what do you live on?

JodyBPM

Lunar_Eclipse wrote: »

How old are your children? That affects my life thoughts, plans, finances etc?

Also, forgot the most important thing earlier: savings, in whatever form they take,are an equal line item in our budget. They are not whatever is left over, because I tweak our spending to fit our savings goals. So in reality, savings are the most important element of our budget. When our savings were focused on mortgage over payments, we only had that takeaway (or whatever) if the £1000/month had gone to overpay the mortgage. We didn't overpay whatever we had leftover: huge difference in outcome.

Children are still fairly young, nearly 6 and just turned 7. I guess they will become *a lot* more costly over time. We also may want to move house for secondary school catchments in the future, which will give us a biggish mortgage again, and massively reduce our suplus. But its too early to make decisions on which schools we want for them at this time.

I took the same approach to you with the overpayments, we set an amount, and it went out by DD and just became "our mortgage payment" rather than surplus. Savings are a suplus amount, I guess, but more based on a calculation of how much we need to live off, and then sweeping the rest away.

Carl31

about £800 for a family of 5/6 (my son doesn't live with us, but is here often), for food, petrol, some activities.
Thats through choice though, we save a fair wedge each month (£600+), primarily thats been a result of our wedding, but has continued due to the fact we can live a good life on a certain amount, and hence can put the rest aside for better use

findingmyownway

After leaving enough money in main account for bills, contributing to joint account for groceries etc and saving £1000:

I transfer £550/month into a 'spending account' which covers petrol and general living, clothes, presents, socialising, eating out etc. That just has to cover me and what I want and so is completely under my control - sometimes there is spare (which goes into 'extra' savings), sometimes not.

savingmummy

After bills are paid and monthly food shop is done we have £180 left over for the month.
2 adults and 2 children!

We used to have more each month but Bills have all shot up, and wages still the same

tooldle

Around 2.5K after all the monthly bills have been paid. From what is left, we make mortgage overpayments and savings, set money aside for holidays and any anticipated future major spends (kitchen refurb etc). Small DIY expenditure, fuel, food, shoes, clothes, childcare / activites, sports and any general spends will fall somewhere between £400 and £800 a month. I like to budget everything into "pots" so that when an expense arises, the funds are already there to pay for it.

POPPYOSCAR

I actually have no idea.

We try to get bargains wherever and whenever we can. We do not eat out, buy a lot of clothes ,go on holiday much etc. The money to do what we need to do is always there. Whatever builds up over a period of time we invest for the future.

carrieuk

£344 precisely to spend on my own stuff...

I've already accounted for food and petrol in my bills as very rarely do they change and any changes are paid for either by my partner (if im taking him somewhere) or out my own personal spends if im driving somewhere)

I pay my credit card out of this £344. So probably £300 in total on food out, haircuts, clothes, car stuff etc.

My partners finances are seperate from mine, he just pays a lump sum to me and I pay all the bills, i dont know what he has left over a week to spend but i guess a similiar amount.

luvvie

I used to have about £800 per month but my circumstances have changed and I now have about £80 per month to pay for food, diesel and clothing. How times have changed and I've really had to learn how to save cash. I've learnt to appreciate money whereas before I would spend money like water.

downsizer3

£500 pm for myself and one child ( and a cat) - spend that easily but a spending diary has shown where it goes. Supermarket and housey things really ( moved about 8 months ago so doing stuff about the house).
In honesty I find that a struggle - but thats because I spend too much in the supermarket!! Am going to be good this month though.

74jax

After all our household bills, money put aside for food and money for petrol to one side we have around 2.5k left. We then put some away for holidays etc and leave the rest. If OH see's something he wants he'll buy it and same with me.

Every couple of months when we haven't spent a lot, OH will transfer some into a more long term savings accounts.