Please help me stick to my budget!

[BibiThree]

I'm hoping to give up work for a few years after my maternity leave is over and we're trying to live on one wage at the moment, but it's just not happening. I "save" my whole wage at the moment for unexpected expenditure in the future when there won't be any "spare" money, but at least half of that gets transferred back into the joint account at the end of the month to mop up the overdraft.

I'm trying so hard to be frugal and not spend unnecessarily but sometimes I feel like I'm depriving myself, and really hard done by!

I thought a moral support and tip sharing thread for all of us trying to live on a budget - however big or small it may be - to keep us going during the hard times, would be a nice idea.

Anyone in?

Might sound daft, how much do you spend on shopping? Try switching some items to own labels, lower priced. also if you buy named expensive clothes this may have to be cut down. I have 4 kids and only hubby works, we manage but sometimes its tough, some months we rob peter to pay paul but then we pay peter back later! We juggle money not just weekly but monthly also.

Shopping varies from £60-£80 a week, but we're buying a lot of nappies and formula for twins out of that at the moment, as well as food for me, dh and dd so I don't think that's too bad. It sounds like a lot now I've written it down, but we don't buy anything unnecessary like alcohol or ready meals. Shopping online is better as I can see what i'm spending as I pick things up (iykwim) so i'm going to have to do that more often.

As for clothes, I buy from Dorothy Perkins, supermarkets and New Look - Next if I'm feeling flush - but i've not bought myself anything new since before I had the twins.

I will deffo start swapping brand foods for own label more often and see how that goes. It's nice to know it is possible to survive on one wage with lots of kids! Thanks.

Look at your direct debits and see what you can cut down on. If you have cable tv do you need it, cancel other stuff if you can (I cancelled stuff like contact lens direct debit).

Are you paying the cheapest possible for gas, phone, internet, all your insurance policies. Spend time ringing about and see if you can get cheaper quotes.

Would you be able to do something like a bar job one evening a week for a bit of pocket money? Also gets you out the house.

The motley fool website has great chatboard called Living Below Your Means that's full of fab ideas - www.fool.co.uk.

Try writing down every penny you spend in a little notebook for 2 weeks - then you'll see where it's going. And only use cash to pay for things - hurts more!