To try to get our household outgoings to <2k

[Jillybons]

Dreading work tomorrow and want to try and start my own business. To do this we’d need to get our household outgoings to less than 2k. AIBU to ask if we could and where you’d cut costs. Budget as below currently

• Mortgage 785 (interest rate is 3.5) so probably could get this down
• council tax 100
• electricity and gas 100
• Food 300
• Leisure incl takeaways, clothes, socialising, holidays, personal savings etc 500 for the two of us
• Netflix, Prime 30
• 2 x car insurance 110
• Petrol/car maintenance 200
• insurance home/Homeserve 50
• water 30
• Internet 35

Think that’s it! Though the smart people of Mumsnet will probably figure out something else we’re spending on 🤦‍♀️

I agree with PPs that you can knock that leisure spend right down. £200 maximum would be enough, just stop saving for a while and you don't need holidays. Same for clothes, you really don't need to buy new clothes very often. That's £300 per month saved right there.

Leisure extremely high
Fuel and car extremely high

@Wanderlust20

Would love to know how people spend less than £300 on groceries! We're about £400-600 for the two of us Didn't realise this was a lot

£400-600 for two! Do you have a lot of waste? We spent around £300 a month if that two adults one toddler DC.

I only get what I need as I absolutely cannot stand waste. I don't do top up shops in between unless for bread or milk.

Cut the leisure fund drastically. No need for both Netflix and Prime. Or indeed either if you just use catch up tv instead.

@Jillybons

I think leisure money is probs the wrong word as it’s used for ‘everything else’ I.e grabbing a coffee, 100 quid a month into an account for once a year holiday etc

What do others spend on ‘leisure/everything else’

Yeah you need to not holiday and cut out the takeaway coffees.

You could download your online bank statements and look at exactly what you've spent over the last XXX months and start from there.

To be honest, you've lumped everything into Lesiure but if you break it down into £250 per month each for 'incidentals', you can see where it goes, eg something like this isn't uncommon:

Haircut
Nails
Shoes
Dentist
Birthday gift for friends
Easter eggs
Outfit for friends new baby
Sponsor friend for race for life
Prescription charge
Winter coat / summer clothes
Theatre ticket / gig ticket
New laptop
Replace TV
New lamp / duvet cover

I mean it’s basically your leisure money that’s the big spend , have you managed to cut that down during lockdown ? I think that should tell you if you are going to be able to knock some of that spend on the head

Possible remortgage ?

Homeserve is a complete con....read the reviews....awful awful company....always better to call out a local tradesman for boiler issues rather than paying a monthly sum to some scam company.

Do the free 35 day trial on YNAB. I've never had such a great hold on my finances & spending. And saving! It's paid for itself in the first month. Wish I'd discovered it years ago.

That list adds up to less than 1800.
So you are already under budget, or are spending loads that you cant account for.
You need a list of EVERYTHING you spend, or it will be impossible to see where the money is going.

@Wanderlust20

Would love to know how people spend less than £300 on groceries! We're about £400-600 for the two of us Didn't realise this was a lot

I'd like to see how two people can eat £100 - £150 of food between them per week, £20 a day? What on earth do you buy?

We forgot phone bills but both on cheap contracts so about 30 a month for two

That's not cheap, you could half that.

Mortgage rate is awful. Unless you have bad credit or very high LTV you should be able to get that right down.

Knock your leisure spending down massively too if you're serious about cutting back.

Could spend a bit less on food too. Lots of seasonal veg, pulses, eggs, drink basic tea and coffee. Cut right back on meat and fish, other drinks and snacks and any fancy versions of things.

@JackieWeaversZoomAc

Do the free 35 day trial on YNAB. I've never had such a great hold on my finances & spending. And saving! It's paid for itself in the first month. Wish I'd discovered it years ago.

I would definitely second this. I started the trial last year, had a handle on my finances within the free trial and was happy to pay the annual fee to keep going.

I've saved masses over the year (lockdown helped too!), far far more than the fee.

It's a good budgeting tool

Life insurance tv license

Council tax so cheap

Def remortgage

It would be worth talking to your current mortgage lender to see if it’s better to move from your current rate to a new one. It looks like you might be on the SVR though so likely won’t incur fees to move. It really does depend on your loan to value and other stuff of course.

@Wanderlust20

Would love to know how people spend less than £300 on groceries! We're about £400-600 for the two of us Didn't realise this was a lot

We do about 400. It includes acohol etc. No waste here.

It isn't though is it @FlyingBurrito - £300pcm for two is £37.50 pw week each, including cleaning stuffs and toiletries. Not much at all.

£250 each on leisure spends - including everything doesn't go far:

2 coffees pw 20
Hair 30
Theatre ticks 25
Night out 40
Magazine 5
Hols 50
Xmas 40
Birthdays 20 (all cards, mum, dad, nieces)

Adds up to 230 - not sure where to cut that?

Leisure spending is far too high. That's the first place to start.
You say you just "grab a coffee"... that ends up costing a fortune over a period of time.

The food is too much for two people and a dog in my opinion even if it includes washing powders, cleaning materials, bog roll etc.
I've spent 45 quid on food per month for the last 4 months (because I've got fuck all money thanks to COVID) so I've slashed food spending by buying everything on offer, making batches of soups, pasta sauce etc in bulk and freezing.

You only need netflix or prime, not both.

Electricity and gas is quite expensive. Get the heating turned down and an extra jumper on.

What do others spend on ‘leisure/everything else’

We have £250 each and that doesn't include any savings. It's for: clothes, shoes, jewelry, make up, skin care, coffee, cakes, hobbies, day trips, take aways, household goods not included in the weekly shop (e.g. pictures, small items of furniture, plants, board games, cookery items and utensils) underwear, bras, pet treats, flowers, meals out, dental visits, hair cuts, computer games....etc, etc.

@RosesAndHellebores

It isn't though is it *@FlyingBurrito* - £300pcm for two is £37.50 pw week each, including cleaning stuffs and toiletries. Not much at all.

£250 each on leisure spends - including everything doesn't go far:

2 coffees pw 20
Hair 30
Theatre ticks 25
Night out 40
Magazine 5
Hols 50
Xmas 40
Birthdays 20 (all cards, mum, dad, nieces)

Adds up to 230 - not sure where to cut that?

I think you're confusing the OP with @Wanderlust20 whose post I quoted, she spends up to £600 per month for two people, yes I've rounded to £20 per day to make the maths simpler

I can't see where she says that includes cleaning products and toiletries but I could have missed that

You'd probably be better off saving the money you pay to Homeserve in case of emergency - how often have you actually used them? My home insurance is around £300 a year so that seems high.

Car insurance also seems high. Make sure you change every year, because there is no financial advantage whatsoever (sadly) to being loyal - and then use a cashback site (Topcashback is good) which will give you on average around £50 for each new policy. I've just got £75 for my new motor insurance.

The massive easy save here is to cut out new clothes and takeaways. They're luxuries so prioritise. Really think about each spend.

Cut back on leisure pay out stuff, not sure how much netflix is, as never had it, Takeaway eating, not necessary, not browsing the internet,for some lovely.but not necessary things. Holidays,if you tend to big spend on them. You can always cut down a bit with food shopping, as everything adds up at the end of the day, if your are determined to make big changes to saving for something important.

@RosesAndHellebores where are you to spend £20 on 2 coffees per week? I assume you mean 2 coffee per person but even then, 4 coffees would cost about tenner.

I'd easily cut your list by knocking off theatre, magazine, holidays and Christmas. That's £100+ gone.

As other people have said there is a lot not accounted for. Dentist, opticians, haircuts, birthdays and Christmas for close family only - even if you don't send a gift, a card sent in the post is £2/3. Clothes, shoes, replacing broken white goods, house maintenance - if the boiler stops working through normal wear and tear (not covered by any insurance) how do you fund a replacement? If your laptop dies tomorrow can you cope without it? Prescriptions cost a tenner a time and you never know when you might need one.

We have coped on very tight budgets but IME you have to factor in a substantial amount each month and keep it tightly ring-fenced to cover life's little emergencies.

You do need to break your "leisure" category down. I suspect you're not really spending all that on "leisure" but it's actually a miscellaneous pot.
I'd suggest scrutinising a few months worth of statements and also keeping a spending diary. I suspect your main problem is that you're used to spending freely, so don't really know where the money goes.

Things not on your list: phone, tv license, road tax, MOT, parking, medical/dentist/optician expenses, pet expenses, presents, life insurance, subscriptions.