£412

[headaches80]

Hello everyone.

I’m quite meticulous with budgeting.
mortgage rate has gone up again. I’ve just done my forward planning calculation.

After all bills/ direct debits/ standing orders (all essential stuff like mortgage, energy, c tax, TV licence, life insurance) I have calculated that we have £412 per month left.

This is for food, clothes, gifts, any school trips and unexpected bills. also to include petrol.

I’ve not included the insurance (car, home/contents) etc which I tend to get annually (I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it).

I spend around £30 a fortnight on petrol (getting to work). I downsized my car to pay for Christmas.

How are you splitting your £412 in my shoes? This is joint income, 2 adults and two teens. Both adults working full time.

I’m thinking

£200 shopping
£60 petrol
£40 unexpected/ school trips
£100 left over (will get eaten up no doubt)

its not a lot :(

I know I can sell stuff on Vinted. I don’t have loads of extra to sell and intend to save this option for use ahead of birthdays etc, I made £200 recently ahead of sons bday.

I’m thinking of ditching the TV usage (making licence fee not nec).

if Martin Lewis is correct, I’ll save 17% on energy bills. This will save me an extra £42.50

Any extra income streams or savings that I’ve not thought of?

I don’t need any more advice, thank you.

I’ve got some excellent suggestions to increase income that I’ve started on.

I’ve made an appointment with a mortgage advisor.

I will look into mobile phone contacts and review all other outgoings.

Could you renegotiate some of your outgoings?
Phones are £100 more than they need to be
Gas/elec is probably £50 more than necessary
Life insurance v high, could shop around?

If you are both teachers and in the TPS why do you need additional life insurance? TPS death in service benefits are three times salary.

I have a historic medical condition that means I’m more likely than the average person to become critically ill again and die. I’ve always thought this is important but I will look into it more.

I’m a teacher, my husband is not.

I’m on to all of this. Thank you.

Thanks for the clarity OP. You’ve had some good suggestions and I’m sure more will come.

Personally the mortgage is the biggy, as you are clearly aware. 60% of your income is largely beyond what most people would deem acceptable.

Your council tax is also very high. The two combined suggest you are living in a very expensive property compared to the size of your incomes - something you’ve alluded to. 68% of your monthly income on that isn’t sustainable. Even when your interest rate was lower, it must have been >50%?

If a FTB started a thread saying: shall I spend 68% of my monthly income on a mortgage and council tax, they would be told one thing: live within your means. For some reason it’s hugely offensive to suggest that once someone is on the property ladder.

Mortgage plus council tax accounts for a full 2/3 of your income. You're trying to live on the rest. It's simply not a comfortable sum.

Thanks.

Yes, you’re right. We bought the house to be nearer the school so that the children could walk. My mum helped with the deposit. It was always a big outlay but we managed fine.

I didn’t predict the massive rises in bills. I probably assumed that our pay would rise (incrementally and in line with inflation) but that’s not happened either.

Perhaps we were stupid, at best naive.

The size of that mortgage makes me wince! I’m lucky and mine is only £600.

No point in remortgaging as such right now, with interest rates as they are, but can you extend the mortgage, make it for a longer term?

Blimey that’s such an unrealistic housing cost for the midlands , if you can’t downsize or want too maybe try adding a few years to your mortgage.
if you are both professionals you should also maybe consider a work change , you both earn extremely badly . I’m shocked you got such a a big mortgage on such low wages

I think there are some quick wins there.

Life and critical illness: £60 saving, mobile phones: £40-£50 saving, energy: £50, Union £15. That's £165.

Sadly, I think you will both have to take on another job providing your contracts of employment allow it and depending how easy work is to come by where you live. Here in the South East it would be easy to pick up a shift in a restaurant/bar, cleaning, ironing, and over the summer holidays possibly three to four weeks admin work to provide a cushion. Notwithstanding additional marking/tutoring. My dd teaches and has been doing a weekend hospitality shift at sporting events since March to put in her travel fund. It's easy to come by. There are also care home shifts, etc.

Get in touch with your local NCT networks. Experienced mother, qualified teacher, available for babysitting at weekends and during the holidays. Happy to help mothers wfh on an occasional basis or when they have toddlers/older dc and a new baby. Another option, if you have any country house hotels near you is to offer your services as one of their recommended babysitters for their guests. Might be too late for this summer but places like Camp Beaumont are always looking for staff in the school holidays.

I think the problem here is the house isnt it? That's an astronomical mortgage, plus expensive council tax plus high energy bills.

It may be worth looking at moving. How many kids do you have - do you need a 3 bed? We're in the south with a much lower mortgage, council tax and bills (our house isn't particularly "nice" but needs must)

Also if you have at least 24% equity plus whatever you've built up in the time you've lived there it could be worth it.

It's definitely worth talking to an independent mortgage broker about options. Ours looked at extending the time we borrowed for vs moving for example. Also all these bills are only likely to go up...

@UsingChangeofName my response was nothing to do with OPs original post as I had already responded to that previously, my response was to you saying your tight and couldn’t feed 2 adults and teenagers on £45, I stated it could be done, not the most luxurious food and then gave an example of what could be bought for £45. As I’d done that shop that day it was fresh in my head. The whole £45 worth of food also did not go to the food bank as I stated quite clearly a bag of shopping stayed with me including fresh food.

The op put in her post yesterday that she lives in the Midlands.

The high mortgage is the big expense plus council tax

You say you don't pay it for 2mths so I would move to 12 payments so be less a month

And mortgage maybe Extend the years to pay less ? You can always reduce it at a later stage

Great you have babysitting work but you would earn much more tutoring

What subject do you teach ?

Advertise yourself on your local Fb page for tutoring. Ours always has people asking