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Expenses after housing costs?

44 replies

Noeuf · 30/09/2021 14:54

If you don’t mind sharing, what do you spend on bills (water/fuel/food/clubs/broadband etc/) after rent/mortgage and council tax? I keep looking at hours and it’s about £2500 which I can’t cut much more. That’s clubs, all insurance, food, bills, and a debt (ends soon). Not including eg holidays which we don’t have spare for at the moment.
Sorry if it’s nosy, just trying to work out if I’m on the right tracks etc.

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Noeuf · 01/10/2021 19:43

‘DS's Waterstone's habit.‘

Love this but at least you get points…

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BarbaraofSeville · 01/10/2021 20:49

Your water bill is enormous. Are you in the SW? If you're on a meter are you implementing water saving methods? Are you entitled to any help, eg if anyone in the house has a disability?

Your insurance is also quite a lot. Do you need all the insurance you're buying?

Phones are still quite expensive. I pay £8 a month for the data etc with giff gaff and then I bought a Motorola G7 a couple of years ago for £75 after cashback on a black Friday deal. It's down to £3 a month in costs but that will further reduce as I'm nowhere near needing to replace it and I'll sell it for a few quid if I do.

You are also spending a lot on broadband, TV etc. We pay £28 to Virgin for fast fibre, about 15 to a couple of streaming services and TV licence so total of around £60 pm. If you call your broadband or TV providers at the end of the contract and ask for a discount to stay, you'll almost certainly get it. We swap and change between Prime, Netflix etc and never have more than 2 at once because no-one has time to get use out of more than that.

Rockchick1984 · 01/10/2021 21:06

£90 per month each for 5 phones is crazy high, DH and I both have the latest iPhone and they are around £45 each so I would say you are definitely paying too much on them.

Noeuf · 01/10/2021 21:27

The water bill is on a meter - interestingly I’ve just got a water butt and some timers for the showers.
Phones is 90 for five not each, sorry for the confusion.
We have Netflix and Disney and BT Sport maybe I should drop one - no tv package just broadband.
This is really helpful to think through. The insurance is 2 life , one pet and one house.

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notacooldad · 01/10/2021 21:31

Council tax is about £1500. I pay this in full at the end of March when bill comes in. Same with water bill at £655.
Household insurance is about £200 paid in March. TV licence is paid in March for the year as well.( I hate March!!)
No mortgage or rent
No credit card or loans
Electric and gas £86 a month
Broadband £40
Netflix £14
Gym£20 I cant pay for the whole year otherwise I would.
Breakdown cover £6 a month
Fuel £60 a month/ 6 weeks
£20 car tax.
Food about £120 a month with top ups of bread milk and cheese when needed.
DS usually buys some shopping and takeaways.
I'm not sure how much the mobile phone is for 3 of us.
All of Dh wage goes into savings and some of mine.
I keep a close eye on incidental spending. No Costa, magazines etc.
I felt frivolous for buying £1 bar of fruit and nut last week!🤣
I set my self challenges to see how long I can go without spending!!

Noeuf · 01/10/2021 21:55

Wow! That’s actually quite inspirational. Is it three of you?

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notacooldad · 01/10/2021 22:41

Wow! That’s actually quite inspirational. Is it three of you?
3 adults but other DS and his gf stop over a couple of times a week depending where they are working the following day.
My only advice is really go through everything with a fine tooth comb. I love not spending money!!
I have friends that complain they are skint but buy more clothes than they need, spend on Costa and Starbucks a couple of times a week, use the local nbutty shop instead of taking own lunch in etc
I'm not living like a pauper from a Dickins novel or anything We go to gigs and socialize but lockdown really altered my attitude towards money.

RosesAndHellebores · 01/10/2021 22:48

How do you manage on a £120pcm food budget @notacooldad?

It's hard to compare because community charge, utilities, water, insurance are so variable.

notacooldad · 01/10/2021 23:00

How do you manage on a £120pcm food budget @notacooldad?
For breakfast most days we have porridge so theres always a large bag of oats in.
I always have in large bags of lentils, pearl barley, dried kidney beans, dried chick peas, rice, mung beans, packets of chestnuts, pasta, sacks of onionsetc. I have loads of frozen veg in freezer.
With this I can make stews, curries, casseroles, risottos
tangines, stir fried for next to nothing.
As I said we do top up with bread and a few basics and ds does a shop now and then.

RosesAndHellebores · 02/10/2021 08:57

Can you give us a few recipes please @notacooldad.

Noeuf · 02/10/2021 09:57

Oh I’d love that - I’m vegan and kids are veggie so sounds like we’d use new ideas.

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notacooldad · 02/10/2021 13:14

With regard to recipes all of them are pretty easy.
Risottos tend to be butternut squash and peas with some soft cheese thrown in at the end.

Burgers are dead easy with black beans sweet potatoe and smoked paprika ( bread crumbs if we have any in)

My current favourite is frying leeks and cherry tomatoes add salt, pepper and cream and bake with a cheese crust. I usually add wedges or similar for Dh or just eat as it if I'm having a light tea.

Pearl barley kale and goats cheese ( or any cheese) is quick and easy.it only needs stock for the other ingredient.

Burritos are popular in my house. Again rice, black beans but add coriander and parsley and avocado.
Currys are easy and cheap. I make sure onions are browned and then liquidize it with a little water, ginger chillies and whatever I've got to make a paste I use chick peas, mung beans or paneer.

Nut roasts are so easy and you just adapt to what you have in or what is in season. I used the Boosh receipe for my Christmas meal last year and loved it. I may do it again this year.
I already have a good selection of spices and grow my own herbs.
I make my own nan breads as well as flat breads ( easy and take no time)
If you are watching money I would definitely recommend meal planning, using dried and frozen products stocking up on interesting spices and looking up some great vegetarian and vegan cooking blogs.
My son bought me both Nigel Slaters Greenfeast books and I love them.
My other son has bought me all the Boosh Cookbooks and they too are fabulous
I'm not watching my money closely because I'm skint. I've set my self a financial goal for February. However I'm going to reach it first week in November as i have been that frugal.

I hope you like some of my receipe ideas but if you need specific information about a receipe let me know.

Noeuf · 02/10/2021 14:09

Ratios or amounts for the curries - I make a really basic one with fried leftover veg in curry powder then two tins tomatoes/one tin chickpeas but it’s very tomato/pasta sauce like. I’d love some better easy ideas!

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ivykaty44 · 02/10/2021 14:24

MintJulia

we do amazon window shopping then copy and paste into library catalogue. 90% of the time we can order the book into our local library and collect - children get free orders, adults 50p - its saved me a fortune.

The library also has free digital access to books

magazines like hello, good housekeeping, cycling weekly, abc cooking etc all free

check out your library

notacooldad · 02/10/2021 23:16

@Noeuf
I'll jot some recipes down for some pastes that I use tomorrow.

Noeuf · 02/10/2021 23:29

Oh that would be fab. I’ve started meal planning again. I never learned to cook so although I love baking (self taught from books) cooking from scratch is quite tricky and a bit by numbers.

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notacooldad · 03/10/2021 20:38

Ingredients for a bhuna style paste
noeuf
Dont be put off by the ingredients. It takes aa short while to make. You need probably about a quarter of this for a curry and you can freeze it.
Experiment with it, add mustard seeds or red chilies if you want. Add more ginger or less garlic
When making your curry you can add coconut milk if you want.

• ▢3tablespoonsOil

•▢1tablespoonGheeoptional

• ▢1tablespoonJeeraor Cumin Seeds

• ▢750gramsRed Onions peeled and cut into four parts

• ▢50gramsGarlic peeled cloves

• ▢50gramsGinger peeled and roughly chopped

• ▢4-5Green Chillies or Serrano Peppersadjust to taste

• ▢1kgTomatoes cut into four parts

• ▢1tablespoonChilli Powder

• ▢½teaspoonTurmeric Powder

• ▢2tablespoonsCoriander Powder

• ▢1teaspoonCumin Powder

• ▢1teaspoonGaram Masala

• ▢1teaspoonSalt
• To prep the veggies, add onions, ginger, garlic and green chillies to a food processor or mixer grinder, and chop till it resembles a coarse chop. Remove this mixture in a bowl, and add tomatoes and grind them to puree.

• In a large pan heat oil and ghee and add cumin seeds. Once the seeds start spluttering add onions mixture.

• Cook stirring occasionally for 15-20 minutes till the onion mixture turns brownish in colour and oil separates from the sides
Add tomato puree, salt and all the remaining spices and cook on high heat while stirring continuously for two minutes. Reduce the flame and cook for another 15-20 minutes with the lid on, till the mixture reduces a little, and you can see oil start to appear on top.

notacooldad · 03/10/2021 20:42

Another quick one is to fry onions and then liquiduze with tomato puree, I tsp of Chile powder, 1tsp of turmeric, salt, fresh ginger cloves of garlic ( to taste)and a little water.
I'm sure other MN will have their own take on pastes as there are so many different ways you can customize to what ever you have in.

Noeuf · 04/10/2021 03:04

Thank you - I have loads of spices etc as I’m always thinking we will cook something interesting! First one looks good, I’ll give it a go at the weekend when I have a bit of time to faff around with stuff.

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