Please check my budget (£2,823pm) or share yours so I can get some ideas where I'm going wrong.

schiff

comeandgo said:

schiff said:

Evan3020 said:

Wow, my monthly outgoings are £578 in total all household bills, insurance, running a decent car, spending money, etc, and i live really comfortably.

You are single, no dependents, you live on your own, no mortgage, you have a slow cooker and an allotment, you rely on no fee TV and the wireless for entertainment, you don't go to the pub, a handful of visits per annum to a restaurant. Yes, it's possible 

Surely living on your own costs more than a couple both contributing?  

Sometimes you don't have that choice 

jonnygee2

Surely living on your own costs more than a couple both contributing?  

Living on your own costs more per person, but less overall. 

noh

jonnygee2 said:

Surely living on your own costs more than a couple both contributing?  

Living on your own costs more per person, but less overall. 

Living on your own means you have total control of your expenditure. Being in a couple means neither has total control.
I got married rather late in life our expenditure is more than double what mine was when living alone!

Voyager2002

bigadaj said:

I'd say the lottery spend is a waste too, if you fancy a flutter why not put this amount into premium bonds, that way at least you keep your stake and you have a chance of a win.

Agreed, but since I have never in my life bought one perhaps I just don't get it. The excitment of checking your numbers on Saturday night would be just as great for one ticket as for a thousand (although the time spent checking before the inevitable disappointment would be a little less).

getmore4less

I think one problem for many is they see this big list and get overwhelmed, so the trick is to break it down and work through each item in isolation.

another thing to do is think and prioritise  a 12 month forward plan, putting all the needs and wants that don't happen because the money ran out.

Look at the value of everything and see if there are things you need/want that are better value for that money.

Another trick is to break the bigger numbers down, you can't do that with the mortgage but can with the groceries.
 

Picking up on the groceries as that potentially is the one you can save a lot and not change the value that much, you can getmore4less.

Start by breaking it down into subcategories, like booze,food, household... (booze can skew a grocery bill a lot) .
Then do a waste audit, everything you throw out is something you did not need to buy, surprising how many make their biggest saving by just stopping their waste. A lot find meal planning helps with this one

Shopping, that has been covered, buy cheaper stuff from cheaper stores , you can go one stage further and shop at the time the stores have reduced stuff and buy that to go into future meals.
We find M&S and Waitrose have the best reduced prices and better quality, bulk buy when cheap, staples like bread and milk are always reduced, we often pay <10p a pint for milk(freezes well) bread 20p.
The biggest savings are on meat but you have to buy as much as you can and freeze it when there is any reduced, I have come away with 7KG of beef joints before £2.50/kg that's  50p a portion.
Another good quick snack are ready made Pizza the quality ones get reduced under £1 and cook 15mins from frozen we try to have a few of them for the can't be bothered days.

Plenty of ideas on bulk cooking and bulking out meals with cheap stuff like pasta noodles and potatoes.
Don't go by dates on stuff go by look and smell, most things have much longer shelf life than the date they have just be sensible with fresh stuff.

The other big ones most can sort through and make savings are subscriptions make sure they are all good value, we use nowTV and only have te movies when there is an offer and only for a month or two over the winter.

Share platform should be ~£20 a quarter and free if you deal a bit in that quarter.

Go through everything on your list and pick them off 1 at a time, order priority so you can decide what has to go to be replaced by something of better value.

A clothes audit is good and plan what needs replacing over the next 12 month rather than comfort shop another good rule there is once the rail/drawers are full nothing new happens until something old goes.

the one that many make good saving but not on your list is Mobiles what are they costing?

Retired_Minky

@Voyager2002 & @bigadaj
Thanks for the suggestion of the library. I checked it out and I can borrow books. However I can't read them on my Kindle. Just my laptop. Might give this a try to see how I get on. I also found out I had an unpaid library fine from 2012

 

getmore4less

MIssed the bit about the car, where you have crossover spending like electric for the car it makes sense to seperate that into house and car electric as they need a different analysis and can change for different reasons,

Retired_Minky

enthusiasticsaver said:

Everyone's spending habits are different and yes some people live on £600 to £800 but I don't know how either. They probably no longer have a mortgage.  Our income as  a retired (early) couple is £2950 a month.   Our usual budget is as follows:
Essential bills (no mortgage) so just council tax, utilities  £500
Average supermarket spends                                            £300
Entertainment (sky, annual subs for clubs, leisure club)    £100
Eating out, days out etc                                                      £200
Diesel for two cars (less during lockdown)                          £100
Personal spending money (£200 each) covers clothes       £400
hair, hobbies, etc etc 
Savings for gifts, car maintenance, insurances,                    £250
Savings for holidays, new cars, house projects                  £1100   

Considering you have a fairly high mortgage and four adults I don't think your budget is too over the top but probably if you needed to cut it I would look at all the odd bits and pieces like lottery, britbox, books, clothes etc etc and the groceries which could definitely come down from £800.    
We probably could live on £1000 a month but would sacrifice on the holidays, lose one of the cars and do without the leisure club sub and eat out less and cut our personal spends.  We have no need to do this though. 

Thanks for sharing. Is that £1,100 per month saved for holidays, cars, and house projects? Quite impressive.

Retired_Minky

Evan3020 said:

Wow, my monthly outgoings are £578 in total all household bills, insurance, running a decent car, spending money, etc, and i live really comfortably.

Are you able to share your budget breakdown. It might give me some inspiration. 

Retired_Minky

maxximus75 said:

You also mention your SO in several statements?  It doesn't seem that they are too flexible with change?  Maybe that's something to work on?

Yes. It's a partnership so I have to get them on board. They'll have their red lines that they're not willing to cross. Likewise I'll have mine. We've both made some compromises hence budget v2. I think we work together well. We don't argue over money. Just negotiate and make it clear what can and can't be changed.