What are 'essential living expenses'?

FrankieM · 11 June 2008 at 2:43PM

My DH would like to become a teacher. It would mean a large drop in income and that in itself puts him off cause he doesn't think we can afford it.

I've decided that if we lived off what we would get if he was a teacher, we would be able to see how well we'd manage.
So I've gone to entitled to and added what his salary would be to what we would get benefits wise and come up with a total...

It comes to about £1800 a month for 2 adults and 4 children so I'm trying to work out a budget for that.
The thing is there are some things that we spend money on now that we wouldn't nessecarily buy on a smaller income and there are some things that I cover using expenses that my DH gets with his current job...

I'm not sure how much sense I'm making...but I guess I'm trying to work out what are essential living expenses for the 6 of us and what are extras that I would try to cover with cashback/ matched betting etc..

I hope someone understands what I'm trying to say...??

( I thought I'd put it here cause its not debt related, I thought 'oldstyle living' related!)

DianaMattos · 11 June 2008 at 2:55PM

Hi Frankie,

I would say that absolute essential living expenses are as follows:

Rent/mortgage
Gas/elec/water (though you can be frugal in your use of these)
Council Tax
Phone line (questionable?!)
Food
Clothing as needed

Not so absolute essentials (in my opnion)
Car (MOT, Tax, Petrol)
Internet
Mobile phone
TV Licence
Money aside for presents/giving
Fun money

There are many many ways to cut back on living expenses - I grew up living on very little, then my university days were funded by me and thus the way of living has carried on for me!

If you want to cut right back, think 'does this keep me alive', if it does, it's an essential!

Hope this helps to start you off!

Love Di x

hilstep2000 · 11 June 2008 at 3:23PM

Hi Frankie,
I have £1500 a month coming in, and luckily don't have a mortgage.
However, I do have a personal loan, so you have to factor that in. Don't forget any credit card debt either.
Otherwise, I agree with Diana. You don't need Sky, or internet access (use the library for free), you don't need new clothes, (Unless they're really worn out, and there's always ebay or charity shoops for those):o
Meals from scratch are cheaper than ready meals. Don't have takeaways or eat in restaurants unless it's an occasion.
A mobile can sometimes be cheaper than a landline, depending on your deal and how much you use it.

pigpen · 11 June 2008 at 3:35PM

Priorities in here are

mortgage
council tax
loan
utilities
food (yes a measly 5th on my list)
credit card

After that is

water/phone (not every month expenses so easy to budget for every 3-6 months)
mobiles (we have 3)

catalogues/storecard.. I usually pay these with the credit card them pay the credit card off at the end of the month.. this way I collect points AND pay my catalogues

There are 10 of us and we get £1700 a month plus the tax credits and child benefit and DLA+ carers allowance for one of the children.

My hubby left work and went to uni when we had 4 children.. it was a struggle.. BUT we moved to rented housing so that was paid all but £1.20 a week, the council tax was paid all but a little bit. We still had to pay school dinners though and trnsport to and from uni/school.. we resorted to bikes for everyone!

If I had known how hard it would have been for us I wouldn't have let him do it.

pavlovs_dog · 11 June 2008 at 3:36PM

hey frankie - do you mean a drop in money whilst he is training, or will teaching wages (around £22k for a newly qualified teacher before deductions, outside of london) be significantly less than you are used to?

essential costs? if you head up to the debt free wannabe board there is a great sticky about how to make an SOA (statement of affairs). it is basically a kind of budget that gets you to look at all the things you might possibly have to pay out for, and how much 'life' costs you. filling one in makes it easier to see where you are overspending, easy places to cut back.

a drop in money can be hard to get used to, whether it means lifestyle changes or scraping pennies to survive each month. but with the right attitude, and the advice from this fab site, it CAN be done, so chin up!

FrankieM · 11 June 2008 at 3:44PM

Hi,
Thats quite helpful so far!!

We just have the mortgage, nothing else and we would think about selling and renting if that worked out better for us...

I would try to stick to a third of our income on rent/ mortgage, so that would bring me down to £1200 per month for everything else...( gulp!)

At the moment the things I try to cover with DH's expenses are:
broadband
landline telephone
DH's mobile phone
all of DH's car costs...MOT/tax/insurance/petrol/repairs
DH's £10 weekly pocket money

So that leaves:
mortgage
mortgage repayment insurance
council tax
water
gas
electric
my car costs
my mobile phone
food
mine and children's pocket money
my petrol
holidays
clothes
birthdays/ christmas/ other celebrations.

Caterina · 11 June 2008 at 3:48PM

HI Frankie

Can I add something: unless you are on real dire straits, please do not cut off ALL fun money! It is possible to have a lot of fun for free of course and this forum is fab for this sort of things, but even being skint you NEED an occasional treat. Just work a bit harder to find the free treats, I suppose, and have the odd bottle of wine/indian takeaway/pot of face cream or whatever tickles your and your family's fancy!

Good luck with the downshifting, it can be done painlessly if you plan it well, and make it FUN too!

Caterina

FrankieM · 11 June 2008 at 3:52PM

pavlov...

He is untrained and it seems the best way to do it is to go in as an unqualified teacher and train at the same time, that way we get some money. £14571 then tax credits are added to that which makes it more doable...I think, anyway.
It is still a significant drop, though I don't spend up to our income at the moment...

ubamother · 11 June 2008 at 4:36PM

just a few thoughts - presumably at least some of DH's expenses were initially a cost for him - ie. business miles/phones etc. so those bills might go down a bit?
Also, do you have a moveable mortgage to save money, or does your mortgage allow for a payment break, or could you negotiate lower payments?
Depending on what sort of teaching he wants to do is there any grants/golden hellos available?
Is it actually better income-wise for him to go in as unqualified and train? Are there grants/student loans/golden hellos available if he wanted to go to uni and do it?

FrankieM · 11 June 2008 at 5:00PM

I'm not sure about grants etc...it just seemed to be better for us with regards to tax credits if he was 'working'...

We have a oneaccount at the moment, which is fab for us now, but wouldn't be if/ when our income drops....we would either change our mortgage provider or sell and then rent..

At the moment pretty much all of his expenses...car/petrol/mobile/broadband etc are covered by the expenses he receives from work.
I'm hoping that most of those would no longer exsist or at least to a much lesser extent!!

Does anyone else pay for different parts of the budget with different money...say clicks, ebay etc cover non essential items??

jackk_2 · 11 June 2008 at 5:16PM

pigpen wrote: »

Priorities in here are

mortgage
council tax
loan
utilities
food (yes a measly 5th on my list)
credit card

After that is

water/phone (not every month expenses so easy to budget for every 3-6 months)
mobiles (we have 3)

catalogues/storecard.. I usually pay these with the credit card them pay the credit card off at the end of the month.. this way I collect points AND pay my catalogues

There are 10 of us and we get £1700 a month plus the tax credits and child benefit and DLA+ carers allowance for one of the children.

My hubby left work and went to uni when we had 4 children.. it was a struggle.. BUT we moved to rented housing so that was paid all but £1.20 a week, the council tax was paid all but a little bit. We still had to pay school dinners though and trnsport to and from uni/school.. we resorted to bikes for everyone!

If I had known how hard it would have been for us I wouldn't have let him do it.

I'm starting Uni in Sept :eek: , oooh eck :rotfl: :rotfl: .

Jackie x

What are 'essential living expenses'?

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