To ask if you have a 40k household income how much your outgoings are?

[PantyGiraffe]

To help me see where we are going wrong!

I’m not working at the moment due to health problems. We have one child. No mortgage (paid for house in full on purchase). We live in a 2 bed house and our bills come to £800 including our car and mobile bills. Car was paid for cash and we don’t spend more than £60 a month in petrol.

Could people of a similar income tell me if their bills are less than this and if so how?

Mobiles and virgin are extortionate! That's where you need to start and cut back first.

We're in a 2-bed house, but no kids and mortgage paid off.

Energy costs: £60
Council tax £158 (over 12 months)
Mobiles £18
Water £36
Car tax and insurance (inc breakdown cover £19 (paid annually)
Bulildings & contents insurance £18
Internet/landline + BT Sport £60 (soon to go down to £28 when we switch to Plusnet)

No prescription costs or life insurance as we both have cover with work.

Where we have significant savings over you, OP, seem to be mobile phones and Virgin Media. I have a Samsung on contract for £13 a month and will go SIM only as soon as the phone is paid for. DP is a Luddite and has a PAYG phone that he tops up with around £5 a month!

Plusnet is cheap, around £21 (and reliable, according to reviews) and I would regard Virgin Media as a luxury, so would bin this off and have Netflix if you don't find enough to watch on mainstream tv. That could save you £100 a month.

We don't have pet insurance, I used to put £10 a month in a separate account for vet bills, and it still has a few hundred in it. We've been very lucky with our dogs' health over the years though.

I'm far from convinced that £28 a month for heating & plumbing cover is good value (we go years without a bill, and DP can fix basic things), but I can see that the peace of mind and the knowledge that you'll get things fixed quickly may well be priceless. We recently spent 10 days using electric heaters because we couldn't get a plumber any quicker!

Virgin. You are being ripped off. They latest all inclusive package is £99 and includes a SIM card with unlimited minutes and data. Just ring them up and tell them you want to cancel and they will reduce it

I have done previously and then it increased hugely and I really meant it and wasn't interested in staying and they reduced ours to £99 and told me to ring back when it the discount expired.

Phones. Well we are sim only There is Giffgaff and other providers between £10-20 a month.

You are paying £250 for Virgin and mobiles.

Why do you need such expensive phones?

If your OH needs the Virgin for work either his work should pay that in expenses, or it needs to be offset against your OHs tax.
He shouldn't be paying for it himself if necessary for work.

My rent and bills on a one bed flat total £1800 per month and my travel expenses are £120. So nearly £2000 before food, fun etc. I earn a bit more than you but still feel like my expenses are too much!

I agree about the water, @StreetwiseHercules, but they vary quite a bit. Just down the road from me, they have one water company for sewage treatment and a different one for fresh water. Their bills are 50% more than mine, even for a single person.

Some parts of the country are significantly more than others, too.

Our bills halved when we got a water meter, so if you haven't got one, OP, it might be worth asking.

We're in very similar circumstances, with mortgage paid off and salary £38k. We have 2 adults and 4 children in a 4 bed 1930s house. DH takes home around £2300 buts we do get Child Benefit of £200ish per month.

Our bills are roughly similar to yours except we have Sky which is around £90 pcm (would be £12 extra I think for Sports, we have box sets and Movies) Mine and DH's phones are £12 and £7 respectively, although DH bought his handset outright for £130 a while ago. Our water is £39 pcm.

We find we have quite a bit of fun money and we also save into a pension for me (£200) and into accounts for the DC (£200 total) as well as into a shorter term savings account (between £100-£400, it's less in December for example!) which pays for big expenses like holidays or towards a new car etc. DH also saves £110 post tax income into a shares scheme at work.

Your buildings and contents insurance both seem very high but that does depend on your house/ flood risk/ contents covered etc.

And the post code! My mate moved from a slightly rough area to a much nicer area close by, but because her post code changed from Thornton Heath, Surrey to London SE25 her contents and car insurances shot up in price. And people on a council estate half a mile away from us pay loads more (that might have changed now because the most prolific burglar in the area got an 8 year sentence a couple of years ago ) .

Reminds self that I need to review our water etc.

@Janus, do you have an outside tap?

When I was still with XH, our water bills shot up and he was convinced we had a leak.

A few days after we had (yet another) row about money, I was out in the garden and heard a trickling sound. I checked the outside tap and it wasn't properly off. We hadn't noticed, because he'd left the hose attached and the nozzle was in the drain, so no visible dripping.

I didn't point out that he'd been all ready to spend a wodge of money on getting a leak detector in when he'd just not bothered to turn off the outside tap, and take the piss out of him. Oh no, not at all.

We do not save as we overpay the mortgage by £400 every month.

But that is saving, in the long term. It will save you loads, eventually!

This was us a couple of years ago, so things may have gone up a bit now.

Mortgage £500
CT £85
Gas and elec about £100 tops
Water £55
Mobiles £25
TV and broadband £60
Life, contents and home insurance- I think about £35 for all
Netflix- £8
Kids hobbies- £40ish

Paid car tax and TV licence as lump sums but about £150 each per annum. Also paid car insurance as lump sum which was about £600.

We managed ok really. Had to be somewhat careful in that big purchases needed discussing and planning for, but we had young children so weren't particularly fussed for huge nights out, glam holidays etc. And never worried about bills. I would've expected you to be very comfortable with no housing costs.

That said, most of your bills don't seem greatly excessive. The ones that strike me as very high are council tax, which you're stuck with unless you move, water which you may not be able to do anything about and the phones and Virgin. I'd be shocked if you couldn't get those down a bit but the amount it will free up is probably only another £100 a month maybe. Where is the rest of the money going?

OP, it'd be great if you could come back to us and let us know how you get on with Virgin!

The key to cutting down on spending is really knowing where it all goes to start with. I used to coach clients in money management as part of my job, and it's amazing how much gets spent on incidentals.

We went out last night for a beer - 4 pints between us: £16.60! I could feed us for half the week on that. A coffee and a cake while out shopping is a fiver or so just for me, a taxi into town and back is £13, my once a week newspaper costs £150 a year.

If you are up to date with your council tax bill your local authority may allow you to spread the cost over 12 months instead of the usual 10 months.

I just spoke to the water company, they reckon our £81 a month is in line with ‘normal usage’ and she can see our usage rate goes up and down whereas a leak would be a big spike. I said I don’t understand how it can be that high and she just kind of shrugged.

Dh phoning virgin shortly....

Similar income,

Rent: £895
Council tax: £135
Car payments: £160
Insurance: £65
Phones: £60
Water: £45
Gas and electric: £150
Sky: £40
Debt: £75

and we cope fine! Have the odd skint day but we manage! I’d LOVE to have the same income with no rent or mortgage though! Then I’d feel rich!!

If you’re on recurring contracts with suppliers then no doubt you’ll over paying massively. Always shop around come renewal, even your own supplier will probably be cheaper on a new contract.

Income less than that, bills higher, live in SE...

Our gas and electric are £80 we pay £85
Council tax £162 £145
Mobiles £110 £85 but will drop significantly in a few months when we go sim only, but needed new phones without upfront cost
Water £85 that is a huge amount, we are on a meter, shower and bath a lot, loads of washing and still pay £45
Car tax and insurance £45 don't run a car
Prescription prepayment £12 same
Life insurance £45 don't have any
Contents insurance £20 £10
Heating/ plumbing cover £28 don't have any
Sofa £20 bough second hand
Breakdown cover £17 none
Pet insurance £15 none
Virgin media £140 jesus that is extortionate, we pay £50 for broadband and all TV except sports channels, get on the phone to them
Charity £9 nope

but most of the 'savings' we make compared to you are because we don't run a car, AND we rent, so instead of your life insurance and breakdown cover we pay £850 a month rent

It might be worth checking for leaks both inside and outside. Dripping taps, leaking washing machines and dishwashers, garden taps, and toilet cisterns can all contribute to higher bills. Also look at getting a water saving pack from your water company and see if you are eligible for Surface Water Drainage allowance or Non Return to Sewer allowance. If you are in receipt of certain benefits and have disabilities that means you use more water than the average household then you may be eligible for other help (I'm not sure what other water companies call it but our local one calls it Watersure).

If you want to save you need to make that money an unavoidable bill with a direct debit to come out same time as you get paid. On your income you should be able to put at least £500 away every month. Set up a DD and you’ll be forced to make the remaining income work. Good luck!

Spoke to virgin- best they can do is £105. Sky don’t include bt sports in their £74 package and costs an extra £30 a month. So virtually identical cost. And yes he does need bt sport for work...

I’ve reduced my mobile bill to £16 and dh can reduce his in March.

So now we need to get a grip on food. Dh still expects to eat like when we were on two salaries with no child, that had to change.

OP why are you having to foot the bill for virgin if OH needs it for work?

How much do you spend on food?

LakieLady Yes, two! Just checked both, no luck!!
I do have 4 kids and 3 dogs so lots of washing of clothes and towels after dog walks this time of year. Think I do 2-3 loads of washing a day so this is where the water is realistically going!
I am going to ring up on Monday and check about the ’spike’ though, you never know! But I know our area is about the most expensive in the country and we have to pay to take sewage away which I don’t think n most areas charge for?? Seems a Rip off that different counties have different rules.