Every month it gets worse

[livingcostsrising]

We have an objectively decent income.
But the rising costs are just depressing. Six of us, two adult kids who pay rent that covers their food and a bit towards bills. Two younger ones. A cat.
£4k allocated to go out every month.
I try to save the rent towards unexpected bills.

The costs are:

Housing (shorter mortgage due to age when we bought a house, just a box in the south west) and council tax:
£1808

Phones for four
£94

Utilities
£486
This is now more like £700 due to having to wait for a smart meter and EV rate

Tv and broadband plus licence
£105 (need fibre for home working)

Clubs for kid
£92

Insurances - home, cat, car, life
£177

Credit card
£390 - paid off by December

Miscellaneous - pocket money (30), ring (8), uni saving (75), 100 for random small things like gifts

Food and household (like loo roll) - omg I allocate £550 and last month was £800 -

I know the debt will come down soon as it ends, but the utilities and food feel awful.

Can anyone suggest?

I think I need simple ideas for a meal plan? Vegetarian but simple due to sensory and swallow issues with two of them (has medication)
Meals they eat are bolognese and butter pasta, toad in the hole.

Is a slow cooker a good idea? What could I use it for?

You don't really say what your incomings are.

Shop around for a cheaper broadband deal

Ditto electricity

Dec isn't that far away so that will be £360 back in the pot.

Which supermarket do you use?

Meal plan.

£800 on food and household seems a lot!

We have a similar set up, two adults, two kids (though not working)

Do you buy daily coffees? Etc

Thank you, the problem with the utilities is the smart meter wait for installation, from looking online we are with a well reviewed supplier.
The phones are contracts so I would need to pay the balance if I left
I usually shop at Tesco and save the points up.

The food is partly due to the different diets people have (disability/ethics) and I think me never having learned to cook properly so it's a kind of one meal at a time thing - I don't know what to have to do a joined up meal plan.

You're on the wrong post x

Is there a Lidl or Aldi you could shop at instead? You might not be able to get everything you want there but it would be cheaper than Tesco.

There is. I think this is an example of my rubbish planning - I was thinking stick to one place to make the most of the points. But actually driving to Aldi to do most of it might be better overall. I could try this month and see if we save.

Switch to Lidl/aldi.

Give a meal plan a go. Its saved us so much.

We bulk buy chicken breasts from the butcher every month. I have a chest freezer full of easy meals for the dc if needed too,

When phone contracts are up switch to sim only. I've saved 48 a month doing this when mine ended last month.

How much do adult dc pay? Maybe not paying enough?

We've discovered the Lidl App. Once you spend past £250, you get 10% off the next shop. So we've been organising our shopping and putting extra in for that shop for Christmas- so on the 10% off shop, I've already bought the Christmas cake ingredients and put them in a box under the stairs, with 10% off.
The stuff like sugar, dried fruit etc all last perfectly well.
Plus middle aisle bits- kids always have socks for Christmas Day etc.

Oh I didn't know there was an app? That's really helpful thank you.

The phone contracts are another example of me thinking it was sensible and then hearing about gifgaf etc.

We're on Giffgaff, the kids have our old phones. The DDs are on £8pm, DH is £10pm

We don't pay for TV licence, we don't use BBC or watch live TV.

Lidl and Aldi are both really good stores with decent prices. We have a butcher cash and carry near us where we can stock up on good quality meat for discounts.

Jesus, is that £1800 monthly mortgage on the new interest rates?

Your broadband and tv sounds very high. Cut out the tv bit and shop around for broadband. We work from home and have decent fibre for this, we pay £42 a month.

What is your income and how much do DC pay?

What's your TV and broadband deal? We pay about £30/ month for broadband with Plusnet. No Netflix, no Sky. Those are luxuries we choose to do without. There's more than enough to watch on the Freeview programs and catch up services.

We pay £30 a month for super fast fibre. Nothing else. Can you cut from your £105? That would be a big saving?

Hi re smart meter. I've been trying to get one for 4 years (london). Ended up nagging and escalating to octopus and a nice lady has finally got me booked in next month.

TLDR: aggressively nag supplier customer services to get meter.

Kids clubs at £92....I'd ditch those.

Tv/broadband....get rid of tv, reduce broadband

Be stricter with food. This is no time to be fussy eaters.

It's 1500 mortgage and 300 council tax roughly - I've put it as housing costs.
Yes, we needed a house and are older than 'usual' to get a mortgage so had to do over 15 years not 25z

Where we are the supplier is restricted to one provider only for broadband unless you have mobile only data? Everyone is hanging on until BT set up in April!

It's not so much fussy eaters for two of them but disability. I could be stricter on food for the others I just need ideas for cheap, easy meals I think.

The older two pay £450 between them - I try to save it but it ends up in the food pot mainly.

The DLA gets used for private therapy as waiting lists and allocation isn't enough.

Oh, I will nag the meter people I think emails get ignored so I will find a number thank you

Your adult working children need to pay more! Between two, £450 is nothing! What kind of independent flat-living/house share (with food!) would they get for £225 per month?!

We have just ditched Virgin Broadband/TV/Phone for £93 and replaced with just BT internet for £32.99 a month. Don't miss the landline and we hardly used the TV, everything we watch is on catchup on the apps.

Meal planning is game changer. Do your weekly shop at Aldi and once a month go to Home Bargains/B&M for the brands you can't live without. Buy in bulk where you can, like loo roll, crisps, juices, etc but hide them and bring them out when running low.

Can your older DCs pay some more? Even if it just goes into a contingency fund.

Tv and Internet- what tv packages do you have? Do you need all the packages you have?

It's not clear if you have TV packages on top of broadband? Also have you tried phoning your provider and telling them you can't afford it. Ask them what you can cut. Same for the utilities, regardless of the smart meter.

We have just ditched Virgin Broadband/TV/Phone for £93 and replaced with just BT internet for £32.99 a month. Don't miss the landline and we hardly used the TV, everything we watch is on catchup on the apps.

This is the plan, as soon as BT finish doing the work needed, spring, according to the person i accosted in the road the other day.