Trying to reduce outgoings

[Lifeispassingby]

DH and I are struggling not to overspend each month, which takes us into our overdraft and causes more issues. We bring home £2709 between us. Any advice on reducing outgoings would be great!
Here are our outgoings:
Mortgage £881.79
Union fees £11.50
Vision express £16
Loan £300
Tax credits repayment £12.65
Council tax £170
Help to buy £65
British gas boiler cover £25
Caravan storage £35
Eon gas & electricity £90
Water £16.00
Tv license £13.20
Life insurance £57
Car tax £39
Car insurance £65
Home insurance £14
NHS prescriptions £10
Pet insurance- £65
Mobiles, phone and broadband £47
Breakdown cover £11
Sofa repayment £35

We spend £200-£250 a month on fuel for both cars.

@Myadhdusername

As someone else said is it ‘one off’ things that are causing issues and meaning you go into overdraft?

Usually it is yes, but unexpected things such as car repairs etc. I put £25 a month aside for Xmas and birthdays, plus £20 a month for holidays. Unfortunately we never seem to get a bank of money to help with unexpected costs. Sometimes it’s little things but with such a small amount of ‘spare’ cash it doesn’t leave much room! There may be no real answer but thought it’s was worth running through in case any one could offer advice etc x

@tootyfruitypickle

Keep the pet insurance definitely. I cancelled mine for my cat at the same age and she lived til 20 and it cost a fortune i the last two years. It's not too bad, I pay £44 for one 2 year old dog!

This is what worries me so much, it would be great to save the money but so scared of having a huge bill at some point!!

@tootyfruitypickle

Your water seems very low. I was paying £20 then got hit by a massive bill and told I had to pay £130pm! Just check where you are with it. I pay £80 now to try and get debt down my monthly cost is £50,for two of us.

Thank you, pretty sure the meter is read every 3 months but I will double check this! It has been around this amount since we moved here 7yrs ago so sure it’s right but worth a look just in case!

I am sure you have done but check all insurances on comparison sites. Not sure of your ages but I think the life insurance seems too high. The boiler cover is a rip off, could you cancel it in the spring so that you could save the equivalent in a bank account (by the spring time it won't seem so bad if the boiler breaks down and you need to wait a bit). I have found that using local plumber on occasions when needed it has been cheaper than paying bg monthly.

Selling the caravan would save us £35 a month plus is only worth £1500 max. It also provides us holidays dirt cheap- £265 for 2 weeks in August cheap!

But it isn't really £265 for 2 weeks in August, its £265 plus £420 (£35 x 12 months), so £685.

I think here it's about stopping thinking about car repairs as unexpected.

I would recommend going over to money saving expert and asking people there. Include the £20 for birthdays etc. Think about things like clothes, haircuts etc.

How much is the loan for, and what does your overdraft look like before you get paid?

The total of all the things you list isn't over £2700 so the rest of your money is going on food, petrol and discretionary spending. You're more likely to cut down successfully there.

I'd also have a really good look at your cart insurance: £780 for two cars per year feels like a lot to me.

I think the other thing (unfortunately) to remember is that if you are in debt and it's not an improving position, a caravan might not be a sensible financial decision whether or not it facilitates cheap holidays - because going away every bank holiday and for two weeks in the summer may simply be unaffordable.

If you spend £265 + £35*12 = 265 + 420 = 665 plus say another 9 nights at £15 so another £135 plus petrol then you are spending £800 + petrol and spending money on holidays.

Mortgage £881.79 = £10581
Union fees £11.50 = £138
Vision express £16 = £192
Loan £300 = £3600 how long left on this loan?
Tax credits repayment £12.65 = you have o pay this but for how long?
Council tax £170 = £1700 over 10 patients is standard -
Help to buy £65 =
British gas boiler cover £25 = £300 what do you get with the cover? I pay £100 for a service one a year and the most ive paid for repairs is £150
Caravan storage £35 = £420 for holidays, do you use the caravan much? how many times a year? could you leave it somewhere on site to reduce costs and get more usage?
Eon gas & electricity £90 = £1080 which is well below the actual average for uk homes, but what is your usage? are you using more and paying less. Do a few weekly meters reading and inout the figures to your utility company to check its correct.
Water £16.00 = £192 decent price for water per year
Tv license £13.20
Life insurance £57 =£158 its on the high side, can you look at what you get from your works pension on death and also look at what this actually pays out, can you get cheaper?
Car tax £39 = £468 thats a lot of money for two cars, many cars are zero or £20 each
Car insurance £65 = £780 - can you look at deals for two cars?
Home insurance £14 = £168 decent enough price oner a year
NHS prescriptions £10 = £120 per year - is this the NHS deal for scripts? its the cheapest way of doing this
Pet insurance- £65 = £780 can you get it cheaper?
Mobiles, phone and broadband £47 = £564 thats a pretty good price is it for 2 mobiles broadband and home phone?
Breakdown cover £11 = £132
Sofa repayment £35 = £420 how long is left on these payments?
fuel 200-250 yearly = £3000

fuel, breakdown cover, car tax, insurance totals £4380 - that is lot of money to spend. could you reduce your travel costs? do you need two cars? Could you get an electric car? or smaller cars that are less expensive to run

ive just looked at a campsite in Devon and its £38 per year for outside storage. You wouldn't have to tow it anywhere as its on a campsite and you'd perhaps get away more if you did something like this.

Its not just about saving but enjoying life at the same time and getting more for your money

@ivykaty44

ive just looked at a campsite in Devon and its £38 per year for outside storage. You wouldn't have to tow it anywhere as its on a campsite and you'd perhaps get away more if you did something like this.

Its not just about saving but enjoying life at the same time and getting more for your money

Which campsite is this as that is really very cheap!

@ivykaty44 I’m not sure that price is right- which campsite is it? We have looked at doing that but it is usually more than we are paying now x

@thesnailandthewhale

Selling the caravan would save us £35 a month plus is only worth £1500 max. It also provides us holidays dirt cheap- £265 for 2 weeks in August cheap!

But it isn't really £265 for 2 weeks in August, its £265 plus £420 (£35 x 12 months), so £685.

But that doesn’t include the other times we use it does it? Plus even at £685 where else can you go for 2 weeks in August for £685?

Thanks everyone for your replies and you’ve given some ideas for exploring. I’m not sure swapping the he cars is doable because we have to have 2 cars and getting new cars would be cheaper to run but we would have to borrow the money so once repayments are in the mix it’s not going to save us anything. We have considered the caravan and may sell to pay off the loan but will have to give up holidays so DH will need convincing on that one! Thanks again x

Which campsite is this as that is really very cheap!

sorry meant per month, not per year!!

my thinking had been, although its £3 a month more, you would have cheaper fuel not towing the caravan each time.

www.headonfarm.co.uk

sbhstorage.co.uk/prices.php this place is £25 storage

you could alway tow from there to somewhere else in Devon, Wiltshire, Dorset, Somerset or Cornwall

as for swapping one car for a cheaper to run model, it obviously depends the book price you'd get for your cars now - if less than £6k then it'd cost you money to swap. The advantage would be you could probably break even with a 12-24 month period if you got electric, then much greater savings could be had

What about your food shopping costs?

Vision express £16
Loan £300
Tax credits repayment £12.65
Council tax £170
Help to buy £65
-British gas boiler cover £25- Definitely get rid of
-Caravan storage £35- try and find cheaper or sell caravan?
Eon gas & electricity £90
Water £16.00
Tv license £13.20
Life insurance £57
Car tax £39
-Car insurance £65- one of you go on the others insurance? Even adding a name will make it cheaper
-Home insurance £14- This could be cheaper
NHS prescriptions £10
-Pet insurance- £65- Cancel and put money in savings
Mobiles, phone and broadband £47
Breakdown cover £11

How much is your loan? Could you take a mortgage payment break and either pay it off or make a good dent in it and reduce your monthly payments. A 3 month payment break would allow you to pay off £2,643 of your loan.

can I question what the £65 help to buy is?

Pet insurance, if you canc l and save the ££, look at Dog's |Trust membership for 3rd party insurance (25/year)

@ivykaty44

can I question what the £65 help to buy is?

It’s interest on the help to buy loan

OP - is there anything you can do to earn / raise money?

Can you rent out the caravan when you're not using it? Can you tow it to a decent campsite and use for your own holiday weeks, then offer the remaining weeks to friends of friends at a reasonable cost?

Can you / your partner take on a few more hours at work / additional evening job?

If you have pets, are you open to dog waking / dog sitting?

Does your DH qualify for a medical exemption certificate?

Worth looking into further:
services.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/check-my-nhs-exemption/start

Life insurance seems high? I pay about £11 pm.

@Longcovid21

Life insurance seems high? I pay about £11 pm.

It’s a joint insurance, DH is 55 and I am 39. He has some health issues so that could be the reason? It’s also for a high amount to pay off help to buy loan and mortgage. We’ve had it for a few years and it was definitely the cheapest then