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What have you/will you be economising on?

Hi Ladies,



We're currently looking at our monthly outgoings to reduce as many as possible so we can take longer on maternity leave and actually survive the massive drop in salary!



So I wondered if anyone else is doing the same or has had any particular success with any bills etc?



The big one which we can't change is the mortgage and sadly maternity pay doesn't recognise that this huge outgoing will still be as big despite having a baby to look after so its mainly down to reducing our sky package and finding better insurance and utilities deals I think.



xx

Replies

  • we just swopped our house insurance from tesco to kwik fit. tesco wanted to double our monthly premium and kwik fit are offering money back and same cover for less then we have been paying at tesco!



    we've cancelled our love film subscription as we just weren't really getting our moneys worth. we joined milkandmore.co.uk and got ??10 free shopping.



    i kept everything from DS and have gone through all the clothes and am trying to sell a binbag full of boys clothes from premature to 0-3months. when we had DS we got a lot of toys etc from ebay/carboots - just make sure you have plenty of flash in! gave everything a good clean and put what we could through the washer and they all came up as good as new.



    we do our grocery shopping online so then we don't get tempted! once a month i go to goole (our nearest big town) with my neighbour and we go round places like netto/lidl/poundstretcher and get stocked up with bargains.



    we only have one car as we can manage with just one. Hubby is a mechanic as is his brother and dad so if anything goes wrong then i know one of them will be able to fix it!



    have you joined all the baby clubs? you get a bunch of vouchers etc through the post on a regular basis.
  • We called sky and said we wanted to leave and they gave us 6mths at half price, they offered a really good broadband and phone offer too but we then called our current suppliers and they undercut that... so worth a call call to sky- that is saving us loads!
  • Have started to look at this too.



    Was going to visit family in NZ when little one arived but cancelled that now I've looked at our future budget! Need to change virgin package as we pay too much and just got a letter saying our contents insurance has gone up another ??9 a month so need to find a better deal.



    Sadly it seems there's not a lot I can do with other outgoings. I think dropping a salary is going to be a massive shock to us to be honest.

    image
  • Yeah the media providers get you with all the little add ons - we're paying over ??80/month now because we have HD, movies, broadband, phone etc.



    We saved some money on home insurance with AXA which was good and I think I can cut down our life insurance as looking at the critical illness I think its a waste of time having. At the moment its more important to have the cash handy.



    Dreading looking at the electric and gas though as I think they're all about to increase regardless.



    We do online shopping too as it really does save us and keeps us to a strict budget which is great plus the deliveries will be fab when it takes me 2 hours to get me and my little boy ready! image



    The other main thing we are doing is selling one of the cars. It will make things a bit more of a fiddle when I am back to work and I will lose the freedom I have all the time but I think with some good planning we'll be fine.



    In all honesty I can plan to get through the mat leave part as its temporary but trying to fix a budget around me going back to work when so much will be spent on childcare is going to ve a real challenge. I'm torn between wanting to work more so we don't stress versus working less to be with him but struggling.



    I wish we lived in Scandinavia where its not uncommon to get 9 months full salary for mat leave! image



    On the plus side we found out that my husband will get full pay over his paternity leave as they are a small company and have done it for a few blokes so have to be consistent.image There's my silver lining.
  • Sky we got rid of movies and HD packages as they cost the most and we didn't really see much benefit of HD (you still get all the terrestrial and freeview HD channels anyway) and the movies we were watching we have on DVD. We have fixed rates on mortgage (though plan to speak to Santander to see if we can reduce it) and also fixed elec bill for next 18mths (though all bulbs in home are now LED to reduce outgoings), TV is LED so very low power consumption, phone calls we try to keep to evenings and weekends when they're free on our phone package, shopping we bulk buy on discount offers and so far we are surviving well on the one salary. It can be done but you do have to be strict on the 'what you need/what you want' side of things cutting back on the wants for the needs.
  • The problem is that you live to your means before being pregnant and you are used to whatever those salaries are and often your rent/mortgage are geared around you joint salary.



    The problem for us is that I earn more than DH so we are losing more than 50% of the income each month but sadly can't cut the mortgage etc by this amount! Wish we could!
  • could you go interest only, or have a mortgage break? We had this option but we cut back so much (and it took us a long toime to concieve that we didnt need to use this but might very well have to this time x
  • i din't think you could have interest only periods - will give santander a buzz and see what they say! fingers crossed!
  • In all honesty I can plan to get through the mat leave part as its temporary but trying to fix a budget around me going back to work when so much will be spent on childcare is going to ve a real challenge. I'm torn between wanting to work more so we don't stress versus working less to be with him but struggling



    Completely agree TulipRose - we can manage my year off if we cut back on the things we do/have now (which are luxuries to be honest not essential). However, when it comes to going back to work I'm not sure how we'll manage as nursery fees are crazy and I don't think I like the idea of being full time and leaving my little man :?
  • we're with NRAM (previously northern rock) for our mortgage and we are eligible for a 6 month maternity payment break - they need a copy of birth cert to prove child exists and they will do a credit check too but we will bank the money and try to pay off credit cards and a few other debts for when I go back to work part time I think ... might be worth checking with your lender cos we asked if they did any special deals - they didn;t tell us about it
  • Interesting advice - I've just scouted around on money saving expert and it seems a couple of lenders will allow you a payment break of up to 12 months (if you have a good history with them) to allow for things such as a maternity leave.



    This would leave you paying more interest on the loan amount as payments are deferred and then the monthly repayment would likely go up a little to re-coup the lost re-payments once you return to paying but wow! Its actually great to think this could be a fall back option.



    Some mortgage lenders don't do this however and some only do it if you have overpaid at some point in the past.



    xx
  • Can't really add any more to what everyone one else has said.I have to review our mortgage as we were on interest only fixed rate for 5 years when we brought and we now need to change as it going to end in October..x
  • I am ringing sky soon to tell them I want to leave, have been with 4yrs so hopefully will get it half price.

    My house insurance is up for renewal so I will shop around for that.

    I fixed my gas and electricity for 12mths the other day, glad I did as british gas have put it all up anyway. Makes me mad but glad I don't live in a cold house image

    My mobile contract I can't change but oh has a cheap nokia and then steals my iPhone all the time :lol: ( but he doesn't want one hmmmm :lol: )

    Mortgage is on svr which tbh I will leave until the interest rates show signs of increasing as we put the difference away in isas.

    The only thing I struggle to cut down on is food bills, but hey we need to eat image

    I am also stockpiling baby items like we are expecting a nuclear war :lol: luckily we have a garage xx
  • We've just refixed our mortgage for another 2 years and saving ??50 a month on that coz we got a good rate.

    We've started having a strict food budget of ??50 a week, as we were spending far too much on stuff then wasting it - turns out now we're trying to spend less we don't even need ??50 every week.

    Got the cheapest insurances i can find.

    Considering giving up hubby's car, just to save on tax, insurance etc, but won't get much money for it, and we have 2 dogs which won't fit in my car if they need taking anywhere - vets, kennels etc.

    Have the full sky package, broadband phone etc, so only use landline at evenings and weekends, but not giving it up as it's cheaper for hubby to watch footy at home on sky than go to the pub! Also i think the movies will come in handy when i'm up in the night with baby.

    Not sure what else i can save on!

    xxx
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