How Much do you ACTUALLY spend???

New_and_Improved_Me

Hi,

Recently, I’ve been trying to save as much as possible to build a nest egg for the future. As such spend VERY little on myself that’s not to say I starve myself or go without, just don’t spend money like it grows on trees.

I’m just curious about what others spend on themselves over a typical month.

So excluding the FIXED costs that just can’t me avoided (- like rent or mortgage/heating/lighting/water bills/council tax…etc)…what do you actually spend in a typical month on YOURSELF.

On things like:-

Food – all food including breakfast/morning snack/lunch/afternoon snack/dinner/drink…etc..
Entertainment
Shopping for YOURSELF – be it clothes or anything else.

So imagine this…….you live in a house/flat….with all your bills are taken care of and all you need to pay for are the 3 things mentioned above

How much would you spend in a typical Month???

quantic

Our bills come to around £1,100. After this we are left with £2,000, we save £1250 of this and spend the other £750 on:

• £250 - Food shopping and other stuff for the house such as cleaning products
• £250 - Socailising; Days out, meals, lunch (weekend), cinema etc
• £250 - Haircuts, treats, none essentials basically (Varies)

We do spend more/less than this occasionally but this is generally what we spend per month.

Cycrow

I usually spend about £20-30 a week on food
then about £100 on other services, like mobile, broadband, tv, etc
then spare £100 spending money for the month for going out or just general buying things

MrsGSR

£150 food shopping for 4 of us, I don't shop at Aldi either, i have a very good store cupboard and freezer supplies.
£66 for sky, that's our entertainment, we rarely go out.
£10 I tend to bulk buy toiletries so I don't spend on that. I'm a bit of a tomboy and am very low maintenance, haircuts are once every few months. This amount is for deodorant, coffee (of which i adore) and bits and bobs like notebooks, chocolate etc.
I've struggled to even get those numbers as DH rarely buy ourselves anything instead preferring to make sure the children have all they need. Our sky package is the full one but I negiotated a better deal with internet and phone, its our one biggest luxury.

quantic

Seriously I don't get it how people spend so little on food, we are really trying to keep our food bills down but its just so expensive. We seem to go to the shops and spend £60 per week and barely come out with anything. What am I doing wrong.

HappyMJ

New_and_Improved_Me wrote: »

Hi,

Recently, I’ve been trying to save as much as possible to build a nest egg for the future. As such spend VERY little on myself that’s not to say I starve myself or go without, just don’t spend money like it grows on trees.

I’m just curious about what others spend on themselves over a typical month.

So excluding the FIXED costs that just can’t me avoided (- like rent or mortgage/heating/lighting/water bills/council tax…etc)…what do you actually spend in a typical month on YOURSELF.

On things like:-

Food – all food including breakfast/morning snack/lunch/afternoon snack/dinner/drink…etc..
Entertainment
Shopping for YOURSELF – be it clothes or anything else.

So imagine this…….you live in a house/flat….with all your bills are taken care of and all you need to pay for are the 3 things mentioned above

How much would you spend in a typical Month???

I try and make my budget similar to someone who totally relies on benefits. i.e single over 25...£71.70 per week plus any debt repayments, rent/mortgage/housing costs, council tax and whatever it costs to get to/from work. Whatever is left is my holiday money which I try to get away for 2 weeks a year getting it for the cheapest budget possible and the rest is saved...

When shopping for food I try and price each meal out to be less than £1 per meal. The meat is the most expensive so I try and get meat around £5/kg and a serving should be around 100 grams...50p. Snacks are rare...usually fruit. Drinks..maybe tea/coffee/squash. I aim for about £25 a week.

Entertainment varies but it's about £35 a week...

Clothes I have no fixed budget...replacing required clothes as necessary.

~Beanie~

quantic wrote: »

Seriously I don't get it how people spend so little on food, we are really trying to keep our food bills down but its just so expensive. We seem to go to the shops and spend £60 per week and barely come out with anything. What am I doing wrong.

How many people is that for? Do you cook meals from scratch or do you buy ready made?

Cycrow

the food i buy tends to be dictated by whats currently on offer. And tend to buy things that can keep in bulk. Usually for things like meat, ill take advantage of the multi buy offers to buy a large amount, then just bag it up into separate portions and freeze it, this can often last me months

New_and_Improved_Me

The Food shopping thing is a bit of a mystery to me too…I’m currently living alone and my food shop + the Odd takeaway is still around the 50 pound mark.

An I DO cook….and I hardly ever buy lunch or coffee….

But I have to admit, buying fresh fruit and Veg is Expensive…..and I DO like my fruit and Veg….:)

quantic

~Beanie~ wrote: »

How many people is that for? Do you cook meals from scratch or do you buy ready made?

Just the two of us, we have tried both cooking from scratch and ready meals and somehow from scratch often comes out more expensive?!

The £250 we spend includes all lunches for both of us at work, and probably 6/7 meals on night times, we normally have 1 takeaway fortnight.

We normally have meat with every meal which I don't think is helping. Also, we have 3 pieces of fruit per day each, which can be expensive.

determined_new_ms

eeek shocking really! I spend about £170 on food a month for 2 of us, this includes alcohol at home and a takeaway a month - cutting this out this month! I then budget for £250 for my personal spends, clothes, entertainment and anything I want. I have recently got a new job and get a good wage so have been spending a lot these last few months so have been regularly spending more than £250. Last month I made a target of getting extra funds to bring down my cc bill where I had spent nearly £500 :eek: after all the money I raised my cc payment is £183 so very pleased with that!

Am going to cut this out this month and aiming to keep personal spends at around £150