Wow, thanks for all the input! Apart from LifeofPo - I am happy to take honest feedback but don't speak to me like I'm something you just stepped in - it's not necessary.
- Baby clothes - happy to start selling them, although they are on their 3rd baby already so I'll need to keep the price pretty low!
- Food - I think there could be some savings to be made but this does include toothpaste, razor blades, washing liquid, etc so food itself is probably about £180ish. I buy free range or organic meat but I make it go a long way - I'd rather have quality than quantity. So meat is bulked up with lentils, shredded veg, etc - a 400g pack of mince will make us 4 meals (8 portions). I only buy organic meat in bulk when it's on offer, and I'd say 50% of our shopping is bought on offer. We hardly waste anything - I worked it out last week and there was a tomato, a banana and a bit of manky cabbage but that was it. I will cancel the veg box.
- Mobile and phone/bb - we've only just started contracts on these so I'm not sure we could do anything about that at the moment but I'll keep a note of your ideas for renewal time. The mobile is my husband's so I didn't look into it (should have been more of a control freak on that one!)
- Petrol - need to ask the husband about that as I only drive maybe once a week into town which is 6 miles. He drives about 50 miles a day so if you add any trips to family approx 800 miles a month. As I'm hardly driving I haven't kept track of petrol prices so that's defo one to look into. Maybe he should take my car to work as it's only 1L so more economical than his 1.4L. (I know, 2 cars, but I'll be back at work in 2 months and we've had both since new 11 years ago so it's a false economy to sell then try to buy a cheap 2nd-hand later). I'll have a look at car-sharing - might be a long shot because he works long hours/odd shifts but there might be someone even a couple of days a week who fits. He uses the 123 card for 3% cashback.
- Water bill - hmm, not sure I could save anymore - I suppose we are using more with the baby (bathing, washing machine), but we have water butts for the garden and car-washing, and bath water is used for the toilet. Our washing machine doesn't do a half load, but I always try to make sure it's full each time. Will look into that one.
- Selling stuff - there probably are things in reality, nothing valuable, just cd's, books, that sort of thing but I'll have a dig around and see what we've got.
- Benefits - we applied for tax credits but have been told twice that we aren't entitled even though our earnings for this year are below the threshold they put on their own website. I will appeal again and see what happens.
- Mortgage - we can only have a payment holiday if we've already overpaid (which we haven't) - the only way they will allow lower payments is for us to enter into a formal agreement which will still be on our credit file when we finish the fixed term and have to apply for a new mortgage so I want to avoid that if poss.
- Insurance - yes, we compared and got the cheapest deal + £75 cashback.
- Cat - she's only 3, but had cat flu when she was tiny (all her siblings and mum died of it as well) so the premium started off really high. It's up for renewal in December so I'll have a look around and see if I can get it cheaper.
Car tax/insurance/mot - yes, forgot to put those on. Insurance - we use online comparisons to get the best deals - renewals due in Feb so will shop around again.
We don't have any debts, but I got pregnant a month after we bought our house (unexpected, we'd accepted that due to medical issues we were highly unlikely to have children) and I missed out on decent maternity pay from my company because I'd been there 1 month short of their cut-off!
- Catalogue deliver/ironing - that's a great idea as I can fit them in around my son/husband. I'll look into those and advertise ironing service (and actually could do a typing service as am pretty quick at that).
We have considered letting out a room - we've started sorting the house out so it's actually tidy enough for someone to get into the spare room then we'll be looking at doing that.
Thanks again - I will look at all the links you've provided as well to see where we can start to make savings.