Can you critique my budget?

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Suddenly found myself unexpectedly single. Please can anyone review and critique my budget? I haven't bought any Christmas presents yet.

Mortgage £401
Help to buy loan £45
Council tax £102
Water £32
Internet £35
Gas & electric £75
Tv licence £15
Window cleaner £10
Service charge mgmt co £25
Home insurance £15
Dog food £40
Dog walker £250
My phone £19
DS phone £23
Life insurance £23
Club subs £18
Pocket money £60
School dinners £40
Car insurance £50
Car tax £20
Fuel £120
Car loan £180
Credit card £50
Groceries £160
£1718

Going to cancel:
£20 postcode lottery
£100 ISA stocks & shares

Take home £1620
Salary deductions at present:
Paying £300 pcm into pension - will reduce this to £150, increasing my pay by approx £100
Paying £150 into childcare vouchers - can reduce this to £70, increasing my pay by approx £60
Paying £400 into work saving scheme (this will make me more money so would like to continue)

Total take home:
Salary £1780
Maintenance £175
Child Ben £90
Total in £2045
Total out £1718

How many people and what ages does this cover?

Thanks for reply, two people just me and secondary age DS.

Hi op. Sorry to hear about your change of circumstances. Can you reduce some of your bills like water and internet if there is one less person using them? Also have you applied the single persons discount to the council tax? Will food be cheaper with one less person? Perhaps have a lean Xmas and explain to close family and friends that presents will only be bought for children this year? I have this agreement with my family anyway. Have you taken ex partner off things like car ins? Is the credit card the minimum payment? Could you reduce that just for a couple of months.

An obvious starter, really, but is the dog walker absolutely necessary?

I'd clean my own windows or get them done less frequently. I would also be looking at both phone contracts too see if there were better deals or SIM only contracts out there. (assuming you're not locked into any presently)

Thanks all.

Council tax at £102 includes single person discount. Water is on rates - suspect meter would cost more but could be wrong.

Internet is £35 and brand new contract so can't change that.

I work FT hence dog walker in middle of day. I could probably cut that down to 3 days out of 5, saving about £90 a month. The downside of that would be needing to come home at lunch twice a week to take the dog out which would increase petrol costs so overall saving would be less. Would also mean that the dog would need a long walk in the morning too on those days which would be hard to fit into current schedule but could be done.

Tied into phone deals until April 2019 and December 2019 respectively - one of those is a SIM only deal (20GB of data which is why it's £19 a month).

Will cancel window cleaner for now.

Can your son not take on a bit if dog walking?

For the dog walking, could your DS come home at lunch and do that?

Good idea which I had thought of but Ddog is a bit of a bugger to walk as very strong Labrador! We did have a cheaper dog walker but she quit because dog was too "spirited"

The dog is too strong for DS to walk at the moment and he's not old enough to be allowed home from school at lunch so that's a non-starter sadly.

Just a few queries: why reduce pension, but keep work saving scheme at the same? Also, chid maintenance seems low compared to your take home pay-is your ex on a lower salary than you?

You have got a list of exactly what you spend, so you go through it and consider each item in turn as to whether you can reduce it, short, medium & long term.

Council tax - single person discount.
Utilities - can you switch and save?
Phones - I pay £5pm each for ours with ID Mobile, that's contract only not the phone, but we don't need upgrades all the time.
Pocket money - Is that much needed, what does he pay for with it? How old is he, could he be looking at part time work?
Window cleaning - actually seems quite cheap, but uneccessary.
School dinners - take a packed lunch
Dog food - seems expensive, look at alternatives.
Dog walker - ekk, can DS do more?
Remortgaging.
Childcare vouchers - isn't reducing them a false economy? But with a teen what are you spending them on - childcare isn't in your list.

Does your 12 year old still use childcare? I’m not sure what you are using the childcare vouchers for?

Why is DS getting £60 a month pocket money when you are struggling financially. How old is he?

Why don’t you get tax credits? I take home almost exact same amount in employment and receive tax credit

I would also be looking at reducing pocket money as that seems a lot to me.

Look on the moneysavingexpert to see if there is anything you are missing out in your budget.

For context OP I have DSs of a similar age to yours - almost 14 and 11. They don't get any pocket money. When I asked friends how much pocket money they give their children they all said the same.

I don’ understand why you are paying in for childcare vouchers? And the dog is a huge expense out of your budget.

You have nothing in there for treats whatsoever. So no coffee, hair cut, gifts etc

I cross posted with some of your answers.

I don’ think the pocket money is too bad for a secondary school student, my 17 year old gets a similar amount but has to pay for his clothes etc out of it. (He used birthday money etc as well). Depends how old your child is, big difference between. 12 year old and a 17 year old.

I'm guessing you have rounded amounts but there's probably a few savings - dog walker for instance, surely secondary school aged son could do this in return for the generous pocket money he gets (even if you up it by £40 that's a huge saving). You don't need childcare unless special needs by that age, big saving. Otherwise it's just ensuring you get the best prices on utilities, insurance etc. as they renew

I don't think I'd be entitled to tax credits because I earn £36000. My take home is £1620 because of £300 pension, £143 childcare vouchers and £400 pcm work saving scheme- I think without these I'd be taking home closer to £2300.

Pocket money is high I agree. It's been this high for a year or so since DS got into fancy brands. The idea being that he gets his pocket money if he does well at school and then has to use that money for anything he wants. Saves me being pestered for VBucks or Nike shoes and means he has to save up accordingly. I could definitely look at reducing that in current circumstances though.

Paying childcare vouchers as DS has mild SEN so still goes to the childminder occasionally - I thought home alone every night from 3.15-5.45 would be too much for him. I suspect this will stop later in the new year though as he's coping OK.