New Year, New "Realistic" budget for a London Girl

moriarty888

I'm interested to know what people think a realistic living budget is. I'm setting myself a new budget for 2011. My debts aren't too crazy (around the 11K mark) and I earn a decent wage. I can cover my minimum payments without trouble. But now I want to set myself a realistic budget that I can keep to so I can start clearing my debts a bit quicker and what better time to start than from the 1st of Jan.

So after mortgage, bills, travel etc what is realistic to live on for a month/week? What do other people give themselves to live on for a week?

I'm single and live on my own in London, so I do need to have at least one evening out meeting friends a week or I'll go crazy, so that along with lunches (packed or otherwise), plus food, toiletries. On top of that the very rare hair cut and bargain basement item of clothing (by rare I mean about once every 3 months). I'm quite happy to sacrifice most material things until the debt is gone.

I'm also interested to hear what people think about the cost of living in London as compared to other parts of the country. Sometimes I think that although us Londoners on average earn more, we sure seem to pay for it. The local pub to my work charges £4.85 for a pint of lager :eek:

So any good benchmarks for what I should be able to live on a week in a reasonably frugal but also realistic way would be good to hear.

New Year! New Me! Thanks

pinkarsenalprincess

Is this with food included or just for your own 'pocket money'?

pinkarsenalprincess

You say you need one evening out a week with friends...are you making the most out of all the vouchers available for different restaurants? If you have an iphone, vouchercloud is a very good app for getting discounts when you are out and about.

JasX

I live in london, tend to average about £600pm after regular monthly bills (council tax, utilities, TV/phone/internet, mortgage+service charges etc)

That pretty much covers everything else tho -> monthly Z2-6 travelcard, groceries, house insurance, wine, going out, odd streetcar trip, one off items etc etc.

Could probably live on less if i needed to but find that affordable and do what I can to get good value -Groupon do a very reasonable meal out from time to time, I pass 2 supermarkets around closing time on my normal commute home so never know what'll be for dinner until i've browsed the [STRIKE]£3.99[/STRIKE] reduced to 20p section :A

moriarty888

Yes, this is to include food for just me and pocket money.

When I do go out my friends know my debt situation and are more than happy to go 2 for 1 or drink round at mine before going for a late drink locally. I have converted them all to Own Brand Tesco and Sainsburys Wine!

Unfortunately I don't have an IPhone, my phone is out of the Ark!

£600 seems reasonable to me. That seems to be about what I end up spending when I have a reasonably frugal month. So approximately £150 a week to cover all food, entertainment, household goods, toiletries, clothes, hair cuts.

That probably sounds like a fortune to some people, but I want to be realistic. If I am too strict on myself I feel guilty buying a packet of biscuits out of budget. £600 will still allow me to pay off about £600 a month in debt as well.

pinkarsenalprincess

I think you need to get a good balance of paying off debts, being on a budget but also being able to maintain it and keep sane. If you are too tough at first it can end up backfiring and you could end up getting yourself in more debt if you have a mad moment! I have managed to reduce my budget slightly each month as I get more used to my new habits. I did a bit of 'cold turkey' at first and it backfired on me.

JasX

moriarty888 wrote: »

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£600 seems reasonable to me. That seems to be about what I end up spending when I have a reasonably frugal month. So approximately £150 a week to cover all food, entertainment, household goods, toiletries, clothes, hair cuts.

Careful now.... £600pm is actually only £138.46 a week

(600*12 then divide by 52 weeks in a year)

you've already bumped my budget up by 8% or £600.08 annually :eek: a whole extra months budget!

moriarty888

JasX, am I bumping up your budget? That's a fairly powerful skill I've got there. Not only going overspending mine but someone else's as well .

If I have £600 a month that will be for a month's pay. So I'll divide it by the number of weeks to pay day and take out either £120 or £150 a time. If I'm getting towards the end of a week and I'm almost out then I don't mind being super frugal for a day or two as I know it's just till the next installment. (Then it's lentils and baked beans for tea for me!)

Then again, as this amount is more realistic than what I've given myself in the past most of the time it should be more than sufficient. It also means that I have money for anything unexpected (like my hair dryer blowing up) and can still keep to budget by being extra frugal for a week (going round and raiding a friend's cupboard for lentils and baked beans for tea!)

dancingfairy

moriarty888 - why not make it a challenge - try 120 a week for example and then see if you can manage on 115 etc until you get to your new minimum? Make the most of vouchers for food places etc - in Martins email he mentions current food vouchers - I'm thinking of things like 2 for 1's, the new slug and lettuce 10pounds of 20pound spend etc. Also look out for his clothes sales listings and coupons for clothes shops. Basically look for deals on everything.
Good Luck
df

an9i77

I give myself £600 per month and that's for food plus pocket money. I don't include fuel to get to work, household bills /rent/insurance etc in that. If it's a five week month (a week being friday to friday) then I actually have only £120/week that month. In a four week month its' £150. So it depends on whether payday falls early or not how many weeks I need to last until next pay day.

Also I write everything down, makes it easier to track my spending.

I don't live in London but £600 a month is more than enough where I live (Manchester) could probably do £500 a month if I wanted to, so £600 in London should hopefully see you through

Shoe_Gal

I live in Manchester and manage on about £300 per month - because that's all I have after bills