Can anyone help me with a household budget please?

[moneyhelpplease]

I need help. We have a decent income but I can't seem to make ends meet.
I need to get a job too but in the meantime, have to cut back. I've just received my final maternity payment, and can't afford to go back to my job with childcare costs. We have been declined for tax credits as earned too much last year.

Please can anyone help? Figures are below.

Net income of £1454 (DH)

Mortgage £650 (tied for 3 more years)
Council tax £170
Water £60 (metered)
Gas and electric £120 (just switched with money supermarket)
Phone, TV, and Internet £35 (Internet for DH job, contracted for 10 months)
Cats £30
Tv licence £20
Home insurance £30
Contacts £30

£1145 total I make that.

Leaving £309 for groceries, clothes, petrol, presents, car costs, everything at the moment.

We currently have an additional expense of £200 for DS to go to nursery (2 years old, not speaking above 10 words, really helping his development) 2 afternoons a week. If we have to stop this, we will, but I would love to try and afford it.

Can anyone help me with a food budget and figure out how much I need to earn in a part time job? Job will have to be evenings and weekends.

I feel completely overwhelmed and don't know where to start, can anyone please help with money saving tips?

TV licence, is this the first year you have had one? It's usually lower.
Contacts? Some are 15 from spec savers.

Can do claim childcare vouchers from work?

Have you given ctc people what he earns this year - I'm sure they change the figure if your income has gone down since last tax year. But you have to tell them.

Child benefit?

How much are your wages if you return to work and how much is childcare?

My contacts are £12 from Boots and I get advantage card points. I have to buy solution but they do bulk deals. Is your £30 with or without solution?

Home insurance sounds high too, ours is £10.

Looking at the tax credit website on 20500 a year you should get over 2k in tax credits per year. Did you tell them your income has dropped? Do you or do pay into a pension? Sometimes that needs to be factored into the income.

As for food. Lots of vege stuff. a girl called jack is a good place to start.

Your income seems like you should receive tax credits.

It is the first year, we didn't watch live tv last year. When DH had to get internet for his job we got tv included in the package.

Net income includes cb. DH is taxed higher than one expects as he has a company car and he is paying back an overpayment his old work messed up on :( that should be sorted next year.

Contacts are 15ish for each of us from specsavers, though I think I will have to cut this expense out for me. They are more vital for DH, he has some weird condition.

We did tell the ctc people but they said they averaged it out over two years, and we were still over the threshold this year.

My salary is £25k. Childcare at DS's current nursery for both kids would be £1500 not taking into account any vouchers or wtc - I don't think we qualified for this though?

Anyway I was working 70 hours in that job and it's just not worth it for £2/300 a month when I could earn that working part time somewhere less stressful, without missing my children.

I think DH is on £27k though would have to confirm.

Last year our joint income was £45k. Because they average it out at £36k, they said that is above the threshold, even though we won't earn that this year.

I'd never heard of that before.

Food budget, try to meal plan. Cook extra and eat the next day as leftovers.

Market for veg or frozen to keep waste down.
Jacket potatoes.
Sardines or tuna on toast.
Rice with meals.
Pasta bakes with tinned tomatoes, sweet corn, carrot and peas.
Avoid shopping when hungry! Cook as much as poss from scratch and cook extra to freeze.
Porridge.
Buy veg and fruit that is in season.

Aldi is good for cheap rice, pasta etc.

Yes, DH pays into pension. I need to see a payslip, I really don't understand how his is set out currently. We are both so bad at this stuff!

his contacts include solution, mine don't.

Will look into cheaper options.

A girl called jack sounds good.

Water looks high to me?

And me, our (metered) water is £20

With your job think about long term. It may not seem worth it for 300. But what damage will be caused to your career by stopping work? If you are likely to progress at work it may be worth continuing. Short term pain but long term gain.

Childcare Vouchers you will get £243 each taken gross each month (you need to speak to both your work payrolls). Dh can do this straight away.

Your dh company car will mean his income (including his p11d figure ) is higher then the 27k. Plus his tax code is out due to him owing tax. If his car ever changes he must call the tax office direct, if not it will happen again.

Do you have two cars? Can you just have one?

You get free glasses with spec savers contact schemes, so get them prior to cancelling if you haven't already!

pop your numbers into my budget spreadsheet and have a think ...
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/1987219-SPREADSHEETS-for-Debt-Control-Budgeting-Mortgages-etc

It's unlikely I'll progress much further in my job.
And 70 hours a week! I can't be away from my family like that, no matter the financial rewards. Plus id like to retrain once kids are in school.

We do have two cars, I've just motd insured and serviced mine, so if I need to sell it I will do so in a few months.

Water is stupidly high I agree.

I know some children get 15hrs nursery funding from 2 years, possibly doubtful if you don't qualify for benefits?

I wouldn't do the 70hr pw job, are there any other options for work?

Are you paying your CTax over 10 or 12 months?

Water seems high, can you cut down baths, wear clothes again etc?

I would try a citizens advice to see if they had any ideas.

It looks as if you can't afford NOT to work but may need to look for options you can do around DH's work pattern, i.e. weekends or evenings. Not great for family time but needs must.

You haven't included mobile phones, are you not using them?

The cats seem expensive, what's costing so much?

If the internet is for DH's job, isn't he expensing it?

Definitely time to sell the second car. Where people normally come unstuck with monthly budgeting is accounting for non-monthly/irregular expenses - cars are definitely in this category. You need to be putting money aside each month for car repairs/MOT costs and so on - and there clearly isn't any slack in the budget for that. Likewise budgeting for Christmas (yes, even in May). Emergency fund for when things like the freezer stop working.

You need to bring that water bill down. Despite being metered is that a monthly payment based on expected usage? Can you move to paying for what you actually use, even if that means the payment changes month on month? I pay 29 and we are all in the house most days. Can you compare your actual usage charge to the monthly payment? I suspect they're overloading if you are a new customer to build up a buffer.

Ct is over 12 mo

Water is definitely an issue though not sure why.

1 shower, 1 washing machine, 1 dishwasher a day
Usual toilet and hand washing
Then 3 baths a week.
I've spoken to DH anyway and we ae going to try to be more aware. It is predicted usage but we HAVE used that each month over the last 12.

DH has a work phone and my mum pays for mine it's a bolt on to hers

Despite DS lack of speech, we don't get the two year funding unless on benefits.

Cats are insurance and vaccinations.

DH used to be able to expense the Internet but then they gave them all 4g enabled devices. We are just in a crappy signal area and it's not reliable.

Don't want to sell car :( will if I have to but cos there are no immediate costs for 11 months, I'll wait a few and see if I can find a job. Looking at budget, 20 hours would do it. If I'm lucky I can do that in 3 evenings and a weekend.

We should get tc next year, plus the 15 nursery hours, so I'm hoping this is relatively short term.

Then my earnings if I find work can go to an emergency fund, or annual stuff etc.

Christmas I intend to fund my selling stuff, I have a garage full of shite preloved items waiting to be sorted. And in a pinch, I will sell my wedding dress.

Is the car taxed and insured already for the next 11 months? Obviously using it costs petrol. Could you put it off road and get the tax and insurance refunded?

If the 4g won't work where you live, his work need to get him a signal booster or a different 4g provider - we've had to do this for people who happen to live in the wrong signal area.

Can you cut down on the number of washes and dishwashes? At that price you'd be better off taking the clothes for a service wash at the nearest launderette.

I've never heard of tax credits averaging out income over 2 years. That's really rubbish . When did you last phone? If it was before the new tax year then I'd phone and ask for a form to complete with an estimate of this year's earnings. Infact, even if it wasn't before April that you phoned I'd still fill out a form.

Water bills in south west England are extortionately high. Something to do with being coastal area with tourism. Could this be why yours are so high?

I am surprised about the tax credits too. I went from being a very high earner (not entitled to any at all) to being made redundant and was able to claim straight away but this was 4 years ago so perhaps the rules have changed. I'd definitely ring again and query it - tax credits are awful for getting things wrong. Just last week I had to ring them to inform them of a change of circumstance- my youngest child is now receiving high rate disabled living allowance and I am now claiming carers allowance and for some unknown reason they decided to completely erase my husbands income off the award, as if he doesn't earn anything at all! (He's had the same job for 3 years now). I had to spend another hour on hold to them to sort it out. So definitely query the 2 years thing. I have never ever heard of that before.

Car is taxed, insured, mot'd and serviced just.

Don't want to put it off road, petrol is covered via work.

Is that washing and dishwashing a lot for family of four?

I rang 2 days ago for tax credits, it's when I started the thread in a panic lol

We are north west, I'm sure we are just being wasteful, we are really going to keep an eye on it. DH has confessed to letting the shower run to heat up and the tap run while tooth brushing, so that will stop.

I will ring again next week in that case, it's so soul destroying, I was on hold over an hour trying to get through!

The tax credits thing doesn't sound right, you should still be able to claim if your income NOW is below the threshold. I'd check that again.