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.

with 6 of you living together £550 isn't expensive and £800 is probably realistic

That works out at £4.30 each person per day - so £1.43 per meal

Whereas you utilities are dubious - sorry

Tv is from memory

14 licence
64 broadband and tv via Virgin
15 Netflix
9.99 Amazon (mainly for delivery)

Do you really need to spend £102 on this? I bet you could ditch the virgin tv and swap to another provider for a year and get a much better deal under £30 for broadband, keep the Netflix and if you watch live tv then obviously you need the tv licence - that would save you £40 a month

Might not seem a lot but if you could do that with all your utitlities... such as Phones for four
£94

Is that smart phones and SIM cards or just the sim contracts? Shop around for far better deals - again you could save on this and add to the savings above.

Why would you give amazon £100 a year so you feel obliged to spend with them?

Also who watches amazon prime and Netflix? Id ask one of the other adult if they want to take over that bill, you pay for the broadband and they can pay for the Netflix and the other adult the amazon prime for the household

Agree about Lidl fruit and veg. No problems with Alsi any more than other more expensive supermarkets. Nothing wrong at all with Aldi meat, same as you’d get anywhere other than a butcher’s. Their fish is excellent.

I never understand comments like this. Both Aldi and Lidl are absolutely fine, quality probably better than Tesco and Asda and consistently cheaper for just about everything. In blind testing, their products often come top/near top, despite costing a fraction of branded etc.

I do wonder if it depends which Aldi you go to and where you live, the one local to me has horrible fresh stuff, but when I visit family and go to theirs it's brilliant. Maybe a logistical delivery reason, either way the price rises have made them just as much as elsewhere imo and the quality hasn't risen to match.

Personal opinion I suppose, sainsburys is far better quality to me and comparable or even cheaper prices. I don't see what's controversial about that, if someone's looking for money saving tips then sure worth trying for yourself but usually we have to throw stuff away soon after buying as it's off.

Be realistic though - while some of these ideas are great, with a mortgage that high you are only ever going to be tinkering around the edges. How much do your DC earn? Surely they can contribute more than £225 each? Especially if they think they'll stay till their late 20s - so would I at that price. How much are they left with each month?

You'll be loads better off when the credit card is paid off.

Definitely. My friend said she hates Morrisons
We went to my local one and she was gobsmacked at the difference
My local Aldi and Lidl are both new, never had any issues with the meat, veg or fruit and I shop there weekly

Switch to giffgaff or similar for phones once out of contract (make sure you put in your diary when this is because the phone company will not remind you necessarily!)

Batch cook the meals they will eat. My suggestion is things like dal and rice, veggie chilli, veggie Bolognese sauce in portions - then reheat as required - all family has veggie 2-3 times a week perhaps to save.

Lidl is a great idea for things like household items, buy monthly and get their app, I get freebies each month from it plus 10% off one shop.

@BarbaraofSeville

I think the same - my nearest supermarket is lidl so always go there, no quality issues

I think you need to make a list of every single thing that you are paying for and then go through each one in turn and ask yourself if you really need it. You do not need Amazon AND Netflix AND live TV so two of those can go. If other family members think they are non-negotiable they can pay for them.

If you do really need something see if you can get a better deal on it by switching to another supplier OR phone up current supplier and try to negotiate the price down (the Virgin broadband and TV is far to expensive for example). That's for things which you can cancel at any time.

If you are tied into contracts (eg. the phones). Make a note of when the contracts are up and put them in the calendar in your phone and/or any notice period for them. Then put a note in your calendar in the phone for a couple of months before and at that point start searching for an alternative or negotiate with the current supplier to get a discount.

The adult kids should be paying a bit more because the cost of everything has gone up and they can still save a lot of money to move out even if you charge them 50 - 100 quid more a month. They have an exceptionally good deal living with you and that might delay their moving out somewhat.

As many others have said, change to Aldi or Lidl and meal plan.
Look out for reduced produce which you can use immediately to make things like soups and stews and freeze. Or buy the produce and chop and freeze to be used later.

Shove two back up your foof, that is too many children. Waiting on someone to something like this....

Having four DC myself, I get it. No one could have predicted this level of stress with the cost of living tbf

We use Lidl app. And as others said, get free stuff from it. Recently a box of cereal, and shower gels.

Move? Live somewhere cheaper. Pay off your mortgage.

We ditched terrestrial TV a few years ago. Don't have a TV licence. Only watch catch up TV now. Or streaming services like Disney plus and Amazon prime.

Do consider the cat carefully, at 17 it is of an age can be ill with a costly long term thing (my cousin's has kidney issues = expensive diet, regular vet visits etc). As you have the insurance you are covered, it'd be a lot more expensive to stop then decide to start again.

We had an aging dog we didn't insure simply because he absolutely hated the vet. So we took the view he'd be too distressed to go to the vet on a regular basis should he fall ill with something ongoing, and would opt to PTS which we did.

I am obviously so hard hearted, how much longer do you expect your cat to carry on for? I wouldn't be considering vet bills at 17 years old, I'd just put the cat down when they got ill. Surely any treatment at that age is just delaying the inevitable. I'd cancel the cat insurance. (Sorry if you really adore your cat!)

I think Lidl/Aldi etc is the same price everywhere.....as is bt/phones/tv/

How will moving house help??

That's the most stupid suggestion I've seen. Op explained about the mortgage ....

I'm always so disheartened by people being rude because they don't understand a comment.

Let me explain my 'stupid suggestion' if you are struggling to understand. Some places in the country are much cheaper to own property than the south west?

Based on house prices in the south west, the length the mortgage has left to run and the monthly mortgage fee there is a decent amount of equity in the house which could be released to buy something cheaper elsewhere.

It's possibly that the poster can't move house because of a job, school, family network of course but it's also just possibly not something that they have considered.

You realise you've paid over £6,000 for that cat already! We have never insured our pets - they've all died of old age bar one and there was nothing that could have been done to save her and the only thing was to keep her comfortable and have her put down at home. With a 17 year old cat, which is a great achievement, what sort of heroics are you expecting if she gets sick?

Farmfoods and herons I find are great to shop in. I’ve saved a fortune plus they have coupons when you sign up via email. We get a lot of branded items for so much cheaper like 2x200g of Nescafé blend for 11.00 and a 750g of lurpak for 4.99. I also got 9.00 off a 100.00 shop and then a further 6.00 off 60 so 15.00 off 160 but I bought a lot in bulk as we have children on packed lunches, larger washing gels and toilet rolls etc this will last for 3 weeks where we only have to top up milk etc but even in farmfoods it’s 2 4 pint milk cartons for 2.50. Have you also looked at what you watch on tv. We ended our sky package when the children seemed to only watch Netflix, YouTube and prime video and it also meant we don’t need to pay the license fee. There are also some great energy saving ideas and keeping the house warmer on ikea, you can even sign up to local workshops where they give you items and you get them cheaper for belong to keep your home warm.

Cat insurance is a gamble and there's an element of the sunk cost fallacy. It's unlikely to have been £30 a month for the last 17 years as insurance has got massively more expensive over the last few years.

For every animal that's never been ill, there are others who've required thousands of pounds of treatment due to road accidents or chronic illness. The insurance means you never have to make the decision to get into debt or PTS because you can't afford the treatment. That's often what the insurance is protecting you from, rather than the animal's health IYSWIM?

Having said that I would consider cancelling insurance for an older cat because it's expensive and also because they won't thank you for extending their lives with multiple vet trips, medication administration etc if they develop a serious illness.

Also virgin broadband are really good I’m on a 24 month super fast fibre package for 27.49 a month

@wereonthemarket yep, still a stupid suggestion

Shove two back up your foof, that is too many children. Waiting on someone to something like this....

Hate to say it, but there are two I can think of 😀

This is really helpful. I can't talk to friends about money really, beyond general it's tight stuff.

I am stuck with Virgin until April - out of contract now and I don't want to tie myself to another 24 months if BT are on the horizon.

I've downloaded the Lidl Plus app and found the nearest one.

I'm tempted re: the cat but it would be horrendous for her to have an accident and be in pain and us not be able to pay.