Learning to walk before I run

edinburgher

@kaycastle - that's pretty typical in our area, I think builders price to postcode. Our house might "only" be worth £250k, but we live in the cheapest part of a lovely area. For example, a nice 4 bed elsewhere in our town would be £400-500k.

Frith

£800 for presents and food a month? 

Thats....... high! 

Frith

Also I don’t spend £300 on myself (pocket money) in a year. I’m not sure I’ll be able to suggest much! 

VintageHistorian

You don't mention how much you currently budget per child in DD's class, just that they're included in the gift budget, presumably due to the endless round of birthday parties that DD gets invited to?

In which case I would sit down and make yourself a list of names and the month their birthday falls in, so you have a schedule of when these presents will be due. Then try to get the next batch of gifts bought during sales periods (i.e. after Christmas). Going to places like The Works should get you some good quality books or craft bits for relatively cheaply, especially when they're having sales. Challenge yourself to spend no more than £5 per child and see what you can get for that. You could also cut back on costs by buying a pack of plain card, and a week before the birthday get your daughter to "make" the card (even if you just draw a big "6" or whatever the age is on the front that she can colour in).

I think it's easy to carried away with these things and want to be the parents that give out computer games etc, but really it's just a kid that your daughter knows, you don't need to spend a huge amount on them. I'm not saying be a total skinflint and show up with a bar of chocolate that cost a quid, but planning ahead might help bring the cost down without sacrificing quality. Then all you need to do is keep it in a box labelled "School birthdays" then when the next party rolls around just grab something from it.

edinburgher

@VintageHistorian - bulk buying on offer is a good idea - I've done a bit of that in the past. I think gifts is definitely going to take a little while to normalise, but I'm optimistic. 

I've been able to identify c. £500 of savings for October without tackling groceries, holidays or pocket money. I think it will be November before I can get an idea of the new budget

kaycastle

edinburgher said:

@kaycastle - that's pretty typical in our area, I think builders price to postcode. Our house might "only" be worth £250k, but we live in the cheapest part of a lovely area. For example, a nice 4 bed elsewhere in our town would be £400-500k.

Didn't mean any offense or anything I think if you can get some quotes just to check, you might get lucky and find you need less. Worth a go!

Well done on the newly identified savings!

edinburgher

None taken kaycastle - unfortunately we know of a couple of families who live within a few blocks of ourselves who have been quoted £80-90k for two storey extensions. We'd like two storeys at the side and a kitchen/diner at the back. Allowing for the work + a new kitchen etc. it doesn't seem too crazy compared to the other quotes of which we're aware. But yes, will need to get our own.

Cornish_mum

Hi Ed

Huge congratulations very exciting news. I think that you are going to have to do some budget trimming as you are spending what you earn and if you want more room sharpish you’ll need to borrow more. Thus your mortgage payment line will be maybe 50% up. It’s what we did to upsize to our 3 bedsemi (with 250,000 scary mortgage to fund it). 

As others have said do you need to budget for maternity leave and increased childcare costs? I’d do a new budget based on these predicted increased costs plus barebones for the rest (essentials only), then add luxuries back item by item, then and start living on that ASAP to build yourself a real emergency fund. (It looks like your current cash is just covering your credit cards debt)

This will give you a dry run of the new normal, build up an extra cushion for the unexpected and get yourselves borrowing ready to pass affordability checks. 

PS random ideas feel free to ignore of course!

Holidays with 2 small kids with one under 3 are very overrated. I would completely cut that expense line. 

Organise yourselves a gift for kids cupboard (I set a £8 limit for friends and £15 for family), and shop sales and C/S. WHS, the works, TKMax and flash sales. I also bulk by 10p birthday cards from card factory (the kids really don’t care about the cards). We also started a no gifts for adults initiative on my husband side of the family (but we still have 9 kids to buy for including our own, so it adds up fast). MrCM and I limit gifts to each other to. Regift for adults as much as you can. 

Totally understand the need to keep DD swimming lessons. It’s an important life skill as MrCM regularly reminds me! 

I’d cut your groceries down to £400/month for food, booze and household items (cleaning/gardening etc) all in.

I’d be looking hard at personal spend to cut back on. I ditched coffees, fancy food on the go, lunches, books and magazines but kept fancy haircuts and nonessential gardening supplies; when we frugalized the budget. 

Best of luck CM

kaycastle

edinburgher said:

None taken kaycastle - unfortunately we know of a couple of families who live within a few blocks of ourselves who have been quoted £80-90k for two storey extensions. We'd like two storeys at the side and a kitchen/diner at the back. Allowing for the work + a new kitchen etc. it doesn't seem too crazy compared to the other quotes of which we're aware. But yes, will need to get our own.

Ahh that explains it, I just assumed you meant a bedroom extension, that's why I thought it was steep I have to do the same sort of thing but I have a bit more time and I'm going to try to get away with just needing a loft extension.

Cornish mums advice is excellent. Can't wait to see the budget adjustments you make! 

BookWorm

Hi Ed. I just wanted to stop by to say congrats on your baby news - that's lovely.   I don't have any advice to offer but I'm sure lots of these lovely wise people will be be able to help.  Best wishes BW x