Need to cut expenses for at least 3-4 months (long ramble, sorry)

Zazen999

Hi.
3 months on the agreement; how much deposit does he hold? It can sometimes be cheaper to default on this; move out the day the rent is due and forfeit the deposit; or can you negotiate the notice period?
I have to say - books magazines eating out and takeaways - you could reduce this to zero if you really wanted to - use a library and menu plan [it would cut your shopping and those extras in the week as well]. That's quite a high budget there. Plus the alcohol/clothes etc - again that could be cut drastically - with nearly 5k coming in every month - there's alot of people who don't have over a grand left over at the end of each month [which is what your figures are saying up there] - including me!!! So if your actual surplus isn't coming in right then goodness knows where your cash is going. Need to get a tighter rein on things if you really want all those luxuries.

kunekune

I am not willing to default on an agreement, not even a verbal one. I'm a lawyer, albeit of the academic variety. Negative publicity would be very bad for my career. We are dealing with a first class landlord who took a big chance on us for various reasons, and I don't want to stuff him around.

I know we are relatively well off, which is why I was nervous to post here - I am aware that there is a danger of coming across as indulgent and wasteful. But I am trying to achieve a better balance between what comes in and what goes out, and as Martin says, it is about spending smarter while still having the kind of life you want ... while knowing your limitations. Ie, I read at the table, in the bath, etc, and library books just don't work for me. Funnily enough, I regard the takeaways figure as quite low, and eating out involves the occasional coffee and cake or icecream for the children, then maybe a pub lunch once a month. I'm don't need and I'm not prepared to cut back on some of those luxuries. Maybe once the savings start piling up with the reduced groceries bill I'll get the bug and look to cut back elsewhere as well, but as I said if I can just get the food down that will be great for now.

newlywed

I agree everyone here is different. What someone would cut out easily, isn't nearly so easy for others.

I think with such a large food bill with a bit of planning you can easily cut down there without noticing it too much and then you will save the money you need without having to give up the takeaways and other bits that are important to your family.

My OH would never give up sky - if I lived alone I'd give it up without any trouble - everyone is different. But if everyone makes the suggestions then you can at least see which ways you could cut down and decide for yourself which would be most beneficial for your family and the amount of savings you want/need to make.

Everyone is here for the same reasons really -to save money - whether that is to pay off debts or prevent debts - no real difference.

And no matter what size your income, it's overspending that causes problems - so we are all in a similar boat

Yorkielass

Welcome kunekune,

I've found your thread (and your SOA) very interesting and I'm glad you felt able to post on here. I think with money saving it's all relative. My parents have a similar take home to you and your OH and my mum can't believe my OH and I can do a supermarket shop for under £50 a week (for the 2 of us) they spend around £100 (again for 2). However their combined take home each month is more than double ours and we have to spend that much - any more and we'd go into debt/other things would suffer.

I can't remember if it's already been posted on your thread but keeping a spending diary of where all those unaccounted pennies go really does help (both with cutting things down and creating budgets).

When you're settled in your new house with just that one to worry about then it's time to think about budgeting - going through each bill making sure you're getting the best deal and paying the cheapest way etc. Putting money away each month for things you spend annually (like car tax). That way hopefully you'll be able to increase your 'surplus' (along with some cutting back on the things in your original SOA) with the view to buying a house soon.

Best of luck (and I saw you'd already found the daily threads) they're a great motivation for me

taka

Hi kunekune!

Could you sell any books you no longer need to help cover the double rent costs? This would help when you move too as you'd have less to move! If some of your book spending budget is on personal books then could you try getting them in charity shops/green metropolis/amazon for less and sell them on when you've finished with them? If this spending is all on work related books can work not cover the costs of all/some of them?

The best advice would be to meal plan as this would allow you to plan your food spending ahead. Don't try to cut back too much too quickly or you may find it too hard and give up!

As others have said write down every penny you spend in a spending diary as you will be amazed at to what you spend on random "stuff". I centainly was!! All those teas/drinks at work and when out and about and having canteen meals often all added up along with the random mag buying as I was bored on the bus to/from work!

Check out quidco and other cashback sites when you are moving for cashback on new suppliers/insurance etc. Also try them for your magazines too as a subscription will be cheaper if you buy them regularly plus you may get cashback too.

Good luck!!

natters_2

Have you thought about buying your books from amazon - they have some cracking deals (free postage on orders over £15 and you can also earn nectar points on your purchases - then as someone else suggested sell books you have read on amazon.

As for the food shopping make use of the offers - if the drinks spending is at home again check the offers and save that way.

Can you take out subscriptions on the magazines - there are usually savings doing that (when you move dont forget to get mail forwarding or it will defeat the object!)

Eating out - have a look at what offers are around places like TGI Friday always have some sort of offer as do alot of other places. (search online there are loads of sites that you can print off vouchers for.)

Shop online - saves you buying the "impulse" items

mulletmitchell

My boyfriend earns a month pretty much what your food budget is!!!
We have worked hard to keep our food budget really low - currently £150 a month for two adults - including as much organic as we can afford!

And how we do this? I am not allowed to go to Asda, Tesco or any of the big supermarkets!! I can easily spend £65 on a few bits and pieces and that's half the budget gone.

So now I write a list of what we need, and the boyfriend will buy that - and nothing more.

We then do as much shopping as we can from the butchers, green grocers and also Netto. Even an hour on Saturday morning means you could pop round the local shops.

Buy cheap cuts such as shin beef, brisket of beef and let is stew away for hours. You can't beat it!

taka

Forgot to say... as you work for a uni check out what discounts are available to you as a member of staff. I also work for a university and we have a somewhat bizarre array of discounts available to us ranging from restaurant discounts, hairdressers, solicitors, nurserys, removal companies to funeral directors :eek: We can also get a discount card at this time of year which can give you money off various shops (eg clothes/shoes etc) and even more resaurants, bars and takeaways amongst other things.

If you have access to these sorts of things then you may be able to cut back in some of your other budgeted areas without buying or doing less. :T HTH!

Taka

kunekune

Oh, what a lovely bunch you are! Thank you for understanding the bizarre situation of being officially rich and a bit worried about money. I appreciate how privileged we are in so many ways, but of course common sense and earning power don't always coincide.

Mulletmitchell, I love slow cooked meat (osso bucco is one of my favourite meals), and at the weekend I tend to use cheaper cuts; slowcookers have not been a great success for us for some reason, maybe the result of not-so-great recipes, but I did a wonderful cheap-ish vege meal tonight (tian, roast cherry tomatoes and good bread).

With books, they are mostly things I'll keep long term because I'll teach the same courses again (recently I got a great deal on Naomi Hurnard's book about royal pardons in the 13th century!!!!!). Novels - who gets them anywhere other than Help the Aged??? Standard text books I usually get free from the publisher. I do work hard on getting them as cheap as possible - I love Amazon marketplace - who cares about the odd pencil mark? And I got a £20 wine voucher from the Book Depository last time. Though you are right, Taka, it's time for another clearout. We cut the books by 25% a year ago when we shifted here from NZ, but they have gone up again.

kunekune

Just in case anyone posts on here and thinks I'm being rude, I'm away at a conference now until Thursday pm and I don't think I will have internet access. Cheers.