Please, look at my budget. What, if anything, can I do?

[SeraphinaR]

NC.

Been going through my monthly budget and things aren't looking great.

Mortgage, Ins, Maintenance, etc. £1071

Electric, Gas, Water, Council Tax £278

Cars £96

TV, Broadband and Phones £100

Total is £1545

Then there's

Food £500
Fuel £250
Nursery Fees are either £292 or £363

All together that's £2658 using the highest Nursery fees figure, without any savings for Birthdays, Christmases, Clothing, Emegencies, etc.

Our joint income is £2600. Occasionally DH might earn slightly more if he gets a small efficiency related bonus but it can't be relied upon but some months it would seem we may be -58 short if DH makes no bonus and we have the higher month of Nursery fees.

I'm going to look into a second job. It isn't a route I wanted to go down but things just aren't comfortable as it is.

Any suggestions?

Just to add the £500 a month food bill includes pet essentials, cleaning and laundry products, and nappies.

Could you cut your food bill a bit? Things are definitely very tight. Do you get child benefit? Tax credits?

Is it worth you actually working?

Or would you be better off doing evening work.

I would also shop around/go vegetarian and re jig what you eat to cut the food bill

If you post in the "Debt Free Wannabe" forum on MSE, there are lots of folks there who are great at spotting places you can make savings.

I'd also suggest breaking down your budget into more categories so you can see exactly where the money goes.
How many people (adults and children) in your family?

At first glance, the food, car related and entertainment values all look like they might allow for savings. I'm assuming £250 on fuel is 2 cars? Do you really need 2 cars?

You should both ask for a pay rise.
Does your work have a childcare voucher scheme?

Also look at your fuel bill. Anyway of getting public transport or walking on some journeys.

That's tough OP. I would also recommend getting a benefits check.

Cut your food bill - lots of internet research needed there for ideas. Fresh veg isn't expensive, and a chicken can go a long way. Perhaps some new recipe ideas might help? My supermarket shopping bill for 4 of us is around £550 pcm, and I am not really watching my spend. I know that I could cut that down if I needed to.

On the TV/phone etc, can this be cut? Are there any subscriptions or providers you really don't need and can live without?

I seem to recall a frugal living thread on MN at some point - they might have some great ideas to share.

Good luck with the job hunt...and I hope things get a bit easier for you.

I've only just returned to work after Maternity Leave. It's my first month back. I work two days a week only to keep childcare costs down. We had based our calculations on me returning on a family members kind offer to have my DD one day a week so I only had to pay for 1 day of childcare but due to mobility issues, said family member can no longer help. However, said family member felt so guilty, they offered to pay half a day of child care for us. So we are only paying 1.5 days instead of the 2. I feel terrible and don't want them paying at all but my caulcations above are for 1.5 days not 2 and...with the figures above I can't even see a way of factoring in that additional half day they pay for.

Look on moneysavingexpert and see what you can save on utilities etc.
I pay 29.99 per month for phone, landline, fast broadband.
12 per month for mobile with giffgaff.
Our budget for groceries for 5 is £60

Could you switch supermarket or use own brands to lower the food shop? £500 p/m seems quite a lot. Would you consider a meat free diet? That’s often much cheaper!

Also am I right in thinking you have two cars, is that essential?

Could you switch broadband provider?

Can you shop around and see if you can get a better deal on any of your utilities, phone contract, etc? Although I did change to a cheaper supplier for gas and electric recently, which will save me money in the long run, but I did need to pay a final bill to my old supplier, which is a bit of a hit now. You could probably save a bit on your food bill as well. If you buy branded for an item, try the own brand; if you already buy own brand, try value. There will be some things you don’t like, but plenty you won’t notice the difference. Also going meat free a couple of days a week can make a good saving.

The frustrating thing is, I negotiated a £2000 pay rise per year prior to returning after Mat leave. I enjoy my job and I think the company really values me but my £700 a month just doesn't get very far when I factor the childcare.

Which is why I'm considering getting an evening job on top of this so DH can look after DD and we dont have further childcare.

I feel like I'm pushed for time as it is to keep on top of everything but obviously being comfortable financially is the priority.

The food bill, there's 3 of us. DH, me and DD but we also have my partners 4 children stay on a regular basis. Two of whom are teens. So some days we've got 7 of us plus two cats.

Do you have any equity in the house? Can you remortgage?

Your car budget actually looks low to me. What happens if one breaks down?

Telephone and TV bill are too high and food bill could be cut.

A better breakdown of the above figures:

BT Broadband and landline is £29.99
Netflix is £9.99
My phone is £13
Dh phone is £40.46 but hes paying for his phone and a contract. I own my phone outright as it was a Birthday present.

Council tax is £137.81
Gas and electricity is £83.99
Water is £30
And we pay £25 to an ex gas and Alex provider from our old house

Fuel is high because my partner drives an old 7 seater diesel. Drives 45 miles to work everyday. Awful public transport links.

I have a car I own outright which I only really use 2 days a week to get DD to Nursery and me to work.

Teenagers:
I have 3.
I get cheap bread (30 something pence in Tesco and Aldi )
Cheap biscuits eg ginger nuts
Multi packs of crisis from Aldi
They eat bags of carrots as they're cheaper than most fruit.
And cheap bananas.

I do feed them nutritious food as well. But they seem to have days of inhaling things. Like Labradors

My DH is a mechanic so car repairs arent a big concern. Car costs are literally just insurance for mine and insurance and tax for his.

Dont think I can touch the mortgage. Its five years fixed and we have only had a mortgage since April

You don't need Netflix.
But you can probably make the most savings on your food bill.

Stay in your job though if you can. Long term it makes financial sense.
And your dh should keep an eye on when he can change his phone contract.

Get in the habit of going to poundstretcher or b and m etc and seeing what's cheap.

Can your dh up his hours at all?

With £500 a month for food and bits you can afford to buy bigger packs of goods, but check to see if cheaper.
,. If you do a major shop for cleaning products, toilet rolls and nappies. Once a month, work out how long it lasts,. Write on the box with a marker,. So you know when you need to rebuy and look out for bogof offers .
Then divide the money you have left over for the month by 32. Yes 32 this give you a bit of wiggle room....
So say you have £10 a day for food....
At the end of a month you should have a extra where you under spent that month.

I know this sounds odd but if you are only using your car 2 days per week would a taxi be more economical.

Dp used to have a car that he used to get to the train station each morning and evening. He used my car at weekends or I dropped him where he needed to go or at a bus stop.

We worked out that it was cheaper to get rid of his car and for him to get a taxi each way than pay tax, insurance petrol parking MOT etc.

Taxi is £5 each way and he was spending £7.50 on parking alone.

I do enjoy my job. I mean it's not skilled. I'm an unskilled worker I guess but still, I enjoy my job and get satisfaction from it so I don't want to leave.

Also, we get an asda delivery every week and top up shops are done at aldi and lidl. It's frustrating as I know that's the area we can make the biggest savings but it's the area I'm most reluctant to do so on. We don't really have anything nice. We cant afford takeaways or to eat out. We dont get new clothes. Maybe some at Christmas. I've started buying clothes in charity shops lately. We don't have days out, etc. Unless we have been give something like cinema vouchers for bdays. Dh gets his hair cut for 10 pounds every six months and I havent had mine cut for two years. Last time I did it myself. So I just find life more enjoyable if at least I can eat the food I want without having to make cutbacks.

You don't need Netflix

I disagree. That is one thing you can’t do without.