Is £300p/m a realistic budget?

Maduck22

Hi folks,


I'm new to the forum to please be kind! :j


Recently started budgeting (about 30 years too late!), and trying to stick to £300 per month to cover food/ toiletries/ going out/ petrol etc, but I'm just not sure if that is realistic? It's just me and OH, and have separate finances apart from rent/ bills etc.


I didn't manage it last month, but I'm not sure if I'm just not being careful enough or just setting an unrealistic budget.
:mad:
What do other spend on average a month on food etc?


Thanks

grumbler

You question makes no sense really as "going out/ petrol etc" depends.
IMO for two people £200-£250 is achievable for "food/ toiletries".

Maduck22

Sorry, how long is a piece of string!!
Petrol is usually around £20 per week, and will go out if have spare cash..
Just wanted to get an idea of people's "average" spends really so I can work out if I overspend or if I'm "normal".

grumbler

'Average spend' is meaningless for you as it depends on the income and circumstances. Your budget has to depend on your personal circumstances and personal targets.

You can start from the most tight budget and then decide what items to increase (e.g. food, going out) by cutting the money you can save after the most essential expenses.

SOA Calculator

MSE article: Budget Planner
According to this article you overspend if you don't save at least £3-£5k p.a.

HappyMJ

Maduck22 wrote: »

Sorry, how long is a piece of string!!
Petrol is usually around £20 per week, and will go out if have spare cash..
Just wanted to get an idea of people's "average" spends really so I can work out if I overspend or if I'm "normal".

Thing is petrol could be anything it depends on how far you have to commute each day and instead of going on a coach holiday do you use the car?

I'd separate out the petrol and put that down as an expense necessary to earn money. An essential expense rather than a discretionary expense.

Some people especially those really trying hard to save money aim to spend less than £1 per day on discretionary spending. Some people especially those in their 20's with no children and enjoy going out every weekend couldn't get by on no less than £100 per weekend.

As long as you spend less than you earn you will always feel well off even if what you earn is just job seekers allowance.

You could earn £1,000 a week but if you spend £1,100 you will not feel well off as you'll always be needing to pull out the credit card.

eskbanker

grumbler wrote: »

'Average spend' is meaningless for you as it depends on the income and circumstances. Your budget has to depend on your personal circumstances and personal targets.

Or to put it another way:

Charles_Dickens wrote: »

Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery

SuperHan

We (2 people) spend at least £500 a month on discretionary spending - i.e. going out, buying new non essential things, lunches and dinners out.

That doesn't include what I class as obligatory spending which is food/toiletries/petrol, which between us probably comes to around £300-£400 per month.

That's on average, but we're a relatively high income couple with no children and a mortgage and £500 p/m going in to savings. We have set a saving budget and we pretty much spend what we don't save.

We could cut down, but we don't try to and everything we buy is branded and we don't spend a lot of time looking for the best deals on everything as we see convenience as more important.

(I'm trying to make the point of my average has nothing to do with whether your budget is achievable).

FireWyrm

On the other hand from SuperHan who makes a valid point, I have a family of 5 to feed and £300 is more than my entire food budget even when I'm being inattentive and frivolous. We dont go out, we dont eat takeaways etc. I could feed us on half that if I had to. Just how many 'toiletries' do you need a month? I consider a bar of soap and an occasional new flannel to be quite adequate.

It is all relative and an sufficiently detailed SOA will help determine what your priorities really are and where you can make changes or cutbacks to achieve your goal.