Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Money matters

Find financial and money-saving discussions including debt and pension chat on our Money forum. If you're looking for ways to make your money to go further, sign up to our Moneysaver emails here.

DH and I are both rubbish with money. We have always muddled through without worrying but we NEED to make changes now and dont know where to start! HELP please!

4 replies

2point4kids · 17/09/2008 19:24

DH earns decent money and I am a SAHM.
We are both utterly crap with money and just spend what we need to/want to without thinking about it.
We've got overdrafts and credit cards and vary between being in the black and in the red wildly. It always averages out to being ok though, so we've never been forced to get our act togeher so to speak.

As of now my maternity allowance is ending plus DH has a new travel expense coming out of his salary every month. We are going to have our incomings cut quite significantly really.
We are also in a phase where we are in the red!

We need to change our ways and fast. I am starting to worry.
I dont know where to start though really and we are going to find it very hard to change the habits of a lifetime and not just spend as and when we want to!

Any basic starting tips to help us on our way? What should we look at first?
We are planning on sitting down tonight and doing a spreadsheet with all our fixed incomings and outgoings on it, so hopefully that will help a little...

OP posts:
dittany · 17/09/2008 19:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Chequers · 17/09/2008 19:34

Meal planning made a huge difference to us, also set an entertaining budget for things like wine/books/mags and stick to it.

We are saving £1200 a month by sticking to a strict budget which does allow a few treats.

sophy · 17/09/2008 19:38

Cut back on meals out, takeaways and ready meals. Cook food at home from scratch.

If you drink wine in evenings, drink less, or cheaper stuff.

Shop around for insurance etc as dittany says.

Do you spend a lot of money on your kids? I have saved loads since I put mine on pocket money which they must use to pay for all the rubbish toys, trips to funfairs etc.

2point4kids · 17/09/2008 20:07

I'm quite good at meal plannning and cooking at home myself. I do order all our food online from Waitrose though which I'm sure isnt the cheapest! I have 2 boys 2 and under and just cant face trekking round the supermarkets with them though!

The entertainment budget idea sounds good. I expect that will save us a hell of a lot too, especially with DH stopping the odd 'drink' after work!

I spend loads on the kids, but being so little I cant really do pocket money!
I need to keep taking them out to places in the week to keep us sane, but will have to cut back on their clothes and toys etc I think!

Will chcek out that link now.

Thanks!

OP posts:
New posts on this thread. Refresh page