Soa

lopsyfa

dreambig19 wrote: »

Hi Essex,

Car maintenance - on the list of priorities to save for. As is contents insurance etc - we have no insurance of any kind at the moment.

Do you have building insurance. I will say that is even more important than content insurance and will be a condition of your mortgage. Just saying because you said above you have no insurance of any kind.

£35/month for only content insurance seems quite high except if that includes building insurance. Even that will still be expensive except if you are living in high risk area or very expensive building. Did you use a comparison website for this?

[Deleted User]

lopsyfa wrote: »

Do you have building insurance. I will say that is even more important than content insurance and will be a condition of your mortgage. Just saying because you said above you have no insurance of any kind.

£35/month for only content insurance seems quite high except if that includes building insurance. Even that will still be expensive except if you are living in high risk area or very expensive building. Did you use a comparison website for this?

The OP has confirmed they rent, and I think £35 is contents and pet insurance

dreambig19

SSDD23 wrote: »

The OP has confirmed they rent, and I think £35 is contents and pet insurance

Yes that's right on both counts

Unicorn_cottage

Hi Dreambig19

Well done on tackling this

Just a few things... you say your husband likes gadgets etc so do you have any old technology hanging about or anything else for that matter that you could sell and immediately put to the priority debts? When me and my partner started out on our debt smashing mission I had a bit of a task explaining to my partner that we are best selling stuff we will never use as it is just depreciating all the time. It took a while but then they got it. I think at first my partner was resistant as for them it was hard buying something for say £100 but then only getting say £40 when you sold it 2nd hand. I am also naturally more minimalist so I understand it was hard for my partner to part with stuff. As we had only relatively recently moved in together we had a lot of duplicate stuff and we sold a camera, old phones (my partner had LOADS of them and I don't mean good ones either like proper old school ones!), a microwave etc etc.

Selling is easy nowadays what with Facebook Marketplace where you can sell stuff for nothing It is only worth bothering with Ebay if you have a niche item and you want to get top dollar for it.

Best of luck

Skint_yet_Again

dreambig19 wrote: »

Groceries - this is made up of £200 food, £67.50 baby formula and £82.50 pet food...

...Pet food - have switched this month from branded to store brand and will see how that goes, but should save money...

£82.50 seems a massive amount per month even for 3 pets. Can I ask what sort of pet and what you feed them on ? You may get some suggestions for cheaper alternatives on the pets board. We fed our dog on branded puppy food up to 12 months cost £35.99 a 15kg bag but then someone suggested we get it straight from a local manufacturer. Same food £23.95 a 15kg bag with omega 3&6 or "working" dog - similar food no omega 3&6 but no VAT for "working" dog food £15.95 per 15kg bag. We now buy the £23.95 bag and are considering getting the £15.95 bag and getting separate supplement online for omega 3&6. There are good cheaper alternatives but we wouldn't have known if someone hadn't told us. Hope that helps.

dreambig19

Skint_yet_Again wrote: »

£82.50 seems a massive amount per month even for 3 pets. Can I ask what sort of pet and what you feed them on ? You may get some suggestions for cheaper alternatives on the pets board. We fed our dog on branded puppy food up to 12 months cost £35.99 a 15kg bag but then someone suggested we get it straight from a local manufacturer. Same food £23.95 a 15kg bag with omega 3&6 or "working" dog - similar food no omega 3&6 but no VAT for "working" dog food £15.95 per 15kg bag. We now buy the £23.95 bag and are considering getting the £15.95 bag and getting separate supplement online for omega 3&6. There are good cheaper alternatives but we wouldn't have known if someone hadn't told us. Hope that helps.

Hi,

We have a husky and 2 cats.
The cats each eat 2 pouches per day (so approx 120 pouches per month). They were previously on branded food but this month we've switched them to store brand which should save us a bit as they seem to be eating it. They then also have a top up of biscuits too (1 bag per month).
The dog has wet food and a top up of biscuits. £5 for 8 days worth of wet food. About £25 a bag of biscuits which lasts a couple of months. So based on the new food we've changed them too that would be about £50 per month on a month when we don't need to buy dog biscuits, £75 on a month where we do.

dreambig19

dreambig19 wrote: »

Hi,

We have a husky and 2 cats.
The cats each eat 2 pouches per day (so approx 120 pouches per month). They were previously on branded food but this month we've switched them to store brand which should save us a bit as they seem to be eating it. They then also have a top up of biscuits too (1 bag per month).
The dog has wet food and a top up of biscuits. £5 for 8 days worth of wet food. About £25 a bag of biscuits which lasts a couple of months. So based on the new food we've changed them too that would be about £50 per month on a month when we don't need to buy dog biscuits, £75 on a month where we do.

I forgot to add, we need to get wheat free food for the dog as he gets an upset stomach otherwise - doesn't add too much to the cost but does mean we are a bit more limited in what we can get.

EssexHebridean

Allowing that you're feeding the equivalent to the cats of a standard sized tin a day it could be well worth switching to tins for the cats. A pack of 12 tins would cost you £5 and last you 12 days.

getmore4less

Looks like before child you fell into the we have the money so lets spend it trap.

Virgin should never have been that much even with decent speed BB.
this is an example of a recent deal.
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/virgin-media-big-bundle-33pm-90tcb-12-months-prime-7999-50-bill-credit-3308937
or this retention deal
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/virgin-media-retention-deal-350mb-broadband-landline-with-free-weekend-calls-50-credit-on-account-28pm-3190089

For negotiations spend some time on this thread(there are others).
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5480640/virgin-media-retention-deals-post-your-haggling-successes&page=86


Mobiles. £60pm max, under £30pm should be easy.

sim only with unlimited calls/text & decent limits <£10 eg 8GB £7pm

if not super data hungry can get down to under £5pm with plenty of mins and text.

always something unlimited under £20pm
2y unlimited £17.50 (£15pm with quidco cashback)
https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/three-ultimate-unlimited-sim-only-3307245


decent phone budget £5-£10pm and buy every 3-4 years they last that long.

tlc678910

"we have no insurance of any kind at the moment."

Hi OP,
I have read that you have now taken out pet insurance and contents insurance.

Now that you are parents you should also think about life insurance. Your current situation shows that one of you would struggle financially alone if the worst were to happen.

We have joint cover (pays out on first death only) "level" cover of 200k (doesn't reduce with our mortgage but stays at 200k) and costs about £23 each month. This cost is set when we took it out which has been over 10 years now and lasts until my husband, who is 42 now, is 70 odd.

The amount it costs you will vary with your ages and health and it will cost much more if you decide to include critical illness cover as well as death I would think. Even if you don't feel you can do this now make it your top priority when your husband goes back to work in January.

Good luck with everything.