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?

Theres such a lot of good advice on here. I've been in your position and I shopped cheaper as people have suggested and I kept Netflix as we didn't have enough money to go out and you need some treats. For goodness sake, though, don't go with Utility Warehouse. Their basic rate is often cheaper but they're not cheaper if you compare offers from other companies etc. In the end they worked out very expensive for me. You can definitely shop around for cheap utilities and change them every so often to get new deals.

That's interesting Neptune my DP has just changed us to utility warehouse. I was a bit skeptical but he went for it anyway. No problems so far with broadband etc and he says it's cheaper each month for gas/electric. Did yours rise over time? This seems to be a substantial saving but we've only been with them 2 months.

OP keep but downgrade your Netflix. But the food is the big issue. Frozen veg? aunt Bessie's?! Why?

Lurpak - fine but have you tried Norpak?

You are snacking way too much. Remember, it's getting you into debt.

If you are sailing this close to the wind and having to check the budget and ask for help, I wondered if maybe there are other debts, outgoings.

You need to sort it. Children only get more expensive as they get older and at the moment you can't afford to buy even one of them a birthday card, let alone a present.

I think you need to get a second job tbh

Monzo are looking for staff, buts it’s working from home 3 nights a weekend - but £16k

Election staff are hard to come by and £300 for two days work

Your fuel consumption on your second car is high, in comparison I use my car approximately two to three times a week and fill up with fuel every two months at £35
It would be seriously cheaper to get an electric bike for nursery & work, or give up work which is costing you £376 per month in fuel and childcare

Mrssoap just did a quick check on entitled to using ops figures and it came back as zero. But worthwhile op putting the figures in herself to check

Could you solve the car issue by buying a cheap but large fixer-upper for DH to repair?

Sounds like a lot of the issue is because of the cost of his older DCs. The car, picking them up and dropping them off, feeding them all weekend, where it sounds like they're eating a lot, maintenance.

Unless their DM is a high earner, she will be getting quite a bit of help as child benefit alone for 4 is about £250 pm, plus likely tax credits and maintenance from your DH, while he has a lot of the costs of being a parent of 5, he has none of the financial assistance normally available to low to middle earners.

Sounds like you need to work on reducing the food bill, cheaper or far fewer snacks for teens and little or no treaty drinks like fizzy pop might help?

Yogurt keep s for ages after the use by date so there's no need to throw it away just because it's out of date.

DH fixing cars to sell might be a good way to earn extra income, but it takes cash to get started and it's a risk if something doesn't sell for a profit. But if it can work, it's a good way for him to contribute to the shortfall as it mostly seems to be due to the costs of his DCs.

Not sure there's any point cancelling Netflix, it's cheap entertainment if you use it, or can the teens use the log in details from their DMs house? If you don't watch live TV or the BBC iplayer, cancelling the TV licence if you have one would be a bigger saving.

Ok no one has said it but have you thought about childminding? You would obviously have to do the training and get registered but I don't think this takes too long and you would then be earning plus have no childcare. It would also give you much better earning potential going forwards while still being able to have family time in the evenings and at weekends. I know it's not for everyone (I'd struggle to do it) but for a lot of people it is a great option. In the meantime cutting the snacks and meal planning is your best bet to make quite a decent saving.

OP, not very helpful, but I think you're doing brilliantly on such a tight budget. I really don't think ditching Netflix is the answer with so many teenagers about. Could you try and make £10 a month on ebay instead to offset it? I made quite a bit selling my maternity clothes if that's an option?

"Do childminding on your days off?"

"Ok no one has said it but have you thought about childminding?"

I'm pretty sure I can guarantee the 2 posters quoted have NO IDEA how it works to become a childminder? It's a massive undertaking that requires meeting a ton of regulations, doing several courses and quite a high amount of initial outlay.

Yet it's frequently suggested on threads like this as if people can just virtually overnight decide to do this!

It can take up to a year until you're at the point where you're taking on clients.

Straight away -

"TV, Broadband and Phones £100"

Wtf! What is the breakdown there? I'm guessing with sky or virgin? If so when can you leave them? They are extortionate and don't even provide a great service

"BT Broadband and landline is £29.99" that's ridiculous!

If you went "back to basics" you could easily do:

£12 tv licence
£16 broadband
£15 2 phones sim only contracts

Total £43

Even if you added Netflix 2 screens that's only another £8.99 - why are you paying £9.99?

"I own my phone outright as it was a Birthday present."

"My phone is £13" for sim only? With who?

When does his contract end?

Going deeper

Electric, Gas, Water, Council Tax £278

Again need a proper breakdown, are you with cheapest suppliers?
Water - is that based on usage and if so can you reduce usage?
Gas & electric - again check your usage, does the house really need to be that warm, even when you're not home? Most homes are well insulated now so cope fine with heating going off about an hour before you usually leave, are you in appropriate clothes for the season or overheating the house and lounging about in t-shirts? Electric cooker? Cook double, reheating the same meal another day in the micro can reduce costs, there are also meals you can cook entirely in micro. Have you a slow cooker? Much cheaper to use than an oven and can be used for loads. Are you switching devices OFF rather than leaving on standby or even worse leaving on when not in use? Ditto lights. Do you really need hot water ready to go ALL the time? Even when you're out?

"Food £500"

What "level" are you shopping at, are you a brand fan? Most people can manage to go a "level" down without a noticeable difference in most products. Even if you don't do it for all products it could still make a significant saving for you.

"food bill includes pet essentials, cleaning and laundry products, and nappies." These are very rarely cheapest at the supermarket especially the big name supermarkets. Do you shop around? I don't know about pet stuff but certainly cleaning and laundry products & toiletries are cheaper at places like wilko, pound shops, home bargains, B&M and similar.

Nappies again I'm not particularly familiar but my friends with babies tend to buy from Aldi/lidl or in bulk from Amazon or Costco.

So if you're saving on non-food items you'd be able to still have the food you like.

"Fuel £250" this is so dependent on region, cars, usage etc but on money saving expert there's a LOT on reducing fuel consumption by changing driving style, ensuring good car maintenance etc there are also apps and websites that tell you which of your local petrol stations are cheapest that week, we've a local Facebook page someone updates this on weekly.

Have you loyalty cards for everywhere you shop that does them? (Particularly useful for Christmas/birthdays)

"And we pay £25 to an ex gas and Alex provider from our old house" need to know more about this.

"Fuel is high because my partner drives an old 7 seater diesel" why?! His 4 dc and him can fit in a normal 5 seater for weekend contact. For anything else public transport or for holidays/days out hire a 7 seater. Utterly bonkers he's using this for his daily long commute!

"Drives 45 miles to work everyday. Awful public transport links" that's a lot of mileage can he not reclaim any?

"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." Again why? For just 2 days?! Is there no public transport for this? Or could your partner not drop you off or do nursery run?

"My DH is a mechanic" can he get extra work/pay for out of hours roadside assistance type work? A mechanic REALLY should be able to find a more fuel economic car.

"Could you swap cars if the 7 seater is a gas guzzler?" Excellent idea even if only on certain days

and would likely work out more expensive than our current arrangements. - don't assume check.

"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" who you currently with and what does the £13 get you in terms of mins/texts/data? What do you actually use in mins/texts/data? If you don't know your provider will have this info

"It's not worth anymore than £2000 which wouldn't be much in terms of finding something the same size that's newer and more economical" again a mechanic absolutely should be able to achieve this.

"So I have a sim only contract which I'll look to reduce to the bare minimum in a few weeks as the current contract ends this month." Careful you don't get trapped into extending the contract by default - there might be a notice period or automatic sign up you're unaware of

"a week later got a letter informing me about tax free childcare which I assumed was too late to do now I'd set up a direct debit with the nursery"

STOP making assumptions!

It's lazy and expensive companies rely on this to make money out of us!

"but can't see DH going for it" he needs to get a clue! He CHOSE to have 5 dc he needs to make necessary sacrifices of luxuries (and it IS a luxury) to meet HIS responsibilities!

"All my jars of sauces, kormas, carbonaras, bolognaise etc. Are aldi or asda own brand." Geez I think the problem is obvious here!

You're buying jars?! This is a VERY expensive way to shop/cook. Do you not know how to make your own sauces? They're very easy and home made - even cheat versions - taste better, are healthier, quick and easy to do and MUCH cheaper!

"Things I still buy genuine are aunt bessies roast Potatoes, chips, birdseye chicken. Lurpak butter." Bonkers! Roast potatoes easy and much nicer homemade, oven chips - all taste the same! chicken? I'm veggie but dd isn't and she has said all chicken tastes the same.

"Also dont buy cheap snacks. Genuine branded crisps, butterkist popcorn, chocolate is what we fancy but it's usually Cadbury, Nestle, etc. Not the cheaper equivalents." Wow! They saw you coming! Utter waste of money! Plus there's the ethical issues of buying Cadbury and nestle. Supermarket versions if anything can be nicer now (especially in comparison to Cadbury!)

Tax free childcare account?

There are loads of savings you can make on your food bill just from what you've said there OP. You don't need to buy jars of bolognaise sauce, you just need a tin of chopped tomatoes and some dried oregano. You certainly don't need aunt Bessie's roast potatoes (what on Earth?), just buy potatoes. Most own-brand crisps aren't hugely distinguishable from branded ones and can be much cheaper, so it's worth trying. Not sure how different cheap and expensive popcorn can be really... Sounds like you really need to look at how much you're snacking on junk though, for your health as much as your budget.

Your fuel is even worse than I thought, I assumed you meant 45 miles each way. My husband and I both have 45 mile round trips to work (so 9 journeys a week) and our monthly fuel is about £160ish. DEFINITELY only use the seven seater when the smaller car isn't available or you need the extra seats.

I'd downgrade your Netflix, I know it's only a few quid but it all helps.

When you're looking at changing mobile provider, have a look at ID mobile. My DH switched to them a few months ago and so far so good. He pays £7.50 a month now and gets more than double the days he was getting for £13 with O2, plus they carry over any unused data to the next month.

Do you really need a weekly shop?
can you try going longer and longer between your shopping?
You should be able to pay less for your food

And agree with getting an evening/weekend job.
pub work
care work
anything just to bring in a bit of extra cash
and with the extra cash, put it in a savings account

The places I see room for making cuts to spending without anyone feeling any pain are:

Get straight on the case with tax free childcare. It should save you 20% of your childcare costs I think. I cannot see any reason why you would not be eligible for it.

Mobile phones:
I have a £7 contract with Plusnet. Network and customer service are great and this gives me ample data to power my iPhone for Sat Nav, sharing photos/videos of DC with family while out and about etc.

Utilities: I am not stingy with the heating as I hate being cold. The heating is on 24h in the winter but with the thermostat set to 18 degrees. I work from home so I'm at home during the day using electricity etc. My bill is £60 combined for gas and electricity. I think you should be able to save. Use a comparison site like Comparethemarket to lower this.

Food shopping: I can only guess that you're eating a lot of processed food and buying lots of snack foods given you are managing to spend £500 despite using cheap shops. It's quite a feat really!

I'm on a tight budget as a single mum with one DD to feed. I've got in the habit of cooking a roast once a week and we eat the meat from it for 4 days worth of dinners just changing the accompanying carbs/veg so not too boring. This is a cheaper way of eating well.

We don't eat meat at lunchtime but get protein from beans/eggs etc.

I know that I can't afford to snack on things like chocolate, crisps, expensive biscuits, ice cream etc. so I don't. The only snacks I buy for me are Rich Tea biscuits (which always surprise me for how nice they are!).

When we do have treat food, surprisingly it tends to come from M&S. If you have one near you, head in there just before closing. They do proper reductions (my most recent bargains were avocados for 12p each, a bag of really nice Clementines for £1 and a packet of thick sliced ham for £1). There is always stuff in the bakery aisle heavily reduced as well.

You are in trouble and minor tinkering will not be enough.

The basic equation is that your income should exceed your expenditure by a sufficient amount to allow you to save and have fun.

Your expenditure exceeds your income and therefore you must have a large and growing investment reserve fund in this scenario. Most people have no reserves and live month to month.

The suggestions in this thread do not address the significant underlying issues which will ultimately end in your property being at risk.

You need to double your income or halve your outgoings to give yourself a better chance.

Unfortunately this scenario is the norm and the result of consumerism and envy. Step one is to stop watching tv completely.

Cue all the cancel Netflix posts.

ooh Dark Clouds
very severe warning

Yes. There’s a storm coming.

I think dark clouds is right in that many people are just getting by but if we hit by needing to replace the boiler or the car dies, are in trouble.

Oh yes saving the 9.99 from Netflix will solve everything

I’m looking at ‘
Netflix is £9.99
My phone is £13 ‘

I recently switched to a sim only new deal that was advertised on the MSE website ( sim only deal)

I got a 12 month unlimited minutes and texts , 20GB data PlUS one entertainment package ( eg Netflix ) for 12.50 a month .

If you can find a deal like that when you next need to upgrade you can save about 10.50 a month ( taking what you told me you pay)

@thesnapandfartisinfallible no it won’t solve everything but instead of the OP being -58 every month She’ll be -49 instead I know which I would prefer 🙄

In all honesty, DH and I were in this 'more going out than coming in' scenario many years ago and no amount of tinkering could balance the books.

In the end DH changed jobs and we moved house. Financially it was the best thing we ever did.