Do our household bills sound reasonable? What could be lower?

[itsalentilsone]

Just two of us (me and DP) living together in a 2 bed flat in South East. I am currently a student but that will be coming to an end in the next 3 months. We are trying hard to cut costs where we can and have been going over our finances to see where we can make savings. Any thoughts on what looks expensive or unnecessary would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Income:
£4,067

Monthly outgoings:
Mortgage - £765.65
Mortgage protection insurance - £47.63
Help to Buy loan - £93.24
Service charge - £188.32
Gas - £55
Electricity £42
Water - £18
Internet - £40
Mobile phone 1 - £18
Mobile phone 2 - £22
Council Tax - £159.37
TV Licence - 13.25

Groceries - £240
Train travel (DP work commute) £477

Petrol - £60
Car payment - £238.74
Car Insurance - £59.32

Netflix - £10.99
Amazon music - £10.99
Oura ring - £5.99
Apple storage - £3
Private / misc payment - £150

Savings direct debit - £160

Could partner get a season ticket loan from work - would this cut things down a bit? Do you work as well as study - you could make some income selling some things / or doing surveys and the such like.

Do consider getting some life insurance for the two of you. If one of you was left without the other income it could pay off the flat.

Spending 1k+ per month just on "fun" seems excessive, to then try and save a fiver on a cheaper Netflix subscription! It's a drop in the ocean. I think you're looking in the wrong place for making cutbacks.

Netflix can be £7.99 with a basic add free plan
Amazon music could be cheaper as a prime customer

Same! I'm so glad we switched to this! Saving £6 a month! Adds up when you're counting pennies. Sometimes we don't even get ads, and we don't even notice them we do have them!

If he commutes (and is so pricey) do you really need the car too?

You haven’t mentioned house insurance. Do you just pay this in one go?

Your outgoings seem fine to me.

Personally, I would rather give up food than my nice car. I used to drive runarounds, but since actually having nice cars, there’s no way I could go back unless I was broke, but even then, I think it’s better to keep money in savings in case my boiler packs in or my fence needs replacing, etc.

This is pretty much verbatim what my DP has said. The car is the only thing he does not want to change / sell.

Yes we pay home insurance in one go at the start of the year.

Will definitely look into this.

We aren't paying for prime at the moment and do not really have a use for it.

If you are managing to spend over a £1k without noticing I'd be looking at that before focusing on the suggestions to save £6 a month.
Set a budget for fun and stick to it- what do you think is reasonable?

@itsalentilsone but you are entitled to Amazon music unlimited as part of prime so you are paying twice

"Apple storage - £3 Get rid of this"

That can be tricky/risky if you use iPhones/iPads as the storage is used for backups and you can easily end up losing your photos and documents if you don't have enough storage.

You've not mentioned home or contents insurances, nor life insurance?

Have you not got the Amazon Prime student? It brings it down to about £6.99 a month for all of it.

Mortgage protection insurance - £47.63 - this is high, do you really need it?

Groceries - £240
Train travel (DP work commute) £477

Petrol - £60
Car payment - £238.74 this is also very high, do you use the car a lot?
Car Insurance - £59.32

Netflix - £10.99 - could you not get rid of this and just use Prime TV? We switch between the 2 and Disney+ but never have them running concurrently
Amazon music - £10.99
Oura ring - £5.99
Apple storage - £3
Private / misc payment - £150

Savings direct debit - £160

You should still have over £1k left a month, I take it you don't?

not any more, our prime only gives us amazon music with ads - you can't skip track or save them anymore - it's bollocks

No advice but really wish I happened clicked on this thread because now I want an oura ring.

Lebara do Amazing sim only deals. I'm paying £1.19 a month for 20gig, unlikely calls and texts and 1000 roaming included.

If it's a rolling contract you can switch

Honestly, saving a tenner from getting rid of Netflix is neither here nor there if you’re getting through 1k a month on ‘fun’ money. Look at that first - £11 isn’t going to make much of a different if you cancel it - it’s 1% of your non essentials budget. But you could try to limit your meals out, trips away etc - maybe have 2 quiet weekends a month, meals out to once a month. That would make more of a difference.

This. None of what you've written is easily reduced.

The most illuminating thing to do would be go through last 3 months transactions and see where the £1k/month fun money has gone. There may be more easy wins there.

Yes - that is on the agenda for the weekend. Thank you

I agree, this is key.

Yes very true. This is what I have come to realise.

It's not the bits that you have listed that really need trimming. It's the unaccounted for 1k a month that is dissapering that needs to be identified as to what is necessary and what is not.

I had to look up an oura ring I thought it sounded like some kind of contraceptive device :)

Just eat less cake and nice things and get rid of it, kind of joking.

Get all your statements and make a massive spreadsheet with all outgoings, if you never draw out cash it’s easy done and I know there are some apps that can do this but we have a nice old fashioned spreadsheet and know out exact outgoings and it’s free. You are bleeding money on unknown fun, your actual sensible bills look fine.

Did you shop about for car insurance? I just found a better deal for MIL thats going to save her 210 PA, also play yearly. A car gets you from A to B and car finance is one of the worst how much is the apr? Probably 25% or something horrendous. Tell him to stop worrying about how he looks, we have an older car, its the worst on the road as we live in road where people have top of the range Tesla and Mercs, but who cares really.

Impressed with grocery/electric & gas - that's really good.
Do you need the £10.99 Netflix premium plan with HD/multiple screens & without ads?
Can you make do with the bog standard £4.99 plan/1 screen with ads? That's what we have.
We ditched Amazon prime as that was £90 we could have done without paying annually.
Do you need Amazon music? Lots of songs on Spotify are free last time I looked & can link it to Alexa I think?

Broadband shouldn't be more than £20 a month . Have a look online at comparison sites and then check cashback websites for cashback for that particular provider.
Your bills are ok but I’d cut back eating out to once a month until you have a good buffer saved. How much you have in savings will/ should dictate how you spend the spare money per month. Cut out eating out until you have 3-6 months expenses saved.