£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?

Rude and presumptuous

Assumptions

Rude

You get the picture….

admin, please remove the post now.

@headaches80

Sorry to hear that you're having financial difficulties at the moment. Some of the replies here have been unnecessarily horrible.

For what it's worth, I'd like to suggest matched betting as a source of extra, legal, tax-free income. I've been doing this for some months and it's possible to make a couple of hundred pounds per month, without too much trouble. It might not be a very long-term solution for you, as the bookies can catch on quite quickly and stop you doing it, but it might get you out of a tight spot for a few months.

Have a look at Team Profit's guides and videos to get started. It's free to use.
www.teamprofit.com

I have read most but not all responses. Can I suggest you look at the price of food in Home Bargains? Bread, fruit, veg, dairy, some meats, tinned and packet goods are worth noting, compare well with other outlets.

Your council tax is £310 per month for an ex council house? That's absolutely insane. To me at least. Are you sure you're in the right band?

Not at all down here in the SouthEast, absolutely believable. I'm not sure where the poster got the Midlands from...

I can also believe a 6% rise may only net OP £60 on £1,800 take home. Have you all heard of personal allowance ? So you don't pay any tax on the first £12,500 ? That might be half OP's salary, so her effective tax rate ATM is 10 or 11%, but her marginal tax rates is more like 25% (with NI contributions) in the NHS pensions contributions are tiered (idea if it is the same for teachers) so the more you earn the more you pay. She might be paying an extra 10% for this. So will end up paying perhaps 50% deductions on her rise.

Yeah, I still can’t quite work this one out.

Maybe she means 10x laymen’s of £310? So £3,100 from £2500? But that’s way more than the capped increase.

It would also put her in Band F, G, or H, depending on where she lives.

Which like you say, unless the house is worth £500k+, would be surely mis-banded.

Payments* 🤣

In most of the SouthEast a 4 bed ex- council house would be north of £500K absolutely.

Oh I thought they were Midlands for some reason.

It would just have been a much simpler thread if OP just detailed how much her house was worth, what the mortgage is, what the net household income is.

Giving no details just begs for speculation, or drip feeding snippets encourages people to try and put them together.

The mortgage is clearly the issue that needs resolving, yet she offered no details about this.

OP good luck with the mortgage, that should make a difference if you can get that down. But I definitely think you should also both try to earn a bit more,combined with being as savvy as possible with the food shopping and money on general. Hopefully your pay rises will be a bit more than you'd hoped too.

I won't apologise for repeating my previous recommendation about Moneysavingexpert.com and the money makeover because if you can make a few changes it can make things a bit easier. Every little helps as Tesco say.

There's advice on challenging your council tax banding so look at that. Many are in too high a band and have got it changed and been refunded thousands of pounds of overpayments.

But are you sure about the council tax increase? You're talking about a 20%+ increase when the maximum they can put it up is 5% so check this. Another thing that will help in a minor way is to pay over 12 months not 10, same for water. Check online to see if you can do this in your area. You also mention a health condition, this sometimes makes you eligible for cheaper water so check that out.

I see there is more information now, I thought OP was a troll and reported as such, I see that is not the case now.

OP lives in the Midlands, from the OP

We both have good jobs but in the public sector. This means we work hard for pretty mediocre salaries. We live in an expensive ish area in the Midlands. Moving is an option but it would cost so much in fees/ solicitors etc. It would be a big decision but definitely a long term consideration.

That was probably the other struggling teacher thread posted at a similar time.

Two very similar threads, both light on detail that made the situation not seem to add up at first glance, the main difference being on the other thread that the OPs DC were much younger but in that case it was probably a DH issue that was the significant missing detail instead of a disproportionately large mortgage.

OP, I feel sorry for you and know how you feel.
I have been on Mumsnet (reading, not really posting) long enough to realise you can’t really ask for any advice without been bashed. Any financial problem posted and you will undoubtedly get told “people on benefits get far less” type of messages. Told to downsize, cycle or walk, not heat your house above 15C, give up on meat etc etc…
Your food budget sounds unrealistic to me. We are not exactly avocado on toast eating people but 3 of us spent £5-600 a month on food only.
I know how you feel. Read the whole thread. Honestly, as a teacher do online tutoring for foreign students. You will do well out of it. My PhD students do this as a side hustle and it’s a huge income boost.
Best of luck.

Sorry I have absolutely no idea about house prices in the Midlands.

Your council tax has not risen by £160 per month, because that would be illegal!

Well, that’s rude!

as I pointed out upthread, it has risen by £60 a month. The £160 was a typo.

Even £60 per month is very hard to believe. Try again

I admit I’m struggling to understand the calculations too . Would you maybe identify where the money goes so people can try and help ? How much are your wages after taxes and student loans if you have any etc ? How much is your mortgage and car expenses ? For sure you have at least over 3 k a month as that’s the minimum wage for 2 people and I’m sure being professionals you earn more ? Or do you just work part time ? Do you pay lots of child care maybe ?

Oh bog off. It has gone from £250 to £310.

Aye. Keep saying it and it might begin to be convincing

I’ve rounded some figures.

outgoings:

mortgage £2080
life and critical illness cover £120
energy £300
tv licence £14
c tax £310
water £60
m phones £120
husband fuel £80
union £15

total outgoings
£3100

total incoming £3500