Is this enough?

[The1990club]

Hi

I budget the family finances and I allocate x amount for the following pcm; food (including weekly food shop, school dinners, packed lunches and food for my husband who works away so eats seperate from the family),fun stuff ( days out/ eating out/ disposable income), anything we need to buy or pay for such as school uniform/dentist/christmas/ birthday gifts/ new kettle if it breaks etc.

This money does not need to cover holidays/ childcare/ fuel or car running costs.

We are family of 4, 2 children 4 and 9. I allocate £850 and on paper it seems enough but we struggle ( and I cant allocate more!)

Any advice

Food budget sounds fine. I shop at Lidl too and cook from real ingredients. £100 is average for 3 adults including lunches to take to work for all of us.
Is your youngest getting a free lunch? Should be up until year 3 in England.
I think reduce your savings until house finished. You’re investing in the property already.

On a more personal level @The1990club do you have builders in to do the renovations or is your dh doing them?

I honestly think this is the best suggestion so far. This is why I wanted to save- we have no safety net. But I also agree it is stupid to do that with so much debt. I think this is what I am going to do once I am able to start saving again.

Thanks this has been helpful

Its been a bit of both, we are about 60% done now but in a position where we can finish the rest ourselves over time.

Works that have had to be done; new roof, new doors and windows, internal and external damp proof course (traditional not injections), new kitchen, new bathroom, new heating, all walls plastering new electrics.... never again.

To save costs we have done as much as we can like fit the heating, rip out the kitchen, we are replacing the bathroom. We used DIY Kitchens. Its not even like we are putting gold taps in!

We should move back into the house soon and im hoping once I start seeing the fruits of all this financial stress I will feel a bit better about the money.

slash your Christmas spend - that includes telling as many people as possible that there are no gifts and cards this year
for the kids - don’t buy stuff except for Christmas and birthdays - no little treats
find a library
look into second hand for stuff
buy kids clothes slightly large you get more wear that way
free fun - take a flask
reduce debt as fast as possible

4 year renovation - 4 years in the caravan or are you moving into one room sooner? Grand designs rarely take that long

4 years to pay off about 40% of our total debt. We move back into the house soon. Apologies if that was not clear in my post.

So I think 850 should be okay for needs but not wants. So you’ll need to slash gifts / days out / eating out really. Loads of practically free clothes, toys and books on marketplace, vinted or charity shops for the kids and just stop doing gifts for adults. I think putting aside a small buffer for car repairs, washing machine whatever makes sense but always check options first - even a kettle doesn’t ‘have’ to be new in your example of spends.

Also helpful thank you

I think you’re doing well . I have no fe how much we spend but I’d say it could be three times that much some months

I think what you need to do is separate out that £850 more clearly. If you track in spreadsheet have different columns for food, Christmas, days out etc. When you know how much you have left for your fun stuff you can then start working out what you can do in practice and spread it out over the year, so for example if you know you have £1000 going in over the year, you can split it out over half terms etc. That’s what I do. Stops me overspending at the wrong time of year if that makes sense, so I know I need X amount in X month.

Back in the day I was in a similar position. Ended up selling my car to finish the kitchen. Keep your eye on the prize, you're going to end up with an amazing house. It will be easier when you are back in the house and have a fully functioning kitchen. Best advice is to shop with a list, keep saving and allow yourself treats maybe once a month. I'd say your budget is perfectly doable, your a good manager and are in control. Zopa online savings is easy to navigate and you can open different savings pots which might be helpful. You're doing well and the hard work will pay off. (Although I do agree once is enough).

When you have your kitchen ready you will be able to cut down on costs. Have you got a slow cooker? Hope things go well OP.

I cannot wait! It is slow cooker season!

Look at site, Taming Twins- the chicken satay is lovely.

Half your food budget on school dinners sounds a lot? Wouldn’t it be cheaper to make packed lunches?

This is true and yes my son is free lunches in reception

Has the renovation finished then? No further expenditure required?

cut down on your dh food spending
cut down on christmas

Sorry, with the mix of weekly and monthly costs I thought you were paying 50 a week on school dinners.

The drip feed on this thread is quite intense

OK my opinion...

You need an emergency fund of £1k.
You've been saving £100 for Christmas since the summer. So by Dec you have approx £600 in a sink fund for Christmas? In your position it would be irresponsible to spend £600 on 1 day. Your children are small. Buy them second hand toys. You can get new in box stuff from vinted if you don't want to buy used second hand. Don't buy for your DH or wider family. Do a nice roast chicken dinner. Spend £100 to £200 on Christmas max.
Put £400 to £500 in your emergency fund

Continue saving £100 to £200 a month (depending on what the particular month's expenses are) untill you get £1k emergency fund.

Then use that money to reduce debt. Don't increase your standard of living at that point

Write down what your past 6 months expenses were and think about if you got value from each of them. Always look to see if there's a cheaper way of getting similar value. Eg buy second hand, use vouchers, take a picnic on a day trip. Don't spend on anything that only gives short term dopamine.

Go through your bills and see if you can reduce any of them - cheaper mobile contract? Threaten to cancel any subscriptions and see if they offer a discount to stay. Or just cancel them. Switch bank accounts to get introductory offers. Negotiate insurance down. Use cash back gift card apps for any shopping

Apologies for the drip feed, I never intended to drip feed but without writing an essay in my first post it would have been hard to explain all of this.

A lot of the suggestions I am already doing or I am going to do. No the renovation wont be completely finished but we should be able to live comfortably in the house and the rest can wait and it will as we need to recover not just financially but also emotionally, we moved in 18 months ago and haven't unpacked, imagine that with 2 children. It has been really hard.

I have cut all our direct debits down to the minimum I cannot save anywhere else.

I have decided to pay off the unexpected cost as quickly as possible - and then save 1k for emergency. Then chuck everything at the debt.

Hopefully over the next year with a pay rise and some small things getting paid off we could review it and live a bit better

Thanks to everybody who contributed I have found it useful to get other opinions/ strategies. Xx

Saving wouldn’t be my priority

Getting rid of £75k guillotine over my head would be

Hi , have you ever listened to or watched the Ramsay show? American based but personal finance experts . In your position they would recommend having a small savings pot for emergencies (around £800) and then no more savings until debt is paid off and throw everything you can at the debt. They would also say don't pay into pension and use the extra to pay off debt (but as soon as debt paid, pay 15% into pension). That is very American in approach though (the pension bit). Good luck OP

I have and he is brilliant. Im going to take this approach but I haven't paid enough into my pension as it is so that can stay.

Thank you for all the supportive comments