Pulling in our horns!!

[thesunflowergal]

We a found out that our Morgage is going to increase by at least £300 a month in March, whilest our income is going to drop by about the same.
So once again I find myself in a situation where I am looking for ways to save more money, I am sure that many people are just the same. I would love to hear the ishy ways that people here have saved themselves money, so I can steal all the ideas

Thanks Nikki

[Annpan]

OMG - I can't imagine if we were suddenly £600 a MONTH worse off, we would need to sell up.

I hope you have checked around for better mortgage deals.

[Carltonian Man]

Ouch. Sympathies SFG, that's awful.

Could buy pasta in bulk bags (most supermarkets do them)
Microwaving is cheaper than hob cooking
Chop food smaller before hob cooking it (cooks quicker)
Hit the reduced counter and find out what time the supermarket reduces it's daily stuff


Best of Luck

[Green Aura]

That's terrifying sunflowergal - £600 is a lot of money to claw back each month. It might be worth consulting a financial advisor to see if they can help. They should be free at first visit.

Apart from that you need to be really organised. It's amazing how little you can live well on if you plan.

Plan a full month menus each month and make shopping lists based on them - only buy what's on the list, so make sure to include treats. Then only shop once a month - it can be done, we have to because of distance.

One other thing I try to do is maximise each item. For example, if I take a chicken out of the freezer, we get at least one meal (for three adults) then something like a chicken and veg pie (feeds six) plus meat for sandwiches and stock from the bones - which goes back into the freezer for future use. I think my record was something like 24 meals from one chicken

Sort out insulation and heating so your fuel bills can be minimised - won't be instant saving but will help in the longer term. And pay utilities by direct debit if you aren't already - it's always cheaper and helps you budget every month - look at switching to a cheaper provider and see about off-peak savings like economy 10 (or whatever number we're up to now ). Then do washing etc at night.

Make your own washing powder etc - much cheaper and better IMHO. Vinegar and bicarb bought in bulk will see to all household cleaning.

Home baked treats - cakes cookies etc and homebrew, instead, or at least supplement of bought booze.

Grow what you can (longer term project obviously), but now you can grow sprouted seeds instead of buying leaves, for quick salads.

Socialise at home or friends houses - pot luck suppers and that sort of thing.

If you have any debt (other than your mortgage) start to sort it out now, for example get a 0% credit card instead of continuing with an interest-paying one, not after your income has dropped and mortgage has grown when the companies won't touch you- the CAB are fantastic to help liaise on your behalf if you need them.

And look at ways of supplementing your income by other means - bartering and car boot sales etc.

I hope everything works out OK for you honey. A sudden drop in income can be quite scary, but not necessarily desperate.
to you and the family.

[snapdragon]

Not a good place to be, specially if you don't have a lot coming in anyway
we've both been made redundant in the past 18 months so have the t-shirts as it were
Take care - it's doable especially if you have the time to food shop carefully, grabbing bargains where you can.
meat - I buy good local meat but probably smaller quantities than before - in the same way as chicken, a breast or shoulder of lamb goes a long way, you can roast it first but then make pies/casseroles with whats left adding plenty of root veg and vegetable proteins to it

[snapdragon]

make the childrens clothes instead of buying? a major expense as they all grow so!!!!, I found my second hand sewing machine paid for itself very quickly instead of buying maternity wear and then childrens clothes.

[theabsinthefairy]

Oh thesunflowergirl - that sounds grim - can you hunt around for a better mortgage deal to cover the shortfall in loss of wages? £600 is a lot to make up.

I don't realistically think that anything we can suggest in terms of money saving is going to help such a large shortfall, unless you are currently living a luxury champagne lifestyle?

Whilst lots of little things can save money, the big money is in making debt arrangements if required, energy suppliers, vehicles and insurance.

Good luck

[Milims]

Oh my giddy Aunt!
Mad as it may sound I've found that buying locally produced food and having it delivered has cut my grocery bills enormously! It means that I can avoid all the impulse and "bargain" buys in the supermarket. The food is also fresher and tastier - so you don't need to eat as much to get the same "hit". And you save the cost of the fuel. If you and a friend shop together the cost of the delivery can be split between you. Either way it will be cheaper than the cost of taking a car.
Buying free range chicken may seem expensive - but the meat is really meat - not fat and water as in the "bargain" 2 for a fiver chickens. So you eat less of it.
Switch to whole grain pasta and brown rice - it's more filling so again you eat less.
See if there is anyone like minded that you could buy wholesale/bulk with.
For laundry I use a scoop of borax and a scoop of soda crystals with a couple of drops of essentail oil. It works realy well and costs a fraction of the price of soap powder.
Ask your local butcher for bones to make stock - they will probably be free.
Everyone hears about car share for school and work - how about car share for essential shopping.
As you have children you will probably be elligible for a grant for things like loft insulation and cavity wall insulation from Warm Front: http://www.warmfront.co.uk/
Make use of the charity shops - kids grow out of clothes so fast they don't wear out!
Freecycle!
Good luck - I hope this is only a passing phase

[red]

by only shopping at our small local shop, we have saved a lot - as if they dont have it - we dont have it.

cook your own beans starting with dried,, much cheaper than buying tins of kidney beans etc

buy a whole chicken, even if you only want chicken breasts.. it works out cheaper, and you get much more.

wear more layers, dont use the heating unless you have to.

make sure everyone in the family understands the situation

check if you can get a better deal on mortgage, and other bills

good luck. I hope things pick up soon

[JillStephens7]

Hang on in there

Do you have a local skill swap group/ find people you can trade skills with? e.g. do their gardening for an hour and they mend your washing machine, make you a skirt or cut your hair etc. etc. in exchange. Our local group also does swaps for items e.g. a computor lesson for a wardrobe. There are a few national sites doing this but I don't have any experience of them

Clothes swapping party with friends or mum's of kids friends??

I definitely agree with Green Aura about homemade treats - if I have a load of homemade bathbombs & chocolate brownies I'm much less likely to get to the end of my tether and buy something I can't afford.

Making use of the library for music & films, you could plan a homecinema night and make your own popcorn, invite your friends round. It can be tough not having money to join in what friends are doing, so take the initiative and plan free/ cheap fun and then invite them, picnics.

Google 'free family days out', there are loads of sites with ideas.

The biggest thing that helps me is planning ahead, knowing that we've got a day out planned/ food in the freezer etc. so that when I'm ill/ fed up etc. etc. & make terrible decisions, the good decisions are already there for the taking.

Think about what you spend money on and try and find alternatives for things one at a time ... maybe by asking on here It doesn't solve everything but it can make it all a lot more pleasant.

Best wishes xx

[JillStephens7]

Oh ... and moneysavingexpert.com is good for ways to cut the cost of different things such as utilities.

Do you have any way of earning any extra cash? Babysitting, dogwalking etc. or have you any unwanted stuff you could sell at a car boot or on ebay?

xx

[Julysea]

Another vote for the Moneysavingexpert website - we've saved a lot of money by following tips and using discounts from there.

One thing we do, is - if any friends or family are kind enough to want to buy us presents for Christmas and birthdays, then we ask for basic food items. So, at Christmas for example, my mum does us a 'hamper' of basic food like bags of pasta, flour, teabags and so on, with the odd 'luxury' item thrown in such as Green & Blacks choccy spread! Other people we ask for maybe a bulk bag of flour or pasta. It may not be a huge thing, but it can just help, especially for those January food bills. It's fairly cheap and easy for the person buying for you and they have the satisfaction of knowing they are giving you something genuinely useful. And in return, you can make them homemade blackberry jam from foraged blackberries when it's their birthdays!

[becks77]

Oh SFG, I really do hope things get better for you all,
We use our slow cooker a lot, that helps. We save a lot of money buying stuff that's on the sell by date reduced counter, then freeze it,
and also what everyone else has suggested.

[boboff]

This may sound stupid based on the other advice.

Could either of you get another p/t job? Two ten hour shifts each and you would be all but in the same position?

Budgeting is key, I use microsoft money and plot all monthly expenditure, this shows you every month if you are living beyond your means or not.

On another note, what is a reasonable amount to spend in a month on Food and other home used stuff (cleaning, soap, toothpaste bog roll etc) I spend between £200 and £600 a month depending on what "phase" of stock up or stock out I am in, but I suppose it averages around £250 for a family of 4. Does that seem reasonable?

[Alice Abbott]

Hi SFG

I'm sorry about your predicament. I was going to dive in with all sorts of suggestions as we are living on a precarious financial knife edge ourselves but then realized that I can't really compare our circumstances. We have no mortgage - and as we have no services connected we have no outlay there either. Our heating is "free" (ie wood for the fire and kitchen range, we had a huge supply but have now started collecting fallen branches in the local woods as the pile is disappearing fast) and we have a generous neighbor who kindly lets us use a basic power supply and internet. So once we have paid our French equivalent of council tax etc we have no real financial commitments at the moment.

All I CAN suggest is to buy up all your dried basics in bulk, ie rice, flour, sugar, beans etc. now. I can see it would be hard to actually find outside work with three small children but could you try what I do, which is bartering? Either goods or "services" (such as ironing, babysitting, house-sitting, dog walking). Especially if your "customer" happens to have hens (take payment in eggs) or an allotment (veggies). Or perhaps a few hours a week on an evening shift at a local supermarket? (you often get the added advantage of a discount too). And have you checked to see if you are entitled to any Tax Credits? I've never claimed any myself but I know they are available for people with children and lowish incomes so check it out.

I would never have thought a year ago that our family of four plus dog, part time cat, four hens, three ducks and a goat could survive on our own resourcefulness, a basic starting supply of dried goods, etc plus €178 since last June, but so far so good!