WE need to halve our living expenses - can you help?

[weg]

At quick glance I thought groceries and lunches.

Lunches you can easily cut down to half or less or even eliminate them all together if you wanted to be ruthless.

By planning meals you could reduced groceries by 2 or 3 hundred a month and you'd probably not notice any difference - I'm assuming your children are still young since they go to after school care.

$80 is a lot for the home phone too.

Can you combine internet with phone for a cheaper rate? make mobile calls on your mobile?

 

[westminster]

Lots of responses here already and many thanks for that.

Re; gym and kids sports that is also hard - particularly the kids sport. I guess I could give up on the gym but it has been a way of life for me for the last 20 yrs. I train with weights so its not like I just go use the treadmill or stationary bike and could swap that for a run in the park. But point taken.
.

For 3 kids I think your extra curricular is ok. For just one extra curricular activity/sport per child your figure might be right. My kids all do swimming lessons as that is essential and that figure is roughly what I spend on that.

I don't think kids need more than 1-2 such activities. Swimming plus Milo Cricket ($70 a season) or Auskick ($70 season) seem to work well for the boys. Girls ballet/gymnastics etc is more expensive but so far we have avoided that.

It really depends on how committed you want to get on taking stuff out and what you want to keep. There is bare minimum and then there is a happy medium.

 

[kathryn d]

Sounds like our food bill is excessive - ok perhaps we need to work on that a little more. Problem is my wife's the one who does most of the shopping and she isnt' as much of a tighta@se/'astute' as me. So reducing that is essentially me changing her habits. That's a problem in itself. She's not extravagant but she doesn't check the price before taking something off the shelf.

You really need to work as a family, or it will only cause fights.
If one is trying to be 'thrifty' and the other is 'spending willy nilly' it won't work.

I guess you need to figure out if the sacrifice is work it.
You want to know if in a few years you can live on $70K?
Do it now..and bank the remainder.
That is what we did in my final year at work..a trial run.

We have a show in Canada, not sure if it shown here "till debt do us part".
It's a very straight forward approach. Spend less or earn more. They also use the cash strategy. Put your allotted amount for each category in a jar/envelope for that pay period. When the money is gone, your done spending.

As others said, a treat isn't a treat, if it is always available.
We eat a lot of roasts, stews, homemade soups, homemade bread, casseroles,meatloafs and tons of veggies/fruits.

Look for places that sell fruits/veggies in large sizes.
Where we were last housesat, they bought their 20kg bag of 'seconds' carrots for $6.99. The were delicilous Some were really big and some were funny shaped.
Other places had brocoli for 99c kg...huge.( and lots more)
Don't limit yourself to grocery stores...bargains are everywhere, and your job is to serach them out to save big money.

 

[kathryn d]

Forgot to add:
$20 month is plenty for TP, shampoo, toothpaste, laundry detergent, etc

How much food do you waste each week?
When it looks like it will go bad before you have a chance to eat it, either cook it or freeze it for later.
Otherwise you are just tossing money out the window.

 

[LoneWolf]

Remove after school care - drop them off at your parents place
Remove Lunch and wife lunch - Cook at home and bring left overs
Shopping - Surely you do not need such expense per year - Ebay it
Drugs - Now, what are we talking here.. can it not be replaced with other methods?
Trasport bus - If you are already forecast 2k into petrol, why does bus still come into play.

If you successful achieve the above, it will cut it down by close to 10k, dunno how to do 20k, unless you grow your own vegetables to cut Groceries expenses

 

[HotRod]

Cut the bought lunches/dinner out/takeaways (make and home and reheat leftovers)
Cut the Gym membership (ride a bike and go for a run)
Cut groceries (buy bulk and freeze)
Internet (cut the plan to the lowest and only use when required)
After school care (ask a friend to watch or get grandparents)
Electricity/gas (switch companies or only use AC when absolutely required)
Health fund (drop it as cross your fingers)
Shopping (use eBay and go to thrift stores or hand-me-downs)
Mobile phone (ditch the smart phone and go on a basic plan)

That will get you down to about $34500.

Tough I know, but it has to be to get to where you want to be.

Depends what you want more.

Freedom has a price.

 

[kathryn d]

Freedom has a price.

I like that !

 

[marg4000]

Disagree about dumping the child care expenses issue on the grandparents or friends. (Yes, I am a grandparent). We have raised our kids, and while I don't mind helping out if someone is sick, constant child care is tiring, limits social activities and is NOT the responsibility of the grandparent or friends who actually have their own lives to lead.

As said, first to go should be the lunches (bring from home) and takeaways.
Marg

 

[travelbug]

Agree with others. $50 a day for food is a lot.

There's a book called the $21 food week. It's where (once a month) you only spend $21. It's to cover perishables. The idea is to use the stuff in your pantry that seems to sit there. While $21 does seem difficult even if you made it a bit more and only buy the absulute essentials.

$125 a week for lunches and takeout is also a lot.

Guy I used to work with complained about not having money but he used to buy a hamburger and soft drink every day. I talked him into buying a carton of saoftdrink and puting it in the fridge. That saved $5 a week. He even bought some sliced meat and cheese and tomatoes and had toasted sandwiches 2 days a week which saved another $8 a week.

Good luck. It's interesting writing down how much you spend in a year.

 

[Rickardo]

I highly recommend reading the book 'early retirement extreme'. Gives some very good insights into how to design your lifestyle around very low living expenses.

 

[poordeveloper]

I presume 'phone' means fixed line? Do you really need it?

We haven't had a fixed home phone line for years. My partner and I both have mobile phone planes via TPG (Optus) which, when bundled with Internet, cost us something like $25 a month. The allowances for calls/data are pretty generous.

 

[kathryn d]

I presume 'phone' means fixed line? Do you really need it?

We haven't had a fixed home phone line for years. My partner and I both have mobile phone planes via TPG (Optus) which, when bundled with Internet, cost us something like $25 a month. The allowances for calls/data are pretty generous.

Imagine the money that could besaved, if we got rid of the mobiles, and kept the landline

Hard to imagine living without a mobile.
People seem to be born with them attached now.

Even though, your package sounds cheap

 

[Heinz57]

May I suggest, without knowing you personally, or meaning to offend in any way, that perhaps some member of this family learns to cook, like they used to in the old days. From scratch, using ingredients?

Costco for bulk buys, or Campbell's if you have an A B N.

Fruit and veg markets, or grow your own.

Anything with more than 4 ingredients on the label needs to be replaced on the shelf.

P.S. the man of the house could also take on this responsibility.

 

[redwing]

Here's the show you mentioned Budget - Til Debt Do Us Part.

Million Dollar Neighbourhood also looked good

 

[weg]

Imagine the money that could besaved, if we got rid of the mobiles, and kept the landline

Mobile 'use' is much cheaper - as cheap as $34pm for unlimited use Australia wide - however if no one had a mobile you wouldn't have the exorbitant mobile charges that landline attracts, but it could still could cost more if you rang interstate frequently or made a lot of calls, which a family normally does.

The cheapest option would be a phone via the internet {internet charges would apply} or 1 mobile phone per family .

 

[Highlygeared]

Thanks very much for the comments thus far guys - ok, it seems our grocery bill is way too inflated plus will look at getting rid of the landline. I didn't know you could get internet access without a land line.

As someone mentioned beofre,its a bit dificult if one partner is tight and the otehr is less so. That's the hardest part for us/me - my wife thinks the budget I set is too low and undoable, or too hard to maintain. But I'spose if we're not willing to make radical changes, better get used to spending the same ol amount.

 

[westminster]

Most ISPs call it Naked DSL and you can still get a phone number with some of them but you ditch line rental etc.

For example iinet Naked DSL starts at $60 per month then bundle in their mobile phone plans which are VERY decent - their $15 one is pretty darn good.

http://www.iinet.net.au/internet/broadband/naked-dsl/

For $90 a month you could get standard DSL + home phone + a mobile to replace the $194 you are currently spending.

http://www.iinet.net.au/bundles/

 

[Richard Feynman]

It?s all already been said, but..

You appear to be haemorrhaging money on groceries and lunches/eating out. They account for half your annual spend alone. Aldi, Coscto, buy in season, cook in bulk, freeze and reheat etc.

Second to those are energy costs. There?s plenty of fat to trim. Don?t leave stuff on standby, only do full loads of washing, hang dry stuff, chuck warmer clothes on in winter instead of cranking the heating etc.

The mobiles, home phone and internet are individually accounting for plenty too. A $19/month BYO phone plan should be more than ample for calls. Kill the home line and go Naked DSL.

If you can?t drop the gym, find a cheaper one. Ride a bike there if you have to. You can train for under $500 a year if you know where to look. Or $0 if you can the membership/weekly passes.

I strongly recommend clicking the link Tano suggested and digesting as much as you can. You?ll find a slew of useful, insightful, powerful ideas.

 

[Deltaberry]

Your energy costs are high. Do you heat up a 500sqm house? And $50/day on groceries is a lot if you're trying to save.

Kids' sports is pretty expensive. That's a luxury discretionary item. When I was young I was happy to ride a bike or go swim at a public pool without paying.

Your dinner and lunch is on top of your groceries (???). What do you buy for your groceries then? Magazines?

$80 phone bill: who seriously uses their landline these days anyway? I use $22.95 Telstra phone line and all my calls are made on whatsapp, viber, line, wechat which are all free.

Gym? Come on. Just go for a run or lift some books...

What is medical emergency?

I just played with your excel a bit and identified around $400 savings per week. That's $20k savings a year. After 5 years that's $100k, including compound it's probably around $120k. It's not a lot of money but if anyone gave you $120k now, I'm sure it'd have a huge impact on your life.

 

[moyjos]

Agree with everything said above so I won't repeat any of it .

The trick to bringing your wife on board is to sit down and have a goal. Saving for the sake if saving probably won't cut it. My husband is AWFUL with money, pays bills really well but saving? Pfft not on your life. So I have to make him a goal and he treats it as a bill that he knows just has to be paid. Eg: $5000 for a 2 week holiday at Christmas. We start in January and he knows $100 a week is the holiday "bill"

What are you saving for? Find out what your wife wants. Make the goal tangible and achievable. Oh..and include the kids.