To think there’s not much else I can do with this budget.

[Itgetsharder]

My main income is approximately 2600
child benefits 280

So that’s 2860

Rent 1400
Life insurance 84 (which I will be reducing in the new year, I just can’t do it yet)
Internet and phone 52 (again contract is up in Feb, though most deals are similar)
Netflix 15
Disney 11
Bins 23
Apple 20
DS football 25
Electricity 120

Total 1750
Leftover 1110
Amount leftover is to cover food, petrol, other clubs for dc every so often (they are not monthly costs) more like termly and their dad pays half of them too.
I have my DC 50:50 custody but it doesn’t make a huge difference to food costs.
Im not saving a lot and would like to be saving more although I’m getting there.

Theres not much I can cut is there? The dc watch both Disney and Netflix, I watch Netflix and I use Apple Music etc A LOT.

Make sure any dodgy box you get has VPN included.

DS has one paid extra for VPN but unlike mates he has never had any issues with, sky Virgin etc

@DublinFemale thsnk you so much this is all great infor 🙌

Your rent is huge - more than half your wage. Is that typical in your area?

On these threads people always look at the £15 TV subscription and say you don't need it, but in reality £15 doesn't make a huge difference month on month and when you don't have money to go out much, having a choice of TV to watch can be a godsend.

Could you possibly rent somewhere a little cheaper and save £100 + a month there?

Very typical, I was lucky to even find that. Rentals are few and far between and that was the only one in my rural area. I don’t mind though as it’s a 3bed detached with a huge garden (that the landlord sorts out) I wouldn’t find that again unfortunately.

Would you consider ditching meat from your food shop and having a vegetarian diet? I imagine that might save a chunk on food?

That's great to get the WFP 🙌

And yay on the dodgy box 😁. There's great stuff on the Channel 4 catch up btw and we can access that for free.

December will be a good month with the bonus payments and extra child credit.

A big area you can save is on food shopping. I now only do this and set myself a weekly budget.

I always go a bit over budget in my first round selection, so I then remove the "nice to haves" to get within my budget. It's tough but it does stop you from picking up those little things as you go round the shop!

Sorry I forgot to add "do your food shop online" to my post!

I will reiterate, make sure you have VPN, it is the difference to the box not being shut off.

Another thing, if you use plastic bottles some places let you add the savings to a gift card rather than using it in store again another way to save small amounts which add up quickly.

Not a hope 🤣 i love meat too much 🤣

Oooh LOVE THIS!!

It would help to work out the actual cost of all these things.

Haircuts - how often, how much, then work out a monthly figure
Birthdays - fix a budget for each gift and a small party or treat trip. Divide by 12 to get a monthly figure.
Car costs - look up what you last paid for tax and insurance, add a bit for inflation and get a monthly figure.
Look back through bank statements to see how much and how often you get petrol, work out a monthly figure.

Work out a budget for everything, on a monthly basis. Include clothes, socialising or treats, and an amount for car repairs. Have an amount for saving for household emergencies or replacements, e.g. freezer pack up.

It will be a bit of work but you only have to do it once a year.

Then you know exactly what you have left for shopping for food, toiletries, cleaning supplies etc.
Then work out the shopping budget on a weekly basis. Stick to that limit.

@EuclidianGeometryFan thank you yes, this is proving a bit hard in some categories but I’m getting there. Thinks like car insurance and tax are a bit easier but birthday/Christmas I don’t tend to do a set amount (which I know I should!)

So with tax the changes look like this so far,

In -2700
CB-280
WFP-160ish

Total: 3,140

Rent 1400
Life insurance 84 (this will be changed soon!)
Internet and phone 52
Bins 23
Apple 20
DS football 25
Electricity 120

Total 1,724
Leftover  1,416

The life insurance will be changing after Christmas and my wage will increase slightly next month as I will be removing my ex from my pre tax work benefits for health and dental insurance. We pay BIK on these. And then my salary will increase by approximately 4.5% in April.

Things are getting there. My main aim is to be able to save 100-150 per month so that when I go to buy I will be assessed on saving that and the ability to pay 1400 in rent too.

Is Electricity covering heating as well

Nope I get 500L of oil in oct and that tends to be enough.

But I would be budgeting for it in your monthly costs

Yes this is the aim. I have been using savings for these larger expenses and I need to stop that i suppose

Your rent is 50% of your income, so really hard to save when your rent is such a big proportion of your income.

Yep 😫 nothing I can do about that at the moment though, so aim is to increase income/reduce other expenses

Not sure if you're aware but Olio is big in Ireland now. So depending on where you live there might be some volunteers in your area.

You can claim the tax back on your prescription costs AFAIK. Accountant does ours but I think if you pay €32 a month x 12 months = €384 x 20% = €76.80 in tax back. And you can go back a few years.

I sometimes have to ask the chemist for receipts so I'm not sure if everyone knows about it (they should give receipts to everyone)

https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/money-and-tax/tax/income-tax-credits-and-reliefs/taxation-and-medical-expenses/

I agree with others that small monthly subscriptions are not the main issue here, but have you tried the free version of Spotify ?

Or even the paid Spotify is €12 a month so cheaper and many people prefer it to apple music anyway