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.

I use Asda for click and collect orders. I don't think you can create lists but you can add items to your favourites, click on that every week and select what items you want.

Farmfoods are brilliant on branded prices.
Iceland are very expensive.
Savers and B&M good for cleaning stuff, toiletries, drinks, crisps etc

Yes can do all that, I think the only difference is you can't save them for a long time but I don't need longer than a month's worth of videos to look at the postman coming in 🤷🏼‍♀️

I can’t understand how your utilities is so high. Running the dishwasher three times a day is ridiculous. Are you using a tumble dryer daily?

Do you/DC throw clothes into the washing basket after one wear (current heatwave excepted) ?

I am sure you could reduce that without suffering at all. Tell the kids you need their help in saving the planet!

@Duvetdayforme the adult kids do cook separately due to shift work, education etc. everyone has different meal times which doesn’t help. The dishwasher is always full. I have started asking them to wash by hand though since the thread so one of them is doing this. The others not so much. One is very unwell mentally so I can’t change much in terms of what they do.
washing I do think maybe they don’t rewear jeans etc I will check.

I would definitely look at your energy, I've got ours down from £350 to £280 by being sensible and setting all appliances on delayed start so they come on in the cheap rate. I've also saved about £50 per month on water by changing the shower heads to energy saving ones and running the washing machine and dishwasher on eco mode. Mobiles are all on Lebara which were £2 per month and now £5.90.

Our TV and food are about the same as yours, I really need to get our food bill down next!

So you have an EV, are you not on a EV tariff ?

We are, and have cheap electricity - half price - generally between 2 and 8 am. Car gets charged, dishwasher goes on, washing machine goes on as does the immersion ( we are oil and electric here ) and hot tub and if needed the tumble drier

TV, we use the Freeview channels , Prime ( as we buy a lot there living rural ) and Netflix some moths , apple others , my next Apple sub will be Oct 21 - to take advantage of the 2 series I really want to watch and have a look at what else is on offer . Never watch live TV or Iplayer so no need for a license. However we usually only get an hour of tv viewing a day during the summer so its no hardship and we save a lot up to watch in the summer

TBH I prefer to shop in person because then I can see - best value for money - and maybe snap up YS

The supermarket shop is where you can cut right back on, esp if you are throwing food away. To me that's as close to a total sin as you can get :) If I buy food , its to be eaten , so not only do I meal plan, I think on my feet and sub meals

If you're with Sky you get Disney free now.

We knocked nearly a third off our gas bill by closing the living room door and putting a cat flap in it.

We're a 'doors open' house due to free roaming cats but when gas prices first spiked we decided we had to be a bit more careful and do something about all the heat that left the living room to go upstairs and make the bedrooms too warm or out of the drafty front door. So that was the slightly unconventional solution that saves us hundreds of pounds a year in gas.

OP, “Money for couples” is a great podcast to listen to for finding out how other people manage their finances - mainly American but I’m hooked!
splitting our expenses in the same layout as you. -
earning c£6.5k.
we pay currently
no mortgage, council tax £267
phones incl device plans £75 (4 people - will drop to £40 in October )
utilities £272 (£200 octopus, £72 water)
tv and broadband incl extras like Disney £68
insurances (pets, cars, house, life) c£250
gym £200
ring £8
food etc £900-£1k.
driving lessons c£350
uni top up £500
holidays £500
pets £30
item on 0% interest £190

I think the message is to constantly review your subscriptions whether it's utilities or insurances. Obviously some people prefer to take risks so eg no insurances. My cats' insurance alone is 110 a month. Their food is about 80 a month but I don't skimp on them as one has a health condition. He had an 8000 bill one year so he's covered his insurance.

Have a three bed and an electric car and gas and electric is £138 per month

Yes the EV tariff free electricity is 11.30pm to 6am I think. not all devices are on a timer so it relies on someone being awake to switch appliances on. Plus cooking etc can’t be done then.

food will definitely change I’ve made two lists and am planning to order once a week.

Oil & electric £500 a month here . Obviously not every month but budget £500 and it evens out over the year.
Rural property how I yearn for the days of town gas !

I have got the link I mentioned from the TV Licensing website, showing that if a student usually returns to their family address (where there's a licence) during the holidays, then they don't need to get an additional licence for the university accommodation, they will be covered by the family licence.

They can still watch live TV and BBC iPlayer, PROVIDED they only watch on a device that has it's own batteries, like phone, tablet, laptop. and not connected to the mains or an aerial whilst watching.

TV Licensing are obfuscating a lot, but read the second paragraph, beginning 'However'..

If they watch on a TV they won't be covered . But just having a TV doesn't mean you need a licence, if you only stream on demand and don't use BBC. And a lot of young people, from what I've seen, never watch live TV, they like to watch stuff when it suits them.

I just thought it might help stop people buying unnecessary licences.

What is ring £8?

I think it's a monthly subscription for the Ring doorbell thing.

Ive also not used my oven for a couple of years now , might use the top oven over christmas but that's it .

I use my all in one pot, slow cooker, air fryer, microwave to cook 99% of the time - I might need one ring on the hob but that's rare - using a wok perhaps

I make the most of the EV rate as im up for work at 5am and DH gets up at 7am. I put the wash and the immersion on, when he gets up he empties the machine , adds to the tumble drier or hangs out and switches off the hot water , Dishwasher has a timer and is used just 3 times a week sometimes less - like this week when its been BBQ all the way - no pots. Hot tub - our daily treat - comes on at 6am for an hour. Its so well insulated it only drops by one degree so after the first heating, its not so hard on the electric

We dont have a ring doorbell, we have subscription free cameras around the house and garages. They are as cheap as chips and we can talk to anyone via them same as ring

Focus on the big - the £8 doorbell is daft but the 500 for utilities is huge and shaving 10% off that would save far more - why is it so high ?

Utilities are extremely high.

5 bed house, 2 electric cars - £250 gas and electric. Water about £90.

You’ve already realised but the milkman has to go.

How much is broadband and how much streaming services because that’s high.

I think it’s a legacy from last year (2024) when I tried that heating on low all the time thing. I’ve requested a refund twice so maybe I could ask them to drop it.

This is winter this year. Gas central heating. Electric includes a car.

70 on gas and 50 on electric for the same month as you and that includes the electric car and we are up north where it’s cold

but only 2 of us so less on showers and laundry and the like

check out your insulation in the loft
thick curtains at all windows and doors
check the boiler water temperature- the lower the cheaper
what do you set your thermostat to?
can you turn radiators off in rarely used rooms?

have you got a water immersion heater or the like? Turn the water temperature down. Don’t let it run so long
time everyone’s showers - 5 mins

You do not need 2 lists for your shopping.

Week 1, make your 1st shop, which is your first list.
Week 2, make your 2nd shop, which is your second list.
Week 3, look up your previous week 1 order, add all to basket, you now have the exact same shop. Take things out or add things in as needed.
Week 4, look up the 2nd shop, add all to basket and continue on.

After that, you just keep going back to a previous order that is the right week so you basically have your lists anyway.

You can book a few weeks in advance, so you could book your week 1 and week 2 shopping in now.
You can add or remove things up to 11.45pm if shopping at Tesco, 11pm if Waitrose, the night before the delivery.

After you've made your lists, go look in the cupboards and see if you really actually need to buy everything, or if you already have those things.

I tend to amend my order after I've eaten, as being hungry when shopping makes me add stuff to my shop.

I think you also have to think about how much tv people are watching in your home as you have so many subscription services.
We currently have none except Prime, which we have for the deliveries rather than the rest of it.

If it looks like there might be half a dozen things we want to watch on a different service, we sign up for a month, watch them, then cancel again.
It takes less than a minute to resub and start watching so you aren't going to miss out if you unsub.
Most of their content is old anyway.

We haven't bothered subbing to anyone since last Christmas, as most of their content hasn't been something we cared enough to resub for.
Haven't missed any of it.
We also don't have a tv licence as it's been years since we last watched live broadcast or any BBC/ITV etc.. content.

Maybe you could ask everyone in your household what films/tv shows they have actually watched, so you could see which services are being used, then cancel the rest.

All your bills seem high, so it might be worth spending a weekend going over each one and seeing if you can move to a better offer elsewhere, noting down when the ones you are locked into a contract end and marking them on your calendar so you know when you can find a better deal for those too.

Are you on the octopus ev tariff?? If not get on it quickly. My ev costs £25 a month and I drive for a couple of hours most days. Our whole bill for gas and electricity with octopus is £138. Four people in three bed house. I’m sure this must be the issue