How can we cut £1000 a month from our budget...?

[Wibblewobbles]

We are on a pretty good household income but I've just been made redundant from my £21k job and will now be a SAHM for at least a year or so especially as I'm about to go on maternity leave.

After tax and childcare it makes a difference of about £1000pm shortfall in our budget.

Looking at our finances the only thing we can cut down on is the credit card bill - everything else is unavoidable stuff like council tax and mortgage.

Our typical card bill is £2400! I have no idea how we manage to spend this much as there's only two of us plus a toddler... It does include all our food shopping, petrol etc.

I am just trying to work out what we spend excessively on. I realise we're spending £100+ a month on lunches at work. This will be less once I become a SAHM but on the other hand I'll presumably be paying for toddler groups, days out etc instead. But maybe we need to start making DH packed lunches...

I am getting really worried now Didn't even think we were particularly spendy - I try and buy things second hand where possible!

Sorry to hear its causing so much stress.

Could you go at this from a different angle and look at what your priorities are and what your DH's are then you pick, he picks, you pick he picks until you've got maybe three wants each then compromise on the rest.

DH and I have just moved to contract sims from payg. Its £5/ month with ID mobile, part of carphone warehouse group. My dad uses gifgaf and likes that. If you both go same network often talking to each other is free so even one payg one contract would work.

If you're not out at work, even with a baby at home, you will get to the stage a few months in that you have a little bit of time. You could do things like fund your Christmas presents for family by online/ eBay selling everything you don't use. Old tech, old toys, old clothes, old jewellery. Ebay dvertise that most people have £4k of unused stuff in their homes. If you've both been out at work on good one its easy for stuff to build up.

Will you tend to shop and cook as you are going to be at home? You can make food cheaper without him noticing too much. Switch down a brand, make some budget meals to pad out the more expensive ones.

Get used to not buying coffee and snacks when you are out. Plan, prepare, get a flask!

Baby groups are not all expensive. Don't get caught up in the £7-£10 classes, go to local groups run in community centres and by sure start. More like £2, including toddler snacks and carer coffees!

Aldi branded shower wash and cleaning stuff is dirt cheap, so make sure you aren't buying branded body washes etc.

And don't worry about Christmas yet!

Champagne tastes, beer income. Stop the lunches, £100 trainers, adult gift exchange, clothes buying etc etc etc. Do you have savings if he loses his job?

Smaller items - You need a landline if you want home broadband, which is cheaper than mobile . you could actually manage without sending daily pictures of the kids..
Electricity unit prices have gone up 30% - you won't find a cheap deal but look for the cheapest and use less.ditto for gas. You can make savings on insurances.

Thanks everyone. I am a bit mood-swingy at the moment, I blame the pregnancy! Feeling a little bit better about it today. I think we've figured out a few ways to cut back. These tips are all really great and I'm looking forward to being more frugal.

The thing is, we haven't always lived like this. We met at uni almost 10 years ago and were probably living on about £10k a year between the two of us! I remember we used to sit there poring over ASDA online deliveries figuring out how we could get the cost of the weekly shop down to £20. And looking meticulously at all the "unit price" labels in the shop - yes that loo roll is 9p a roll and that one is 13p a roll! Nowadays we just pick up whatever we fancy without really checking the prices much! It's time to become more frugal again.

At least we don't have gym memberships, we don't buy video games, manicures, nights out etc, there are a lot of things we are quite good with, but others (food and wine) we are spending more than we need to.

Eventually he will come around to your point of view.

Eventually.

In the meantime you'll have to do this on your own.

So, packed lunch every day for your Dh. If you've made it & lovingly present it to him in the morning he can't exactly throw it back in your face. He can pretend he's on a health kick or something.

Mobiles, I got a contract with Id mobile for £5 a month with a smartphone. £20 cashback. Sell the new phone & pop the sim in your own phone.

Food shop. Aldi or lidl. Lidl steak is £4.65 for two rump steaks & really nice. Meal plan & stick to the list. No top up shops.

Alcohol. You can give up on your own. Hopefully he will follow.

Cafes. No. Not until you know how the new budget is working out.

We cut out just over a grand a month in our spending:

• cut out all meals and drinks out
• prepared all food from scratch including packed lunches and used travel mugs to make coffee and tea for work / walks etc
• meal planning in advance and only buying what we really need food and product wise, using internet shopping to avoid impulse buying and checking meat and veg on the 'offers' section first (time consuming but saves us LOADS)
• bulk-buying common foods / products we use when they're on sale (again - searching through the whole 'offers section' on Tesco for toilet roll, clothes wash powder, shower gel etc
• cutting down on branded products unless absolutely necessary (it rarely is!!)
• reducing meat, so having half meat, half veg or chickpeas in a curry for example
• buying joints of meat to make meals. For example most weeks we buy a roast chicken, have the roast and then make lunches and dinner out of it or freeze - we got four days worth of meals out of chicken most times e.g. Curry, fajitas, roast, chicken sandwiches etc
• cutting down baby groups (if you need to save money either don't go, limit the number or look for the cheapest...if you don't have the money you can't do them!)
• extending the term of our mortgage from 25-35yrs. We can increase it again when we are in a better position, but this saved us almost £200 a month alone which covers SO much!
• switching bills wherever possible. For example we switched from BT TV package to EE for TV, phone and internet and that saved us £35 a month
• avoid using car unless necessary to save petrol
• no clothes buying for us
• I stopped dying my hair and got an all over colour to take me back to my natural colour so I didn't need to
• no luxuries

We live in surprisingly little now really and we've found we are much better off for it.
Since doing this almost a year ago we've now been able to start buying annual passes for the farm and zoo so we can have day trips whenever we want with packed lunches so it really has paid off!!

I'd actually say do worry about Christmas now, and starting putting a little aside each week,or month. Either, physically draw out cash out and put in an envelope, or transfer some to a savings account or new credit card.

Lidl steak is £4.65 for two rump steaks & really nice.

I came on to say this too - they are among the best I've tasted.

Yy to cutting down on booze.

Mobiles - shop around for the cheapest payment plan. I let mine slip and didn't realise I was spending £40 or more per month because of a low data allowance. Now on a £10 p/m sim only contract with BT with lots of calls, unlimited texts, lots of data and access to BT's hotspots when out and about.

Have one veggie night a week, if not more - a lentil dahl, jacket potatoes and cheese, Spanish omelette etc. Even baked beans on toast will do.

Making a Xmas list now and starting buying a present per week for everyone will mean by the time Xmas comes you will have just paper and cards to buy - unless you have more than 38 relatives

I'm glad we're not the only ones who enjoy the lidl steak.

What works to get my do on side is a list, with all the essentials per month, annual things divided per month, and totalled. He doesn't want to be involved in poring over the bank statements, but a shock total of essentials vs income really works to get him on board.

We had to cut out spending when had two dcs in childcare and moved house (higher mortgage and higher council tax). We cancelled virgin tv and now have freeview and Netflix. I no longer buy finest and organic food and am more imaginative with meat leftovers. One type of shampoo for the whole family (tressemme,as my scalp reacts to many other makes), no shower gel. We take picnics out on trips but buy ice cream etc so the kids don't feel too hard done by...
If he likes expensive things has he got anything no longer used to go on eBay?

Wibblewobbles, you will hopefully find lots of inspiration through this website but also take a look at You Tube. This is what saved me when I was made redundant 7 years ago and our household income was cut by half. It coincided with me having to take time off work after a hysterectomy so I had lots of time to look online and seek advice and motivation. I have actually found the American You Tubers the most inspirational and frank. Through them I discovered Dave Ramsey whom really made me see where I had been going wrong with money for years and years.

Forget tatmas, agree now that no adults get presents and budget for kids is a fiver.

I think it depends how much you really need or want some things. Do you really need to be in constant contact? If DH enjoys wine, could he make his own? We started doing this when money was tight and it wasn't that bad. Christmas budget can be cut, just explain to everyone you really need to cut back, it's then up to them how much they spend. Also, cut back on birthday presents. Look at ways you can have a day out cheap, ie packed lunch, woodland walk, play area - so it's just the cost of petrol. Don't buy clothes unless you really need them. If your DC needs something, they won't notice if it's from Primark rather than Next. Make sandwiches to take to work. As others have said go down a brand. Think about cheaper meals you can make, ie a cheaper cut of meat, pasta dishes can be cheap with a homemade tomato sauce to which you can just add peppers, sweetcorn, fish, quorn, left over chicken, put a cheese topping on, whatever you have to throw in it and add herbs or chilli. It's great way of using things up, easy and cheap and can be different every time.

If we have something large going on our credit card one month, we really cut back on food and petrol spending (ie walk if we can), we don't buy food out, spend less on presents, nothing on day trips. For us our cc bill needs to be kept below £800, if it goes over £900 then we're going to struggle the next month so we need to cut back.

I think it's a case of being determined and focused. Even though you've got to work out the compromise between you, it's good that you're thinking ahead.

Don't 'report' your spending, and agonise, do it the other way around.

Until the end of this month, only use the food you have in the house for everything - lunches at work etc etc.

Beginning next month, or earlier date, stop using cards. Stop all non-essential Direct Debits.

Fill up cars at start of month, take out £400 for shopping, £200 for leisure, and put them into pots in the house. Work ONLY from cash.

Of your £400, buy a load of equipment for easy lunches - eg Ainsley Harriot big pot of cous-cous, with a protein source eg a can of tuna, or cooked turkey steaks, or mackerel etc - count how many lunches you need, have enough for those lunches.

Buy frozen fruit, oatmeal and bananas once a week for breakfast smoothies - make some luxury porridge too if yu fancy - breakfast should be less than 50p each (porridge is about 5-10p).

Take no more than £10 with you cash - should get you out of most probs, but it really hurts if you do (actually what I have just done) get a coffee, sandwich and salad for £8.50) ... and make others do this .

The key is knowing at the start of the month you have fuel, food for each meal and perhaps some coffee and tea.
and USE WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE FFS!

Lots of great suggestions already. I'd just chuck in that there are some great Frugal groups on Facebook that are always full of ideas and people are always more than willing to make suggestions. This may be especially useful at Christmas where one group was full of loads of ways to make/fill Poundland little wooden crates to look like decent presents. Pinterest is your friend there too: DIY Cookie/Brownie mix Jars, homemade Sugarscrub etc. It's full of ideas for cheap but interesting lunches too!

Are you able to shop around a bit? Reduced to Clear sections are always good, including fruit which can be chopped and frozen for use in smoothies and overnight oatmeal!

Reading your op has given me that lurching, pit of the stomach feeling! You sound like you have a sensible approach, but it does become an emotive issue, I was the part-time working one when my dh was made redundant. I was in an awful emotional state after the birth of my dc2 and felt forced back to work before I could handle it. With our lower income choices had to be made and there were no treats to soften the blow of work for me.
So, I did extra hours on a casual basis- I tutored, exam marked, anything to fit around my part-time hours and tried to not eat into valuable child care time.
Once anything had outgrown it's use, it was on eBay. The same for anything that was not precious which could re-purchased if we still decided we needed it when we were more solvent.
My car was paid for so it was sold to make more funds available, I bought a cheap car which now, 5 years later is about to scrapped.
Packed lunches all the way for everyone. Buy cheap coffees on days out, share a piece of cake.
Don't hand stuff on to friends for their children, sell it, get something back for it.
At the same time dh was job-hunting, re-training and picking up any odd jobs he could to make ends meet.
We didn't do any playgroups that cost more than £1 per week, children's clothes were mainly presents from gp's as were shoes. They usually topped the present up with a toy so that dc would be none the wiser.
We're in the position that we both have to work to make ends meet, being a sahm has never been an option.
As for Christmas and birthdays, this was a sticking point- we bought for children only at Christmas and those who would not agree to buy for children only! 😡 Sounds miserable but we did buy a small gift for each other.
We are now emerging from this, dc are 9 and 6, I can work more hours, dh is getting back up the pay scale. It's only been the last few months, but we finally feel more comfortable.
Good luck!

So get out £275 each week iN cash and when it's gone, it's gone.

Or if you don't like to carry cash (I don't like to have more than £30 on me) open another account and transfer some money to that each month - you may need one for you and one for dh, actually sometimes it is easier to have a weekly amount, you cannot spend more than that amount in a week.

Tip from Alvin Hall - freeze credit cads in a block of water - they are there if you have an unexpected bill but not in your purse.

Thanks everyone

Things are looking a bit more optimistic now. I looked at our spending in more detail with the Moneysavingexpert spreadsheet and it turns out we just need to cut £400 rather than £1000 in order to 'break even' each month.

Of course, it would be better if we managed to cut spending back more than that as that way we'd actually have more of a buffer and perhaps even be able to put a little bit in savings. We will still be £1000 worse off a month thanks to my redundancy but oh well - I suppose it's only a case of tightening the purse strings for a year or two while I'm settling down with the second baby and seeing my first off to school.

I appreciate all the advice about using cash and I do think this is a really good way of restricting spending, however there is simply no way I will be able to convince DH that we should stop using our card. He actually works for a credit card company so he is really familiar with all the legal ins-and-out, he likes having the purchase protection, accumulating points/airmiles, and being able to see nearly all purchases going through one account...

However to make myself more aware of my own spending I am going to start writing down all purchases that are not part of the weekly grocery shop. So far this month the only purchase was a yearly pass for a local kids attraction which was only £13 - works out really cheap for toddler days out!

I am quite pleased with myself as I managed to almost HALF my phone bill from £23 to £11 a month! And then, because DH is with the same company, I negotiated the same deal for him too, despite them making a fuss about it at first, they caved in and put him on the cheap deal too! So that was an easy £20 a month saving in total

I've also worked out if we just allow ourselves one bottle of wine per week that should save quite a lot of money. And I think I've managed to (in theory at least) knock over £100 off our food shopping budget by limiting ourselves to 1 bottle of wine per week, taking packed lunches instead of eating in the work canteen, limiting 'expensive' meals like steak, and trying to incorporate at least one or two budget meals into the meal planner. Obviously it's only the beginning of the month so it'll be interesting to see how much we save in reality. Food this week is costing about £100 in total... I didn't have to stock up on any cheese, loo roll, nappies etc though this week so I can see it being a bit more than £100 some weeks.

The money doesn't dry up for another 9 months or so as I'll still get maternity pay and a redundancy package but I thought it would be good to start being frugal NOW rather than panic when the money dries up!

Just trying to find a good buggy on a budget now - the only thing we really need to buy for our second baby as we kept everything else from the first baby.

Whoops that ended up being a really long post. Sorry everyone.

Really pleased for you that things are feeling more manageable.

Good well known brand, with good reviews and second hand would be my recomendation for a buggy. DD, my third DC, had 19 buggy/ pushchairs. I discovered that by shopping around and getting to know the second hand market I could win buggys at ebay auction use for a while and sell on for a small profit on buy it now on ebay or local adverts. She had some lovely ones.

Just realised I've accidentally posted under two different usernames on this thread. Which may be a bit confusing to anyone reading. I'm Wibblewobbles and Crunchyside . Oh well.

Maybe cut out the drinking? As you will have a new baby soon and should focus on that.

Well, being pregnant obviously I've cut out the drinking already apart from the odd sip, DH on the other hand does like to have a glass of wine with his dinner and doesn't get through the whole bottle himself in one night so I think it's acceptable! Although yes, when new baby comes you don't really need alcohol making you more sleepy and of course it also increases SIDS risk if you end up bringing them into bed with you so I'm sure he'll be cutting back even further at that point.

Unfortunately our spending on takeaways will probably go up because the first time round we definitely had more kebabs, pizzas etc delivered than we normally would, for the first few months anyway! But I suppose on the other hand we'll not be having many meals out or other treats at first so it probably all evens out...