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?

Your budget looks pretty lean. And obviously you need money for clothes and fun and replacing things.

Check every single utility and insurance to see if you can get a cheaper deal and aim to slim a little off your food budget. Sell everything you don’t need.

Really you need to bring some money in though. Maybe babysitting or dog walking or online buying and selling? Even £20 a week would be a big help.

Could you swap cars if the 7 seater is a gas guzzler? You drive that if you need to and he takes the smaller car to work if it's more fuel efficient.

Change gas/electric/water providers?

Downgrade netflix to the cheaper package.

Can DH get a cheaper tariff for his phone?

When are you free from the debt to your old provider?

Can you shop in a cheaper supermarket for some things? £500 is a ridiculous food bill.

Is is possible for you to work compressed hours and save on childcare by having a day off in the week?

Without knowing more you could change electricity/gas supplier to save some there.
Phone - I own mine and pay £6 per month.
Do you need netflix? You could watch a reasonable amount on Freeview.
Food - sounds a high bill. What sort of wastage do you have on what you buy? We've started doing a 'basics' shop at ALDI and then topping up with the 'must haves' from the supermarket. Buy own brand things as much as possible and shop in the evening near closing time when there are reductions.
I think we pay a bit less than you for landline & broadband with TalkTalk - take a look and see if you can save here - www.talktalk.co.uk/shop/broadband

Dh works 730am to 5pm. Leaves at 645am and gets home at 6pm. Its physical work so hes quite tired most nights but I believe hes looking into doing takeaway deliveries of an evening. So either I'll get an evening job or he will, i guess. Though, i think it would be fairer if i did.

I did look into getting a taxi the 2 days a week rather than a car but bizarrely the car worked out marginally cheaper and gives me the flexibility to use it other days if absolutely necessary

It's a small thing, but small savings can add up - what are you all having for breakfast?

Porridge is seriously cheap. You can make it with water (I always do this) and serve with a little milk and brown sugar. This breakfast will cost just pennies.

Eggs are also filling and not too expensive - boiled, poached, scrambled.

You can serve either of the above with tea/coffee, and a piece of fruit, not fruit juice.

Good luck.

What is the interest % on your mortgage?

That is a heck of a lot on fuel. .
How come?

Do you and DH work vaguely in the same direction? Is there any potential for you to use one car and one of you drop the other off? Or one of you drop the other off on a bus route to work?

If you've just got a mortgage, did you not have to go through an affordability check? Or was that based on a full time salary?

You could consider upping your hours at your current job, rather than looking for a new one? Do either DH or you have any possibility of choosing to work on a Saturday/Sunday and having a day off in the week to reduce childcare?

Some great suggestions so far. I'm trying to answer as best I can with an open mind but I don't want to be seen as shooting down all the suggestions!

I couldn't use the gas guzzler for my two days and DH take my more economical car because I'm quite young and the insurance on his car for me would be extortionate and would likely work out more expensive than our current arrangements.

No, I guess we don't need Netflix but it's a bit like the food shop, when it's one of the very few pleasures we have, it's hard to part with. Also with four kids here regularly I dont imagine they'd be overly impressed. I'd be a little put out without it but I read a lot anyway. DH would likely cry if I booted Netflix.

My phone conract is actually up for renewal this month so although I only pay £13, I'll shop around for a better deal on this. My provider is a bit crap signal wise here anyway.

I'll get DH to shop around too but his isn't up for renewal until January I think.

Food shopping is a definite issue. Shop between Asda, Aldi and Lidl. We end up with quite a lot of fresh food waste, milk, yoghurts, etc.

DH and I usually don't eat breakfast. If I do it'll be peanut butter on lidl brand wholemeal bread.

DD has porridge, weetabix (cheap brand) or bananas, peanut butter, etc. Step kids have aldi brand cereal when they are here.

Don't know the answer to the mortgage question!

Can you plan meals that cost less but feed more?...
Stir frys...
Cottage pie, or lasanga..
Because if you can save £2 a day on your food you can make up the money you need...
Asda is quiet expensive to shop in when you order online, as you miss the bargain offers in the store...
One of our friends does the online shop with near to sell by dates,. They save loads on shopping.

@RedSkyLastNight I was on mat leave when we got our mortgage and they based it on my returning full time.

My employers want me to work three days instead of two. I've briefly looked into the finances of this but with more childcare I'd need to pay for, it's pretty pointless. DH wouldn't work any days over the weekends because that's when he has his kids which is fair enough. My company aren't open weekends.

I work as a poll clerk at the elections - it’s a long day but I get £145 and I did both elections in May. The colleague I work with puts hers straight into a special savings account towards her holiday.

It’s just once or twice a year but it’s easy money.

I know this sounds bizarre but would you be better off not working during the day.

Atm your salary is £700/month
But then you have childcare at £293/month and you run a car at say £50 per month.

That means you are earning after you take off your very basic costs around £5.15 per hour. Less if you take your higher nursery school fees

Doing evening work stacking shelves or waiting staff or just working in a bar would bring in more than £5.15 per hour and you could do more hours.

Instead of being a delivery driver if your dh has the skills could he buy a car off eBay, do it up and sell it or swap it for the car he has now and trade his way up.

I think he would probably get more money from doing that than slogging himself stupid delivering pizzas till late then getting up in the morning to drive 45 miles to work then 45 miles home. He could fall asleep at the wheel and kill himself.

I think it is about working smarter sometimes not harder.

Sometimes taking a job that doesn’t have a fancy job title pays more.

That’s £145 for each day.

@mummmy2017 it's an estimate. Between 200-250.
Dh has a 15 year old 2.0ltr diesel which is terrible on fuel. He uses it 45 miles a day to work. Then an additional 45 miles every other weekend to visit his dad. My car takes £40-60 a month out of the fuel budget. Its newer, small engine, etc. Which gets me and DD to Nursery and work.

Can you do some de-cluttering and ebay some stuff? As pp said if you can aim to get in £20 a week it would help. Maybe the kids could get into it and use the cash for their extras?

I'd also suggest food bills to cut a bit off - I think ASDA is more expensive than Aldi but I do understand time-wise online shopping is much easier. Is there any way you could switch that to a bulk food run on Adli once a month? Anyone in the family have a spare freezer so you could do that and freeze butter/bread/meat/veg or do batch cooking? Having a 2nd freezer, batch cooking and slow-cookering all scraps for soups has definitely enabled me to eek out our food for another week or two max.

Obv not getting your nursery aged dd into ebaying, but the other older kids I meant!

how do you pay for childcare?

do you use vouchers? tax free childcare?

are you entitled to anything you're not claiming?

Your food/household essentials bill is very high. Mine is £350 a month for a family of 8.
You can definitely make savings there.

Does your dh pay any maintenance for his kids?
When will your dc get their funded hours?

Nursery fees actually seem quite low for 2 days per week, I'm sure I was paying double that for 3 days! Do you have childcare vouchers or the govt tax-free childcare account?

Instead of being a delivery driver if your dh has the skills could he buy a car off eBay, do it up and sell it or swap it for the car he has now and trade his way up.

^

This. My dad used to do this for fun and often made quite a bit on cars.

You need to get rid of Netflix and adress your food bill.

How often are your husband's other four kids over?

On any day you aren't planning to use your car, your DH takes that instead. It will save on fuel and you don't need to be added to his insurance.

Bin Netflix.

When DH's phone contract finishes go onto a sim only, don't let him upgrade it. If he can get out of the contract now all the better.

@Oliversmumsarmy yes, see, this is what I'm wondering. I do check regularly local supermarket websites to see if they are hiring. My local Tesco currently is but the shifts are all between 7.5 and 11.5 hours a week so although I'd have no childcare costs it's less hours which is why I wondered about doing say, the 7.50 hour a week evening shift job just to add some additional income. Though, if longer hours were available on an evening, weekend basis then I wouldn't be adverse to giving up my current job in favour of this!

Also I'm not on a tight budget and buy whatever groceries I feel like (within reason!) for me dh and 2 dc and it wouldn't come to £500 per month!

Trade in DH's car and get a smaller more economical one. If you can do that in a cost neutral way.