Just How Little Do You Have To Live On Each Month?

SallyUK

I was wondering just how little people can get by on each month.

Ater seeing all those photos of shoppers hitting the High Street, it got me wondering.

I myself have £500 to live on - that has to cover food shopping, mobile phone, insurance, petrol, school lunches, any birthday presents, school trips, haircuts and anything extra that might pop up that month.

That £500 is from two part time jobs.

So just how do you manage?

Sal
x

JodyBPM

SallyUK wrote: »

I was wondering just how little people can get by on each month.

Ater seeing all those photos of shoppers hitting the High Street, it got me wondering.

I myself have £500 to live on - that has to cover food shopping, mobile phone, insurance, petrol, school lunches, any birthday presents, school trips, haircuts and anything extra that might pop up that month.

That £500 is from two part time jobs.

So just how do you manage?

Sal
x

How many of you are there, and what bills do you have to pay out of that (apart from mobile phone and insurance (which insurance?) that you listed)

As a family of 4, we give ourselves £800 a month as "family spends" which covers food, petrol, entertainment, any clothes, odd bills such as school trips/swimming lessons/dancing lessons etc, and any bits and pieces which crop up, and I would say we live very handsomely on that, and we normally can scoop across 2 or 3 hundred a month into savings (not this month, though, due to Xmas!).

The mortgage, all bills, commuting costs, savings and a small amount of personal spends is seperate to that.

I would say that £500 a month is comfortable for a family of 4 or less, and possibly you could put a little into savings each month from that, if you wanted.

Morgan_Ree

As a family of 3 we have about £400ish a month which covers food, petrol and whatevers left over is just a bonus. Anything unexpected seems to fall on the bank of mum and dad
They take pity on us because I'm still a student

Sometimes the food bill has to be reduced to cover the extra petrol I need to get to work and placements. It's difficult at times but we manage ok.

Plans_all_plans

When we first moved into this house (my husband, daughter and I) earlier this year we had £183 per month to live on after everything came out. I was a stay at home mum and my husband wasn't earning much. This £183 needed to cover haircuts, trips out, dance classes, any additional entertainment etc. Food and petrol money came out of the main budget. It was by no means enough of a disposable income for the things we wanted to do!! It wasn't only that but if I overspent by even a tenner each week on the monthly shop we'd really notice the drop in the disposable income.

I have since got a very well paid part time job as our DD has started a school nursery and my husband has found himself a new job with a good payrise. We are amazed at how much we have left over now, which suffice to say allows us to overpay our mortgage and save a good deal also.

piratefairy

About £500, after rent and bills are paid each month.

floss2

We have approx £50 each per week after all household bills, petrol, mobile bills, food shopping goes out. That's mainly because we have a small mortgage, reasonable incomes, little c/c or loan debt and only one student son still at home.

USM

We're lucky that we're young, have no children and both have reasonable jobs so have around £2,500 spare each month after the mortgage, bills, food, petrol etc are paid.

In the next 2-3 years we're likely to have children which will make a significant dent in this as one of us stops working and our costs go up.

mich13x

Our disposable income is £800 after all bills, mortgage, groceries, savings and petrol. We never ever spend that much though and some ends up in the savings aswell or towards the mortgage.

DogsBody

I earn, on average, £90 a week. That pays for absolutely everything (for 2 of us and 2 dogs) except council tax (benefit) and mortgage (own house outright). Actual disposable income (we call it 'squanderage') is rare in this house, but we do OK and are not in danger of starving or freezing to death . I doubt this kind of life would be for everyone though, and I am looking for a better paid/more secure job (1 week holiday and 2 weeks lay off in last month, so the £90 has been forced to stretch 4 weeks, hope I am called in to work soon!). Might have to sell our lad soon if not (anyone got two dollars and fifteen cents?;))

PS one year, many years ago, working as a mad scientist, i earned £23,000! Didn't know what to do with it all, ended up saving about 10K of it because we just couldn't spend it fast enough! Happy days....

Brallaqueen

Living alone, I have £70 per week for food, clothes, presents, going out, or to put into savings.

redmel1621

Interesting, and probably a bit naughty of me but I haven't got a clue.......

I think I need to sit down and work it out

xx