How much do you live on per month?

JLL

H all

Since being on this budget ride. I can honestly say on friday which is shopping day. I do Mr T at lunch tim (luckely it's over the road from work), then pop in to Aldi then Asda on the way home from work. This friday i got home added up my receipts and was sooo chuffed with myself that i got all my weeks shopping for £29.13. I was spending £80 a week before i started on our DF journey. I can honestly say we are eating well, i thought we would be living off cheap sausages and mash 4 nights a week. I couldn't believe that could be done and a got 2 bottles of wine in that. I thought how good am i

Happy sunday back to the grind tomorrow xx

oldtractor

me and my DH could live on approx £6,000 a year if he didnt work and we sold both our cars. Thats £3,000 for food and £3,000 for household expenses. The council tax is our largest yearly household bill. But, like Lucy after a while we find we need some fun. Man cannot live by bread alone. So I'd like £100 a month for entertainment and clothes and fun.

kerri_gt

Thanks for taking the time to update us on your progess Lucy. And if the changes you have made make you happier, then that's deff all good. 10mths is not a long time so good luck with your DF journey.

As Ani says, when you are having to live on a budget, it's not easy to be positive all the time. I think some of the money managment programmes that have sprung up on TV over recent times are guilty of not always showing how hard a DF journey, or even just living to a budget can be. Often its 60 mins where a nice financial advisor (or someone) swoops in, rejigs the numbers, the subject of the prog throws a tantrum and then by the end of the week has seen the 'error of their ways' and its all tickety-boo to being in the black.....only real life doesn't always work like that and I'd be interested to see a follow up of some of these people 6mths or a year down the line.

It would be lovely to continue to see you on some of these threads still Lucy, I know you gave the NSD challenge a bash for a bit. I'm stil doing it, although I am to an extent df now (:j) to try and control my spending and ensure i have funds for my future and so I don't have to put things on cc because I've frittered away small sums on 'this that and the other'.

Sorry, I digress, and waffle...but it's just nice to hear from you. x

Lucy1010

Awwwww so good to see replies!!!

Ani.... honey! Thank you so much for taking the time to update us. I still cannot believe that you are forced to live on practically nothing... it just doesn't seem fair! Seriously, I know of families round here that don't work through total laziness yet they seem to be better off than I am... nice cars, holidays, kids with the top of the range toys/bikes... something is terribly wrong with this country!

Kerri, darling, lovely to see your post and well done for getting there on the DF mission, I wanna be like you!!! I will get myself back on the NSD challenge, I've just need to get my backside into gear!

My post wasn't a farewell, just an update, didn't think I was missed so yeh, I will still contribute on this forum if you think what I have to say has any substance... hee hee

Hello Getagrip thanks for your comments and also to JLL

OK, so my debt free mission hopefully will come to a glorious end in 10 months - all being well. I've been a credit card tart for a long while now and up until a year ago, everytime I applied for a 0% cc I would get turned down. A couple of weeks ago I decided to try my luck on the Virgin 18 months 0% card and I got the usual automated response "bla bla bla we will get back to you soon" So i took that as a get lost NO.

Anyway, I had a letter from them to say that I had been accepted and with a nice big credit limit I was able to move my 3 debts to one card. I can clear the balance in 10 months so having an extra 8 months leeway at 0% is like a safety net. I absolutely want to clear this in the most shortest time possible so even if they had given me 2 years I would still want to do it in 10 months... (I'm determined you see)

I am cutting up the other cards - this is my chance to start again - no more credit!

Kerri, very interesting point you made about the TV shows that claim to change people's live by rejigging their finances but it would be good to see how those people have coped 6 months down the line... it would not surprise me if those same people had started spending on the cards again because they couldnt manage on their new budget. I mean it's all well selling your possessions on eBay etc but once you run out of things to sell what are you supposed to do? What do you wear if you sell most of your clothes? You go out and buy new stuff in a few months time!

OK guys and girls, over to you now.... how much do you live on per month?!

L xx

Moneymash

Hi Lucy and others,

I have been reading this thread with interest it's amazing how little people can get by on. When I had a good paying job I used to spend about £50 a week on food shopping at Sainsburys (only me in my household). Now I am in a low paid job and currently trying to become debt free. I spend about £15 a week on food. A friend told me about Asda smart price noodles (like supernoodles) they used to be 10p a packet, recently they went up to 12p :eek: a packet and are currently on roll back price of 11p ( cheeky Asda!) I buy lots of these. I like some others was a food snob and would only shop at Sainsburys or M & S if I could afford it. It was a real struggle to go to Lidl and buy Asda smart price products and it took me a good year to get into this mind set. However now when I look back I am kicking myself about spending more money buying products I could have got cheaper just by going to a different supermarket ( I wouldn't have even had to drop a brand) and maybe I wouldn't have had so much debt. The little price changes over a year can make all the difference.

Oh btw I also take multivitamins as some smart price products aren't exactly overflowing with vitamins and minerals. I get my vitamins when they are on special so that it doesn't defeat the object of my £15 weekly food budget.

kerri_gt

Moneymash wrote: »

Oh btw I also take multivitamins as some smart price products aren't exactly overflowing with vitamins and minerals. I get my vitamins when they are on special so that it doesn't defeat the object of my £15 weekly food budget.

I don't know what your general diet is, but even shopping with basics brands you should be able to get all the vits and minerals you need. For example, buying the basics fruit and veg is a great start (who cares if the carrots are diff sizes, I'm going to eat it not use it as modern art) or the market stall if you have a local one (mine is currently selling cherries £1.99 lb, Mr T or Mr S for example will charge that for a weeeny punnet). Pulses and lentils are a cheap but healthy option, and things like basics chopped tomatoes still contain...well...tomatoes.

One of the things I do avoid from the basics ranges (and I know I'm lucky to be able to have the choice) is their meat, as I want to ensure mine is sources from the best possible welfare standards and things like sasuages actually contain pork and not trotters + rusk. (my one guilty secret is basics sasuages & beans in a tin cos I really do just like them even though I know they are carp )

Oh, not forgetting eggs - great source of..well, quite a lot of stuff.

Of course, there's nowt wrong with taking supplements if you feel better doing so

Moneymash

Hi Kerri,

I understand what your saying but if you look at the ingredients on the packet of basic noodles they not exactly endowed with goodness! I don't buy fresh fruit on my budget. Asda are doing 1 litre cartons of fruit jucie from concentrate for only £4 so that's a cheap vitamin and mineral hit.

I supplement with vitamin tablets as sometimes the noodles are my main hot meal of the day. I'm with you on the meat thing and avoid basic meat. I'd rather buy decent meat and then scrimp on fruit and veg hence the fruit juice cartons. Hopefully next month I'll pay off my Argos card and the minimum payment saving will go towards food.

beachie

Hi all,

Hi Lucy. I was thinking of you today so funny you should happen to post again.

Hope you are well?

My budget is going well and have stuck with my £100 a month entertainment budget. For that I managed to go out on a few dates and since things went well I am now in a relationship

This means it will become harder in the next few months budget wise, but she is also very careful with money, has a house deposit saved up and ready to go so things are going well to be honest.

I am trying to decide whether to move my car loan onto a credit card, so I can spread it out over 18 months which would reduce my monthly payment and could pay more towards the mortgage while rates are low.

It would mean I would have credit card debt for longer but may benefit me in the long term.

beachie

Moneymash wrote: »

Hi Kerri,

I understand what your saying but if you look at the ingredients on the packet of basic noodles they not exactly endowed with goodness! I don't buy fresh fruit on my budget. Asda are doing 1 litre cartons of fruit jucie from concentrate for only £4 so that's a cheap vitamin and mineral hit.

I buy 2 bags of apples normally for £2 a week, which gives me 2 apples a day. I also buy the massive bags of value carrots, potatoes and onions and in the fridge they can easily last a month, if not longer.

1 litre of fruit juice for £4? :eek: For 6 you mean?

Lucy1010

Beachie!

I love when that happens, you think of someone you haven't heard from in a while and then they pop up! Woohoo

It is soooo good to hear you are in relationship! Check you! Glad things are going great, I just need to find me a nice man... where do I buy one of those? On a budget of course

How much is your car loan, the interest rate and the duration? I ask because Virgin are doing such a good deal on the 18 month 0% thing and if you could be sure to clear it in that time you would be better off but only if it's worth the transfer fee?