Soa posted - Is this healthy or am I in trouble?

lemonmoney

Rent is for a 3 bedroom semi in a nice area and we don't want to move because schools are good here

lemonmoney

I have spoken to other half and j think if we take into account one month concert tickets and then another month (I'm talking 4 months after etc) a night out then actually we probably only have £200 to then spend on our debts.

Thanks for all your help but at least we have an amount now

Orange_Ena

Hiya.

Your contents insurance seems really high? I pay about £110 a year for buildings and contents.

It's quite a shock when you start isn't it? £10 here, £20 there :eek:

Good luck

ERICS_MUM

It's really easy to get through £400 per month on impulse spending between the two of you, it's less than £7 per day each. If you are buying a coffee and muffin in Starbucks, magazine and sandwich in Tesco, or popping into a supermarket on the way home for milk but come out with a bag full of garlic bread, beers etc, it adds up without you realising.

Do you plan your meals and do one big shop ? Make packed lunches for work ? Use cheap cleaning materials (I buy mine in the Pound shops and keep to basics that have several uses rather than an array of bottles for every surface !).

Finding the missing £400 a month will be a challenge to start with but after a while it's addictive ! Good luck.

determined_new_ms

I think getting your groceries to £170 is a big task. I have a similar household to you, 2 adults 1 3 yo & a similar household income. My food budget is around £180 pm and over recent months it has been hard to keep it at this. I have to do loads of things that I have refined over months to get it to this.

The biggest thing I have done to keep the bill low is to shop fortnightly instead of weekly. It takes some effort to work out 14-16 meals & lunches, snacks & breakfasts and what quantities we need. I also have worked out what are our things we just can't/won't do without and have found as long as we have enough milk, bread, fruit and coffee I don't need to go to the shops. If I don't have an ingredient I can go without or substitute it for something else and this means I don't go to the supermarkets at all during this period.

I buy enough bread and milk for the 2 weeks and freeze it - this has been the single most important things in the shopping and keeps me out of the sm. I make a cake a week for packed lunches/snacks. I buy tinned fruit and frozen veg for the 2nd week. We have packed lunches everyday. I also have bought beans and pulses and we have at least 1 meat free main meal a week.

It has been hard work getting to this point! I would say if you are overspending a lot of it will be in the sm's during the week - they are so whilely! Good luck am sure with some work & planning you can reign in your spending

lemonmoney

Thanks guys
You are right £170 wasn't a realistic food budget and never stuck to as the daily supermarket visits clearly had been topping up on that but I think this can be easily fixed but doing a weekly shop and if we run out we make do from a freezer stash and have totally decided to cut the alcohol down to wine at the weekend only.

It's been such a shock seeing what we spend on nothing but absolute rubbish. It's not like we go shopping for fancy things but the impulse daily buys are just as bad but because it was 'food' I didn't think it was a problem as its food isn't it but we just need to be much smarter all round. Thanks guys X X X

ViolaLass

I don't think £170 on food is unrealistic (although it's clearly not what you're spending now).

We are two adults and one child and we spend £40 a week. However, we eat very little meat and cook all our food. I bulk buy whenever certain items come on offer e.g. pasta, tomatoes. We also use Costco.

catwoman73

£170 pm for food is not loads and it will take real effort to spend that little, especially when you add in all the other groceries spends like toiletries, cleaning products, stamps, batteries, light bulbs etc.

You also need to look at what you are spending on food and drink out of the house and other bits like magazines, parking, other travel etc. You will probably find a large proportion of the missing £400 right there.

Your mobile phone costs are very high, when is your contract up? If you are serious about paying off your debt, you need to keep your existing phones and go sim only, or sign up to much cheaper contracts - think £20 a month or less each.

enthusiasticsaver

I am glad that thinking about all this has brought it home to you how much you spend just on a day to day basis. It is often enlightening when people keep a spending diary and add it all up. Taking a home made lunch to work will save both of you around £6 per day or £30 per week and £120 per month. I think personally you should add £100 per month to your groceries bill stick £50 in entertainment and £50 in emergency fund which as you say just leaves £200 spare per month. Maybe put aside what you save in groceries each month for Christmas/birthdays.

The biggest help to you will be if you can get your cards on to 0% deals. If you can do that and add £200 per month to the £535 you pay and stop using the cards you could be debt free in just under 2 years!!!

lemonmoney

Thanks guys all that really helps.

Started today making own lunches and planned meals for the week so will shop today for those bits.

One thing that shocked me was that other half buys a chocolate bar a day (no big deal I thought) but one Mars at 0.85 a day at work is £11 a month!

the big barclaycard can go onto a 0 interest but not the others as I won't get accepted to do that but it would be one start