Budget

[Glitterybee]

I have £3100 per month income after taxes, etc but as a single parent with 3 kids, it really doesn’t go far.

To be honest it did until the COL rises. I know a lot are in this boat…

I have found myself £800 pm short in my budget so something has to give.

I cannot reduce any of my outgoings at all - for context I wasn’t always earning this great money, I have worked my way up from minimum wage and therefore am frugal already. I need to work on increasing my income again but no room for further promotion in my career currently.

The kids are teenagers so I suppose I could look at part time bar/retail work, etc for evenings and weekends but honestly I am struggling for work/life balance with my full time job as it is.

AIBU to ask what would you do if you needed to find an extra £800 per month? Or if you have been in a similar situation, what have you done?

Can musical one teach? DD’s friend did piano lessons for young children from young teens.

When are all the debt payments due to finish?

What's the mortgage and utilities breakdown and has your mortgage increased yet, or is that still to come?

Could you cut down on gifts at all? It's a lot on top of the expensive hobbies.

How old are the teens and can any of them work?

No chance of maintenance from their dad?

Anything you'd normally put into savings, use to pay off debts quicker.

Eyebrows and nails... Really??

Can hobbies be halved IE lessons once a fortnight for a while.

kids sports/hobbies - 415 cut back!?
14sky tv- cancel
10Netflix - 10.99- cancel
mobile phones (tesco family sim only deal) 50- cut back cheaper option available.
savings - 70 not essential
groceries - 500- can defo cut back, stop buying loads of crap, snacks and prepare stuff.
Car fuel - 400- is this the bare minimum or can you walk more?
nails & eyebrows - 30- seriously lol
spending money - 400 cut back! Don't spend on clothes and socialising
birthdays & Christmas savings - not essential

Omg this seems ridiculous. There are plenty of bills you can reduce, you just clearly don't 'need' to or you would. You have loads of money you spend on non essentials whilst some are actually destitute or struggling. Depending on kids ages I'd get them getting a job to pay towards hobbies- life lesson

Completely agree. There is so much needless spending going on.

mortgage & utilities - 1198 : I assume you have shopped around for deals?
car loan - 216 : When does this end? Will you own the car outright or is it one of those hire deals people get trapped in?

loan repayment - 175 : when does this end?

credit card - 100 : when will this be cleared? Don't keep adding to it - pay by debit card or cash.

kids sports/hobbies - 415 : this is a tough one. I hear you about DD dancing. Can you tell them money is tight and ask for their suggestions as to what they might want to give up?

car insurance - 90 : this is very high. Is it due to the type of car? If so, trade in for a smaller car as soon as possible

car tax - 14 : ok

sky tv - 10 : cancel it
Netflix - 10.99 : cancel it. Or at least do one or the other, not both. Have you looked at what is available on the free catch-up services that the main channels have online?

mobile phones (tesco family sim only deal) 50 : shop around.

savings - 70 : golden rule is pay off debts before saving. Put this towards the credit card

groceries - 500 : fair enough with hungry teens. But watch it carefully and cut out any expensive snacks/treats/ready meals/alcohol. Cut down on meat.

Car fuel - 400 : walk whenever possible. Combine trips and errands so you go out in the car fewer times. If you have a long commute, then look at the bigger picture long term - how long will this last before you can either move nearer work or get a job nearer home?

iphone storage 2.99 : is this essential? Can you put stuff on memory sticks or whatever? Re-think your tech solutions.

nails & eyebrows - 30 : not essential - cut it and do it yourself

spending money - 400 : you need to break this down further for yourself, e.g. itemise MOT and car bills in the main budget, itemise amounts for kids clothes and uniforms, your clothes, socialising, etc. Give yourself monthly fixed amounts for your clothes and socialising, then make sure you don't go over it.

birthdays & Christmas savings - 200 : essential if you want to avoid putting stuff on credit cards last minute - you are right to plan for these.

Well done for writing that all down and posting on AIBU. You're a braver person than I am!

So, you need to find £800 savings out of that lot. What can you trim from each pot to find that?

Things that jump out at me are the car insurance, fuel and car loan. Can you get a cheaper, more fuel efficient car? Can you use it less to save on fuel? Your loan and credit card bills are high too. Maybe get one cheaper consolidation loan to reduce payments and reduce your credit limit to £500, or a very small amount that can be paid off easily.

The spending and present money needs to be broken down more. What is essential and what is descretionary?

I would keep Netflix and sky with teens in the house and their one hobby each is the last thing I'd want to compromise on. Bored, unhappy teens would make life harder for the main earner!

You could probably get the food bill down by £50 without too much hassle. Lots of good money saving tips on YouTube.

YouTube is good for learning how to do your own nails and eyebrows too. Or getting one of those teens to do it. Another £30 saved 😇

I'd ask the dance school if there's any chance of a discount if you explain money is tight at the moment.

But honestly there is loads of room for cutting down here.

I'd prioritise paying off / consolidating loans, especially if you're paying interest on them.

I'd agree with relatives to put a spending cap on presents or even agree no parents for adults.

Personally I think £100 max is plenty for each child for bday and Xmas gifts. It's become ridiculous that people feel the need to spend thousands.

What's your fuel for?

Being brutal, you can't afford to have savings, your nails done, or to spent £2400 a year on presents. You can cut back personal spending.

This appears to be a case of not adjusting your spending despite the cost of living increasing. It is crap, no one wants to cut back but you have to.

Just some suggestions on how you may cut down:

mortgage & utilities - 1198

• Consider the government mortgage charter
• Check you are paying the best rate for mortgage and utilities
• Consider a mortgage advance to pay off loan and credit card to lower monthly payments
• Sign up to 50% elec days eg British Gas

car loan - 216

• Consider a cheaper car

loan repayment - 175

credit card - 100

• Consider a consolidated loan if this reduces monthly payments
• Apply for interest free credit card and do a balance transfer if you’re paying interest
• As above look into a mortgage advance

kids sports/hobbies - 415

car insurance - 90

• As above look at a cheaper car

car tax - 14

sky tv - 10

• Drop to basic package £5/month if able to switch

Netflix - 10.99

• Use or share a family members account

mobile phones (tesco family sim only deal) 50

• Look for cheaper deal if able to switch. Lebara do sim only from 25p - check money saving expert

savings - 70

• Don’t save unless you have enough to. Make sure you’ve got income protection insurance for all eventualities.

groceries - 500

• Shop at cheapest place. Do a meal plan and set a strict budget. Swap (or use half the amount of meat/fish) for chickpeas/lentils/beans/veg eg mixed bean fajitas, chickpea veg curry, lentil bolognese, veg pasta bake. Water only for drinks. Aldi fruit on offer for snacks. Buy supermarket gift cards at a discount on TopCashback.

Car fuel - 400

iphone storage 2.99

• Cancel this and clear out storage

nails & eyebrows - 30

• Cancel this and do self at home, it’ll cost about £30 to buy the stuff and it’ll last a year

spending money - 400

• Cut down even £50. Use Vinted for clothes. Get family to buy vouchers/clothes for kids presents. Use Groupon for family meals out. Always research to get cheapest activities eg Cinema etc. Use Top cash back account for any online purchases. Agree with having car maintenance/MOT in your budget as an essential expense and not included in spends.

birthdays & Christmas savings - 200

• This is a big one. No family/friends presents only buy for your 3 kids. £100 each for birthday and £300 each for Xmas cuts down the annual bill by half. Could be cut down further.

Just another tip I always buy Xmas presents on in the Black Friday sale as virtually every shop/online shop you get 20% off

Some very good suggestions for saving money, but one thing I wonder is don’t most of these things cost money to get out of? Eg if I wanted to change my car loan, car insurance, sky or phone contract I would have to pay to get out of them anyway?

If you are saving £270pm (for celebrations and regular) do you have a pot of savings you can use to pay off the credit card?

There are a few things that stand out to me.

Number 1 the spending money. I'm a single parent to one child so I get that you may need more but I have £150 a week max to cover spending money and groceries combined. Also birthday presents for friends have to come from this money and petrol. You can definitely cut back here.

Number 2 as others have said get rid of the nails spending. I have only had my hair cut once in the last year and have an appt this week. Do you nails yourself.

Number 3 as another poster mentioned cut back on birthday and Christmas savings. I have zero money left over for this so I would be over the moon to be able to save even half of this.

Number 4 either keep Netflix or sky. Not both.

I'm struggling with my budgeting as I got into debt during lockdown and I've got another couple of years of paying this off. My childcare costs went up significantly just before lockdown which was a contributing factor and I've cut back on everything possible. The only way to manage is to cut back on non essentials and many things on your list are not essentials.

You’re going to be a bit harsh here with your budget as your £800 short. Your options really are getting a second job or cutting back. There are a lot of non-essentials in your budget such as nails and eyebrows, haircuts, spending money and Christmas and birthday money. Cut all the budgets for these in half so you still have some money for them but you will be saving over £300 straight away. Then, look at mobiles, activities, groceries, where can you save some money here. Try cutting groceries down to £400 a month. Your car insurance is huge, why is this so much and why do you have a large car loan? Could you sell your car and get a cheaper one so cutting car pan and insurance. How long left in credit card and loan?

Car insurance- is there a reason it's so high - perhaps the mileage you do?

Fuel is high - is this commuting?

If you drive a huge beast,.might it be better to downsize and drive a more affordable boring car?

There are savings there which you could avoid spending or reduce if you don't ever earn more. Christmas, birthdays, "spending" might not need to be so high but understand you need to be prepared for those eventualities.

Why 100 on credit card and the loan. How much are those balances? Will they be repaid soon?

What are you saving 70 a month for if you’re paying off 275 in loan and cc debt each month? Use the 75 to pay off the debt. I’d also say you should use the 200 Christmas savings to pay it off also. Even if it’s just temporarily. 2400 is a lot to spend on Christmas when you have the debts that you have. Cut the Christmas saving in half or take a few months off and throw it at the debt.

I did "surveys" a few years ago.

I spent about 30 minutes every morning, 7 days a week.

After about 3 months I'd made 60p.

Always 🙄 when I see people suggesting it on here.

Also - 400 a month spending money is very vague. MOT is 55 once a year. School uniforms should be a once a year expense. Yet you’ve allocated almost 5k a year for trivialities. That’s a lot of socializing!

you're living a life you can't afford basically. There is a lot you can cut to live within your means. Once debt is paid off things will be different, but like many people you're living above your means. If you don't think you can work more hours, then the only solution is to cut your budget and as others have said you have plenty of areas to do that. I can see why your food bill is that level but you could try to trim from that by being smarter with how you shop, I cut £100 a month off ours a couple of years ago by very carefully planning and prepping and preparing things from scratch, filing up the freezer all the usual stuff. Food and entertainment is usually the areas most people can cut from.

birthdays & Christmas savings - 200 You can't afford this, cut it in half.
Credit card- if you haven't, do a balance transfer to another card to cut any interest you're paying. Pay debts before you put savings away.
Travel bill is high, but perhaps there is no other option?

This is quite sobering

Ive always been daft with money as I have ADHD.
Impulsive spending for dopamine hits has always been an issue. However, I’ve felt in recent years that I was on top of it - even by having a loose budget. That’s miles ahead of where I used to be.

The car is my dream car, it is a beast of an SUV hence the fuel and maintenance costs.
I took out a loan after being promoted to reward myself. I can see now that was quite silly. I should have waited a few years until the kids reach adult years and I’m no longer paying a fortune for their hobbies.

I guess I could sell private and downsize 😓

At least you've realised and are wise enough to be looking at your situation, many people don't do that. So sounds like you've over-burdened yourself and it is probably a good idea to downsize. Once the kids are grown up you all have more for yourself :)

Why did you sign up for such poor surveys? I made £20 yesterday in 30 mins.

@BLT24
Do you mind saying which surveys do you do?

Here's how I would cut back:

mortgage & utilities - 1198

car loan - 216
Terrible plan, but I guess you're stuck in it now until the term is up? Or can you sell it and pay off the loan then get a cheaper car? There are loads of used options on Cazoo for about £100-£130 a month and it's a false economy to think a 5-year-old car needs much more fixing than a brand new one these days.

loan repayment - 175
credit card - 100
kids sports/hobbies - 415
You've said these are non-negotiable.

car insurance - 90
That is £1080 a year. I arrived in the UK with 0 years no claims and bought a convertible and paid less than this in insurance. Get on compare the market and see if you can save something here, renewal quotes are pretty much the most expensive way to get insurance these days and you can cancel any time during your term (usually costs about £40 which might save you £100s)! I'd be surprised if you can't get it down to about £50 unless you drive a Porsche around like a maniac hitting everything you see.

car tax - 14
sky tv - 10
Netflix - 10.99
Cancel it. You don't need this and sky, and Netflix is on a month-by-month basis.

mobile phones (tesco family sim only deal) 50
Cancel this and go with Giffgaff, this isn't the deal you think it is. Giffgaff is PAYG but you can set it to recur each month and it is really the cheapest thing going.

savings - 70
There is absolutely no point having savings while you are paying off debt because the interest on the debt is higher than the interest on the savings. Put this towards the credit card so you can be free of it sooner.

groceries - 500
Three kids and one adult? Cut back. Tesco value pasta and pesto once a week. Buy tinned instead of fresh veg. Go down one level of snack (or right to the cheapest if you're up for it). Stop buying any alcohol at all until you're not haemorrhaging money. Go for frozen meat, not fresh, or substitute meat for lentils or peanuts. Use the time you thought of spending on the hypothetical second job cooking from scratch and eliminate as many UPFs as possible, as UPFs are more expensive than cooking from (mostly) scratch if you make sensible choices.

Car fuel - 400
I assume this is non-negotiable as I'm assuming you're not just driving around for the fun of it and where I live, public transport is much more expensive than driving.

iphone storage 2.99
Upload all your stuff onto a computer and cancel this. Every time yours/your kids' phones get full, upload to the computer again. We all used to do this before the cloud turned up, it's not a hardship.

nails & eyebrows - 30
You cannot afford this right now. A bottle of (nice) nail varnish is about £10. A pair of tweezers is £3. A brow pencil is £3. For the cost of not even one month of this you can buy the stuff to do your own and follow a free Youtube brow tutorial. And you can spend the time you are wasting sitting in a salon doing something more productive like earning more money.

spending money - 400
Try £200.

birthdays & Christmas savings - 200
Bring back the real meaning of Christmas/birthdays and make these celebrations low-key for the next 12 months while you stabilise. The kids can't have expensive hobbies AND big birthdays and if the hobbies are non negotiable then the celebration fund needs a major trim. We spend about £100 on Christmas celebrating and £50-100 per child on gifts. We spend about £50-100 on birthdays. You're not going to give them a nice memory if debt collectors turn up and clear your house of everything you own.

Total savings here: about £500. Leaving only £300 to find which is much less awful.

More suggestions to bring in money:
Go through your attic and sell everything you can find. Do the same with your garden shed. I sold all my (cheap plastic) plant pots for about £5 each!

Any teens over 16 in the house? Ask your teens to get part time jobs and charge them board of about £30 a month. They don't need to have set hours. Car washing. Dog walking. Babysitting. Dogsitting. Cleaning. All things I did to bring in money as a 14-year-old onwards.

Rent out your driveway to people on Justpark.

Rent out any spare rooms in your house on Air BNB (you could put a bed in your dining room and eat in the living room or kitchen). You could choose to only do this on weekends to have the house to yourself during the week.

You said you're paying for iphone storage. This is a controversial one. Sell your iphones and buy cheap Androids. Even older iphones hold a higher resale value than android phones so you could raise a bit of cash doing this but it's not for everyone.

Can you downsize at all? Or take out an equity release loan on your house and pay off your debts completely? This is basically adding your debts onto your current mortgage and usually gets you a much better interest rate than loan interest. Just make absolutely sure you pay off ALL your credit with the money.

I hope some of this is helpful. We were in this situation in January and I contemplated ending it all so I know how terrifying this is. I ended up having to sell loads of our stuff and totally change job to something that brought in enough to get us out of the mess we were in.