family of 5 living in SE on £30K can we afford £6K per year for ds1's school or am I bonkers?

[thenewgirl]

I have done the sums and I think we could survive month to month.

but

we are currently on 51K per year.

for ds1 to go to this school we have to move house (and to another county) housing costs would be the same but we would have less money due to change in job and have the school fees to pay.

it would not be forever as I am currently a sahm and will have earning power one day. also dh's new job would earn him more in years to come.

does this sound do-able?

I'm well up for it!

please tell me if I'm looking through rose tinted specks?

Did you use the moneysavingexpert budget planning spreadsheet in the end, thenewgirl?
What did you work out are the main areas of expenditure that you will be able to cut back on?

I happen to agree with your prioritisation of funding primary and secondary education and I think if someone wants to go to University they will find a way without having to ask their parents to fund it.

Are you going to try out the new budget for a while before you make the move?

And most importantly, do you feel warm inside about having made this decision?!

The force is with you, DarthVader xxx

Ah I see PainterJane. Shame that it isn't an option for us, I'd love a 3 bedroom house for £500 a month!

I do try to keep a bit anonymous mummble but I can't resist...
have a peek

or..

this one

I have started to think that maybe I am a little bonkers, and probably do have a slightly rose shade to my specks, but dh and I feel like we would be being very true to ourselves by making this move, albeit waiting until end of next year to do it. if we start at rock bottom then I trust that we will be able to build on it at make good anything we need to.
that has been the way we have done things year apon year up until now in our relatively young adult lives.

I genuinely appreciate all of the advice, and am thrilled to hear the odd whisper of encouragement! thank you.

Wow, they both look absolutely fine for the money!

Prices are obviously v. patchy even through the SE region.

no way!

Your reckoning has left so much out

what about

Clothes
shoes
Car tax, insurance, servicing, repairs
£150 a month for bills??? Really?
Holidays
Going out
etc

hi darth, I am feeling the force, and it is warm!!

yes, we will be trying to manifest dh's job to begin next october (not quite sure how, will just have to give that one up to the universes!)

waiting until ocober will make money a lot easier (dh expects a substantial work bonus then)
In the meanwhile we will live on the same money that we wil expect to live on after the move. I am now totally addicted to martin, he is fabulous, we have used the budget planner and were quite surprised how much we are spending on insurance of all things, and we are spending too much on the phone and internet, we will definatley be looking for a better deal there.
It has made us realise how important it is to look after the pennies, as it all stacks up very quickly indeed.

but yes, I am very happy that this long process of decision making is drawing a natural conclusion, even if I have to wait a wee while...
x

OH CD we've all told her all that stuff but she has her heart set on Steiner schools!

the other thing moneysavingexpert.com showed us is that we use our pocketmoney for everything -all those things that countess just mentioned, other than holidays because we havn;t had the time to holiday due to dh's work. other than the odd camp which comes from pocketmoney.

the car is something that does cost us though on closer inspection...
I am working on that one, but I do fantasise about being car free one day (definately no everyones idea of a fantasy I'm sure!! though it would make me happy)

mumblechu it is crazy how prices vary in our current area between 30 miles can be vastly different for house prices, hence why we rent now where we are and have bought a house 30 miles done the road. crazy crazy.

mumble

If we had to live on £30K a year, school fees would be the last thing we'd spend it on. Blimey, won't you just be surviving on that with 3 kids?

£30k net elphaba...
we do well to save an awful lot each month right now, I am realising that I am very careful with money and don't spend very much compared to others on here.

Only read some of the thread, not interested in the school in the slightest.

It would be doable, but I think it would be hard, and a life constantly struggling is soooo miserable.

RENT 1000 - We pay £700 a month for a 2 bed terrace in an average-poor area, so that may be optimistic. Ours is a good rent compared to most round here (admittedly I am south rather than se... no idea what the difference is)

BILLS all 150 Gas/elec/water I assume? If all double glazed, then sure.

COUNCIL TAX 120 Could go up a bit, but ok...

POCKET MONEY dh and I 200 I want £100 pocket money a month

FUEL 100 How far will the commute be to work/school? We go through £120 a month.

KIDS EXTRA 100 Doable if you don't tend to do much in the way of clothes, activities etc.

CONTIGENCY 100 Is this emergencies or savings for birthdays/christmas too?

FOOD AND HOUSEHOLD 400 - Completely doable. We are a family of 4 and manage on about £120 a MONTH for food/household.

SCHOOL 420

Missing from the list - car tax, insurance, mot. Is home insurance on the list somewhere? You need something put by each month to cover birthdays and christmas.

thankyou for that flame, I am very keen to know how you manage your food/houshold budget.
I think our food is our indulgence, we buy mostly organic meat and veg in abundance from butcher and green grocers, then sainsburies gets the rest of the budget but ours does also include all household stuff. thinking about it, we could definately claw back some cash here but I wouldn't know where to start. we don't go for luxury on food etc but healthy, wholesome and fresh is what we aim for, can you do that on such a small amount? please tell me how!
home insurance is included in our bills, and car tax, insurance and services are included in contingency. (I agree is dicey)
rents are very reasonable in the area we are looking to move to, £1000 would rent us the ideal home, £800 would be livable in.

on the food/household budget threads on MN, there is always such a huge difference in the amount people spend. I think that will be another project for me, cutting back the spending there. I would be hapy eating soups and lentils, dh on the other hand will take some convincing...
I am, helpfully, developing a new found hatred of waste; any waste, food, rubbish, money.
I'm getting all excited again, perhaps I need to get out more !!

Meat is from the local butcher's - I have a £10 a week budget and it normally gives us 5-6 lots of meat.

Veg - local veg shop, again £10. Lots of broccoli, cauli, potatoes and carrots usually bulk out our meals.

Tinned stuff etc I do a shop every 2-3 weeks at Asda doing 3 for 2 etc.

I can't afford organic, but I do manage to get local produce with this set up My only recent luxury is a milkman because I want to keep them in business and we can finally afford to pay a bit extra on milk.

Household - I use soapnuts for about 2 out of every 3 washes which cuts down on costs. Shampoo bar from lush seems to last forever. Salt deodorant again lasts for ages. I use reusable nappies (dunno what age your youngest is and whether that is relevant).

Our shopping budget is very tight, but if you even had £250 instead of your £400 you could do it easily

Own brand products are generally fine - some things obviously aren't, you just learn by trial and error

£120 a month
That is impressive!

£10 a week on meat? Blimey, I just bought 3 pork chops for tea tonight from Waitrose and they were £5.27!

Obviously just struck gold with local butchers!

wow flamesparrow that is amazing. I'm sure there would be a lot of MNetters that would find that quite unbeleivable.
I might have to track you down for some recipe ideas....
just how hard is it though, to stick to it? does it really get you down or do you see it as an achievement that you are eating/living well on such little money?
may I ask you (tell me to bog off if too personal) but do you feel desperate to have more money? and is it an option to you in the future?
I'm asking because we will be giving up what some people might perceive as 'enough money' in order to go and potentially really struggle in order to fulfill our dreams.
do you think I am suffering from greener grass syndrome flamesparrow?

lol at Mumblechum - obviously people who are budgeting don't go to Waitrose [wink
Just read thread and wanted to say good luck

Would you be able to grow veg? What are the allotment waiting lists like in the area you would be moving to?

thanks dooley1,
lemonaid I wouldn't know about waiting times for an allotment but I love the idea. I will ivestigate. do you grow your own?
I do container veg but I must admit it's more for fun atm.

Ours is necessity - we have debts and want to clear them, I want the luxury of being at home with my babies.

It can be hard to stick to, we have the weeks where I just can't be arsed and over spend on easy foods.

We've relaxed lately to allow for take aways, bottles of wine - constantly scraping with no rewards/treats etc is a miserable existence, you have to have things that brighten it up.

I started a very strict budget this time last year (There is a debt free 2007 thread somewhere that I started) - I was determined not to get any more in debt, and see a way clear of it. We could have cleared a much greater chunk had we been obsessive, but I just can't live like that - I would rather 5 years of moderate struggling to 2 years of miserable struggling iyswim.

It really all depends on if there is a goal, or if it is a no end in sight thing.

The waiting list here is about five years so I haven't even gone onto it -- don't know if we'll still be in the area then. I have grown a few things in pots on tha balcony but it's not quite the same . If we move somewhere with a garden vegetables definitely feature heavily in my plans, though.

Where my mother is waiting lists for allotments are quite short and she had one together with a neighbour for quite some time (eventually got a bit too doddery ). So it varies quite a bit. You could probably get information from the local council website for the area, which should include a section on allotments.

Hope you have resources for the actual move, packaging, movers, connecting gas, electricity, phone etc.