If I give you a complete breakdown of how much we spent last month can you show me how to save money?

[Ifcatshadthumbs]

Ok so last month I kept every receipt and kept a record of everything we spent, right down to parking tickets. I'm pretty shocked at how much it all comes to particularly as we made a conscious effort to stop frittering away money.

I meal planned and made sure I only do one big shop a week as I knew I was spending too much in supermarkets, have stopped buying takeaways, going to coffee shops so regularly, stopped buying the dc's endless "little treats" that add up considerably and have basically stayed away from browsing around town.

I never kept records of all our spending beforehand so I don't know how much we've improved but I know that we were spending around £100 a month on take away/coffees out etc, plus treats here and there, new clothes etc etc.

Anyway here is September spend, please help me get it even lower!

Mortgage £1050
Council Tax £181
Gas & Electric £100
Life & mortgage insurance £38.89
Water £42.00
Credit Card Payment £170 (Could pay this off but would leave us with reduced savings and it is currently interest free)
Refridgerator breakdown Cover £3.79
Savings for annual expenses (MOT/Car tax/home insurance) £120
T.V License £12.55
Phone & broadband £7.50
Mobile Phone £28.00 (contract ends soon so will get a much cheaper deal)
Family Gym Membership £73.00 (We do use this alot so don't want to cancel)
Contact Lenses £13.00
Speech Therapy for DS £100 (Likely to continue for atleast another year)
Food £323.02
Drink £73.22 (Includes coffee/dt coke/beer/wine/juice for dc's)
Petrol £120.16
Household items (washing powder/loo rolls etc) £34.00
Toiletries/make up £26.16
Clothes £69.98 (for dc's should be set until next spring now)
Birthday presents £10.00
Christmas Presents £22.99
Weekend Away £153.00
Eating Out/Nights out £128.39
Home Items £8.96 (toilet needed a part to fix it)
Cats Expenses inc food £41.18 (unusually high this month due to vet bill)
Train Tickets £12.40 (one off trip)
School Trips £27.20
Toys & games £2.50
Multivitamins & supplements £35.98 (I know this seems very high but ds2 has some big dietry issues, plus other problems)
Cubs (Includes Subs, uniform and payment for 2 trips) £118.90 (should have nothing to pay out now till new year)
School Uniform items £11.75
Haircut £30.00
Eyebrow waX £13.00

Ok so that comes in at £3202.52

Go on ladies work your magic! Oh and just to mention I do shop at aldi!!

A dry cut is a definite way to save money on the hair cut. I have also saved in the past by getting a wet cut as I have difficult wavy hair that bounces up and is better cut wet.

If the credit card is interest free at the moment couldn't you pay off the minimum monthly whilst accumulating the difference in an interest-bearing account to pay a larger lump later?

Ok have been looking at things a bit closer

Toiletries were high as i bought hair product in bulk as it was on offer so should be good for the next 3-4 months so will be vigilant with with the rest of my toiletries purchases! I don't use shower gel and buy DH cheap stuff. I also try and shower at the gym 2 or 3 times a week as does dc's after swimming and use their shampoo (See I am squeezing the most out of that membership!)

Household: well there a things on there that I can live without and will look for cheaper washing powder.

Drinks: We've had a look and this week I am going to buy in our drinks allowance for the month. DH is cutting alcohol in half and I'm dropping the diet coke.

I will drop the eyebrow wax and I will pretend to consider the haircut

I do buy the supplements and vitamins when they are 3 for 2 but will look for cheaper deals

Oh meant to say if I've calculated right Drinks are down from £73.22 to £31.00

Actually I think the best tip I can give you is make an excel spreadsheet of all your expenses so you can compare your expenses every month. If you have it in descending order with the biggest expenses on top you'll be able to see where you are spensing the most.

I don't think you should change hairdressers. Your hair is important to you and I think saving on haircuts can be a false economy.

Can you shop around and get a cheaper gas and electric provider? Also doing small stuff like unplugging appliances when not in use etc might save a small amount without much effort.

Also create a spreadsheet and file to save copies of expenses you can use for tax claim purposes. Make sure they're aren't any tax claims or benefits you've overlooked.

Back to cleaning supplies...I scrunch up a ball of tinfoil and throw it into the dryer with a load instead of buying fabric softner. I also use a damp rag instead of furniture polish on most of the furniture. I cut up all our old clothes like sweatpants that I'm not donating and use as cleaning rags that I wash over and over again.

Thanks for MN I now use a mooncup and no longer have to fit san pro into my budget. I also buy shampoo etc in bulk when thigs go on sale.

Have you found all the vitamins your DS takes to be beneficial? Are you fussy about the brand? That's something I would try to buy in bulk online.

I don't know how old or expensive your fridge is but the coverage is very cheap. I've had coverage on a boiler, fridge and A/C and have had all of them fixed or replaced at no charge.

I think you're doing really well :)

ooh, love this.

vitamins and supplements - first, what has been deemed medically necesssary? (I recognise that there IS a health issue). Second, big big shop around; not Boots, not H and B, not even Superdrug. Wilkinsons, Aldi. B and M etc. Like generic medicines, the stuff is all the same so don't pay for the ads.

don't buy any makeup until you have none left.

that water bill seems large. Are you on a meter?

I think you've forgotten your landline charge, find it hard to believe broadband/phone is that cheap. If it is BT , go on their line rental saver and knock £50 a year off the bill.

stop the mobile phone contract when it expires. No-one needs mobile internet. I have a £10 PAYG phone that does calls and texts, £10 credit lasts six months. The landline is for the chatting when the calls are free!

contact lenses; usually cheaper to order the lenses in bulk every six months, and buy the solution when you see it cheap. I buy my lenses from specsavers website which is cheaper than their monthly deal!

haircuts should be every 8 weeks, no more. If you need it more often than that, your hairstyle is too high maintenance.

HTH.

I thought your water, Gas and electricity were expensive. I pay £30 for water and £50 for gas and electric. Are you on the cheapest deal? I have 2 DC and ma and DH in a small house, but we do run a tumbledryer

Shit. Dread to think how much we spend. It's a shed load of money on not much stuff, isn't it?

You know, I thought we were budgeting reasonably well as I do a spread sheet each month, but I think I will do a more detailed breakdown like you have. Especially as all you peeps are saying £28 a month is high for a mobile phone bill (I thought it was quite reasonable!).

It is a shed load of money Goingmad! Even if you took out the going out costs it's a massive amount!

We are on a water meter. I don't think we use excessive amounts but will have to monitor.

Gas & Electric, we have often done comparisons with other providers and this seems to be the cheapest we can get. It is a big house but we are careful about our usage, switch of all electricals at the wall when not in use (including things like microwave, kettle, washing machine etc) I only use the tumble dryer for towels and bedding if I can't dry it outside. Last year we didn't put the heating on above 18 degrees so I'm really not sure where we can save on that.

That's interesting about specsavers website so I will check that out. Have tried daysoft lenses but didn't get on with them.

I understand why people are about the vitamins and supplements i really do but other than looking around for the best deal on what we buy that's not changing.

On the upside I have just done a food shop and decided to buy all our drinks (including squash, coffee, lemonade and some alchohol for dh) for the month ahead and I've more than halved what I spent last month. I've given up the dt coke and dh has halved his alcohol.

Food came in at £54 and if I can keep it at that for each week this month that will be saving around £100 on last month. I will definately be making savings on the household stuff and toiletries too.

It's almost a challenge now! But in all seriousness it has been a real eye opener to see it broken down like this, particularly as we had been making efforts to cut back last month, god knows how much we were spending before . Thanks for all the suggestions they've given me real food for thought. I may bore you all with a breakdown of Octobers expenses.

I have to say MrsBeep that breaking down the supermarket receipts into food/drink/household/toiletries has been a massive eye opener in terms of seeing what we are spending and I can see that food wise we spend ok it's the other 3 areas that are ott.

I knew that £28 for the mobile was high my last phone contract was £12 a month but DH bought me an I phone for christmas as a surprise. It's nice to have but when my contract is up I won't upgrade just keep this one and get a really cheap deal.

Do people seriously think that £100 per month for gas and electric is high for what I am assuming is quite a big house (going by size of mortgage payment)?? We pay more than that for a well insulated 70s 2 bed semi and don't even have a tumble dryer!!!

I was going to say the same about energy bills...ours is £99.50 a month for a 3 bed terraced and there's only the two of us.

You can get free water saving tap inserts, shower inserts and cistern bags off the water boards, plus if you need a water butt they are very cheap for them too.

Plus if you look at the manuals for the dishwasher/washing machines or download a PDF of them it will tell you how much water they consume. My dw ranges from 9ltrs for a quick cycle to 20 for intensive. It all adds up over the year.

I even put tins and jars in our dw before recycling rather than just rinsing them out.

I wish my gas and electric were anywhere near as low as the OPs!
Over £200 a month here, and yes, I do price comparisons every year.

OP I really don't think that looks bad at all. We spend more.

The crux of it is, can you afford it? Is the £120 a month all you are saving or are you saving anything else? I agree with your stance re. the credit card btw - having no savings at all leaves you vulnerable.

With the one offs - there are always going to be some. New shoes for the DC, household repairs, a birthday present - that is without anything 'fun' like a family day out or a weekend away or new clothes.
We allocate a certain amount each month to cover these types of expenditures, which is separate from our general budget for food, fuel, school things and so on.
Once it is used up then it is used up, but any surplus goes into savings.

I've just accepted that we spend what we spend on food. I'm not prepared to cut down on the quality of what we eat, but I do appreciate that I am fortunate to be able to afford to take that view.

specialsubject your £10 a month is expensive if it doesn't include mobile internet. Ofc you use your mobile internet. I can't believe you still pay for text? It's much cheaper using whatsapp and similar. Giffgaff will give you 500min, unlimited text and 1GB internet for £10. In fact I buy the £5 pack and it's enough text and voice for me, but I go over on the internet bit.

I mean cheaper per message if you pay per message. But you'll get it within the plan obviously. And that you'll also get your internet if you pay £10 for a plan.

my £10 mobile credit lasts about SIX MONTHS.

I don't jabber on the mobile (live in a dead spot anyway), have a landline with unlimited free calls. Don't need internet on the move. Texts are 4p a chunk, don't send them unless something urgent to pass on. They can take 24 hours to arrive anyway.

Mortally offend your friends and family now and you can save on phone bills and Christmas presents.

Op I apologise if this has already been asked haven't had chance but if you haven't already could you claim dla to help pay for your ds speech therapy and vitamins.

Don't get me started on family and Christmas presents!

Thanks Soontobesix we get lower rate dla so that does help.

Change from bottles of shower gel -DH and DC use loads to bars of soap.
Waitrose do lovely soaps at about £1.25 for 4.
I get my eyebrows threaded at an indian beauty salon- £5 instead of £13 and they do my chin for free .

If you ditched weekend away and going out - you could clear your CC debt faster .We only go out if we have a Tesco clubcard deal.