Average monthly outgoings family of 5...

ronaldadio

Hi all.
I've had a good scout around this site and internet in general, but I'm struggling to find an answer.
I can't seem to get our outgoings below £3,500 per month and wanting to know if that is normal or if not, how far away from average?

The budget counts everything -

• Annual payments put aside into account
• £200 a month for going out/ clothing/ emergencies
• £900 a month for food/ groceries
• £300 a month for my younger Son still dependent.
• £695 a month rent

plus more.
We are a family of 5 - youngest 17 going on 18.

We also have 2 dogs (just little ones)
2 cars


Any more info feel free to ask.

Goldiegirl

With this sort of thread, I normally reply that there is no point in comparing yourself to anyone else, as everybody's situation is different


BUT - £900 per month on food and groceries does seem to be high. What are you eating to make it so much, and do you throw a lot of food away? Or perhaps you are overbuying, and it goes in the store cupboard, never to be seen again? If you planned your meals, and made a supermarket shopping list based on the meal plan, you'd save a chunk of money Plus, do more cooking from scratch - in a household of 5 adults you could all take it in turns to cook the evening meal.


Also, why does your son need £300 a month? Is it for special needs or something? If not, then maybe he should find a part time job

ronaldadio

Goldiegirl wrote: »

With this sort of thread, I normally reply that there is no point in comparing yourself to anyone else, as everybody's situation is different


BUT - £900 per month on food and groceries does seem to be high. What are you eating to make it so much, and do you throw a lot of food away? Or perhaps you are overbuying, and it goes in the store cupboard, never to be seen again? If you planned your meals, and made a supermarket shopping list based on the meal plan, you'd save a chunk of money Plus, do more cooking from scratch - in a household of 5 adults you could all take it in turns to cook the evening meal.


Also, why does your son need £300 a month? Is it for special needs or something? If not, then maybe he should find a part time job

£900 a month or £200 a week. This is for all household stuff, cleaning products, food, etc.
£300 for my son...he has just been offered a contract playing Rugby League. However, he is on a 'pay as you play' contract due to also being a collage, so nothing guaranteed at the moment. Within about 12 months we will lose this outgoing.

Thanks for your response

HappyMJ

ronaldadio wrote: »

£900 a month or £200 a week. This is for all household stuff, cleaning products, food, etc.
£300 for my son...he has just been offered a contract playing Rugby League. However, he is on a 'pay as you play' contract due to also being a collage, so nothing guaranteed at the moment. Within about 12 months we will lose this outgoing.

Thanks for your response

I usually estimate household groceries for everything including loo roll, soap, deodorants etc to be no more than £30 per person per week. i.e £30 times 5 times 52/12...so around £650 per month. So that's why I think £900 is high too. I personally aim for 3 meals a day to cost no more than £3 per person per day. The remainder is to be used on household supplies and non alcoholic drinks.

I would put pet food/needs into a different category on my expenses spreadsheet. Dogs cost whatever dogs cost. Little ones might cost 50p/day big dogs might cost £3 per day. You might be happy supplying supermarket branded dry food which is very cheap. You might prefer to feed part raw/part premium food. You might buy your flea treatments/worming treatments as part of the household groceries. We have no idea so I would separate dog expenses out of the household groceries bill.

Dowsett

£900 a month on food - wow, we (family of 4) spend £200-£300 a month.

We dont buy clothes every month. Ok we might need to buy them some months, but not every month.

Not sure what house you live in, or what area but £700 rent seems a bit high.

Can your 18yo not pay rent?

ronaldadio

Dowsett wrote: »

£900 a month on food - wow, we (family of 4) spend £200-£300 a month.

We dont buy clothes every month. Ok we might need to buy them some months, but not every month.

Not sure what house you live in, or what area but £700 rent seems a bit high.

Can your 18yo not pay rent?

I also think £900 a month is slightly high on food and other household stuff, but not to the tune of £400 that you suggest.

We live in a 4 bed house, quite a nice area, but where we live u will struggle to get a 2 bed flat for £450 a month - we got a good deal.

My family member are 17 (18 in May), 22, 25, 50, 53

My youngest Son is a Rugby league player, very close to going full time within the next 12 months. However, the way it is at the moment, he trains very hard 5 days a week and 2 evenings. He is also doing a Sports diploma course, so it would be too much to ask him to get a job as well.

We don't buy clothes every month, but we put it into an account for stuff like food, going out, etc, etc

What I'm asking is aimed more at what people pay, not what we can afford.

Thanks for your replies

littlej0hn

£900 on food/groceries seems a huge amount. Where are you shopping? We recently changed from Tesco and are trialling Lidl/Aldi....I'm shocked at how much we are saving....nearly 50%... And don't think quality is neglected because of this.Their fresh fruit and veg is much fresher!

As was previously mentioned, do a meal planned, you can save a big amount as you will buy exactly what you need and not guess and make up meals as you're pushing around your trolly.

As for rent....you live where you live. We pay over £800 on mortgage, We could move somewhere up north and save hundreds but would effect many aspects of our lives...Socially we wouldn't know anyonw, professionally we would be taking a huge pay cut. So you do what you can with that within your means.

We only have the one car, if you can make do with one that will be a big save dependng n if you own it outright, but then road tax and insurance would be obvious savers. But being a family of five I guess you do a lot of taxiing around.

Goldiegirl

ronaldadio wrote: »

What I'm asking is aimed more at what people pay, not what we can afford.

Thanks for your replies

You sounded like you wanted to spend less, so people will want to give you suggestions about how you can cut some of the spending

For what it's worth, in my two adult house, we averaged £225 per month at the supermarket last year, so if we had a 5 adult house, I'd expect the spending to be in the region of £550 to £600 a month.

But there's no point in looking in isolation at what other people spend. You don't know what their income is or their other outgoings, so it's meaningless information.

What you really need to do is work out what is comfortable to you, bearing in mind your own individual circumstances.

enthusiasticsaver

We budget for £200 -£250 on food/groceries for 2 of us and I shop mainly at Lidl with one shop a month at Waitrose. We do probably also spend around £200 - £300 on entertainment/meals out etc but that includes an £85 joint country club membership we have for gym, spa, pool and keep fit classes. We use it a lot though and we get 15% off the restaurant there as well .


Rent depends on where you live and what accommodation you have. Is travel costs included in your budget somewhere or is that in the £200 per month. That seems low for a family of 5 but I guess it depends on what you do.

meer53

You could halve the food budget quite easily, just try Aldi/Lidl for a month, you'll be amazed at how much you will save. Do your other 2 children contribute to the budget ? What does your youngest son do which costs £75 per week ? To me, what you're spending sounds way above average, but then everyone has a different lifestyle, post a full SOA, this will help people give constructive advice about reducing your outgoings.

bigfreddiel

Here's a few tips

Buy clothes from charity shops
Don't by ready made meals, unless on special offer
Cook meals from scratch, eat leftovers next day
Do not throw out food
Cancel gym membership
Ditch contract phones
Ditch Netflix, Amazon prime etc
Cancel magazine subs
Stop smoking
Get rid of gas guzzling cars

Okay not all of these will apply to you, but it's things to look out for on the expenditure side.

Next make the most of what you do have, earn interest from your bank
Use cash back cards
Pay off credit card every month
Cancel any dds to things you've forgotten about


Good luck fj