A small family in London, is £400 a week enough?

[LDNmummy]

Ok so I know people live off a lot less, including people in my own family, but they don't live and work in London so have no point of comparison.

I have estimated that from the point my baby arrives on October, our family income will be roughly £400 a week.

Is this an OK amount?

My DH travels to central London so buys a weekly travel card at just under £50 and obviously I will travel a couple of times a week too.

We will have an average £800 pund'ish mortgage to pay each month and obviously other general expenditures that come with living in London.

Is it manageable?

I can cook at home all week and we don't lead an extravagant lifestyle. Our luxuries include going to the cinema and a meal out every couple of weeks at the moment. It is something we know we will have to cut back on as soon as the LO comes and are prepared for it.

Hey guys, was off doing the My Supermarket check.

I live in Islington which does a discount scheme for reusable nappies so I will check that out too later.

Will check back tomorrow,thanks a ton and have a good night.

I think I am going to be dreaming about money off coupons

Morning LDN, Sorry I didn't know you already lived in London, Or Islington for that matter. I was trying to put you off moving to London
Hope you got some sleep :)

So you've got £150/week for food and utilities. It's possible - people do it on £65 - but it is a lot of planning and brain work. Life is a bit of a military campaign. I bet you will get a big boost through tax credits though actually anyway.

I do a weekly £40 shop at Ocado and do the delivery pass deal (£9.99/mo but you can get offers to reduce to £5 sometimes) charge so it costs out at £2.50 for delivery and I normally save about £10 on offers. I find Ocado good value and the best quality foodwise, but I still top up at Lidl for things like dishwasher tablets and binbags and the Asian grocers for rice and veg. I bike it so I don't do big shops and I've found my inherent laziness keeps the costs down. There are cheap meal plans on here all over - £25 a week for families etc. I spend on average £50 including delivery and extras and special meals. Make sure you buy a meal for your cupboard whenever you have a pound or so leftover and then you'll always have something in off-plan.

I switched from Tesco because it worked out cheaper in the end because Ocado rarely substitute and when they do, it's sane. Tesco used to cost me money because I'd have to go back out to buy, you know, loo roll or whatever after Tesco had substituted it with a family pork pie and two balloons. If you buy your food shopping on a John Lewis card you can spend the resulting vouchers on shopping. Should be able to get at least 3 weeks of food free.

If you have to buy anything, buy it through Quidco. If you can, switch your utilities: moneysavingexpert currently has plusnet at £8.57/mo as the cheapest deal. Make sure you switch through a switching site that gives you cashback. I spend approx £22 a week on gas and electric combined and I am in all day. Also worth checking your council tax band. All clothes except knickers from ebay, of course, and if you put your partnership card on the Paypal account, you'll get points on them, too.

You can get a special deal from BT where you buy a year's line rental in one go, saving about £50. You can use Skype to call out mostly, will cut your costs. I don't have a mobile, that saves money.

Line your curtains, fill any cracks or gaps, wear a hat indoors, put a blanket on the bed, put foil behind the radiators, and apply for an insulation grant. Get a sheila maid and sell your tumble dryer if you have one. Stop buying kitchen roll and other disposables - use washable cloths. Make your own washing powder... It all adds up. I review our budget once a month and find a saving, even a small one, every month.

The lower I get running costs (invisible spending), the more disposable income we have and the richer we feel - it's better for the psyche.

Dear god no, don't sell the tumble drier. Loads os damp baby clothes in winter is yuk

I just a midweek ocado pass effectively free from groupon (£40, and £40 against your first order. Fair nuff).

Is your DH mentally prepared to tighter his belt? I find mine always had a tendency to 'treat' the family (which is nice,but a little irritating if it wipes out a weeks worth of hard scrimping)

Christ no, don't sell the tumble drier, particularly not if you are considering washable nappies.
Obviously get a good airer and keep dryer use to a minimum, but don't get rid of it.

Do you have a garden?

I find it all dries very quickly on a sheila maid, even in the winter, because the heating is on, and I have had, in the past, more washing than for a baby, as a carer, because it's all kingsize bedding and full size clothing. I know this because I have to itemise my washing as a cost of disability to get it reduced off the care charges, so this is not an idle claim.

It depends where you put the airer. The total air volume of the room makes a big difference. Ours is hung by a window in the dining room and that room is open to the stairwell, so you have the whole height of the stairs as well when the window is closed. It's an hour to dry sheets, and overnight for thick towels.

Utilities £140
c tax £180
mortgage £800
dh travel £200
Internet £30
leaving £50 per month for food and everything else
It's not enough

WhenI looked into it Ocado was good if you are buying branded goods as they price match tescos for some goods, and they do have good food BUT do use the supermarket checker site.

We found sainsburies MILES cheaper when we started using their sainsburies basics for a lot of things (similar price to asda for basics bizarely) - and for general cooking things (pasta, tins, flour) they are great. Their basics fruit and veg are also very good as they are just assorted sizes and so cheaper. The first shop had £10 off, and all 4 subsequent shops have had £10 off if you spend £50. We probably spend under £50 a week in food/toiletries/nappies/etc for the family now.

Honestly ocado works out a lot more if you are on a very tight budget (I do agree if you are reasonably off its worth the extra etc etc but we were in london on a similar budget to you I think and needed every penny).

Definitely recommend an NCT sale if there is one near you. They are often only twice a year so worth checking when they are. Also I enjoyed the bumps-and-babies group near me as for new babies that was less hectic than mums and tods (and cheap). Do check out where there are cheap playgroups an/or breast feeding playgroups (often free) and/or childrens centres (often do activities for each age). We were the edge of london but I do remember seeing that some of the museums did weekly free mums and tod sessions. There is no need to sign little one up for an expensive music/ sensory/class in the first year as they will get stimulation from being with you and it really does add up!

You don't say if the long term plan is to live on £400 a week (ours has ended up being that way for a few years now as I'm pregnant again!) or if you plan to go back to work. That does make a bit of a difference as to how you see things pan out.

We're thinking about using "real nappies" this time around as I think it would save a lot of money. I just haven't got my head around which/how yet.
One thing I'm also doing is to use flannels rather than wetwipes. The cost really does add up with wetwipes once you start weaning (miles away for you now but it stealthily crept into our budget!) They do only need water and cotton wool/flannels to begin with too.

New baby - so exciting :)

Does your £400 include child benefit, c tax studentdiscount, child tax credits?

You need to get DP back onto his bike! Islington is very good for cycle routes - depends where he is going to of course.

Once you are a fully registered student again (you won't be able to get anything while deferred) talk to your union. I know I said this before but it's really important. I missed out on money (we were in a very similar situation to you when DD was born except we were both students) because I assumed there was nothing available to me.

if you live in Islington he must be travelling quite a way to work - isn't a zone 1-3 travelcard about £32 per week? Or is that Zones 1&2? Would it make sense to live closer to his work? As Islington is quite an expensive area to live in.
Though moving is expensive.

We used to live in zone 5! Anywhere closer in was far too expensive. I suspect all the moving fees and more expensive housing would outweight any travel gain.

LDN another little extra your DH could do is check out the 1:1 tutoring that they government pays for. I did it last year and took home an extra £500 for summer. Schools organise it, it's done in school grounds.