Newbie Help appreciated.

[laylee12]

Hi all... Each fortnight, after tax, mortgage, loan repayments, and utility bills (pretty much everything!), I am left with GBP1000 (fortnightly). We are a family of 2 adults and 3 children (12,11,4). Finding that we run out of money about a week into each fortnight. Don't smoke, or waste money in silly ways.. Just never seem to have enough. Can't seem to start saving. Any tips?

[Wotsitsareafterme]

100 or 1000?

[laylee12]

Hi there, it's a 1000. Tks

[donkir]

So your left with £2000 a month and you can't save any? What on earth do you spend it on. That's more than I earn and I manage.

[annielostit]

You need to write down exactly what your spending.
Coffees out food shopping, fuel, money for the kids etc. To see where its going. Its surprising how it will add up. Doing this you can then look where the frivolous spending lies.
Lots of people here menu plan, write a list and stick to it.
That helps me when my spending goes sideways.
You say GBP. Are you not in the UK and things are priced differently? £1000 a fortnight is a lot not to manage on.

[laylee12]

annielostit,

Thanks so much for your reply.Your advice is great and much appreciated and its also without judgement. That makes reading it so much easier ;-)I know we are lucky to have this amount of money per month in comparsion to others. There is one person working in our family and they earn a good salary which allows me to look after our children. I am just looking for some tips etc.. For example,how much should we be spending a week on food ? i tend to buy the staples on a weekly basis but our meat is bought daily.My biggest concern is savings, how much would anyone save per week with this amount. We spend 160 euro on petrol per fortnight for 2 cars.Food is tricky and i would have to check my bank statements. I know there are multiple trips for groceries showing up though. I dont buy clothes very often and when i do they are usually from tesco etc. My kids are the same and only wear branded clothes when they have saved up for them.Takeaway coffee is probably my downfall,a bad habit i have to knock on the head. Apart from that there is little else to mention. We pay 55 euro for all of our doctors visits here in Ireland and going to the dentist is worse.All prescriptions cost the full amount. Last week we had 2 doctors visits and 2 scripts, a total of 150 euro ! a dental check up with a scale and polish is 65 euro (on offer).
Thanks again

[Screenclean]

I think that £500 ps is a massive amount to live on personally.

I second the suggestion of budgeting. There's lots of good templates around, like on money saving expert.

Be prepared to get s bit of a flaming one here. Many people really have nothing close to that to live on (with 2 people working)

There was a thread very recently that might be worth a read here

Although I don't think you're in an expensive city?

[lilacclery]

Are you left with €1000 or £1000? There's a big difference. Also living in Ireland!

[TheOnlyPink]

Living in Ireland is more expensive, but €500 a week after bills is still pretty decent. Could you do one grocery shop? That would give you a better handle on your budget. We are a family of 4, my kids are 7 and 3, but we gave a coeliac (no gf food on prescription in Ireland) and spend about €100 a week on food. That's everything. We also spend another €80 on petrol for 2 cars.

Realistically how often would you be going to the doctor/dentist? Have you got health insurance? Maybe you could put away 20 a week for those kinds of expenses. Cut the takeaway coffees. That's €3 a pop, more depending on where you are going. It's such a waste and you prob don't even get much enjoyment from them any more. Pick one day and get one then.

With your amount of leftover money, I would be able to save 100 a week and not even notice it. 200 if I was being careful. 250 a week if I was being really frugal.

[annielostit]

If it were me i would say take the €1000.
160 fuel
100 doctors bills (save for)
400 food shopping - i say that amount because i spend about £90 & there's 3 of us.
Now you've got 340 left to play with, factor in an amount for teenagers/ clothes etc.it doesn't go far. I got just 1.
See how far you go with that. I'm not going to judge you I'd like someone to sort my budget out too.
The money saving expert site is good for info also money matters on mums net www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/2258202-Debt-mutual-support-thread-number-6-start-the-new-year-with-a-clear-purpose-and-keep-moving-forwards-even-by-tiny-steps
Its got budget templates to down load etc.
Hope this helps.?

[IssyStark]

Frequent shopping is horrendous for budgeting unless you are going to the supermarket at the time they price down the perishables. You probably find you are buying more than you actually need and have well-stocked larders as a result! (She types, being very guilty of this herself).

Definitely ditch the coffees and look into more seasonal cooking. Although you definitely don't need to go to the Jack Munroe level's of frugality, something like The Kitchen Revolution which has weekly meal plans throughout the year based around what is seasonal (and therefore what is likely to be cheaper due to gluts!)