How to save money

[pumpkinpam]

I'm currently spending more than I earn per month. I work part time. Dh works full time. But we have a massive mortgage and bills (dh covers most of this).

I pay for childcare which is roughly £350 a month and all food/household costs/things the kids need etc.

I had a little buffer from an inheritance but that is dwindling down now because I'm spending more than I earn and I really need to cut back. I can't work more at the moment as we have no help with the kids and I'm already spending more than I'd like on childcare.

I've recognised a few things I can do - don't buy lunch everyday, meal prep etc but other than that I can't see where I can make savings. My eldest eats like a horse and I spend a fortune on food. We hardly go out but do have takeaways maybe once a week/fortnight so that's another thing that could go I suppose.

Any other tips welcomed.

Allocate a budget for everything after regular bills and stick to it - so a takeaway budget, holiday budget, clothes budget etc. I bet you’ll find you’re spending way more than you think on some things.

Move money straight into your savings but leave yourself a set amount for bills and then give yourself a limit for day to day spending.

Have no spend days.

I couldn't afford to save when DS was younger. If you can't, you can't.

You could shop around and see if you could get cheaper broadband/energy deals.

I had to wait until the childcare years were over until I could save anything.

Lunch everyday is a huge amount of money, £5 a day x 5 = £25, x4 weeks =£100.
Buy bread and sliced meat and a bag of apples, no more than £5 a week

Look at what your eldest is eating - filling up on bread/toast is cheaper than many other things. We’ve had words with our teen boys thinking they can have a fourth meal of cooked chicken etc.

Is it you personally who is spending too much, or does your DH have money left? All of those expenses should be joint expenses, not you pay for this, I'll pay for that. Or if you must do it that way, he could do with taking some stuff from you to pay for.

It's not about saving it's about not spending more than I'm earning. It's not been disastrous until now because I had that inheritance buffer but every month that's going down more and more. Soon there won't be a buffer and I will have a real problem.

Agree popping out for lunches needs to stop. And need to get more savvy with food choices at home too.

Dh earns a lot more than me but he also covers a lot more of the bills and mortgage. Pretty much all of it actually. He has nothing left either so I can't really complain.

We have separate accounts but he's not tight and would support me if needed but he is struggling too, it's just a really difficult time. When our childcare costs for the youngest stop it might get easier but that's another 2 years away.

I've saved about £100 a month since I stopped buying lunch out on office days.

I've also cut back on paid days out and have got better at using vouchers/finding free events.

Do you have a specific goal? We do (moving costs/legal fees) so that makes it easier to focus the mind and say "nope I don't need this cute knick knack/new top" and put it back.

@Beezknees , this poster isn't yet able to save, what she needs to do is spend less than she has coming in every month

OP, this means ruthless budgeting.
This is the amount we need for bills, mortgage, food, petrol. Don't forget to save a sum for shoes, clothes and Christmas and birthdays. And other annual bills like insurance. So we need £yyyyy

We will have £x left over for fun this month. This means we can only spend £x. This might be £5, or£20, or some lucky months even more

Don't get into debt over a meal deal every day and a takeaway once a week.

Have you had a sit down chat with your DH and looked at money together?

Is he also spending more than he earns? Or is he building savings whilst you use inheritance?

One area where you can definitely save a bit is to look at all of the direct debits coming out of both your accounts. Can you get a cheaper deal on internet? Or electricity? Are there any direct debits you're paying where you are no longer using the service?

It might also be worth considering whether there is any way you could work when DH is home? That way there would be no childcare costs so there is more "profit" from working.

If the money is in savings - which you can move back in seconds - it stops you from over spending.

It sounds like your main problem is not having a food budget and sticking to a weekly shop. Do that and meal plans. Once the snacks are gone for the week they’re gone.

As a tip - do you have a desk/locker to store things? I keep belvita biscuits/rice cakes/nice tea in mine which stops me getting a cappuccino and a croissant.

Your husband should also not be buying lunch every day. Both of you should work as a team. If you don't have enough money, he needs to share with you.

Okay so have you written down every penny of income?

And every penny of expenditure in the last month or so? So you can see where you're spending?

You need to take a print out of a month or twos bank statements, highlight the NEEDS. Eg. Mortgage, bills, childcare.

Then you go through and highlight the WANTS eg. The daily lunch or weekly takeaway.

Then you need to look at things you might not realise - like top up shops at the supermarket adding £50 here or there or unused subscriptions. If there's any subscriptions you can cancel, try to call up your tv provider or internet provider to leave - they might offer a discount or it might need to be cancelled to be a saving.

Then you need to look at things you can economise - is your supermarket shopping super high? Can you swap things out, find cheaper items, find cheaper fuel that sort of thing. Are you able to sell anything you've got? Like unused toys / clothes / home bits? A quick cash influx could be helpful.

It's easy to look at the top and bottom numbers in your bank account and not realise how much is being eaten up by the little transactions!

I say this time and time again. The only way to get yourself out of debt is to work more hours. An evening job working behind a bar, care work, cleaning.

when we were young and struggling, DH came home and I went to work full time on top of my part time day hours. If your children are little they won’t remember you not being there after bed.

Can you post your budget Op?
Easier for posters to suggest where you can cut back

Also if you don’t need it lose it. Subscriptions, sky, expensive contracts for phones. Ditch it all.

I agree with a couple of other posters- you need to approach this has a household issue.
I think your first step is sitting down together and working out exactly what you are both spending money on, and whether the split is fair. This includes savings, pensions, investments, debts etc. Identify anywhere that you can cut back.
It's probably been mentioned alread, but the budgeting resources on 'money saving expert' are a good starting point.

This is really good advice. At the moment I'm embarrassed to say I don't budget for anything. I have a rough idea of what's going out for bills and childcare but after that it's just spend spend (not on extravagant things I have to add...but I don't have a budget as such for food etc, I just buy what we want).

I need to become much more aware of what I'm actually spending per month. I will definitely sit and work everything out, I used to do this when I was younger and much more strapped for cash but I got lazy and when I had the inheritance I thought I was 'ok' so just stopped thinking about it.

I've opened a Starling account and put my lunch money in it. You can have a takeaway pot, a clothes pot etc. I but all my coffees, takeaway lunch etc from that card and when it's gone it's gone.

Oh and also I use Snoop to track spending.

Do you and your DH have a joint account? Sounds like you have separate money? Even if he has “nothing” much leftover I think you need to bring your finances together into one pot (if you don’t already)

just re read up thread and you guys have separate accounts! No wonder you’re struggling!

I would suggest to stop spending with card, and use cash only - then you can more easily see how much money you have, and it makes it easier to decide not to spend it. Put the food budget for the week/month into an envelope. You have to practise saying no more often.

Then there are things like writing down a list of things you want/need to buy in a list, and waiting before deciding whether to buy them. After a wait they might not feel so necessary, and if they are you can then plan how to schedule them to fit into the budget.

It's hard and draining to have to be on your guard in this way to reduce spending, but when you need to there isn't much alternative.

Walk around supermarkets with a calculator on a phone, honestly doing this has made me save £100s a month.
Order meat in bulk from places like muscle foods you will save a fortune! £100 of meat lasts us 6-7 weeks!

Stop buying lunches that's over £100 a month. Make your lunch the night before.

Second hand for things like kids clothes while they're so little.