particularly useful.

Good luck,

Pink

sweetmoneysaver

One other thought ... are your savings in an efficient product to maximise interest ... say a cash ISA?

csarinaknight

Have a look at some of the shopper sites where you fill in questionaires, some of them will exchange points for vouchers for meals and cinema etc.

I saved £50 and got £60 cash back by doing my car insurance through Quidco and you can book thngs like holidays through them and also get cash back........

Do you menu plan and how many are you catering for????? knowing this might help us to point you in the direction of savings on your food bill. Do you use a lot of chemicals to clean with..... have a look at some of the tips I only use vinegar, stardrops and microfibre cloths for general cleaning, brillo pads for stubborn things and washing powder mixed with washing soda with vinegar as a rinsing agent.

Just a few ideas for you to ponder on.....................

redsquirrel80

dawnylou wrote: »

I try my hardest to keep my shopping costs down, as far as I can see this is the only area we can make any improvement on, but I am already cooking from scratch, meal planning, sticking to lists?

How many are you feeding? Where do you shop? Do you buy Value stuff or brands? Do you bulk buy? So many questions.. but you probably can cut the £250 down if you want to.

dawnylou

Pink-winged wrote: »

Hi dawnylou,

You may be better having your thread on the Debt-Free Wannabe board. Even if you aren't in debt the users there are great at helping people find ways to cut back their expenditure. Let me know if you want me to move it over there.

In the meantime these boards might help you to cut back on some of your expenses:

Utilities Board

Telephones Board

Insurance & Life Assurance

If you look through all the boards listed on the main forum...there are many where you'll find advice on how to cut back on your outgoings.

The best thing you could do is to take a look at the main site and have a read through any of Martin's articles that might be relevant to you. I've found the Shopping articles and Insurance articles particularly useful.

Good luck,

Pink

Thanks - I will look through all of these and see what I can pick up
With regards to where my post is situated - I'm not sure. If you think it will get better response elswhere feel free to move it, I didn't think it would class as DFW as I am not in debt - yet! :eek:

sweetmoneysaver wrote: »

One other thought ... are your savings in an efficient product to maximise interest ... say a cash ISA?

I am tied in for one year at 12% - once the year is up this cash is being transferred to our ISA to start off our wedding cash

csarinaknight wrote: »

Have a look at some of the shopper sites where you fill in questionaires, some of them will exchange points for vouchers for meals and cinema etc.

I saved £50 and got £60 cash back by doing my car insurance through Quidco and you can book thngs like holidays through them and also get cash back........

Do you menu plan and how many are you catering for????? knowing this might help us to point you in the direction of savings on your food bill. Do you use a lot of chemicals to clean with..... have a look at some of the tips I only use vinegar, stardrops and microfibre cloths for general cleaning, brillo pads for stubborn things and washing powder mixed with washing soda with vinegar as a rinsing agent.

Just a few ideas for you to ponder on.....................

Me and my partner are both signed up for Pigsback, but it takes a long time to earn enough to cash out these days. I am unsure about Quidco, don't really know much about it - is it worth it? Am I not better off using Rpoints? I don't have that much time to do surveys etc so I need the ones that are definately worth it. I have wasted so much time on places like Test & Vote and then realised I will never get anywhere with them!
Holidays are a thing of the past!! lol. Well having said that I booked the £12 cruise! lol
I menu plan, there is only myself and my Fiance - oh and puppy
I have been taking part in the grocery challenge - but always seem over budget! Even though some weeks I only buy fruit & veg!
At the moment I have dettol, bleach and flash spray - but only til used up and then I am getting one trusty bottle of stardrops

redsquirrel80 wrote: »

How many are you feeding? Where do you shop? Do you buy Value stuff or brands? Do you bulk buy? So many questions.. but you probably can cut the £250 down if you want to.

As mentioned above 2 adults and pup. We mostly shop at Tescos as we are saving up to pay for our Honeymoon with Tesco Clubcard.
I bulk buy pasta, rice and juice as we use a lot of these - all value.
Would love to bulk buy in other areas but don't have cupboard space - only got teensy weensy kitchen! lol I would love to have a larder!
I buy meat when it is reduced and freeze it.
I cook twice as much as needed and freeze the extra.

greenpixey

Have you contacted your council tax office and asked if you could get a reduction. Depending on your income you can apply for council tax benefit.
I got ours reduced from 80pound down to 33pound so it could be worth giving them a call