So how much do you spend every month after paying your bills?

judywoody

Sorry for the long winded post! Well, I am currently trying to get a realistic figure of what an average, non high-maintenance, couple spends after they have paid their recurring household bills.
I am really trying to get rid of our debt (13k) but I still haven't quite figured out if I am just spending too much or not earning enough ...haha

Just a little bit about us: We are both self-employed and together we earn roughly 1650£ a month (depending on the hours we get) and sometimes it can be more, up to 2300£ (we got some commission) and I try to put the excess towards our debt. But that doesn't happen all the time. So to be on the safe side I always calculate with 1600£. Now I am not the type of person who goes clothes shopping - in fact that only happens if we really need clothes..and I try to get everything from charity shops. I would like to think of myself as stingy but I am also an impulsive buyer..so I have the tendency to buy many things very cheap (not clothes - mainly food & household items and the odd meal when we haven't been able to prepare lunch on a day out because we were running late as usual).

We also don't really posses anything we don't need in electronic gadgets - we are both self-employed working from home - most stuff we spend our money on can't be sold to get extra cash in. We had a dry spell last year work-wise so we were able to pay the bills but food and other things often went on credit cards (no good idea I know) as we weren't entitled to any benefits.

Here a quick overview of what our outgoings are:

So these are our monthly outgoings:

Rent 450
Council Tax 85
Water 32
Electricity 75 (yes!!we don't have dual fuel)
Broadband&Phone 40 (actually 28 but our jobs require us to do some good quality "out of plan" calls - can't be cancelled right now)
2 Mobiles 49 (can't be cancelled right now, needed)
2 life insurances 16.50
Charity 30 (very important to me)
Pet Insurance 10
Saving 18 (not much but a start)
Pre Pay NHS Meds 10.40
NHS2 for two: 20£
Debt Payments all together 280
Tax and NIC4: 50£

All this adds up to 1170£ a month.

this leaves us with 430£ for EVERYTHING else such as food, public transport for 2, unexpected travel expenses for work and other nice surprises...which happen quite regularly (ie my friend died 2 weeks ago and we are traveling to Bristol for the funeral so we need a hire car - cheaper than public transport, I always compare and go for the cheapest option)

Now I was never the type of person to write down her expenses but this month I just added up all the cash spending and withdrawals from my account and by the 18th it added up to 530£ already!! And I am wondering why our credit card bills don't reduce...lol

Most of the money went on food (I am pretty health conscious I have to admit - I don't buy cheap processed foods - we don't eat meat, milk or eggs - all the money goes on Fruit, Veg, Beans, Nuts, Bread, Soy Milk and some condiments - we only drink tab water though). I probably could have stopped myself from buying 2 coffees (I know it all adds up but compared to the bigger figure it's a drop in the bucket). I also had to buy some shirts and socks for my hubby and spent 35£ in Primark. We also hardly go on holiday - the last two times our trip was paid for, we don't go out to clubs and spend money on drinking, Sometimes we go out for a meal but usually the lower price range, we spend between 15-20£ for both of us on average. But we like to be hospitable sometimes and spend money on others, but not an awful lot.

I didn't realize where all our disposable income went although I always keep track on our household bills. Now I am wondering, am I spending too much (I mean of course I am, because we don't earn enough to spend more than 430£ on food&other) but I mean what does the average couple here on this board spend on Food&Other? I would like to make myself a food budget but I LOVE cooking and I find it really hard to pull myself together when it comes to food shopping, I have all these ideas! Mind you, we eat it all of it so nothing gets thrown away. Because I don't have a car I often go for the convenience Tesco around the corner rather than the Arabic Produce Market 3 miles away without public transport connection. So that might be an issue.

Sorry to everyone who thinks I am moaning on a high level - but I have been asking different couples and one says they easily spend about 400£ on food ONLY without anything else paid for ie petrol or other things. And another couple tells me they only spend 400£ on everything else after paying their bills. I seriously don't know how to do that.

I looked at all sorts of websites with tips on how to spend less but I already apply most of it ie using vouchers, charity shops, comparing prices... and other things are not applicable because we already got rid of things like our car. So I am at my wits end.

I think I must be spending at least 650-700£ just on "Food & Other" looking at this months figure on the 18th of the month.. So do I need to earn more or is it realistic to spend less?

So what do you spend as childless couples?

Miss_Ratty

Me and hubby spend around about 200 a month on food, and that is when we splurge! Our joint income is about 3600 per month but we are trying hard to save a nest egg back up after buying a house together. The mse spreadsheet is very good for budgeting, and I know exactly what I spend on what every month as we itemise everything.

Key to us saving money on food were a few things, which really make a difference:
1. Take a packed lunch to work always
2. Plan every meal for a whole week at a time, you won't find yourself popping out to get one thing and coming back with loads, plus you won't be wasting anything.
3. Shop at a local butcher and greengrocer if there is one around, they are so much cheaper than the supermarkets
4. If you have a freezer, get cheap meat when its reduced, and defrost it for a meal later. Make extra and freeze portions for later in the week.
5. Only buy non-perishable items when they are on offer, and likewise, only buy things on offer which aren't perishable or half of it will go in the bin!
6. Bake your own bread...it is much much cheaper than shop bought, and tastes nicer too.

Me and hubby on a good week will spend fifty quid between us on food, and this includes breakfast and lunches every day, and in the evening we always have a nice meal, usually courtesy of good food magazine's recipes!

Shop around, budget and plan and you can cut your food bill quite dramatically whilst not having to live off beans on toast.

I'm sure others have some really good tips too, and probably spend a lot less than us!!

fluffnutter

My outgoings are £450 a month (not including food) . I know I'm very lucky but then I've made choices to keep the bills low, i.e. I live in a tiny house and don't have holidays.

Any

There is 2 of us and our joint account takes in £1650.
That all goes on bills, food, wine and occasional house items (new pans,bedding,rug..)
Clothes is different,we have separate accounts for that.
I spend the lot (I can afford to before someone jumps in).
But!! In comparison to you our mortgage is £700, we have full Sky, and our leccy,gas and council tax add up to £300. And there are other bills .
I spend £250-300 on food and wine. And that is without trying to save.
I also love cooking. 6 out of 7 meals a week are homemade.

So I think you have 2 problems-first spending too much on food and the other links in-your work expenses are coming out of the same pot and that makes your job of trying to keep budget/spend for living expenses very complicated.
I think you need to keep work separate. Obviously it all comes from one pot, but you are trying to balance living avoidable expenses (if you knew you are running over you perhaps eouldn't buy this of that) with work unavoidable expenses.

judywoody

Oh I see - already 2 different views :-)

@Miss_Ratty : well done you!maybe I should just get the bike and cycle the 3 miles to my local produce store :-)

Tiglath

We spend about £300-325/month on food for 2 adults (dairy and meat/fish several times a week, no booze; we don't usually eat out or have takeaways). I can't believe you're spending that much on vegan food - I always thought it was meat which bumped up the food budget.

judywoody

Tiglath wrote: »

We spend about £300-325/month on food for 2 adults (dairy and meat/fish several times a week, no booze; we don't usually eat out or have takeaways). I can't believe you're spending that much on vegan food - I always thought it was meat which bumped up the food budget.

Oh I don't spend 700£ on vegan food - this amount contains not only food but everything else like bus tickets etc.

So I need to work out how much I really spend on food..but I do often buy organic stuff, miso paste and I like to try new things..I think sometimes certain exotic ingredients and also NUTS can add up quite a bit...and obviously buying your produce in Tesco...

Carlos77

Our Joint income is Approx £5550

We have Household bills of about £900 pm, then on top of that is childcare of about £600 pm. OH spends about £200 pm on fuel, and I spend about £150. Grocery bill comes to about £300

So our total spend comes to about £2150.
In theory we should be saving over £3400 a month, but in practice all manor of things come up, and we only end up saving £2700

judywoody

Any wrote: »

There is 2 of us and our joint account takes in £1650.
That all goes on bills, food, wine and occasional house items (new pans,bedding,rug..)
Clothes is different,we have separate accounts for that.
I spend the lot (I can afford to before someone jumps in).
But!! In comparison to you our mortgage is £700, we have full Sky, and our leccy,gas and council tax add up to £300. And there are other bills .
I spend £250-300 on food and wine. And that is without trying to save.
I also love cooking. 6 out of 7 meals a week are homemade.

So I think you have 2 problems-first spending too much on food and the other links in-your work expenses are coming out of the same pot and that makes your job of trying to keep budget/spend for living expenses very complicated.
I think you need to keep work separate. Obviously it all comes from one pot, but you are trying to balance living avoidable expenses (if you knew you are running over you perhaps eouldn't buy this of that) with work unavoidable expenses.

yeah I know .. it's just not very consistent, I don't spend too much for work and I can't really keep it separate because utility bills for example will all be on the same account because we work from home. I also get reimbursed but not always straight away..

judywoody

Carlos77 wrote: »

Our Joint income is Approx £5550

We have Household bills of about £900 pm, then on top of that is childcare of about £600 pm. OH spends about £200 pm on fuel, and I spend about £150. Grocery bill comes to about £300

So our total spend comes to about £2150.
In theory we should be saving over £3400 a month, but in practice all manor of things come up, and we only end up saving £2700

thanks that makes me feel a lot better ..haha

Any

judywoody wrote: »

yeah I know .. it's just not very consistent, I don't spend too much for work and I can't really keep it separate because utility bills for example will all be on the same account because we work from home. I also get reimbursed but not always straight away..

But that's why it is difficult to keep tabs on. And you don't know how much you as a couple actually spent on living.
Obviously it all gets paid out of the same bank-what I am saying is that you need to set aside separate budget-a figure-for food, clothes etc and keep balancing to that.
Write all your separate purchases down and add up every day for couple of months if necessary if you want REAL idea what you are spending on these items. I think that is your starting point.

People who spend less on food do not only eat potatoes and saussages to keep the cost down you know... the idea that having varied and exotic diet is expensive is no longer true. It used to be in the old days, but nowadays it no longer applies.