Can't find anything else to cut back on !

Rain_is_Insane

Hey guys

I've used Martins(sorry if someone else made it) budget planner again after rearranging everything i could, gas, elec, phone, insurance, etc. Knocked my food bill down to £100 a month (2 adults, 1 14 year old growing boy and 2 dogs) The first time i did it i had £127 a month going out more than i had coming in. I've redone it without clothes, xmas, birthdays (we've all decided to make something for each other this year and the rest of the family understand they wont be getting anything) and with my new prices for my utilities (including regular payments to the last of my creditors which are at their lowest...i checked and double checked) and i'm STILL £2 over my incomings each month.

Im on IB at the moment but am going back to work in January, but i can't go till Jan without a smoke :eek: or a glass of wine at christmas at least.

I can work from home till then but have never been lucky with my applications for the Q&A sites i've applied to.

I'm at a loss as to what else i can cut back on now. The car is a definate no-no as we added up the price of public transport for getting OH to work and DS to school and it comes to around £4 a week more than it would cost to run the car. OH is taking basic rations in his lunchboxes as it is and always comes home hungry:o

I've lowered everything as far as it can go and we've ditched the mobiles over the last few months. I've offered to have the phone and the internet cut off but as he's pointed out, i get everyone to ring me by using free text sites i find, and the net is an invaluable source of job hunting, saving on bus fares by going back and forward to the job centre, plus the bonus of refreshing the pages and being the first to jump on jobs cause i can check several times a day for new ones....amongst other useful things i can do with the internet.

Any ideas?????

Jacks_xxx

:wave: Hiya sweetie!

You know what I'm going to say hon

Post up your SOA and see if the combined brain power of the DFW board can come up with some suggestions for you.

Love Jacks xxx

MRSMCAWBER

Hi there Rain

Have you had a look on the OS board....your food budget is good anyway, but perhaps you will get some tips on things to make cheaply -perhaps you won't reduce your budget, but will stop OH coming home hungry:T

There is so much help on there.... and you will get loads of recipes etc

Hope to see you over there

chloebelle

If you can't cut back any more, why not focus on trying to make more money? can you ebay any stuff? Old books or dvd's to get rid of on amazon? mystery shopping? daily clicks? online surveys?

Rain_is_Insane

Yep i've got all my old junk *err cough* treasures ready to put on ebay. I was thinking that would just be a quick fix to get me through christmas though. There isn't much as we did this a while ago when i came out of work and we were struggling to budget at first.

I got really disheartened with a lot of paid survey sites and stuff as half way through a lengthy survey i would be told i wasn't suitable to continue. I do all the clickthroughs i can and that pays for my internet habbit more or less which is why OH said not to give it up.

I will post my SOA shortly but i think the main problem is that when i was working full time we lived to our means, ie credit card purchases, and HP purchases. We knew we could afford it then and you don't anticipate not working at the time. Perhaps thats how so many people end up in these pickles !!

danielle24

Definitely try mystery shopping - I wish I'd known about them when I was really broke last year! The trick is to register with several companies and try to only select the jobs involving banks etc that you don't have to pay out for. My OH and I also go out sometimes for a roast lunch or pizza or burgers as a mystery shop and it makes a nice (free) treat, but you do have to pay upfront and wait to be reimbused by the MS company.

Shineyhappy

Have you looked on the freebies board for some extra treats? I have made 25 pounds on Pigsback since I joined this site and havent spent a penny and that is going into my Xmas fund. Definatly worth doing!

taplady

Rain_is_Insane wrote: »

I will post my SOA shortly but i think the main problem is that when i was working full time we lived to our means, ie credit card purchases, and HP purchases. We knew we could afford it then and you don't anticipate not working at the time. Perhaps thats how so many people end up in these pickles !!

this is just what happened to us! DH had 2 heart attacks at age 40 and heart surgery and it left us in a right pickle financially.Wish we knew about this site back then!

Snaggles

Hiya, just a thought re the car - fair enough, you need it for work and the school run (I do too - there's just no sensible way round it sometimes), but I was wondering if you used it for other journeys too? I'm just thinking that maybe if you just cut out a couple of short journeys a week, it would definitely cut your petrol bill. Sorry if you already only use it when absolutely necessary!

I agree about trying to increase your income slightly, I'm pretty sure you could easily make up the difference with ebaying, mystery shops, that sort of thing. Well done on all you've achieved so far though. Looking on the bright side, even if you couldn't find the money to cover the shortfall, it's only £24 a year - before it was £1524 a year - MASSIVE difference!!

Rain_is_Insane

Snaggles wrote: »

I agree about trying to increase your income slightly, I'm pretty sure you could easily make up the difference with ebaying, mystery shops, that sort of thing. Well done on all you've achieved so far though. Looking on the bright side, even if you couldn't find the money to cover the shortfall, it's only £24 a year - before it was £1524 a year - MASSIVE difference!!

I've already cut down on using the car by just doing the work and school run. Luckily thats the one thing we DO own outright so no payments there. And yes now you put it that way...that i've cut down by £1524 a year, i'm chuffed to bits with myself !!!!!

Im more worried about the whole "mum i've ripped my school trousers" scenario or "mum i've decided to grow another 4 inches" scenario. Is there any way of stunting his gowth till after christmas?????:rolleyes:

I've been looking at the recipies on the OS board and i think i can cut another £15 a month off my food bill without cutting down on healthy options. It helps that my OH works for a cash and carry, we get first refusal on stuff thats coming up to it's sell by date, and cheap cleaning stuff etc, but sometimes thats not practical as it's in bulk and if you haven't got the money in the first place, it's a lot to find. We've been having sausages with everything imaginable this week...i'm geting good at disguising the fact they are even sausages !!!!!

Thanks for all the ideas so far guys, you've been great. :T

And i will definately look into mystery shopping if i can find a reputable one !!!

Soubrette

Hi Rain

Not sure what your smoking habits are - is it an option to temporarily change to roll ups?

Sou