Budget?

Thisisme_3

Hi all, what do you think is a reasonable amount to budget a year for clothes please? Bearing in mind that I am trying to pay of a very large debt. I have a DD who just turned 3 and a DS who is 14 months and growing rapidly, he's gone up two show sizes this year!!

Also how about petrol? I'm a SAHM and my car gets approx 34mpg. I need to go to the supermarket once a week plus maybe take children swimming about 5 miles away and country park place we go is roughly the same.

Also what about for me and the children for 'spends' through the week?

Thanks

bigmaz

For clothes for the kids, we hardly bought any clothes. We got a lot of hand me downs from friends and family. Is there anyone you could ask for these? Then when your kids are done with them you could pass them on. Cos they grow so fast we got stuff that was hardly worn, if not worn at all. Not sure if that is any help at all, lol, but thats our experience

Mrs_Toast

Hi Thisisme, I personally use my child benefit money for clothes for DS and activities. Approximately £80 is plenty if you shop around for bargains. I use charity shops quite a lot for DS's clothes and plan what activities we are doing.

For the Easter holidays as we don't have any of our usual groups I've planned the following so far:

* At least one visit to the cinema. Both Vue & Cineworld do special rates for families at weekends or holidays. £1.75 for both kids and adults. They aren't up to date movies, my local has Monsters Inc on at the moment. Take a bag of popcorn and drinks with you.
* Council run activity at our local park, making items from natural materials.
* Our local small swimming pool charge £1 for the holidays as they normally cater for swimming classes and schools. It's lovely and warm too :rotfl:
* Over the last couple of weeks I've collected arts and craft items from groups I've been to for DS to do over the holidays. As he's 3.5 years old he doesn't sit down long enough for most crafts at groups lol.
* Invite friends/family with young children round for an indoor picnic and play.

I take petrol out of another budget as I try not to use the car during term time at least. I'm also trying to pay off a significant debt (to us anyway) and understand how hard it is to entertain children on whatever budget you have. I hope I've been helpful and good luck

postingalwaysposting

Budgets and spends are a very personal thing, its like asking people how they brush there teeth and what do they use. Everyone spends and everyone has some disposable income. However for everyone that is different ie I could have £10 left after my bills and someone else £100 and where they chosse to spend it is different. I could sit here and tell you that you must only spend £100 a year on everyone's clothes and you can only use £10 of petrol per week. Whereas the reality is your DH needs to wear a suit (circa £50 a year) and you live 10miles from the nearest town/school.

I would suggest you get a little pad of paper and start a spending diary. Write down everything you send for a week or month. You can then go through this weekly/monthly and put everything in categories ie petrol, food, clothes, toiletries etc. Then aim to spend less/the same the next month and see if you can shave your spends down.

I know having children is different as they have growth spurts/need money for activities but you could eventually have a budget which says yearly we usually spends £100 on clothes (for example), can we reduce that this year to £90?

With regard to the childrens clothes have you thought about ebay? If you search within a close distance you can pick up bundles (for collection) of clothes that has been outgrown for quite cheap prices. You can also sell on ebay to raise the funds to cover these purchases. Also what about charity shops, they don't have the stigma attached to them now that they used to and I have seen childens dresses for £1 before! Even if they are only worn three times and then redonated or reused for craft/rags they are not a bad price.Worth a look.

pennypusher

How about joining the library - that is free and you could borrow books for your 3 year old.

Do you have any local parks nearby you could walk to sometimes.

Would it be cheaper to get your groceries delivered instead of using petrol to go and get them. You could control how much you spend as well that way.