How much do you live on per month?

Lucy1010

backinbusiness wrote: »

Lucy

Sounds like you are up and running and planning on beating those debts!

It's a good idea to cut yourself a little slack on budgeting - if it's too tight you end up going over, feeling demoralised and then thinking what the heck, I've blown it anyway - let's withdraw another £20.

With a more generous budget there's a chance of having some left over at the end of the week/month or whatever - keeps the motivation/momentum going.

I aim to save whatever I have left of my p/w into my surplus account - it's become a bit of a challenge to see how much I can hold on to!

bib

Thanks BiB, do you think £200p/m is reasonable for a single girl who cooks everything from scratch, takes home cooked lunches to work and only needs cash for socialising and groceries/household stuff?

clippy_girl

£200 would be good, i currently spend a bit more than that at £70 month on food and £40 per week on everything else.

that doesnt include presents, hair cut, contact lenses, mobile, gym etc.. though inc all that i spend nearly £400 :eek:

i also batch cook from scratch and take my own lunches. my friends call me freezer queen!

backinbusiness

Lucy

Try it for a month and see how it goes.

If it's too tight let out the purse strings a little.

If it's do-able (and you can afford it) then stick with it.

If you've got some left over all well and good - save it, save it, save it.

It all about balancing things. You can get a little obsessed - which may not be a bad thing. My original debt free day was 29th April, the Royal Wedding, but once the finish line was in sight I couldn't wait and bust a gut to clear it sooner.

As for being a single girl - I haven't been one of them for 20 years - sigh - so I can't remember! But I'm pretty sure whatever budget I should have had I was overspending it - hence being where I am now.

At least you had your lbm sooner rather than later.

You should consider starting a diary - I'm sure people would like to see how you get on.

bib

Lucy1010

clippy_girl wrote: »

£200 would be good, i currently spend a bit more than that at £70 month on food and £40 per week on everything else.

that doesnt include presents, hair cut, contact lenses, mobile, gym etc.. though inc all that i spend nearly £400 :eek:

i also batch cook from scratch and take my own lunches. my friends call me freezer queen!

Hey CG, the £200 is what is left over for food shop and just general spending. I have already budgeted for everything else inc my gym membership. Thanks for sharing.

BiB, I could start a diary but does anyone really have time to read my crap? LOL :rotfl: I am much more into what everyone else is saying I will have a lil think about it x

SazM030306

Hi Lucy, I've really enjoyed reading this thread!
DH and I have 3 children 8,6 and 9m and DH brings in the wage as I'm at home with the baby. Our budget goes something like this..

In: DH wage, tax credits, child benefit
Out: bills, car stuff, kids stuff, personal spends, food.

The car stuff and kids stuff go out as standing orders every week into separate accounts, and consist of the following:

Car stuff = petrol £10/w, tax/ins/mot/maint = £16.09/w
Kids stuff = £31.30/w to cover shoes/clothes+uniforms/sch dinners/sch photos/trips/haircuts/b'day presents/xmas(£600/yr)

Personal spends are withdrawn in cash every Sunday = £20/wk each for me and DH
Food I currently budget £300/m though am trying to get this down. I meal plan for the month then do a 'big' shop from a list and top up as needed writing down every spend and not going over the budget.

I have just joined the gym which works out at £5/wk and this is coming out of my spends of £20/wk. I also get my hair cut from this, and any going out/coffee mornings/treats for me and sometimes the kids lol. DH usually spends his on fags then moans he never has any money!

If I buy anything like uniforms or presents, then I keep the receipts and transfer the amount from 'kids account' to 'current account' on internet banking. Same with car stuff.

Anything left over after all this goes into another account offsetting the mortgage, which when we have enough, will then be used to pay off our loan, followed by the mortgage!

If we do need to buy anything that's not budgeted for or not personal spends, like taking the kids to the cinema or going out for tea together then we take it out of the leftovers and deduct it from the total to transfer at the end of the month.

This might seem complicated reading it back lol! but it works for us. I have it all in a spreadsheet

I look forward to reading more responses!
Sarah xxx

snowqueen555

about £250 per month on socialising and food, but there is ALWAYS something I need to buy, makes things tough pretty much every month

littlemiss1986_2

Wow, what a fascinating thread. So glad I came over to have a nosey! I'm on maternity leave at the moment so things are tighter than they usually are but we still have about £1000 left a month after bills are paid. My OH spends about £400 of that a month on petrol to get to work so £600 left for food, living etc for us and two kids (3 + 6 months). Once I go back to work part time in summer our income will go up by about £800 but most of that will be going to overpaying the mortgage, we are fortunate in that the mortgage is our only debt. Despite having enough disposable income to live comfortably I am very careful with money, I don't for a second take for granted how lucky we are to have good jobs and am all to aware that even in our line of work (army and police) they could just dissapear in this current economic climate. Using this site I have been keeping the grocery shopping to under £200 a month, I couldn't believe how much we used to spend on food, which leaves more money for the nice things, like taking the kids out for the day.

Great thread OP, very thought provoking.

kentjojo29

I get paid weekly, my take home before tax is £231 p/w
i probably have around £75-£100 p/w to do what i want with.
I share a house so the bills are split equally.
so i can have anything up to £400 to myself per month :j

SOT2011

Hi,

Really enjoy this thread, it helps to get me really thinking about what I am doing with my money - my spreadsheets are great (yes there are a few of them for various different things), but they are just numbers at the end of the day.

There are 2 of us & a small dog. OH and I keep our money seperate except for the joint bills account, so OH does what he wants with his non house money, and actually couldn't tell you how much that is as I know it varies each month as he works in sales. Small dog is fairly cheap to run, bless, as doesn't eat much, only have to buy a sack of food once every 3 or 4 months. OH is less cheap to run, but am working on it!

This month I am allowing £240.00 for groceries, including any toiletries/cleaning stuff etc, but not including any alcohol, clothes, DVDs etc.

I have left a buffer in the account this month in case I can't hit the target as it is quite a big drop from last months target. On top of this I am allowing myself £10 a week (cash) in what I call my "Fritter Fund" so for treats/things I cannot justify on Groceries etc. As an example, I really fancied a cheesy jacket potato in the week so treated myself at work and just ate the left overs I'd left at home the next day instead. In theory I am on home made lunches/leftovers for lunches in the week, so should be no spend there, but occassionally I cannot face what is in the fridge and really want a change.

I was getting a bit too obsessed with my MSE efforts over the last couple of months, and could feel myself heading towards a spending blow out, so am hoping that my fritter fund will be enough to stave off this feeling (and any I don't spend each week is going to go in my Sealed Pot)

kerri_gt

hi Lucy, I budget about £210 a month on 'misc' items - that doesn't include petrol, food, bills (mobile, pole classes, pet insurace), or my CC payments). It does include my toiletries, some cleaning stuff for the house (if I don't get something with the main food shop) and any other 'non-essentials' like clothes, going out, birthday cards, car parks (if I need to use one), presents (though I have a separate saving fund for Xmas), things for the house, hair cuts and anything else that comes up. I do find that I can easily spend that, an unexpected night out, or someone's birthday can really put a dent in it.

Saying that, I do have a little leaway if I overspend so I try to use it more as a guide, and keep track of what I do spend but don't beat myself up if I go over a little due to something unexpected.