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.

Sorry to hear that things are a struggle, OP.

You've had brilliant advice already but I wanted to mention 'community fridge' and also re-use organisations. I go to some of these for work and have noticed that not only do they do excellent quality furniture (all checked and safety tested) for very small amounts of money, they have PAINT and other household repair/maintenance stuff.

I don't know where you are but, to the best of my knowledge, all council areas have some sort of third sector organisations working - and sometimes multiples of these.

I googled and these came up, different areas:
www.toogoodtowaste.co.uk/ynyshir-showroom?locale=en
bloomfieldcommunitycentre.org/community-fridge

You may or may not find them useful but, just knowing that they, and others are out there, might help.

Free cycle.

Re uniforms if it’s a summer dress for school my mum used to make this for me. You can make other clothes doesn’t always work out cheaper but I went to a posh school where my friend had a knitted school colours jumper. Poundland are doing loads of wools at £1-£2 so you or kids could knit 🧶 anyway, good for gifts too.

Jumble sales - my mum only ever went to these (before Primark!) for clothes. Lodgers is a good idea too, she rented out rooms for years even with 2 kids and my stepdad in a 4 bed house. Agreed on strip washes vs showers and baths.

Second offer babysitting and see about promotions etc at work. If worse comes to worse get another job - stepdad left old job (specialist making fibre glass models) for a good job in civil service with good pension, mum did A levels at night school and went to teacher training college and became a teacher. She specialised in art and drama but taught drama at Saturday schools she ran (mornings) and after school a couple if evenings and later Saturday mornings tutored kids in English and maths. So if latter is a possibility, even guitar lessons etc that’s good. If kids old enough to get jobs like paper rounds etc then good.

Switch energy providers etc.

Cut down loads on meat. As kids we were mostly vegetarian but had odd chicken and fish meal. My mum makes now a lovely lentil pie (with curry powder in) that you serve with rice, banana, yoghurt and mango chutney but lasts a few days and a Turkish pilau meal that lasts a few days too. Leftovers mixed in with things for meals.
Allotment? Or grow in garden. Neighbours with kids have got an allotment for past 2 years and are down there a lot and get fruit and veg and entertain kids and exercise.

Babysitting is a particularly good shout - I'd also mention gardening and if you are good enough at DIY to have bought a fixer-upper, maybe handyperson type jobs? I would absolutely bite the hand off anyone who would do those sorts of jobs in the evening. I'm completely kackhanded, can't put up a shelf or change a spotlight bulb or redo the seal round my bath (ok I'm going to have a go at that one). You might be amazed what people will pay for.

Don’t be fooled by Costco (not everyone is eligible to join anyway) - I find it actually more costly than supermarkets on most products - you have to be very savvy and strict if you’re shopping there on a budget.

I think your answer is literally writing down every single penny you spend. Then go through every single item to see if costs can be cut and if it’s absolutely necessary. As pp has mentioned, mobile phone contacts - giff gaff have a £6 per month sim only contact .. no need to pay £20+ per month yet many many people still do. Sky/tv - reduce down or get rid. Coffee on the way to work? .. ditch it. Quick lunch bought out .. make packed lunches.

There’s probably more you can do to save but you’re only gonna work things out when you write down and account for every single penny.

Sorry haven’t read the whole thread but does the school do uniform recycling? You can sometime get bits from there and if they’ve only been worn by a fast growing only child like my DD are usually in good nick. Uniform is so expensive!

The toogoodtogo app is great for getting a few cheaper things

I agree that Costco is not cheap for everything.

We buy toilet roll, catfood and litter, Lavazza coffee, batteries, Crosta Mollica frozen pizzas, deicer and not much else as it's more expensive than shopping in Lidl/Aldi or buying on special offer from the bigger supermarkets.

Shamsnahar You do realise that there is a diffrence between what adults choose to do to themselves in the name of saving the planet and saving money and forcing on their children do you?

The OP has asked for tips on how to make her money stretch further, which is absoluely fair enough. Life may be a bit less cosy for the whole family for a while, and that's true for many at the moment.

The people advising that the OP essentially adopt a Dickensian standard of living on her chlidren, sending them to school potentially smelling and in dirty clothes are being thoroughly irresponsible. The children may well become outcasts, kids notice this type of thing, bigtime.

We have running water and heating in this country, we do not live in the 19th Century or in the Indian subcontinent and the OP has money enough for takeaways so this type of advice is just stupid..

I found I was wasting money on silly things, what does your budget look like, and what is your income?

I'm not going to detail the thread any further about methods of bathing. There were plenty of other extreme cost cutting methods suggested before my suggestion including not washing. None of that was picked up before I mentioned the indian subcontinent. lf I just had mentioned basin washing alone then the accusations of child abuse by @weareliars wouldn't have been made.

Having looked at your first post, without any detailed financial breakdown it’s difficult to advise anyone without essentially suggesting they live off grid and hunt pigeons.

What I have started to realised is that life is expensive nowadays, there is no escaping that. Unless you can earn more money then sometimes it’s about accepting this is it and making the decisions to either sacrifice savings or live a reasonably decent life with what you have.

No doubt this is why millions of people find themselves stuck in a similar situation with no means to get out and no alternative but to continue to live that life. Account for every penny to figure out where it’s going.

@hufffflufff

this might sound extreme but if you're overweight in any way you could do intermittent fasting! Skipping some meals and can be very good for you and healthy as well as saving money.

Oh my gosh, do you event know what you're suggesting or realise how awful that sounds?

There are quite a few posters I read who say that they skip meals to feed their kids. The fact that you would advocate this, dressed up as intermittent fasting, is shocking.

I do intermittent fasting, I elect to do it because it suits me. If I were told to do it or felt I had to, to save money, it would be horrendous.

We have a fallback in the UK; it's not great but it's the best we have and nobody should be advised not to eat to save money.

I wondered if cutting down on showers would be suggested and whether there'd be the subsequent pile-on of posters saying you can't do that etcetc. So unhygienic etc.
I posted a while back on a thread - can't remember what it was about exactly - about how some people just cannot afford daily showers and nor can the environment. Water and the fuel to heat it costs a fortune. I got my ass handed to me on a plate.
It is something to be looked at as the climate change emergency gathers pace. Can the earth really sustain the majority of people in more developed countries showering every single day? Let alone twice a day (many Mumsnetters seem to do this).
Are people going to be able to afford that much hot water in future? Probably not.

I am not saying send the kids to school stinking, but the OP could save a lot of money by limiting the lengths of daily showers or reducing showers to every other day with a "pits and bits" wash on the other days.

There have been a lot of suggestions on this thread and I'd add "make your own bread", which isn't actually that much of a faff when you get into it, you just have to plan in enough time to let it rise. I am in another country where the bread price has gone up so much this more that it is no longer affordable!
However, I think the biggest problem here is that all of the ideas are just tinkering around at the edges - I think the OP does need to look at increasing the family income somehow to make things less of a squeeze.
And yes, things are going to get worse.

Who did you get mortgage with? Did they not do checks properly on affordability?

The only proper way to get more moneny in is to get ectra hours or job as pp said.

I think if you have cut back on everything ,then either extra work or possibly looking at moving somewhere cheaper ? Its very hard ATM as people are squeezed ever tighter .There is a big difference in "cutting back" and pinching so much it affects quality of life .We have had a long period of growth which is now being affected by Brexit ,Pandemic and so on

I'm in the same boat. My income and way of life haven't changed, but whereas I used to be able to save £250 a month without noticing it, I have to take that back out of the savings account (and more this month).
Costs are steadily rising and wages aren't.
It's going to get even worse this winter as the energy costs hit new highs.
Some of this is down to Brexit, some to a Tory Government, some to the pandemic. It's brutal.
Unless you can see a way to bring in more money it looks like you are already doing the things people would normally advise. With a family this can be really hard - time and energy are precious.
I can only really suggest you carry on battening down the hatches, stock up with hot water bottles for the winter. Duvet on the sofa. Thinking forward to Christmas be really strict with your spending. Set a budget and have a conversation with wider family that you would love vouchers or cash, or agree not to buy for adults.
Look out for stuff on fb marketplace. What can you sell on ebay? Do you have any secret talents, tutor or childcare?
Regarding your floors, if they are floorboards could you paint with floor paint and get second hand rugs? Or the big Ikea ones that are really nice and about £30?

@Moneysavvymam

Not possible to get a 2nd job, the cost in childcare would be over double the wage I could get so just no possible. I have listed loads of things for sale before we moved and not got an offer on a single thing. And I wasn't over charging. everything under a quid. Not sold a single thing. Quite disheartening to be honest.

Aha there's your issue - underpricing makes people think there's something wrong with it. Look at ebay sold prices to get a realistic figure and price a little higher if in doubt because you can always accept a lower offer.

You need to looo at all your expenditure and see if it is really necessary and whether it can be got more cheaply. You said that you don’t spend money for the sake of it but then you said you normally buy new uniform every year which really isn’t necessary as long as it still fits. When I was at secondary school all I had was new trousers when they got too short, I had the same blouses/jumper/blazer the whole time I was there! There are probably other things you are spending on which are also not really essential which you can cut back on.

Shamsnahar Are you a mind reader? No, so keep your ill judged and wrong implications of racism to yourself

Sounds like you’ve overstretched yourselves on the new house/mortgage. Everything seems to be going up in the price and I think it will be tough for anyone just about managing or already stretched. You’ve had some great advice though.

As pp has mentioned, mobile phone contacts - giff gaff have a £6 per month sim only contact .. no need to pay £20+ per month yet many many people still do.

Actually check with your phone company, I've been with EE for years and you get a loyalty discount. My contract (sim only) has ended and I'm technically on a £19 a month rolling contract, but because of my discount it's £3 a month - no not a typo, this is for unlimited calls and texts and more data than I have ever managed to use.

Also check not just deals you can move to for utilities but ask your existing supplier what they can offer.

Check out 'warm homes' discount, if you qualify it's £140 off your energy bill every year, there are 2 groups of people eligible, the 'core' group is defined by the government but the other group is decided by the energy company, it's worth looking around and in my case going for the deal that wasn't the cheapest but the one where I qualified for the discount.

Also look at your water company, I'm with Severn Trent and they have both a trust fund and a 'big difference' scheme that helps if you are struggling.

If things are really bad it's worth noting that utility companies mostly can't cut you off if you have children in the house.

I think you've had a lot of good advice but without any financial details at all I'm not sure anyone can help.

But I agree with whoever said

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.

@user1493423934

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.

And remember a lot more employers are open to people working at home now.

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.

This really.
Some of the ideas such a foraging are really a waste of time, add on the ingredients and use of fuel to cook and then look at how much you can earn in the 2/3 hours and its much more cost effective to get a few hours work.
DH and I worked different shifts and it worked really well.
Op if you need to find money to update your house then a few windfall apples and a strip wash wont help.
You need to find a way to increase your income.