My Budget

Ivenofinmoney

Martin,

I've gone through the Budget Planner, Current £456.07 per month over spend and to be honest other than the smokes (£103 a month) I don't see much else I can cut back on.

The things really killing us at the moment are:-

Mortgage: - £795
(on £110,000 with 12 months still to run on last re-mortgage)

Servicing CC Debt - £300 ( Trying to clear before end of 0% rate)

Nappies & Baby Food - £250
(we buy in bulk and take advantage of any special offers where possible !)

Income Tax - When I changed jobs 12 months ago I changed tax office & the Inland Revenue finally got their act together, after a couple of years mistakes and various reviews of my tax code, they have now smashed my tax code through the roof (K750), so currently 50% of my Gross salary is taken at source

Family Holiday - £1500 this year (first one in 3 years), that we can't get out of as OH sister is getting married, I've already cut this back to the bone with cheap flights, and calling in a favour from a friend with a villa close to where the rest of the wedding party is staying, and the Nationwide account is standing by for the spending money.

Other than that...
- Gas & Electic Cheapest I can find !
- Company Mobile + OH is on 12 month contract with free line rental 100 inclusive cross net minutes which she doesn't exceed !
- Eating out - with 3 kids we go out about once every 3 months and then it's an early bird deal !
- SKY - currently on 1/2 Price family pack £9.99 a month.
- Clothes - all purchased for less than 1/3rd shop price from ebay.
- Weekly SHop - Tesco.com taking advantage of voucher offers from this web site.


Looking at this really doesn't get me in the positive frame of mind needed for quitting smoking

I don't remember being this lost in my finances since I was a student :mad:

Former_MSE_Andrea

Hi, this post was originally in Martin's blog discussion. He's asked me to make it a new thread as it'll get more responses from other site users that way

skintchick

Could you actually post what you spend on food, gas etc? Then we can help better.

Lucie_2

Ivenofinmoney wrote:

Nappies & Baby Food - £250
(we buy in bulk and take advantage of any special offers where possible !)

Do all 3 of your children need nappies? £250 seems a heck of a lot. Check out the marriage, relationships & families board & the old style board for lots of hints on feeding your children & saving money on ready prepared baby food & nappies. One of the regular old stylers managed to acquire about 400 freebie sample nappies before the birth of her son. Have you joined the pampers/huggies clubs & the Tesco/Sainsbury's baby clubs?

Shadowplay_2

Hello

firstly cancel the Sky, thats £120 - i know doesnt sound a lot but your aiming to live within your means.

obviously give up the cancer sticks, if only for your health.

Make sure your claiming any benifits, tax credits etc that you can.

is it possible for either or both of you to get 2nd jobs?

check out the below link for more help.

https://www.nationaldebtline.co.uk/

Good Luck

Thefunkygibbons

On the face of it, you may not clear the credit card, so make sure you apply in good time to roll it over

On the good news front, I would expect that things will improve next year when your tax code changes in April. The K code will revert back to a normal one, whih will give you at least £200 a month more (rough estimate)

Quit the smoking and combined with the tax, you are most of the way there

Just don't make it worse by taking on expensive credit now

Murtle

what are you spending on food and household goods? do you both work? any possibility of overtime/ebay for unwanted bits and pieces. Also a great place to pick up cheap baby bits for the little ones (though only things you need!) and then sell them on afterwards ie outgrown clothes etc! Just read you are buying stuff from ebay - so try selling it on afterwards!

Sometimes it can be cheaper to go in and shop, as not all the items are on the website and you can get cheap reduced items in store if you can shop at the best times! Have you looked at your local market for fresh fruit/veg and meat?

Looking at your finances is exactly the reason you should quit smoking...you need the money in your bank to pay the bills!!!

I don't know where you are going on hols, but when you are out there check if things are cheaper!! ie cheap clothes?! or food items (that store and you need) ie pasta/olive oil/balsamic vinegar/coffee etc all cheaper in Italy (I like to think it helps recupe some of the cost of the holiday!!)

Cut out sky and have picnics (or similar) instead of the early bird evening meal!

How old are the little ones? I'm imagining triplets at the moment!!!!

fairylights_2

Good grief! £250 a month on nappies and baby food :eek: - I'm amazed! If we've spent £250 in total in the last three years I'd be surprised. If you have three in nappies, then DEFINITELY invest in cloth nappies. They may sound like a lot more work but they really aren't. They may initially look expensive but you pay once and then you don't need to buy ANY more, and when you're done with them you can resell them and recoup some of your cash.

Baby food - can't you just make your own? we just mush up the veg that we have with our tea, and our daughter LOVES rice and pasta, so we're laughing. I even buy crispbakes instead of rusks as they're essentially the sae thing, less mess and less than half the price.

I'd also agree with dropping sky. It's unnecessary and really not worth it.

Penny-Pincher!!

HI

Does the £250 a month include Nappies, Baby Food and yours & partners food too? If so, that isnt too bad, but if just for the nappies and baby food... :eek:

Baby food is unnecessary and would cost pennies if made by yourself or partner. You also know exactly what its contents are. It can be frozen in small or large amounts. I used to do things like pureed veg, fruit etc. Then when a little bigger added fish, meat, pulses, cheese, eggs etc. When DD was about 6 months, she was basically eating what we were but pureed/mashed obviously with a little added gravy/water. Very wholesome and she loved it!

I used disposables, but always got them from Boots when on 3 for 2, so I paid about £10 for 3 packets-think a packet usually lasted me 5-7 days. I sometimes bought in bulk from Makros too.

With your Sky-assume you are now hooked in for a 12 month contract so it cant be cancelled or you will ahve to pay more money for something that you will loose anyway. £10 a month isnt too bad and it will help if your needed through the night with the babies-something to watch :rolleyes:

Good Luck

PP
xx

homersimpson_3

1. Cut out cigarettes and sky all together
2. £250 does sound high for food and nappies- what are you spending it on.
3. Personally i would not attend the wedding and explain why. if someone has to go should be hubby because it is his sister. £1500 would knock a large hole in debt- the wedding's only one day.
4. stop eating out and go on a picnic.

Ivenofinmoney

Guys,

Thanks for all your comments....

I think I misslead you, when I looked back over my budget planner, the £250 includes £130 a month for our eldest to attend a pre-school class -so food and nappy bill is £120 - which is still very rude.

The Eldest is out of nappies (we did that as soon as we discovered we were having twins!)

Penny-Pincher!! - My OH did do puree stuff for our eldest, and still does as much as she can for the Twins, but it's not easy to find time to stand and peel a stove full of vegetables when you've got 3 kids under 3 round your feet all day.


Murtle - our eldest is coming up for 3 years old, and the twins are 6 months.

Shadowplay - I claimed tax credits when the eldest were born, I was one of the many they managed to completely stuff up the calculation, and am still bouncing arround the system being told on alternate occasion that I owe them £1,000 (I only ever received about £300 when they stopped paying me) or they owe me. I am currently on priority review - not sure what a priority is over there as I have been on priority review now since June.


Any way - WE have decided to work our way (rather than save or way) out of the problem for the moment, my OH has taken a job cleaning at the local hospital over the weekend, it means between us we never get a day off and time together is reduced to about 8 hours a week, but it's double time so it covers the Gap, hopefully this is a fairly short term problem and once my tax code starts to straigten out and the Twins get a bit older things will ease up a bit ( Who am I kidding - Things never get easier they just get different !!!)