How to cut corners when you already cut all of the corners?

[Moneysavvymam]

Me and DH have been eating into our savings recently. We have just moved so that comes with costs. Bought a few extra takeaways after being knackered from unpacking amd moving, bought a few new things we needed including furniture (all second hand though) so we initially thought that was part and parcel of the move. It costs money.

However now its been a while and the savings are still going down when they should be going back up.

We need to cut costs but we already do the following-
batch cook one pot meals mostly and freeze.
cycle or walk to cut travel costs (no car)
called Internet and got a better deal but they keep putting the price back up despite setting up an 18 month fixed price contract. eye roll.
-buy almost everything second hand
-we already shop at aldi and lidl
-we don't buy stuff for the sake of it anyway its all second hand
-stay in mostly, or local walks no days out for £££
-keep heating off and use electric blankets in winter and jumpers and extra socks

I don't know where else we can save. We were given a couple of hundred from family as a moving in present, it was supposed to go toward a new kitchen or flooring which is bare and unsafe but it just went on bills and now I'm too embarrassed to have people round because we are still living in a fixer upper when I budgeted and planned to have saved enough to have redecorated 80% of the place by now, but in reality I've put off buying a tin of paint because the money is just running away it seems.

oh and we just had a letter saying the gas and electricity is expected to rise in price. And I've noticed I'm spending more and more on food.
Is there anything I have forgotten? We are a family of 6 and I didn't even replace all of the uniform this year because I just couldn't afford it.
We still have about 2 months worth of expenses in savings but its dwindling.

I feel like we should be raking it in because we cut expenses to the bone but I'm struggling to think of where else we can cut. Any advice? I'm sure lots are in the same boat. Thank you for getting this far if you did, I know I'm a rambler when I worry.

Can't you work around DH?

I don't think saving money is going to be possible as a family of six with only one income right now - prices are rising for everyone.

There are plenty of jobs going in hospitality or retail and they'll be crying out for evening and weekend staff. Even 2-3 evening shifts a week could really help
boost your income.

Not possible to get a 2nd job, the cost in childcare would be over double the wage I could get so just no possible.

How about night/weekend when your DH is home? I do a second job 2 hours on Wed and 2 hours on Sunday 7-9pm. Not heaps extra but enough to cover weeks petrol/some groceries.

It's hard to know what to advise without knowing what your outgoings are. I will say that we are a veggie household, but only a family of four, and our food shop is still pretty manageable.

I agree with the evening/weekend job idea. This is what I did for the first two years after my eldest was born because we couldn't have afforded childcare. 3 evenings a week made all the difference.

Not got much to add in terms of practical advice, I think PPs have given some good suggestions, but I just wanted to say that stuff really does seem to have gotten more expensive. Especially food. So it isn't just a case of you not being careful enough - your food shop cost will be increasing.

You need to increase your income, not try and cut further. Are the DCs old enough to contribute? My DS has a paper round.
Can either of you get a better paid job or promotion?

How old are your kids? Are they all soon in school age? You can then consider getting a 2nd job either during school hours or evenings/weekends

Is there any family or friends who can help you with the renovations? If your wages cover bills and food I would not worry too much if you are using savings do sort out house. Once that is done you can start thinking about the savings again. Sorry you are having a stressful time financially 💐

Sounds miserable already to be honest.

Are you on low incomes, can you look at other jobs?

Definitely get into the MSE boards. However as PPs have said, costs are rising sharply now and you have four children so unless you’re on a stonking income, you can expect things to remain tight. It sounds like you’re already very frugal so finding ways to increase income should be your focus. Working opposite hours to your OH so evenings or weekends sounds crap because you will want family time but realistically…you’ve had four children and will have to make sacrifices. What ages are they as that will make a big difference to how long term this issue is.

You sound like a great and resourceful mum who wants the best for her family so I’m sure you will be fine but it would be lying to say there is an easy fix to this.

Have you looked at every single outgoing like car insurance, phone, etc and shopped around for the best deal?

I did this recently and was shocked at how staying loyal to one provider was costing me£50 more a month on car insurance.

I've switched to a sim only phone contract and just keep the same phone going. Only costs £8 a month with Giffgaff.

I also moved my credit card to 0% interest and changed bank account provider to get a better interest rate.

I used to work with a mother of 6 who worked nights while her dh worked days.

You don’t need to replace uniform every year if it still fits them.

Pass it down to the next child, also our school do a uniform sale at the end of every year of donated uniform find out if yours does too.

Small beer, but I do online market research surveys. It is certainly not lots of money, but I get vouchers that can help.

Have you got an income and expenditure list for yourselves.
Have you looked at any benefit entitlements websites like entitled to -
No other advice but everything is going up and it’s not easy.

Have you checked with all your energy providers/other household bills to see where you can reduce them. A few months ago I rang around each one - BT, Sky etc. My contracts were up with those ages ago anyway so I was able to make savings on new ones. It was only a quick phone call. I saved £38 a month on the two I just mentioned. Doesn't sound like a lot but when you're hard up it really is a lot.

Also, I only go good shopping once a week whereas I used to go on a Monday and Thursday and end up getting tempted by offers while I was there. Now I plan what we're eating for the week and get a few freezer things as well for back up. We have a takeaway on a Saturday as a treat. I've saved loads by cutting out that extra day of food shopping.

I use the car for work, food shopping and longer journeys only. I walk everywhere else.

What about selling some old clothes/unwanted items on Gumtree?

As you've cut all the corners with regards to spending, the way forward is to increase your income. So, only ever one of you at home looking after the dc, the other one at work. Better paid jobs (although I'm fairly sure you'll have tried that!). Jobs that can be done simultaneously with children ie childminding. (I did a marketing job whilst I looked after my 3 year old. We both went to the ladies who business it was house. I worked, she played in their play room. She kept coming in so we'd be there about 3 hours to get 2 hours done, but that was fine, she was happy).

What hours do you both currently work, and what are your childcare arrangements?

We have 4 birth children and also foster, so sometimes have more in the house. We have been through times when money has been very tight, although we are ok now. I still do a lot of these things because I don't like wasting money and a lot of it is also kinder to the environment.

Buy unisex colours and designs for things like winter boots, wellies, coats. Hand down as much as possible. Get in touch with CAP. The one in my area takes in big bundles of clothes and passes them around for free. They also have trained accountants to help you go through your finances.

Get the own brand/cheapest version of everything in the supermarket. We've found we much prefer a lot of the own brand stuff anyway. As PP said go at the end of the day and buy heavily reduced meat and free it. Bulk out any mince dishes with lentils so you can make twice the amount of shepherds pie/chilli etc with one packet of mince. I use green lentils for shepherds pie and extra chickpeas and kidney beans in chilli.

Sunday I do roast chicken and on Monday I make the little scraps of chicken left into wither chickens and pea risotto or a chicken curry. Pick it clean. A big pot of soup, crusty bread and has boiled eggs is also very cheap and nutritious.

Decorate the kids bedrooms as part of their Christmas presents. Make it fun and give them different (cheap) options that you've already approved. You can get partially used tins of paint for cheap in some paint shops. I have got 2 pairs of nice curtains from ebay for under £10 each. Instead of buying each other/your parents buying you that for Christmas ask for money to buy flooring in the january sales.
Consider cheaper options for the house. Can you put down laminate or vinyl instead of wood etc.

As PP have asked, do you have a garage/driveway/spare bedroom?

Long winded answer, but bare with:

If you can, log into your online bank and export the last 30 days into a CSV file.
Open that with Google Sheets or Excel.

Adjust the cells and columns and such so you can read the info.

There might be extra columns you don't need so get rid of them.

What you want is a table that has business paid, amount, when. So something like:

BT - £50 - 13/9
Tesco - £34.99 - 10/9

So on and so on.

Then in first empty.column go down each entry and type in 1 of the following letters:

U
I
O

You type 'I' next to an entry that's 'Income'
You type 'O' next to bills and Direct Debits ('O' standing for Outgoing)

And the hardest one that you'll need to be really honest about:
Type 'U' next to everything that was Unnecessary. So an entry might say Tesco - £2.87 - 7/9, think back, was that KitKat, can of coke and copy of Big Builders Monthly really a necessity? Nope, Mark it 'U'
Amazon - £3.79 - 1/9 think back, did you really need a wine bottle topper in the shape of a golden asparagus?
Be really harsh and honest.

Do that for every entry in your sheet. The letters are really close on the keyboard donor can be done in a few minutes.

Then, once you're done. You'll be left with a sortable table that you can show just your incomes, just your Bills and direct debits and standing orders etc. But also, all the small, unnecessary £2 here, £4 there, type outgoings too. Be sure to include any cash withdrawal in the 'U' column unless you can remember precisely what you took the money out for. (Include cash withdrawal as U because sometimes, for example, you'll draw 30 and pay someone £26, but have no idea where the £4 went)

Select all columns and apply filter. Then filter the UIO column to show just the 'U' entries.

Select all of the entries in the cash amount column and at the bottom it should give you a total of all the money you've spent unnecessarily in the last 30 days.

Some may not strictly be unnecessary, so you can filter those out.

But eventually you might be able to see where your cash is going.

I do this regularly and it's always a shock to see that these little unnecessary spends can total up to a few hundred over a month.
A pop to Tesco in the afternoon for a treat, sure it's only £2, but do it regularly and it mounts up. Cheap things off eBay or Amazon when you're browsing for nothing in particular, again, it's "Only" £5 but there's been 5 "Only £5" purchases in the last fortnight. So on and so on.

Money is pizza...
Sure some slices are huge, but if you nibble the toppings crusts, you'll still eat the whole pie eventually.

Typo #I only go food shopping

Marriage allowance used? Check to see if you are due a rebate.

“I know you have 6 in your family and cannot change that now, but I would say this is why I would choose not to have a family or 6.”
Jeeez, it’s not about you! OP has already got her family, so comments like this really aren’t going to help, are they?
As PP have said, a good idea is to put your expenditure on a spreadsheet to see where the money is going. MSE is very helpful, and also looking for ways to bulk out existing meals with legumes Etc.
Good tip is to use dried beans rather than canned: even though the price of cans seems low, it can be reduced by more than half if using dried.
Similarly, you can eke out meat by adding veggies: chicken enchiladas for 6 can be made using only 2 chicken breasts, grated courgette and thinly sliced pepper and onion, passata, cheese, own brand tortilla wraps and some Mexican spices - again, this would knock about 50p off the cost, but small savings do add up. Using chicken thighs would further reduce the cost and give a stronger chicken flavour.
Adding lentils to minced beef is another tip for cottage pie on a budget, and Red Lentil Dahl with veg and rice is a lovely comfort meal for the colder nights ahead, and costs pennies!
Good luck - prices really are rising so it’s going to be difficult for many families.💐

Do you have a food share near you anyone can have food from there.It is on the date food from local shops and given away to save it going to landfill.Hopefully you have a freezer and can freeze bargains after batch cooking.We are lucky as have people around who have fruit trees and give away surplus.Can you grow some food?Swap clothes with friends also toys,books and leftover paint,DIY bits.Barter is popular here.Freecycle has amazing bits and pieces.Paint hub can sell paint very cheaply even F&B,Check out all of these in your area,put a wanted post on Freecycle.eXchange skills with neighbours.It s hard,good luck.

If you have cut costs to the minimum and you are still struggling then you need to look at increasing income. One of you work weekends/evenings while the other looks after the kids perhaps?

@Moneysavvymam

Vegetarian is a good idea though, Although I know Dh will complain

Everyone else could go vegetarian?

6 people can't live on one income (unless it's an exceptionally large income). So the only way to make this work is to increase your income.