How much do you live on per month?

DEV1L79

I don't have much,

I get 609 per month wages, my boyfriend is on benefits and gets £120 every 2 weeks and £100 rent every 2 weeks so all together it is 1009 per month.

We pay
£450 rent
£75 council tax
£100 gas and electric
£320 shopping

It comes to about £940 a month we barely scrape by, and when something unexpected comes along such as TV licence (every 3 month) etc.. it is a nightmare.

Lucy1010

Name:_Lee wrote: »

I live off about £450 per month - food, drink and small purchases e.g. clothes.

I also put away £400 per month for overseas holidays, visits to family and football, and for xmas and birthday gifts.

Excellent, you see this is where I should be when I have cleared my debts! Well done

Souk08

Right Lucy been thinking about you today and here's what I can come up with.

If you have NO spare money then I guess you just manage with what you have until something happens to make it better. I don't know how some people do it, but I guess they just have no choice and I hope for them that being totally skint is a relatively short term situation.

If you dont like socialising then it must also be easier. There are a few on here who have said that they dont.

For me personally though (and I suspect for you) these social events are the things that make life worth living and as you said, as a sinlge person living alone not going out (or having people over) can be very isolating. I have tried throwing all my money at the debt and having nothing left for frivolities but it just made me utterly miserable, to the point that my mental health was suffering so I suggest that IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE (which you do as you overpay) that you take it slower and give yourself a reasonable budget for spends.

Orkney Star is right, we can't do everything so you may need to choose which lunch to go to or whether to buy clothes rather than having a night out. At the end of the day I enjoy meals out and nights out and dont actually enjoy stuff like rambling that happens to be free BUT I do look for the best deals I can for when I am out.

I work to a grocery budget of £60 for the month and then draw myself a weekly spends amount and that's it. I cant go mad but I can have a nice life and see friends and that's enough for me.

Things that have helped me not to feel like I was missing out:
1. I love magazines but they were costing me a fortune so they had to go. I now have 2 subscriptions which are given to me at Xmas each year as gifts and I really enjoy getting them.
2. Eat at friends houses in rotation. The person or people not cooking bring a bottle of wine and the cook buys the food in. This is a dead cheap way to catch up with them and really breaks the week up if you do this midweek.
3. Go on 5pm.com/top table/groupon for resturan deals. These allow you to eat at decent places cheaply ie last night we did a midweek deal which cost us £12 for 2 courses. Main courses on the a la carte menu started at around £17 so we got a really good deal. Also when we go to fancy places we just have 1 glass of wine with dinner and then go on to drink at cheaper places.
4. Buy clothes using vouchers/in sales and only buy to go with what you already have.
5. Plan trips away/holidays early to get great deals. I got a Glasgow - London return ticket last year for £42 by booking 3 months in advance.

These are not things that will help if you are on the breadline, and I fully appreciate that they will be well beyond the means of some but for Lucy who is struggling to have fun and tackle the debt then I hope they help.

It's not all doom and gloom lady, honest!

Lucy1010

goodgirl80 wrote: »

Hi, just reading through the posts and thought why is it sad to cut yourself off from people- I don't socialise - I am p***ed off when I am 'forced' to! :rotfl:

It is just my opinion... It is sad that someone would want to cut themselves off from people... why? It is GOOD to talk

Lucy1010

Thanks to all the new posters! I love comparing your budgets, some of you are doing so WELL on so little!! Such inspirational people here

Lucy1010

Souk08 wrote: »

Right Lucy been thinking about you today and here's what I can come up with.

If you have NO spare money then I guess you just manage with what you have until something happens to make it better. I don't know how some people do it, but I guess they just have no choice and I hope for them that being totally skint is a relatively short term situation.

If you dont like socialising then it must also be easier. There are a few on here who have said that they dont.

For me personally though (and I suspect for you) these social events are the things that make life worth living and as you said, as a sinlge person living alone not going out (or having people over) can be very isolating. I have tried throwing all my money at the debt and having nothing left for frivolities but it just made me utterly miserable, to the point that my mental health was suffering so I suggest that IF YOU HAVE A CHOICE (which you do as you overpay) that you take it slower and give yourself a reasonable budget for spends.

Orkney Star is right, we can't do everything so you may need to choose which lunch to go to or whether to buy clothes rather than having a night out. At the end of the day I enjoy meals out and nights out and dont actually enjoy stuff like rambling that happens to be free BUT I do look for the best deals I can for when I am out.

I work to a grocery budget of £60 for the month and then draw myself a weekly spends amount and that's it. I cant go mad but I can have a nice life and see friends and that's enough for me.

Things that have helped me not to feel like I was missing out:
1. I love magazines but they were costing me a fortune so they had to go. I now have 2 subscriptions which are given to me at Xmas each year as gifts and I really enjoy getting them.
2. Eat at friends houses in rotation. The person or people not cooking bring a bottle of wine and the cook buys the food in. This is a dead cheap way to catch up with them and really breaks the week up if you do this midweek.
3. Go on 5pm.com/top table/groupon for resturan deals. These allow you to eat at decent places cheaply ie last night we did a midweek deal which cost us £12 for 2 courses. Main courses on the a la carte menu started at around £17 so we got a really good deal. Also when we go to fancy places we just have 1 glass of wine with dinner and then go on to drink at cheaper places.
4. Buy clothes using vouchers/in sales and only buy to go with what you already have.
5. Plan trips away/holidays early to get great deals. I got a Glasgow - London return ticket last year for £42 by booking 3 months in advance.

These are not things that will help if you are on the breadline, and I fully appreciate that they will be well beyond the means of some but for Lucy who is struggling to have fun and tackle the debt then I hope they help.

It's not all doom and gloom lady, honest!

You are a little treasure! LOVE your tips!! I can totally relate to you so thanks for posting, it has really helped!

Lucy1010

DogsBody wrote: »

hehehe, this could be me coming out of Lidls (except I'll be on my way to the bus stop) -dirty old coat, hair all over, wellies, often slightly pee-scented, but in my defence I'm on my way home from work and the pee belongs to my inmates (Honest:p). The lovely (fragrant) staff don't mind me, but they ARE very fast on the checkouts!

[I am happy - I gave up a well paid job to do what I'm doing now (savings from well paid job purchased the house), but our lad struggles with having no spare money - our shopping is so high because he has to have his beer/cheese/squash/stuff that I would not bother with

Fortunately my surviving dogs have cast iron stomachs and don't mind cheap food;)

You are funny! Thanks for posting your SOA! (and making me giggle)

kerri_gt

I am finding thing thread really interesting, as well as thought provoking - I really do feel for some that are clearly finding it tough atm (I hope that doesn't sound patronising, it wasn't meant to be).

I wonder how future generations will fare - we've just come out of a time of easy come credit, to people really having/wanting to focus on debt and clear it (of course credit/debt has been around for centuries) - will the kids of today be posting on forums in another 10-15-20 yrs time talking about the same things I wonder?

summerday

A very interesting thread. I live with just my DH and don't consider that we have serious debt, other than interest free kitchen loan and my student loans, but if necessary we could pay it all off with savings. I'm genuinely sorry if that upsets anyone, don't mean too, I have been in real debt before after finishing uni and had to move back home with mum and work lots of extra hours, had little in the way of social life so I do understand what it can feel like. To be honest, a lot of the habits that I cultivated while digging my way out of debt have stuck with me! I find it difficult to spend more than £30 a week for the 2 of us even if I try, it's mystifying to me how some people spend so very much more unless they have 12 kids or only buy food from Fortnum and Mason!

I have also ended up keeping the extra jobs I took on, babysitting etc and get work done then for my main job that I'd otherwise have to just do at my house, so may as well get paid for it

I'm now happy to have cheap holidays, enjoy the beauty of nature to make myself feel better instead of shopping sprees, writing to pen pals abroad, walking Mum's dog, reading lots of free books from library and cheap DVD rentals from there too, cooking for friends and playing board games at each others houses. I cringe at how much money I used to waste when I was building up credit card debts as a student and am so glad that I finally saw the light. I feel a better person for it.

Greenqueen_2

To the person who posted a SAO. Please think about getting a water meter. I think £30 per month for water is really high if you live alone. We are a family of four who got a meter fitted. we pay a monthly DD of £22.