In a mess and feel desperate. Looking for advice and help please.

Martico

kimwp said:

ElleWoods said:

kimwp said:

Hi there.

Some "easy" wins are presents, Microsoft office, Amazon prime and netflix and your food bill. Unless your teen is eating four times a "normal" person, then you can definitely cut your food bill down. Look at whether any food is thrown away, buy cheaper protein such as beans and lentils and cheaper (but just as healthy) veg such as carrots and peas.

Thanks @kimwp, I pay the Amazon Prime annually but I'm going to check when it renews and cancel it. We watch Netflix a lot as we don't go out much but I'm definitely going to re-look at the food bill as I'm sure savings can be made there. 

Fab! I think you can "cancel" Amazon prime by setting it to not renew now so you don't have to wait. It says "are you sure you want to cancel?" As though it's going to cancel your service straight away, but actually it's asking if you don't want to automatically renew. (The last time I did it, anyway).

Yes, that's my experience too

ElleWoods

enthusiasticsaver said:

I get the executive function difficulties as we have ND family members too. Are you claiming DLA? Getting your son involved will help you both. Is it maybe possible to do click and collect which is cheaper than the delivery pass? 

I've made a claim for PIP but didn't get enough points, so I've asked for a mandatory reconsideration but that could take months to come back. I'll look into click and collect, thanks for the suggestion.

ElleWoods

EssexHebridean said:

I assume you have double checked that you're not entitled to anything more in the way of benefits? Your overall income is quite low, and allowing that you are also supporting a dependent, that may be worth a look. 

I agree that the grocery spend is an easy win to make a financial gain - you can definitely reduce that by a decent chunk with meal planning, shopping from a list, and if you haven't already tried it, the "downshift challenge" where you switch brands for shops own brand, and shops own brand for shops "basic" brand. It can be really useful to help you to narrow down where there are brands that for you are worth paying for (in our house it's washing up liquid - the one made of mild green liquidised fairies - and MrEH's coffee brand of choice) and where in fact the basic option can be just as good. (Lidl's basic tinned chopped tomatoes are a winner for me - they're far thicker and less watery than most of the basic brand options)

Time for the teen to start to fund their own cinema trips too I'm afraid - and probably a good contribution towards non school uniform clothes, too. Might be a good time to encourage them round to the mindset that charity shopping is cool too - sustainable, eco friendly, all the buzz words teens love! if they are working though, even just limited hours, those sorts of responsibilities are definitely in their court now, and as already said, it will be a brilliant learning opportunity for them to begin the learn why budgeting is important. 

I'd say that either Netflix or Prime might form a reasonable part of your entertainment budget, but possibly not both. While on the face of it paying annually - at least on Prime - is a little cheaper, one thing that works for people sometimes is to switch between the two every few months to maximise the amount you have to watch without massively increasing the cost. You might choose to use Prime around this time of year for example, for the other benefits like free Amazon deliveries. 

It appears that you might be double accounting on the question of car insurance - as you say you have paid it upfront from a savings pot, but you are counting it as a monthly expense too - I wonder if separate savings pots might help to keep things clearer for you, I use that approach as I would get horribly confused if my savings for car stuff were in the same pot as my holiday savings, christmas savings etc. it definitely helps to be able to run your eye down a list of accounts and see how much you have in each "pot" at any given time.

On the subject of Christmas - do you have the relevant amount set aside to cover the costs of any food, presents and travel you may need to fund over the festive period? If not, then now would be a great time for you and the teen to sit down and run through what you plan to do to trim your expenditure to fit the available money.

There was an interesting item on the effects of ADHD and similar on admin management on the Martin Lewis podcast lately if you haven't already heard it - at the least it might make you realise how common these sorts of struggles are, and it never does any harm to feel less alone on stuff like that does it! Here's the link to the episode list: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p02pc9xt and it's the one from 1st November you need, I think. (Although they are all worth a listen!)

Thanks @EssexHebridean, I'm pretty sure I get everything I'm entitled to. I don't get housing benefit or council tax support as I earn too much, and I'm still on the old tax credits system. Waiting for managed migration which apparently will be soon but not sure how soon exactly. 

I'm definitely looking into reducing groceries. We already buy the cheaper and/or value brands of as much as possible, and I'm going to re-start meal planning to see if that helps.

My teen has a part time job and pays for his own cinema already, and some of his own clothes, DVDs and whatever else he wants to buy. He knows I don't have the budget to pay for all the stuff he wants (which makes me feel crappy tbh, but we are where we are). 

I already implement your saving pots idea for things like car costs, Christmas etc, and I aim to put a set amount into each pot every month. I'm like you - I want those funds separate from each other! However, I haven't been doing that as much this year due to struggling financially. With the car insurance, I had enough in the car costs pot to pay it last month and now that pot is empty, but I aim to put the amount stated into it each month. 

I've got about £160 put aside for this year's Xmas presents and food so it'll be tight, but doable. We tend to have quite simple Christmas anyway. 

Thanks for the podcast recommendation. I've just started listening to Martin's podcast very recently but don't think I've heard that one so I'll have a listen. Thank you. 

Rob5342

Have you looked at Asda mobile? You can get unlimited texts, unlimited minutes and 3GB data for £5 a month. That's not a lot of data but you could use wifi when out.

Would a water meter be an option? I'm not sure how much it would save.

Also, which benefits do you get? Could you get one on the social tariffs for broadband?

https://www.bt.com/broadband/home-essentials

ElleWoods

Rob5342 said:

Have you looked at Asda mobile? You can get unlimited texts, unlimited minutes and 3GB data for £5 a month. That's not a lot of data but you could use wifi when out.

Would a water meter be an option? I'm not sure how much it would save.

Also, which benefits do you get? Could you get one on the social tariffs for broadband?

https://www.bt.com/broadband/home-essentials

@rob5342, I live in private rented, but I'll look into getting a water meter and if it looks like it'll be cheaper, I'll ask the LL if we can have one fitted. Thanks for the suggestion. 

Stateofart

RAS said:

There are rules about the last date the child can register on the eligible course, I think it has to be before their 19th birthday.

This is true.  Enrol before 19 and you're on the course for free.  Though I agree with OP if there is nothing he wants to do, he shouldn't be forced to do something for benefits, though many parents do.

LoulaBelle

Hiya, Have you looked at doing surveys to get vouchers?(I think there is a thread on the forums of boosting income) sell stuff your not using to throw at debts? part time bar/waitress job of a weekend?

Sistergold

Is there any chance of increasing income? Odd cleaning jobs for cash? 🤷‍♀️

ElleWoods

LoulaBelle said:

Hiya, Have you looked at doing surveys to get vouchers?(I think there is a thread on the forums of boosting income) sell stuff your not using to throw at debts? part time bar/waitress job of a weekend?

Thank you @LoulaBelle - I already do surveys on Prolific and it doesn't bring in much but it all helps. Currently having a clearout with a view to selling the decent stuff, so you read my mind there!

I'm looking for a second job but I'm not sure what happens with tax on second jobs, so I'll have to look into it. 

ElleWoods

Sistergold said:

Is there any chance of increasing income? Odd cleaning jobs for cash? 🤷‍♀️

Thanks @Sistergold, I'm unable to increase my hours at my current job so I'm looking into getting a second job, however I'd never do anything cash in hand and not declare it, as I have a terrible guilt complex! Plus I'd be terrified that the benefits people would find out (I'm on tax credits), so I'd rather look for something above board.