money saving tips

[RavioliOnToast]

we are in dire straits

our financial situation is crap, we are a one wage family with 2 DC's,
dh earns 18750, we barely break even at the end of every month. We've now gone over the overdraft and have no savings (TV licence just came out as annual payment that's why we've gone over)

what are the best money making tips you can give? I already meal plan and cook from scratch. dh takes his lunch to work. I know it'll get easier once dd1 goes to nursery, as me and dd2 can go for walks and it won't cost anything. we don't smoke, we don't drink, we don't have holidays, we are finding life really hard.

so as mentioned previously any advice is massively welcome

Yeah he literally spends nothing, ever. If he needs stuff I tend to get him it before he realises he needs it, anti perspirant, etc and it's hardly ever. He'll buy me a little gift for xmas/ birthday and that's the only thing he really spends other than the bills. He's stopped his daily coffee and takes one from home, or he gets a voucher on that o2 priority for a free coffee after 10am at Cafe Nero. I might open a quidco account, or is there another thats similarly good? And how do they work? I'm also going to sit and look at that survey website too. Any money is better than nothing! I honestly just don't know where it goes. I was on that live chat to sky last night but it cut off, not sure if it was a problem with the WiFi or what but it's working now so will try again today :) thanks for all the great tips

What I'm going to do for a week aswell is go to the supermarket just before closing and try and buy dinner for the following night with as much reduced stuff as possible, but setting a price limit of £3 per meal.

I can't believe you're paying £10 per month for a mobile phone handset when you are so broke!!! You need to do make do with a cheaper one.

You're definitely not entitled to housing or council tax benefit (partial that is)

Do you rent or have a mortgage?

The whoopsies can be brilliant. Ive gotten out of the habit of going later but when i did go i used to get microwave pasta meals for one for 5p, my DC were small then and not big eaters so that was dinner for 10p. You can often get sandwiches really reduced as well. I often see fresh soups as well.

I totally agree with pp who said use dried pulses where you can instead if quorn - it's so much cheaper bit fartier though and you can do them from dry in a slow cooker if you have one, then portion them into tins-worth in bags and freeze, then just pop it back in slow cooker with tomato paste etc to cook if you like pasta sauce/ curries/ chilli etc. A 400g tin is about 250g drained weight and I used to get them 3 for £1 at Asda until I sussed out the slow cooker thing - a 500g bag of the dried stuff makes 6 - 8 tins-worth and slow cooker uses same electricity as a lightbulb, compared to gas/ electric hob it's definitely cheaper. If you live anywhere near an international supermarket you can buy a lifetime supply massive bags for a couple of quid.

Do a massive batch of general tomatoey sauce the freeze in useful portions.
When you come to use it, transform it into bolognese (add oregano), chilli (add chilli powder etc), curry (add curry powder) etc.

Frozen veg is often cheaper than fresh and none the worse nutritionally, look out also for frozen garlic and herbs.

Reduced price/ special offer veg in a serviceable condition can be prepped and frozen. I've saved fortunes buying party packs of bell peppers and mushrooms or Aldi super 6 and chopping it all up, cook with what you need then freeze the rest - no waste that way either.

Save all your marg/ ice cream tubs for use in freezer (stackable and easy to write on with a marker so you don't end up with Anonymous Brown Stuff and no idea what it is because everything smells the same when it's frozen). You've already paid for them, unlike freezer bags. Ditto jars to reuse for things like bags of cupboardy stuff so you can see what you've got and not buy stuff you've already got.

Make your own pastry for pies, jam tarts, etc. Do a shitload and (you've guessed it) freeze them. Defrost, add hot custard, cheap puds.

Make your own soup - tastier, cheap and again, freezable. God I hope you've got a freezer after all this...

Grow your own culinary herbs.

Use tomato paste and water instead of tinned toms/ passata.

Also OP can I caution you AGAINST daily visits to the supermarket? Yes you might get lucky with the cheapness but for me at least the temptation to 'just have a look round' would prove overwhelming.

I've had the most fun (if you can call i that) when I've been on my arse with money by making it into a game. Write down every penny you spend in week one, then try to best it on week two, three, etc.

Saving shrapnel also a very good idea, it generates a couple hundred quid a year and is used as a Christmas fund chez Notgrumpy.

Once you've started at college make sure to get a student ID card which will allow you to make use of any student discounts in shops and for entertainment eg cinema if you manage a treat. Good luck.

DH earns similarish and we have 2 young DC.no way I could afford to be a SAHM.

It is tough working with young children (plus one of mine is severely disabled) but I went back to work. you will get help with tac credits towards childcare and be better off than staying at home. if you are that dire, then I don't understand why you don't explore this route .

I am exploring the route. In a way I'm selfish, I would hate to miss out on my dds firsts, I take my hat of to those that go straight back to work. As it happens I've had a couple of interviews over the last few months and haven't been offered a job due to my availability. I am waiting for an application form to come through for weekend domiciliary care, we would only need childcare on a saturday if this was the case as dh doesn't work on Sundays.

We've had a cupboard week this week and I've only had to buy sanitary items. And a top up of bread and milk. I've bought stuff for chilli tonight, and will have another jig around tomorrow for tomorrow's tea.

Dh was paid last Friday and this month isn't looking so bad to what it was last month. As I say the crippling factor last month was the annual TV licence. These tips are great though. Anymore are more than welcome :)

Err not much else to do but get a job or find a skill you can sell

have you had a play with the tax credits calculator to see how much you would get if you paid for childcare? you might be surprised.

I am not working full time. I do school hours and it took me more than 100 application to even get a job interview so I get it is not easy to find a suitable job with limited availability but it won't happen waiting for an application form to come through. It is incredibly tough I found.

You could transfer part of your tax allowance to DH , if you are earning under £10,600 it can save up to £212 p/a. Even if you started working p/t it might still be worth it as we're a third of the way through the tax year .

See www.gov.uk/marriage-allowance

I've registered my interest in that but haven't received any application email yet. It sounds very worth while! Thanks again for the variety of tips

I second YNAB - it is the best money I've ever spent. You get a month's free trial and they give out copies if you watch the online demos. After that you pay £35 as a one-off fee for the software. When I went back to work after DD I didn't know how we were going to stay above water, I felt I had cut everything back that I could but still couldn't find the £600 childcare. Without a rise in wages, not only are we paying the £600 but we have upped our payments to debt to £1000 a month but are miserable bastards because it became really obvious where we needed to spend and where we could save.

I hope you find a job soon, it sounds like you're doing what you can. I love zoflora

I was in pretty much the same place when my boys were small. We lived week by week, putting just enough fuel in the car on Friday to go shopping and visit one or other sets of parents.
Having to walk everywhere and have hardly any evenings out and definitely no holiday.
All this changed for us when a friend and her husband taught me how they manage money.
You're already doing some good things like cooking from scratch and meal planning.
It's just a case of getting your finances on track which isn't easy with 2 children!

I've written some blog posts on Managing Money and being a Savvy Shopper I hope may be useful. Hope you'll pop over and take a look. There's some recipes there too.
soosie.wales/managing-money-and-working-to-a-budget/

I'm noticing the pinch this month as were down £80 on the tax credits. Quite skint till Tuesday. School uniform, new shoes, bags.

I pay my tv licence each month on pay day £12 per month.

save £70 a month for Christmas.

meal plan and only shop in Aldi. Spend about £55-60 per week. Including toiletries. (Family of 5)

My phone contract will soon be finishing then I can go on sim only.

I take lunch to work. dh does this too but both girls have school dinners and ds a packed lunch.

Im a stickler for switching off stuff. Even charge my mobile at work!

Dont know if useful to anyone but im very skint right now and needed conditioner. I usually use tresemme but due to skintness i got the asda own fruit burst one. Well ive noticed no difference between it and tresemme in the condition of my hair. It really is just as good so will be sticking with it in future.

Thanks for that. I have lots of hair (think Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman!) And always looking for an alternative to Treseme. Aldi also do one in an exact bottle.

We have no aldi here but i will try Lidl and see if they have one too.

I am a home carer. Hubby gets in from work and I go out pretty much straight away! I work 4 evenings 7-10 and then Sat 5-10. Rewarding job and fits around hubby, lots of mums do this work.

I also do online surveys that pay out in PayPal and £10 vouchers. Also sell on EBay. Got Nectar/Boots/Tesco club card points saved up.

It is so hard. I have found it more so lately, due to cost of days out in summer holidays, school uniform and now buying winter clothes and got to think of ds birthday in November. Cutting back a lot on Christmas this year.

Things will get better for you. X

In all honesty I'm not too worried about Christmas this year, my dh works in mobile and can do tasks and training and such to win points with different manufacturers. He can then swap these for Amazon and love to shop vouchers etc. So far he has almost £300 in vouchers ad that's what we're going to use for Christmas. We've already said that were only buying for the kids this year aswell, so have no extended/additional family to get for.

We won't even use the £300 on the two kids, so we'll keep some of it for birthdays throughout the year

Can you go to the local market at the end of the day/Saturday afternoon? They are usually reducing fruit and veg, sometimes meat and fish too. I got 27 nectarines for £1 (a lot of pudding or if you can get cheap sugar that would make a heck of a lot of jam). Also got 3 fish heads for £1. You can get a lot of soup or stock out of fish heads and bones, and the stock definitely livens up veggie food.

Save every serviette and tissue you get from work, doctor's surgery, etc, they are good when you are running short on loo roll!

I really feel for you.

It might be a bit late, but look online or phone the big stores in town asking if they still need any Xmas staff. I just started and have got one evening and one day at weekend. Others are doing one evening & half day at weekends. The company I'm with said they had struggled to recruit xmas staff for both day and evenings this year! It might be a tiny boost for Xmas and something recent on a cv. Although, all the pressure was on DH, he worked used to do a couple of evenings bar work when kids were little.