To think my monthly bills are FAR too high?

[Mysteriousgirl2]

Childcare £651
Food £450
Gym & swimming lessons £360
Car finance £325
Cleaner £240
Pet insurance £38
Mobile £17
car insurance £60
house insurance £92
Private pension £200

We are mortgage free. I take home about 2,200pcm and cover all the above costs.

I need to massively cut down, don’t I? 🙁

Your DP is contributing under £600 a week. Does he work? If so why doesn’t he contribute more? If not could he not do 4 hours cleaning a week so you could ditch the cleaner?

£270 a month on gym membership is a crazy amount even for a family of 5, swimming for kids is usually free or at least subsidised at the local leisure centre. Unless you’re swimming with the whole family daily surely that’s not a necessary expense.

Food £450 - not much for a family of 5
Car finance £325 - you probably can't do much until the end of the contract, but can you find a cheaper way to run a car?
Cleaner £240 - could be something to cut if everyone can share the load
Pet insurance £38 - hard to cut this if your pet has pre-existing conditions
Mobile £17 - for how many phones? It's a lot for one, but good for 2/3
car insurance £60 -shop around but it is what it is
house insurance £92 -loads, do you have a large house, thatched roof, flooding risk?
Private pension £200 - keep this up if you can, assuming it's not on top of a decent workplace pension

But the main thing is why are you paying out so much more than your DH? Is he very part time for childcare reasons? What's your total income? Have you done a benefit check?

Who pays for annual and irregular costs like car repairs, Christmas, clothes for DC etc? Do you have any debts?

You've missed out a lot of information about your income and full expenditure, you need to be more thorough. Have a look at:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/money-help/

You pay over £2400pm and your DH pays £565? Why is this, does he barely work?
£3240 pa on a gym is ridiculous and to be in place of a holiday is plain batshit.

I think the important bit is why are you spending more than DH. Is it also his whole income? If not, why isn't he paying half the childcare, half the cleaner etc? If it is, I think you both need to cut back and the gym/car would be obvious ones. How do you pay for petrol, clothes etc?

I'm paying £2.50 a month for a lebara pay as you go SIM bundle at the min! OP, yes your home insurance and cleaner in particular seem disproportionately high. But you own a 5 bedroom detached house mortgage free so I wouldn't regard you as struggling... sorry!

Get rid of the gym membership. Pointless.
You can go running down the street for free.

Cleaner is expensive.

wow, you work 60 hours a week for 33k a year, and with x3 children you must be exhausted. Would be interested to know what you do, you are clearly working very hard but maybe there is a way of you reducing hours and your husband doing more / taking a part time job to even things out (if you quit the gym membership and cleaner maybe this is possible to cut hours, it would save £6k a year)

Yes, you are right about the income. Public sector worker unfortunately.

Combination of building our own home from scratch and an inheritance means we are mortgage free.

£3240 pa on a gym is ridiculous and to be in place of a holiday is plain batshit.

I think a nice health club membership instead of a holiday isn’t a bad idea. I’ve had friends who do this some years and they spend the summer doing things like tennis and other activities.

Ditch David Lloyd. Can you move into private sector?

Sounds like you're both working for below NMW per hour when there's no need to be.

You need to work your hours or get paid for the extra ones.
Your DH needs to make sure he brings home well above NMW per hour to account for lack of paid leave, pension etc or else he needs to get an employed job

Our cleaner does 4 hours a fortnight instead and we keep on top of it in between. Worth a try? We have a similar sized house, DC and both work long hours.

But really, you know the main offender is the David Lloyd, OP. That said, it’s what it’s worth to you. If you need it and benefit from it as much as you say, then you’ll just have to get used to having less spare money to spend. Could you freeze the membership for three months and see what life is like without it? See if you notice the difference? If it makes you happy then keep it and look for other cuts, like other users have suggested

So you cleaner more per hour than you do? Have you thought about changing career?

Nope, you are wrong.

Monthly take home 2378.

Salary is 42,000

Pension and NI and tax all add up!!

We are due a 6% pay rise in Jan, though.

Have a go at completing this budget planner, then have a think.
https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money/budgeting/budget-planner

Why are you still saying you’re mortgage free? You aren’t. The stuff about your DH earnings doesn’t add up. And what happens with the £600, where is that for and what are you getting for it?

DH does less hours to help with DC pick ups, is self-employed so work is not regular each month and does pay out on another mortgage (roughly 600) so that we can live here mortgage free

What do you mean by this? Does your DH own a house elsewhere? Is it rented out to cover the mortgage cost?

If he’s paying 600 for another house you’re not mortgage free. Are you getting rent for it
?

@Mysteriousgirl2 I bet you're a teacher. Overworked and underpaid.

I was shocked at the house insurance too. I thought non standard construction plus thatch plus history of claims. Some houses are more expensive to insure than others (and fewer companies who will quote).

Op if you need spare cash, you need to cut back. Depends what your priorities are and what you want to reduce. There are non essentials on your list so I would start there.

Food bill is low as we grow lots and home cook everything.
Car finance is going in April next year.
House insurance large because large house and previous claim on sewerage tank imploding (yes that was a fun week before Christmas)
Private pension is actually on top of a good workplace pension.
I pay for all the annual and irregular stuff and I factor that into everything, from dentistry to birthday parties.
DH is part time for childcare reasons.

Benefit check irrelevant as we have savings.

If your DH is part time I'd be expecting him to pitch in for cleaning to cut that huge cleaners bill.

Really, though? I know some people who blow £3240 on a family holiday (and we are a family of 5). The next week they are back in work like it never happened. At least with our swimming and gym we get to enjoy it year round. It’s just horses for courses I guess.

So what’s the mortgage for? Does rent provide additional income?

I don’t understand why you spend so much money on swimming instead of a family holiday.

Also, if you a public sector worker, why are you spending £200 a month on a private pension?

Cleaner seems excessive if DH is around for school pick ups and drop offs. He could possibly be doing more?

Working excessive hours really isn’t compulsory in public sector. Especially not at that low pay, unless you’re a teacher (been there/done that)

@Animallover87 You got me.