Why if we brought in 40k last year can we not afford a holiday ?

[Lonelybunny]

I can't believe after looking at p60's we brought in 40k where does the money go exactly? We have 3 dc under 8 no child care costs we rent but seriously I can't afford to save ? I must b doing something wrong seriously !?

40 k isn't much and I dunno how we gonna get on this year as I've reduced my hours after etrunung end of march from having dc3

40k is more than enough with a medium sized mortgage like yours and no childcare costs. We are on 8k less and have no other benefits as have to chip in a sizeable amount to childcare and we are still having a holiday for two weeks this year.

Lonely - instead of just stressing about it, why don't you get your bank statements together from the last few months and see where the money is going?

Do you have a joint account?

Arisbottle - The average household income is only in the early 30s, and a large amount of those go abroad. You should definitely be able to afford a holiday on that wage if you prioritise it.

No we don't have a joint account , DP uses mainly cash I use debit card :-/ I am going to sit down this weekend and have a look .

Our nearest aldi is 10 miles away just checked for sure in their store locator so probs not worth the petrol ? What we save in shopping would add up in extra petrol

It probably is worth it if you do a big shop monthly rather than weekly. Then just buy fresh fruit/ veg weekly. ( can freeze meat/ fish/ milk etc)

You need a good spreadsheet!

Mine has one sheet per month, every month broken down day by day. Every time we spend anything I update my spreadsheet. I have a running total per month for each type of expenditure (house bill, supermarket, fun, kids activities, petrol, car upkeep, charity and presents, savings, clothes, hair, school stuff, etc, etc), I know exactly how much I am spending every month.

It has really helped to plan ahead and know more or less how much money I could make available for christmas, birthdays and holidays.

I use MoneyDance. You can download bank statements and categorise them.

It's a good idea IME to pay for everything on cards, and use cash as little as possible, because cash payments are much harder to track.

It's well worth doing a trip to aldi once a month. Do a massive shop on pay day and just top up milk and veg.

The secret is to keep the top up shops to essentials only. (Again budgeting say £20 for milk bread and fresh veg. ) Aldi do great frozen veg and soft fruits that you can bulk buy. You can freeze meat, cheese, butter etc, even milk if you have room.
We are very financially comfortable and i always shop at aldi. My big monthly aldi shop ( basket overflowing and stuff to carry including wine and beer) is £150. At tesco it would be £250 plus. Well worth a ten mile trip!

As for school dinners, i'd stop that pronto, a home made lunch would be a lot less.
Yougurt 18p
Juice drink 2p
Sandwich cheese and ham 30p
Fruit 15p .........well under a pound.
If you are spending £30 a week on dinners thats going to save you at lease £20a week. £80 a month on three children. I think school lunches are very pricey.

You'd save enough to make a trip to aldi worthwhile, look at that last thread I linked to, we all saved loads compared to Asda.

I go on a Sunday morning, I used to get round in 10 mins before all the newbies cottoned on.

That's a good thread lonely. It proves the savings, with a spend is £55 in aldi the tesco £85 is shocking. Really that £30 extra a huge chunk of money for not much added value.

Apologies kids whinging at me :-)

Isn't it? I did ours because dh (who isn't allowed into supermarkets unless I'm ill due a propensity to buy brand name shite) kept saying "are you sure Aldi's cheaper?".

He was raised in a house where brand names rule so I'm slowly reprogramming him.

I find Waitrose to be over twice as expensive as Morrisons on numerous items, FWIW.

Morrisons don't appear on price comparison sites either.

I echo the recommendations of Moneysavingexpert - lots of useful stuff there.

You can also get free (and impartial) advice from the Money Advice Service. I suspect their first step would be to get you to write down all your outgoings. As lots of people have said, you need to understand where it's going before you can work out where to make savings.

Good luck.

I think Morrisons will start to be quoted on sites like my supermarket when they start to deliver at home via ocado.

Iceland never get quoted either but they have some brilliant offers on sometimes.

Waitrose is always cheaper than tesco on price comparison and they price match if an item is more.

Tesco is the most expensive imo

Price comparisons can be misleading though.

For example, Waitrose might sell Kelloggs Cornflakes for less than Tesco, but as an example:

www.waitrose.com/shop/ProductView-10317-10001-26267-Parma+ham £4.29/100g. Morrisons price £2/100g. Not necessarily the same ham, but the Waitrose ham is not super-premium, and definitely not worth double.

Morrisons sell their cooler drink I think they are 2 for £2, Waitrose don't have an own brand and will sell you This Water at £2 for 1.

So they price match on the branded items, but then you will get stung on other things (some of which are better, but not all), super-pricey ready meals, etc.

I bought lamb chops in Waitrose yesterday £7.29 reduced to 43p though, so that was worth it!

I was just going to say that! The 'price match promises' are only on equivalent goods-ie branded items. If you look at the compare the supermarket examples posted above at times waitrose is almost double!!

We mainly use Sainsburys, occasionally waitrose and sometimes asda.

I like waitrose, and for some things you can argue its 'cheaper' in that you get better quality. We like the range of goods, but there is no way we'd kid ourselves its cheaper. If I was wealthy I'd probably shop there, I like it etc.

Asda's milk is a lot cheaper than Sainsburys, as are its free range eggs, and some fruit. Our local store doesn't stock all the things we want to buy though.

Plan ahead for the Sun holiday offers next year, that's what I'm planning on doing.

Little things add up, normal things add up. We don't visit the hairdressers, buy magazines etc anymore. We're selling the car again and I'm not buying dilute juice.

What one of my friends does re school dinners is get them twice a week - Monday and Friday. This means that she doesn't have to think about doing lunchboxes Monday morning.

Or you could cut down to one day a week. Your children don't have to have school dinners - they are pricey and lunchboxes would be cheaper.

Bunny do you and your husband buy lunches,coffees when your at work?
Little things like that can cost a small fortune over a year.If you spent £8 a day between the two of you that would be £160 a month(for 20 days)over a year(allowing for 4 weeks off for holidays)is £1,760.
Taking a lunch from home could knock £1,500 of that cost per year.

Look at what your spending on you food shopping,we swapped from getting all our shopping weekly from Asda to shopping monthly and using our local butcher and market and LIdl and knocked £420 a month of our shopping bill.That's saved us £5,040 over one year.

Look online at the comparison sites and check your getting the best deals for your gas,electric,phone,internet,insurances.

40k is a good income due for one person but not for two which is why the OP is struggling to afford a holiday .

Two newly qualified teachers would bring in more than 40k between them.