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One income family of four - can we get ahead even after pay cuts?

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Comments

  • Thanks for the great suggestions @joedenise and @Sarahwithlove. All food for thought as we go into next year. I suspect a mix of strategies will be needed on different family members. 

    @Nonnadiluca you are too kind, and thank you for sharing your story. I can completely imagine the conversations you have had with others on the subject of extending. I have a friend selling a £650k (4 bed, 3 public rooms) as it’s “not big enough” for her family (two small kids) - they can’t have a playroom anymore now both parents work from home. Now it’s their life, but does a playroom really make sense? The kids are in school/nursery most of the time, they go out to activities and outings constantly, and in my experience when at home my children are always either in the garden or they prefer to play close by me or “help” me in the house not go elsewhere to play. If I had a playroom I can’t imagine it getting much use and it would just encourage me to keep all the extra toy clutter instead of donating it on if I had extra space!
    Part time working mum | Married in 2014 | DS born 2015 & DD born 2018

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6542225/stopping-the-backsliding-a-family-of-four-no-longer-living-beyond-their-means/p1?new=1

    Consumer debt free!
    Mortgage: -£128,033

    Savings: £6,050
    - Emergency fund £1,515
    - New kitchen £556
    - December £420
    - Holiday £3,427
    - Bills £132

    Total joint pension savings: £55,425
  • Oh budget news to report too - have opened a help to save account (I think on the recommendation of someone on here, so thank you!) and deposited my first £50. I’ve also opened a lifetime stocks & shares ISA and set up a £50 a month direct debit. This is in lieu of paying into a pension for myself at the moment. I think if you are getting an employer pension that makes more sense as they pay in too & you get the tax relief, but as I don’t have that option the lifetime ISA looked good for now and the govt pay in a bonus as well. 
    Part time working mum | Married in 2014 | DS born 2015 & DD born 2018

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6542225/stopping-the-backsliding-a-family-of-four-no-longer-living-beyond-their-means/p1?new=1

    Consumer debt free!
    Mortgage: -£128,033

    Savings: £6,050
    - Emergency fund £1,515
    - New kitchen £556
    - December £420
    - Holiday £3,427
    - Bills £132

    Total joint pension savings: £55,425
  • And last thing, I’ve lost 3.5lb the last fortnight so hoping I can keep up a nice slow but steady weight loss or at least not gain over Christmas. Just been snacking less/not eating chocolate & cake, doing some short home bodyweight workouts and I’ve experimented a couple of days with skipping breakfast to do the 8/16 fasting thing.
    Part time working mum | Married in 2014 | DS born 2015 & DD born 2018

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6542225/stopping-the-backsliding-a-family-of-four-no-longer-living-beyond-their-means/p1?new=1

    Consumer debt free!
    Mortgage: -£128,033

    Savings: £6,050
    - Emergency fund £1,515
    - New kitchen £556
    - December £420
    - Holiday £3,427
    - Bills £132

    Total joint pension savings: £55,425
  • @Spendless our kids are the only young kids in the family - my sister hasn’t got any and Red’s nephews are all in their early twenties, though he does stick £20 in a card for them (I think he should stop as my family growing up did the stop at 18 thing too). So we did try to stop gifts with his many siblings before but they said ok, but we’ll still buy for the kids, and then Red felt guilty as two of them are child free so went back to buying them gifts 😂 so that didn’t work. 
    Part time working mum | Married in 2014 | DS born 2015 & DD born 2018

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6542225/stopping-the-backsliding-a-family-of-four-no-longer-living-beyond-their-means/p1?new=1

    Consumer debt free!
    Mortgage: -£128,033

    Savings: £6,050
    - Emergency fund £1,515
    - New kitchen £556
    - December £420
    - Holiday £3,427
    - Bills £132

    Total joint pension savings: £55,425
  • @Spendless our kids are the only young kids in the family - my sister hasn’t got any and Red’s nephews are all in their early twenties, though he does stick £20 in a card for them (I think he should stop as my family growing up did the stop at 18 thing too). So we did try to stop gifts with his many siblings before but they said ok, but we’ll still buy for the kids, and then Red felt guilty as two of them are child free so went back to buying them gifts 😂 so that didn’t work. 
    I find this interesting as I buy for both my niece and nephews but my brothers and there family don't buy for me. When we were growing up we always used to save up our pocket money to buy something or would go shopping with my mum to find something in budget. Interesting how different people's and families view things. I don't really get much to open at Christmas as only exchange with two friends and that's it. Joys of being single, 🤣
    *Dad loan - £5300 - £7200
    *Virgin Credit Card - £3552.50 - £0
    *Natwest - £1828.35 -£0.00

    Barclaycard - £2315.25 - £0.00

    Creation Finance - £960.32 £840
    *Total debt - £8040/£11641.17*


    Savings
    *Savings Buffer - £100/£1500
    *Emergency Fund - £1500/£1500


    New diary- https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6474943/the-three-cs-coffee-clothes-credit-cards/
  • Spendless
    Spendless Posts: 24,688 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Familiy relationships can be fraught with difficulties anyway and gift giving is no different. I agreed with my sister long ago we'd stop at 18, but I have a sneaky feeling that she will include my own daughter in this, still 17 at Christmas and her not receive anything. It's for this reason I've never stopped on my DH's side. Neice is 30 next year,had her own money since aged 18 but because sis-i-l buys for 2 compared to my buying her her one, I've let it ride. Next year after the kids all hit a significant birthday of 30,21, and 18, I'm going to say stop now as they're legally adults..I think key is to tell them early on in the year and re-iterate it later on before anyone starts buying stuff.
  • Bluegreen143
    Bluegreen143 Posts: 3,707 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    edited 15 December 2020 at 1:19PM
    @Sarahwithlove yeah that’s not great and it’s the downside of the only buying for kids thing unless everyone has children. None of Red’s siblings are single, they are all partnered so they do get other presents which was why I’d suggested we all stop buying for each other. A minefield!

    Frugal win, my sister informed me that Morrison’s have cheap whole salmon at £4.99 p/kg so I made a trip there today and got one at £18. I’ve frozen 6x parcels of three fillets each (the kids share so this is a meal for our family), that’s £3 per meal and it’s not counting that I still have a big parcel of scraps I want to try making gravadlax with as I have a recipe - would save me getting smoked salmon for Christmas morning 😁 I know frozen salmon is almost as cheap but we never like the frozen stuff from Tesco much plus wouldn’t get the gravadlax. I’ve bagged and frozen the head and tail for my sister to make stock as being realistic we wouldn’t eat anything here I put fish stock in 😬 at least it’s not getting wasted.
    Part time working mum | Married in 2014 | DS born 2015 & DD born 2018

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6542225/stopping-the-backsliding-a-family-of-four-no-longer-living-beyond-their-means/p1?new=1

    Consumer debt free!
    Mortgage: -£128,033

    Savings: £6,050
    - Emergency fund £1,515
    - New kitchen £556
    - December £420
    - Holiday £3,427
    - Bills £132

    Total joint pension savings: £55,425
  • I love salmon that's such a good price. Might have to look into it myself. 
    *Dad loan - £5300 - £7200
    *Virgin Credit Card - £3552.50 - £0
    *Natwest - £1828.35 -£0.00

    Barclaycard - £2315.25 - £0.00

    Creation Finance - £960.32 £840
    *Total debt - £8040/£11641.17*


    Savings
    *Savings Buffer - £100/£1500
    *Emergency Fund - £1500/£1500


    New diary- https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6474943/the-three-cs-coffee-clothes-credit-cards/
  • joedenise
    joedenise Posts: 17,759 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Definitely great value.  I bought one myself a couple of weeks ago and portioned it up for the freezer.  Having done that I now have loads of salmon in the freezer as I still had some left from the last time I bought a whole fish; plus some ready frozen salmon.

    I agree with you about the frozen salmon you can buy - yes it's fairly cheap but it's watery and flavourless.  I only use the frozen stuff when I'm making fish pie or fishcakes as with the mix of different fish you don't really notice the lack of flavour!  

  • @joedenise unfortunately Red won’t eat fish pie or fishcakes - I do occasionally make fishcakes as a lunchtime treat for me though. I used to make things like salmon risotto, pasta, fish pies etc when Monkey was weaning as Red often worked evening shifts then (it was before he switched career). I’ve totally gotten out of the habit now he’s home for dinner every night which is a shame as they are good ways to “stretch” the fish. He would happily not eat fish at all but is ok with it either served as a whole griddled/baked fillet or breaded/battered - just doesn’t like it mixed with things. 
    Part time working mum | Married in 2014 | DS born 2015 & DD born 2018

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6542225/stopping-the-backsliding-a-family-of-four-no-longer-living-beyond-their-means/p1?new=1

    Consumer debt free!
    Mortgage: -£128,033

    Savings: £6,050
    - Emergency fund £1,515
    - New kitchen £556
    - December £420
    - Holiday £3,427
    - Bills £132

    Total joint pension savings: £55,425
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