to ask how you budget - need to stop spending extra money!

[cjt110]

We have a relatively good income of approx 33k between us. Our outgoings are quite low (Our biggest outgoing is approx £357 for nursery fees and the next is our mortgage which is only £250 a month). We seem to spend a fortune on foodstuffs.

We have spent £100 in the last 2 weeks alone (£70ish on a shop and £30ish on bits and fresh stuff).

We have just had our tax credits reassessed and we are lucky enough that our income has increased approx 3k from last year and as such our tax credits have been reduced and we get £93 less a month.

This got me to thinking about budgetting. There are 3 of us - me, dh and ds (21m). DS has a milk allergy so we have to buy soya milk and yoghurts and some free from items to ensure his diet is catered for. Otherwise we just look for foodstuff that just doesn't contain milk. He is still in nappies - we get Asda nappies 120 for £10.

We just seem to be spending lots here and there and it's all adding up.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Also looking at spending on magazines, coffees, lunches, takeaways, alcohol, fags, TV packages, phone contracts, utility bills, clothes, holidays..... Little things add up!

mags - no, lunches - pack up lunch, don't smoke, booze comes out of our own money, we dont have sky etc, our phones are minimal £16 total a month, electric £80 a month, Water about 70....

Do an audit of what you've got in the storecupboards and freezer, and plan some meals to use that up so you've got a week's worth of 'free' meals - I can usually knock together tuna pasta bake, a mixed-bean chili, dal and rice and omelet and chips using what's lurking in the cupboard. It's also a chance to see what you don't need to keep buying, or overbuy (if you've got a glut of anything).

Make your mealplan reflect your week ahead - so if you've got something on after work on wednesday, you know you need a quick and easy dinner that night, so make double portions of tuesday's dinner and have leftovers - things like bolognese sauce which can be a lasagne one day, and spag bol the next.

If you prefer a bit of flexibility, make a list of the dishes you're going to have that week, but don't set days for it, just leave the list stuck to the fridge, and pick based on what you fancy that evening.

£70 per month for water

Could be a quarter .... A lot of the bills come out of his account as they were historically to his account.

cjt110

KindDogsTail no, £100 for food alone. 33k is what HMRC use to base our tax credits assessment on so must be after tax?

I looked up tax credits and they seem to ask for your earnings before tax and national insurance contributions. So if HMRC are using your joint 33k earnings to base your credits assessment on, that must be before tax and NI.

See the screen shot.

So I think it would be a help to know what you actually take home after tax and national insurance.

I do think £25 per week, or even less in a longer month, for food for two adults and a baby would be very difficult. I don't now if other posters think it is possible, but if so I would like to see some example priced weekly meal plans using Aldi before I could believe it!

Also if you don't buy enough up front at least to start, it would be more difficult to make extra and freeze some which could save you money in the longer term if it meant not buying ready-meals when you are worn out..

Maybe eating lentils and rice that was bought in bulk from a middle eastern shop
it would be possible!

I feel so guilty OP as I am sure I spend far more, even though we eat quite simply and almost always make our own food.

I forgot to send this cjt110

Sorry the 15000 is irrelevant. I had just put that in to make the web-site work.

Personally I think £50 per week would be more realistic. Or say £250 per month so you have some extra to play with. You don't say you are struggling for money, just that you want to spend more consciously or have I got the wrong end of the stick? I like a healthy food budget (£400 per month) but we don't really spend on eating out or pubs etc.

Perhaps it is after tax then Im not really this stupid, I promise!

We just really need to reign the budget in. We've been spending willy nilly for ages and really need to get things under the belt.

The value they used was the value on my P60 - so that's got to be after tax?

No that is before tax. Gross earnings.

ok so 33k before tax - 18k for me 15 for DH. Lets say tax is 20% - We have a takehome of £2,200 a month

Aldi has loads of milk free stuff - they don't hide milk in stuff like the other supermarkets do. Mine also has soy milk and almond milk. Thu don't market it as 'free from' though.

I pop into sainsburys or Asda once a month to get dairy free spread and baking block and fake cheese.

In terms of budget, I find meal planning is key. We always make double whenever we cook and keep a portion in the freezer. We pad out meals with extra veg and pulses rather than lots of meat. (Two chicken breasts will do four adult and two toddler meals when turned into curry or fajitas that way).
We keep a list on the freezer and don't overstock any items either.

It seems to me your mortgage childcare and utilities come to less than £1000 so that leaves £1200 a month is about £300 a week for petrol transport food entertainment so can't see why £50 -70 on food is not affordable is there some other bills you are forgetting or are you just trying to save, obviously you can eat on less than £70 a week for 2 plus baby but under £35-40 will be hard not impossible

Teacup JUst trying to reign in the spending. Things like "Oh, I dont fancy whats in the freezer for tea" So we go out to buy something and come back £15 lighter.

There will be the personal thresholds before any tax is charged though on the one hand, which should mean it is a little more. Then National Insurance taken off on the other so less again.

(Then are the credits on top - put into your bank? I am not sure how it works.)

Maybe if your work pays your tax and NI as you earn, maybe what your bank statements show coming in each month is the sum you have to start with. Plus the credits if HMRC gives them to you separately.

I know you just want to think about not spending willy nilly on food, so the rest is not so important, but it still might help to know the exact starting point each month.

Then if you can save on any utilities having looked on the Money Saving EXpert, that would be good too.

www.aldi.co.uk/special-diets

The most important aspect of budgeting I find, is the actual budget. Be realistic but divide your income up.

£50 electricity
£100 food
£20 social
£50 nursery
£20 petrol
£10 misc

and so on

Then divide the money into plastic folders and don't use the wrong folder for the wrong payment.

When DH and I were first married we did this every single pay day and it stopped us wondering where the money had gone. We stuck to the budget and i we needed extra cash we'd record exactly what it was being spent on and you get to see where the frivolous spending is.

As far as spending less goes, wholesale when you can. We'd plan a 'big' shop every fortnight and buy say 15kg of washing powder, 20kg of spuds, 30 chicken breasts. By buying in bulk it's cheaper and spread out as opposed to those trips to the supermarket where you spend a fortune because everything's run out at once.

Meal planning ensures you only buy what you need.

I'm not sure it's applicable here but when I was at uni, the best thing to do before going to the supermarket was have a big meal. Go there hungry and you'll buy snacky food!

Milk and lactose free food list:
cdn.aldi-digital.co.uk/H8BEL8T6RGKm$blh6wEO0yoAWXw.pdf

OP - get your pay slip and his, and look for the 'Net Pay' figure

That's your 'take home pay'.

Add your Tax credits and Child benefit

That's your total 'income' in a month

Ball park, it'll be around 2400 each month (Your figures are ish about what ours are barring nursery/TC)

Then deduct mortgage, gas, electric, water etc until you see what you are left with.

FWIW, we spend around £60 per week, mostly in Aldi for two adults and DD 6. She's lactose intolerant, so we have to watch milk etc.

That's comfortable and allows me to shop without planning to the nth degree. I can drop it quite a bit, but I have to really think it through, and that's not fun if not needed. It's fine for our budget, too. (You have nursery costs and nappies but your mortgage is half of mine so it nets out ish)

Mine is £1201 take home, CB is £80 a month and tax credits will be £12 - Just shy of £1300 for me. That is a constant salaried income.

DH is hourly paid and gets approx £1200 a month before tax.

Definitely think I know what we'll be doing tonight.....

Lots of good advice here. I second checking your utilities, broadband etc couldn't be cheaper, even if it's only a few pounds here and there it will add up. Do you and DP both take packed lunches? I often find that by the end of the week I've ran out of bread so have to buy something, does that happen to you? We try to bulk out meals with veg and beans, which are cheap, and so 500g mince in bolognese would make 6 portions. Also about half our dinners each week are vegetarian, which tends to be cheaper. We have me, DP and DS (14 months) and our food is around £50 online every 2 weeks and £20-30 top up in between. So if you're doing what people have mentioned above, I'm not sure you have that much wriggle room in terms of food shopping which is why I mentioned to look at your bills as well.