What are your monthly outgoings/are mine crazy?

[tinyviolinforme]

I feel like every month I spend hours looking at a spread sheet. We do have a good income at £5,500.
we pay

mortgage and council tax £2046
phones incl device plans £96 (5 people)
utilities £498
tv and broadband incl extras like Disney £196
insurances (cat, cat, house, life) £166
gym £40
ring £8
milkman £151

im thinking that the milkman wasn’t as cost effective as I hoped. It was to stop me going to buy milk and eggs and then adding extras but I wonder if it’s a false economy.
tv is another one - it includes two tv licences as one of the kids is at uni and has some additional needs and I was worried they might unknowingly watch something that needed a licence. Maybe that’s me being over protective.

Similar income

rent/mortgage- £900
water - £50
gas/electric £160
pet/home/life insurance- £60
councik tax - £130
Debt - £430
phones/tech - £230
car insurance - £70
tax - £18
TV - £65
broadband - £30
gym - £100
Amazon and Apple Music - £17
Odeon limitless - £35
Food - £500

Thank you, how many of you are there? I’m beginning to feel my broadband is expensive.

Just take the right amount of cash with you - that'll stop erroneous impulse buys stone dead.

I'm inclined to agree that yours is overpriced. I have a superfast fibre connection and pay £40/month for it. 3 adults working from home and it's never once been overstretched.

2, but I pay for a phone for my neice too.

I’d shop around for broadband

Your tv and internet packages are insane. My DH works from home full-time in IT and we pay £33 a month for broadband for his needs. You say your tv package is £25 ‘plus some sports stuff for DH’ - you need to look at that in detail. You’re paying 3 times as much as everyone else on here, I’m not sure that’s landed? Better than swapping berries for cheaper fruit!
Phones we pay £9 a month.
It looks to me as though you’re relatively good at controlling your variable costs, but are overlooking all the big contracts tagt are locking you into high expenditure.

What about food/household essentials costs? I did a monthly tally recently and for 4 adults and a cat (us and 2 young adults, one of which is 6ft 4) and all-in it has to be approx £700 pcm. We dont drink much (DCs will buy their own booze, dh occasionally buys beer, I don’t drink). I cook from scratch and keep a few ‘convenice’ foods in - fishfingers, oven chips mainly.

Moneysavingexpert is a great website - useful for comparing utilities and all sorts. I would do a statement of affairs and list EVERYTHING on it, you’ll probably be surprised where your money is going.

I understand all your outgoings the two I would look into are the broadband. We have sky, brilliant fibre broadband and it’s £70 per month.

I would also cancel the milkman and get a Tesco delivery saver pass which is £7.99 per month and that qualifies you for free delivery. This switch massively helped me stop impulse purchasing (which I did when in the shop) plus saves a tonne of hassle and time

We have a delivery pass and it definitely saves us money from impulse purchases! I rarely go to the supermarket.

Given your kids are older and not all working, could you get them involved, like by getting them to look at broadband /utility options, and setting them some cooking challenges like plan and cook a meal for all of us for £10/15. Shares some of the burden if they're not working while you are, and teaches them some useful skills too!

It’s kind of interesting but also disheartening that life is actually quite expensive.

still seems the tv/broadband are the main one.
im going to cancel the second tv licence and I’ve cancelled the milk man.
ive looked at supermarkets and only Ocado lets you create more than one list (im thinking week one meals, week two meals, Christmas) - is Ocado really expensive compared to others? I always associated it with Waitrose so never used it.

Yes Ocado is much more expensive. We probably bring in an additional £1k and I shop at Aldi and Lidl!

I also shop at Lidl. I just wrote my list myself before I go shopping. I meal plan and buy accordingly.

I go to Tesco for a few bits that i can’t get in Lidl and I find it ridiculously expensive

Ocado is now partnered with m&s but they do everything else that isn’t m&s. I like them because they pick from a warehouse not a store so the chance of subs (meaning you have to go out again with the chance of picking up some extra bits) is low.
Also, there are only two of us, admittedly in a 4 bed detached, and our gas and electricity work out around £300 a month (I pay on receipt of bill, so obviously this varies massively throughout the year) I am on a reasonable tariff and supplier. I just choose to be warm all winter. Those saying change supplier it’s miles more than they are paying, are literally just using a lot less. This is the choice. Not the 5% you might save by switching supplier (which is still worth it of course) but it’s highly unlikely you can halve your bill unless you halve your usage.

If one of you earns 75k then you could switch to barclays premier current account - there is normally a switching incentive plus they offer stuff like free Apple TV - i have a feeling lloyds do something similar with disney too

The disheartening part is how much faffing about you need to do to not pay the highest prices, but it's worth it because there are significant discounts available on many costs, in particular mobiles, broadband, TV services, breakdown cover and insurance.

Utilities not so much, like a PP says, but your usage must be huge, so you are likely to be able to cut this significantly. You mention the dishwasher going on three times a day - is it always full? If not, put it on when it's full and buy more plates/cutlery if necessary.

You also say you heat the water three times a day, so worth checking if you're using the system as efficiently as possible and if the tank insulation is sufficient.

Can you cut down tumble dryer usage and line/air dry where possible?

Ocado can be expensive because they have such a huge range - some prices aren't so bad, but they have lots of expensive items, so costs a lot if you don't stick to the cheaper things.

Well I’ve stuck a note on the dishwasher to say turn me on at 11.30pm 🤣 and I’ve started handwashing glasses today if they are left by the side rather than put them in.
I think we are locked in to the broadband/tv so maybe it’s losing the subscriptions for now.
I want to make it simple so I wish tesco did two lists or more. Maybe I could try Ocado this month and look for cheaper versions of things like own brand tinned tomatoes.

Disney & prime are less than £100 for the year, they are not your problem.

You don't need Amazon Prime. There is very little on the TV side and deliveries are free to lockers - there's one round the corner from me but appreciate that may not be the case for you!

I would suggest rotating TV services where possible.

We have Fibre broadband with Plusnet for £30 a month and it's very reliable. Change every contract to get a new customer price. DH full time WFH so we need a decent connection.

Last year I tried having the heating on low all winter and it cost so much more, this year I’ve had it morning and late evening and we’ve been in credit so maybe that will come down. I might leave it to build up and then reclaim it next year etc.

I’m trying to trim around the edges as I’m locked in to some things, and I was thinking of that looking after pennies saying 🤷‍♀️

So other people in the house using them doesn't matter? Only the op??

Do you have cheap nighttime rate for your car? Is so put your washing machine and dishwasher on timer to come on during the night.

Your broadband is excessive. Milkman is ridiculous

Do you also consider and plan for annual and irregular expenses like car insurance, Christmas, holidays, school uniforms etc?

There's quite a few things not mentioned on your list, which might give a false indication about how much money you 'should' have left after DDs. Also do you know how much you spend on food or have you just guessed? People often underestimate or forget about top up shops etc. What about food and drink out of the house? People can spend hundreds of pounds a month on coffees, lunches, takeaways etc, which takes a big chunk out of the budget.