what a time to get tight!!

rockm87

'Tell every penny where to go or you will wonder where it went'

wise words. budget every penny, give it a job and make sure you plug all the gaps. Your spending is out of control. I really dont think you need to take out any more credit, or mess with your mortgage for the moment, you just need to get back into control.

best of luck!

pelirocco

that's a very large mortgage on just one wage , has it been confirmed .
This will sound harsh as i don't believe you have had your light bulb moment as you are putting spending on Christmas and saving for the bubble payment on your car , before paying off debt and covering the deficit on your spending . You are also taking on extra debt that is secured , interests are low at the moment , but how will you cope with a rise in rates

northerner999

you are spending £8,400 a year on food: this cannot be explained by being "a foody" and is purely wastefulness. I cook pretty much every meal from scratch using fresh or frozen ingredients, on Monday I made a fresh bolognese and it has provided me a meal every day this week with one more to go. That is six (I was cooking for someone) meals which cost me a couple of quid in total max.

If you are really a foody you will be making lots of good meals which can be frozen or used up as leftovers.

Meat is not expensive: it is a myth that it is. Go to a proper butcher rather than Ocado for this and only buy what you need. If you are in a supermarket but cheap meat as it hits the sell by date and freeze, it'll be absolutely fine.

If you are spending that much on food you must have LOADS in your cupboards. Why not take a week off from doing a big shop and work your way through what you have instead. Just buy bread/milk from your local shop and leave Ocado alone for one week.

redbreast

Thank you for your advice.
Yes the mortgage has been approved; it's a remortgage at the end of a 3 year fixed rate and it's more than £50 a month less than I pay now.
The figures above are kind of a mix of what I have been spending and what I should be saving for things like Christmas etc. For the time being though everything stops until the credit card is clear and I have built up an emergency fund.
Car insurance has just renewed and £391 a year was the cheapest I could get. Likewise with buildings/contents insurance because the house was underpinned decades ago after a drain collapsed and it scares some insurers away, though I will recheck again in March.

redbreast

I've challenged myself to live on £100 for everything for the rest of the month, and not buy any food at least until payday, maybe even the rest of the month.
Got some reduced mince today so will make up some shepherd's pie and chilli for the freezer. I'm ready to make changes!

foxgloves

Redbreast- I'd describe my pattner & I as 'foodies'. We cook everything from scratch & I bake our bread & make lots of jams, chutneys, etc, from our organically grown produce. Meat from a local independent butcher will be a good bet as will be traceable & often local. Our local market is fab for fresh fruit & veg. We often come away with 3 big bagfuls for under £10. Aldi is perfectly good for staples. I also use Waitrose for various ingredients. We eat really well on £250 a month. If our budget is tight, we can manage fine on £200. I do a weekly meal plan , use it to write my shopping list & shop once a week. I batch cook & make good use of the freezer. My slow cooker is also useful for buying decent, but cheaper cuts of meat. Cooked a Waitrose beef shank in it last week. Cheap, but slow-cooked beautifully. £700 would be a simply unimaginable amount of money to spend on food each month. I'm confident that you can make huge savings here without compromising on quality. Good luck!

sweetilemon

I don't think you'd have to sacrifice organic/free range cooking to reduce your food spending a huge amount. A free range whole chicken in tesco is about £10 and would do 3 nights for 2 people. It can be frozen so not necessarily 3 nights in a row. Roast dinner, chicken salad, chicken pasta, curry etc. I don't like aldi /Lidl controversially, just think they don't treat their staff well and rushing at the till, disguising use by fruit and veg dates are all a cut too far for me. Also don't like how if they are so good they need to attempt to copy brand labels, those brands have spent a fortune so it's essentially ripping them off. Anyway, that aside, being more selective in your grocery choices is the way to go. I swap between tesco and sainsburys with a touch of M&S usually and spend £50/£60 for 2 of us, a cat and cleaning products. I dont buy 'cheap' meat. As others have suggested butchers can often sell good quality for less than supermarkets. I don't think your income/ debt ratio is unmanageable and could get on track quickly with small changes. After that you can save a buffer. The old style board will help with shopping bills in more detail if you want to post an average shopping trip.

northerner999

Loads of areas to cut back so am confident simply by actioning some of these and following through you can quickly get things in order and hopefully learn your lesson. You do not even need to borrow more, and I really would encourage you to consider adding less to your mortgage and just taking a month or two rein in your spending. You have been spending £23 a day on food and I think your subject header describing cutting this down as "getting tight" perhaps sums up your issues. Don't see it as that, see it as taking control and spending a reasonable amount. You could spend £150 a week on food and it still be a step in the right direction! Although the advice on this thread has been about making major changes to fix this, remember it does not need to be overnight and you can make gradual changes - you have the ability to sort out your debt while still living a very good life. Read a few other "first posts" on here and you sill see just how good a position you are actually in, especially if your partner finds work soon.

Your partner is on benefits, is he at home most days? Firstly, that actually opens up a lot of time for him to do things like shop around for good food deals etc, secondly look at the pages on this site dedicated to raising income. When I was self employed and working from home I signed up to all the survey websites, and would do the surveys as they popped into my email. It takes a few weeks to see the rewards, but I was earning £40 a month from that - often in the shape of supermarket vouchers. Well worth doing if going to have downtime.

carrielovesfanta

Hi Redbreast,


Another vote for being able to do organic on a budget. I get Riverford veg deliveries fortnightly, meat monthly, and sometimes fruit too.


However, I do shop cheaply for store cupboard goods like flour. I keep an eye out for YS goods in the supermarket and do a lot of batch cooking.


We use meat very sparingly and tend to eat a lot of vegetarian meals too. This is partly to reduce costs and calories, but mainly we just like this way of cooking.


Our grocery budget is £200 a month, including toiletries and the odd treat (but we usually buy treats from our "pocket money").


HTH


clf x

redbreast

Thanks again for all your wise words... I'm definitely taking it all on board and am ready to change.
I was also baffled at the number that came out for groceries but that was the figure when I averaged out my supermarket spending for the last 3 months... so it isn't all food, it's all supermarket purchases including cleaning/laundry products, toiletries. cat food, some household items, wine (this used to be a few bottles a week but we're cutting down for both calorie and money reasons). Also we were getting Abel and Cole recipe boxes to help with being organised, eating healthy and controlling waste but these are £39/3 meals for 2 people so they have stopped.
I've slipped into this way of shopping as it helped me stay in control of the meals we ate and helped me plan the weeks food. I'm bad for being tempted by takeaways if I'm not organised but there's no reason why I can't make the effort to plan meals around what's in season and on offer at butchers; I just have to find a good one round here.
Again, thanks for all your advice, I know my situation isn't as bad as some I've read but it's the mindset I need to change. My mum has been right all along; If you can't afford it, you don't buy it... something we're encouraged to ignore these days.