What do you live on week by week????

Glass_Half_Empty??

A serious problem for me is how much can I live on week to week.
I used to try working to 100 pounds a week for me so I had 10-15 for shopping, 10 for diesel and 75 for my pleasure which would usually involve watching Forest at the weekend and getting bladdered. It has been a while since I had that money regular as I went on a holiday I couldn't afford to go on and I am still paying for it :rolleyes: The other thing is I used to ignore my debts and instead of thinking I could pay an extra 30 pounds off of X catalogue I would get drunk instead. Now through the help of my g/f which I live with she is gonna consolidate my bits and bobs with an interest free card so I can stop worrying about my financial position as it was seriously affecting my health and I could not sleep at all. Anyway after much thought and consideration I am obviously glad she is helping me but I want to pay off that card amongst my other 2 little debts so I can concentrate on the 2 loans I have.
So how much do you live on a week, please include fuel, shopping(we share it is usually 20-30 quid depending on what we need) and socialising money. I don't mind staying in on a weekend but I do like to get a few cans in as we all need a little pleasure in our lives after a hard week at work

black-saturn

Well heres my SOA thread if that helps:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=236481&highlight=shave+soa

Glass_Half_Empty??

Thanks, you do exceptionally well. If I could spend like I would have a fortune in the bank with my wages! I will have a good read through, What I was getting at is how much do folk spend generally from Mon to Fri and how much at the weekend etc

debbycatz

I did a budget of all my essential bills (mortgage, gas, electric etc, then worked out that I seem to spending around £50 a week on food for two of us - yes, I know it's a lot and I'm trying to get it down a bit.

I then worked out what was left out of my monthly wage. This figure came to £120 so I divide that by 4 which gives me a weekly amount of £30. This is purely for everyday spends, such as a bottle of wine, choc, magazines if I want them or joining a friend for a pub lunch or popping to the local for a couple of halves.

You need to work out what all your essentials are first before you know how much you can play with for 'pocket money'

Hope this helps

llh189

After all my bill, rent, loans, cc etc I have £200 per month, this is for food, saving for christmas, presents, diesel ( although this is only about £35 per month ) going out.

I live on my own with my cat, ( this is only a recent thing ), so I can't be completey sure that I am sticking to it, a bad thing to admit I know but September will be my first proper go at it. And I will have to learn to stick at it because £200 is really all my disposable income.

HTH x

msmicawber

Well, I've just rejiggled my budget after paying off my debts and am wondering how I ever paid them off!

After setting aside money for housing, utilities, insurances and car and all those less regular spends like clothes, shoes, school trips, Xmas & birthdays, haircuts, dentist I'm left with £89pw to pay for food for 1 adult and 2 children, petrol, pocket money and Donald Rumsfelds (i.e. unexpected things that crop up).

Whichever way I work the figures, I can't seem to find any spare for getting drunk, but that's probably a good thing since I think that's how I ended up with 2 children!

Hope that helps.

HomeJames_3

Weve set aside £200 for groceries to include wine eating out etc £120 for petrol 2 cars per month and £40 per for 4 cats and 1 dog we each set aside £10 per week for incidental spends like the odd bottle of wine a bar of chocolate or in my OH case a round of golf in the rain today it seems to work for us although i cant remember the last time we went out for a meal or to the cinema but that would come off our daily spends to. were quite sad really as we try to outdo each other with our no spend days the OH tends to win each week hence the game of golf and im stuck in the house baking with leftovers and eating them all! hohum roll on DFD Nov 09

cupid_s

debbycatz wrote:

I did a budget of all my essential bills (mortgage, gas, electric etc, then worked out that I seem to spending around £50 a week on food for two of us - yes, I know it's a lot and I'm trying to get it down a bit.

I didn't think £50 a week was a lot for food for 2 - it was what I spend and I don't buy that much. After seeing everyone on heres budget (especially black-saturn) I know feel so over-indulgent.

I am going to have a strict food budget from now on.

**purpleprincess**

I budget for £20 p/w for food shopping, of which I usually spend about £10, and I budget for £10 p/w "pocket money", this is in its own jar. And I have got a separate jar labelled "food shopping underspends" and what I don't spend out of my £20 goes in here

This money is mine to do what I like with!! But at the moment I tend not to touch it (trying to have a run of no spends!) to save it for something/anything or to pay off my debts at a later date when I have one lump sum. I find this works really well for me. Day to day I take my own lunch to work and make my own dinners.

Mirtos

Travel, shopping and socialising comes to £50 a week, including a travel card in London.

Imelda

I give myself an allowance of £40 per week, that is for all socialising, clothes, magazines, lunches (I mostly bring my own from home anyway), incidentals such as work collections, birthday cards, stamps etc. I then have a £40 per month "misc" allowance for things like, haircut, dentist, dry cleaning, shoe repairs, watch batteries. I keep a spending diary for both so that I don't go over. My food shopping is £70 per month (just me), any alcohol gets taken out of my "me" money as it is not an essential (well sometimes it is!)
I save everything else towards paying off my debt and also holidays and other things that crop up. Before MSE I would pay the bare minimum for all my bills and squander what was left, now I see myself as another "bill" and pay myself a set amount per month.