Please critique my budget - freaking out

[financialworrier]

I'm a single parent about to move house and I'm really worrying that I'm going to be over stretching myself with the new mortgage, and I'm considering pulling out and staying put.

Can you critique my budget please?

Mortgage payment will be £900. But I have no savings really, the house will need me to spend money on it - new curtains, new furniture.

Income from salary of circa £3750 pcm.

Other expenses:

DS bus pass £70 a month
DS club fees £25 a month
DS lunches £50 a month
DS pocket money £70 a month
Dog walker £140 a month
Cleaner/childcare £312 a month
Mobile phones £40 a month
Life insurance £23 a month
Fuel £400-500 a month
Groceries £400 a month
Council tax, gas, electric, water £350 a month (estimated)
Internet - £20 a month
TV Licence - £15 a month
House insurance £15 a month
Misc subs - £30 a month

Total bills = £3575 a month!

Leaving less than £200 a month for Christmas, savings, holidays, new clothes, shoes etc.

This isn't sensible is it?

OK then -

DS lunches £50 a month - really? £4 a day? I assume that is school dinners - try sandwiches even a couple of days.
DS pocket money £70 a month - why is he not paying for his mobile out of that?
Mobile phones £40 a month - I pay £15 for 4 GB (?) a month, unlimited calls and texts
Groceries £400 a month - I have 3 adults and we don't spend this!

The difficulty will being cutting back - once you have got used to something it is very difficult to get 'unused' to it! can be done, but takes effort, good luck!

What else is changing when you move? It's just that you said currently mortgage is £550 and you have approx £900 spare, new mortgage will be £900 but only £200 spare.

I would ordinarily say stay put but neighbours from hell would make me move. I'd give anything to be able to get away from mine. There is scope for some reduction: groceries, a bit off phone bill. Plus the cleaner/childcare situation isn't going to be forever. A lodger is a good shout, or perhaps foreign students during holidays if you don't like the idea of a more permanent arrangement. Does your company offer any perks schemes that can get you discounts on groceries?

I have a 13 year old who costs £75 a month for food at school so I don’t think that’s too bad. She prefers school lunches as her friends have them and she likes to sit with her friends. Fair enough.

Our mobiles are £47 pm for two.

I probably spend at least £350 on groceries for two of us. It isn’t just food is it, washing powder, dishwasher tabs, cleaning stuff all adds up. I work 45 hours a week as a minimum, my shopping comes in one delivery and whatever I buy is led by what’s on offer.

Council tax- are you receiving single adult discount? Are you up to date with payments? Some local authorities allow you to pay over 12 months instead of 10.
Water- are you on a meter? Might be cheaper. Sewerage would be cheaper too.
Benefits- have you checked that you get all you're entitled to? Do you get DLA for your DS?
Mobile phone is expensive. Look for a cheaper deal.

Have you ever thought about an aupair? Just wondering if that would be better than a dog walker and cleaner/ child minder.

My DS's get a bit of fruit and homemade wrap each day plus approx £6/ week on their school catering account for the extras they choose. When they've had more money and I've drilled into what DS2 in particular chooses to buy (cookies, brownies etc) I call it snacks not food so beyond that they can use their money.

As with you I give the children higher pocket money than many of their friends but it's in lieu of other hand outs (it actually saves me money and its teaching them about budgeting and making choices) and they know to have some saved back for outings and clothes they want to choose etc. Its funny how they used to love an icecream from the van but will now walk to Lidl and buy a pack more often than spend their own money.

DS bus pass £70 a month - How far does he travel can he use a bike ?
DS club fees £25 a month
DS lunches £50 a month- Is this School lunches try packed lunches ?
DS pocket money £70 a month- reduce to 50
Dog walker £140 a month- Try to get someone cheaper
Cleaner/childcare £312 a month- No cleaner
Mobile phones £40 a month - Use a sim only John Lewis do an EE one.
Life insurance £23 a month - Keep at is important
Fuel £400-500 a month- Are you using supermarket fuel. Can you car share?
Groceries £400 a month- I spend less for more people meal plan.
Council tax, gas, electric, water £350 a month shop around and haggle.
Internet - £20 a month- shop around normally you can get intro offers
TV Licence - £15 a month- do you watch much live TV ?
House insurance £15 a month- Direct line do 35% off and an intro offer my quote 4 bedroom two bathroom house a just over £5
Misc subs - £30 a month knock these on the head

How many rooms does the house have could you rent one out or take summer students or rent a garage ?

Au pair is a good idea, I was thinking 'lodger'.
Lad has SEN, some company is good.
£200/month for fripperies would be enough, anyway.

Have you claimed your 25% discount on your council tax as there is only 1 adult in the household? Check you are on the cheapest utilities tariffs, do your food shopping online through cashback sites. Shop around for the cheapest mortgage quotes, look at how much you would save if you bought your son's travel pass annually instead of monthly. Ditch the cleaner & look at something like Team Tomm to get everything done efficiently, look for cheaper mobile tariff, sim only deals are cheapest, look for a cheap broadband provider.

OP is there something missing from your budget listed in your first post? I added up your budget three times, I get 2960, not 3575, so a difference of 615 in your favour.

Your mortgage payment is 25% of your income which is quite high I think. We have a higher household income but I do not think we can afford cleaners and dog walkers and certainly wouldn't if was paying childcare costs too. £70 pocket money is excessive. My DD (13) gets £30 and babysits and pet sits for neighbours.

i think you have enough left spare imo

I think you are making the right decision.

Gardens and houses are nice but a lot of work, time and money to maintain.

OP do look at the car. I drive 96 miles a day in a one litre Citroen and my fuel bill is half of yours. Obviously a one litre Citroen doesn’t sound that glamorous but it saves £2.5k a year

I'm a family of four and don't spend £400 on food! I mainly shop at Aldi and Lidl but even when I shop at Waitrose I don't spend £400 a month!
Are you buying "ready made" food things that push the price up.

Looking at your budget I would stay in your current house and pull out of the purchase

I don't think OP was boasting in any way. She was trying to make a decision and needs some help. In fact she has listened to what people are saying and has decided she would rather not cut back on the way she has things set up at the moment in order to gain a bigger house. So she is going to remain where she is for the moment. Probably a sensible choice which can be reviewed in a few years once her DS is older.

I wouldn't pull out of the house purchase personally. I appreciate you say you aren't prepared to drop the childcare now, and I get your reasons, but I worry it's a bit short-sighted as in reality in another year or two there's no way he's going to want a 'babysitter' (hell knows - I loved having the house to myself to a few hours when I was a teenager), so if you are prepared to budget for a couple of years, then in a couple of years time when you can drop the childcare things will look much better financially.

£70 a month seems a lot for a bus pass for a 12 year old. Don't most places do discounted child bus passes?

Groceries can definitely be trimmed down as well. We spend about £400 a month as a family of 4, including toiletries and nappies, so that seems a lot for the two of you, especially as it sounds like your DS is buying lunch out everyday as well.

Shilopping can deffo ne reduced I dont even spend £100 a week for me, hubby, 3yo & 11 month old. This includes formula and nappies and cat food. And I cook every meal from scratch with plenty of veg (I'm doing slimming world)

I thought the rule of thumb was supposed to be: mortgage/rent is affordable if 1/3 or less of your monthly income. You have a very good salary and £900.00 pcm isn't much for the type of house you describe. It wouldn't even pay the rent on a tiny 1 bed flat in most of London. I don't think the 2 of you need 6 hours cleaning per week, do you in all honesty?

Cleaning costs are astronomical! You could easily half that and perhaps rather than pocket money say son has to do chores to earn it? Two birds one stone! If you say to so that you can have a holiday he may be more on board

@financialworrier
What size if dog and what are you feeding that costs £40/month?
Unless a very large dog you should be able to stretch 12-15kg of dry food over a couple of months - unless it’s a prescription diet?

The only thing i’d add that’s missing from your list is pet insurance. With no savings/wiggle room it’s something you might want to consider for your dog

Do you have a company car as you don't seem to have included car insurance and maintenance costs?

Could you get a lodger?

I am a lone parent and work late one night a week. I wouldn’t want my 13 year old to come home to an empty house and be on her own until I get back at 9pm. She would hate it. All children are different and I presume that the OP knows her DS well enough to know that this cleaner/childcare arrangement is the right thing for him, for now.

The cleaner is also the childcare provider unless I have read it wrong so while she is there for DS she also cleans.

My mortgage payment is 40% of my income, required to buy ExH out of our family home that I wanted to stay in for DD’s school years.

I'd say dog walker, fuel, groceries and pocket money all need to be reviewed. If you could shave just a quarter of the cost of each of them you would see the difference.

I'm probably repeating what others have posted and I do apologise for that but the grocery cost is super high. You can get your toiletries, cleaning products from the likes of B&M/Home Bargains (they do top brands also) and food shopping from Aldi/Lidl.

Fuel needs to be reviewed for sure. That's such a good chunk from your salary. Can you look into some mileage relief from your employer?
Try this link for more info;
workmileagetaxrebate.co.uk/

Even by cutting your fuel down by a quarter should give you some wiggle room.

Dog walker - absolutely your pooch needs exercise but this seems expensive. Maybe put a shout out on some FB groups (if you have FB of course) for other dog walkers/ others looking for company during the daytime to help you out. Cut the £130 cost down to a more affordable cost, advertise it and see what offers you get! You may doing an old dear a favour by giving them some company in return 😊

Cutting back on the pocket money would be helpful too. I think that works out to be just over £15 calendar weekly you're giving your son. Try reducing it to £10 weekly - that's saving you £30pcm already. Budgeting is always a good lesson to learn for kids. As far as I'm aware they're not taught budgeting in schools (or are they?!). So helping him to budget what you can afford is great for you both in the long run.

It would be lovely for you and your son to have a fresh start in this new house but the jump in monthly repayments is huge. If you can budget in those other areas to allow space to cover the higher cost then go for it but as boring as it sounds budgeting is key. That reminds me, what about the new council tax/bills for the new place? Have you got estimates what they will be? That could help you work out what running costs you're looking at.

www.mycounciltax.org will tell you the C/Tax rate for your property (don't forget single person discount)

www.ccwater.org.uk/watermetercalculator/ will help you calculate water usage based of the household size.

And a general comparison website should help you work out gas/elec.

Before I stop rambling on, it could be good to look at ways to increase your income too. Its none of my business or anyone else's, but if you're not getting financial support from DS father you could look at claiming for help www.cmoptions.org can help you. And and also www.entitledto.co.uk is brilliant in giving you a heads up about any funds you or your son could be missing out on.

Hope some of this helps you? Good luck with everything in future 😊

Can I ask,
What do you do for a job?