What do your outgoings come to a month & where do you make cut backs?

**Sadie** · 07-01-2012, 10:15pm

Eek, that's a huge amount of outgoing

. £900 on petrol? I'd definitely be looking at cutting that back, i know your oh is self employed but surely it shouldn't cost that much per month in petrol. I'm guessing it's for your car too, how about trying to walk more? For the school run, town etc, great exercise too. Also you eat out quite a lot don't you? Worth cutting those out or down whilst your saving, will also help with your healthy eating. Can the food bill be reduced? I'm sure with a bit of jiggling of the budgets you could get that down by quite an amount and put a good chunk into your savings.

**Funky Mum** · 07-01-2012, 10:18pm

around £800 per month approx. Can't be much more than that as I don't earn a lot! There are three of us living here (1 adult, two under 8's)

**Hazy** · 07-01-2012, 10:20pm

I would go through all your direct debits and check you're on the best deals. Our renewal for the AA came in at £177 and I checked RAC who would cover us for £99 which the AA price matched. I'm trying hard to keep on top of all our direct debits to make sure they are the best - we've switched phone/broadband and saved maybe £20 a month. It might not seem much but it all adds up. Use things like Quidco for cashback on things you would buy anyway i always get about £50 or more back on things like car insurance.

**ellabella** · 07-01-2012, 10:43pm

Phone every single service you buy and tell them you are going to leave due to finance issues (we did this when I lost my job). Sky halved our monthly bill, as did Talk Talk, car insurance, home insurance etc easy to negotiate down too.

And cut down on re-wallpapering every 18 mths !

**ChelseaHarvey** · 07-01-2012, 10:52pm

Also, weddings can be as cheap or expensive as you want them to be.

Yeah i no SS thing is we only plan on doing it once & we want the day we have planned if we couldnt afford it then we would have waited another few years... I have saved loads already by getting things from ebay & doing bits myself... Once we are April time & work picks up/weather is good we will be able to save loads so im not worried about hitting the amount we need to just these next few months can be abit of a PITA

**ChelseaHarvey** · 07-01-2012, 10:54pm

Originally Posted by lazymummy

£900 a MONTH on fuel CH?

Yes rediculous... OH puts in £130ish a week in his work van & me driving a 4x4 it is a fuel monster plus i use it for work spray tanning short journeys so it goes so quick

**ChelseaHarvey** · 07-01-2012, 10:57pm

Originally Posted by Gretel

This is what I was going to say - I would be looking to cut back here as EVerything else seems around average.
Do you use this much fuel because of work? I've no idea how self employed things work but can you claim some of it back in tax? We spend about £100 a week in fuel which I hate as it is but I do quite a bit of mileage.

Yes OH uses loads with work & where im going to peoples houses i am using loads as well. I am putting my prices up though for tanning if im having to go to people.. I have set up a little tanning room to encourage people to come to me, they save £5 as well.. OH has saved loads since he doesnt collect in the evenings anymore like he use to but just means we dont always get the money in & some people let the amount build up 3-4 times before paying....

Our car is a fuel eater as well which doesnt help i was thinking of getting a cheap run around for tanning like a KA or something but at the mo i cant jutify spending out about £1000 on a car with the wedding in 7 months & it is 3 lots the insurance & the tax & another place to find putting a vechile

**ChelseaHarvey** · 07-01-2012, 11:00pm

Originally Posted by sunshine

Ive just remembered that some of the Mums work at our local private school as this means they get 50% off school fees, even if they work as a dinner supervisor. Would this be possible for you?

The school do packed lunches not school dinners & at the moment with having Zach as well its childcare. I also earn ok money from tanning most months so dont really want to take on another job & im looking to expand what i do so need day time to go to courses & train

**Elvisola** · 07-01-2012, 11:21pm

I know you have only just bought your car so won't be up for this but I am selling my 4x4 and replacing with a Zafira as the petrol costs are insane!

**frog** · 07-01-2012, 11:25pm

£900 on petrol sounds excessive, I assume Dean's is actually diesel? Maybe you should look at changing your car, even if you weren't saving for a wedding that amount is a bit mad. DH has a diesel 5-series BMW that does 600 miles to a tank (about £87) and it's pretty nippy too

My diesel Scenic does about the same (about 620 miles for £70 but I drive it quite hard

and my runs are shorter than DH's) it costs next to nothing to tax and insure, but is quite a bit slower

I know some people still think diesel is the poor relation but that's very outdated and plain wrong these days. BMW's diesels are probably the best on the market atm so it might be worth looking into, might save you a few pounds each month. We live in the sticks so we rack up a few miles between us and it would crucify us to run petrols.