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

michaels

Petriix said:

100 miles per day is around 30kWh in most EVs. With that kind of usage you should have been on Octopus Go and charging overnight at 5p/kWh so £45 per month. £100 per month on top of that is pretty high, but not beyond reason. I'd definitely suggest switching to Go and shifting as much of your usage as possible to the cheap overnight rate: washing, dryer, dishwasher etc. Also try turning the default heating temperature down by a degree and wear a jumper in the winter.

With the groceries: just start by working out the things that you actually need and try to limit the spending on luxuries and convenience food. Fresh vegetables cost next to nothing and, with rice, pasta, potatoes etc. should form the bulk of your meals. Meat and fish can be expensive so consider reducing how much you eat, looking for deals and alernating with other protein sources like lentils, nuts, beans etc.. Things that go in the oven or microwave from a packet cost vastly more than a home cooked equivalent. Think jacket potato with tuna mayo and home made coleslaw rather than microwave lasagne. Try to avoid snacks from a packet etc.

We use 150 pm in energy split between gas and leccy, some people must live in cold, dark houses.

I find fresh fruit and veg are the most expensive part of our diet

afis1904

The main thing that strikes me here is the high water cost. I barely use £40 per quarter with two people

Fighter1986

So the groceries are easily double what they need to be. OH and I eat very, very well and we do it on a quarter of that.

Entertainment subscriptions are excessive, too. Absolutely superfluous to requirements. 

When I was living alone and training very hard I managed to compose myself a near 4000 calorie per day diet of clean, fresh macros on £40 a week. 

LittleVoice

Fighter1986 said:

So the groceries are easily double what they need to be. OH and I eat very, very well and we do it on a quarter of that.

Entertainment subscriptions are excessive, too. Absolutely superfluous to requirements. 

When I was living alone and training very hard I managed to compose myself a near 4000 calorie per day diet of clean, fresh macros on £40 a week. 

£40/week for one person equals £693/month for 4 (though I realise you wouldn't expect the members of the household to require all those calories as in your diet).  Groceries would, in my view, include more than just food.

LittleVoice

afis1904 said:

The main thing that strikes me here is the high water cost. I barely use £40 per quarter with two people

I live alone in Band E house and pay £46 in the months when (unmetered) water charges are taken from my account.   (I know there would likely be a saving sometimes if I had a meter installed but, for the time being, prefer the certainty of the current arrangements.)

will-he-payitoff

Little Voice, you pay more than we do in a household of 4, when I was living alone I paid £13 per month. Both on meters, I would get a meter installed. I can remember going from a 3 bed house with no meter to a 4 bed with meter installed and dreading the first bill coming. Great suprise when it was about half of what we were previously paying.

Fighter1986

LittleVoice said:

Fighter1986 said:

So the groceries are easily double what they need to be. OH and I eat very, very well and we do it on a quarter of that.

Entertainment subscriptions are excessive, too. Absolutely superfluous to requirements. 

When I was living alone and training very hard I managed to compose myself a near 4000 calorie per day diet of clean, fresh macros on £40 a week. 

£40/week for one person equals £693/month for 4 (though I realise you wouldn't expect the members of the household to require all those calories as in your diet).  Groceries would, in my view, include more than just food.

True enough but shared meals don't cost as much per head as individual meals. 

Emily_Joy

True enough but shared meals don't cost as much per head as individual meals. 

Especially when you take into account cooking time & energy consumption!

schiff

afis1904 said:

The main thing that strikes me here is the high water cost. I barely use £40 per quarter with two people

I'm amazed at that. I live on my own and operate stringent water saving usages but my bill (on a meter) is £16pm. I suppose I could flush the toilet once a week to save more?

schiff

Fighter1986 said:

LittleVoice said:

Fighter1986 said:

So the groceries are easily double what they need to be. OH and I eat very, very well and we do it on a quarter of that.

Entertainment subscriptions are excessive, too. Absolutely superfluous to requirements. 

When I was living alone and training very hard I managed to compose myself a near 4000 calorie per day diet of clean, fresh macros on £40 a week. 

£40/week for one person equals £693/month for 4 (though I realise you wouldn't expect the members of the household to require all those calories as in your diet).  Groceries would, in my view, include more than just food.

True enough but shared meals don't cost as much per head as individual meals. 

Except when the household consists of vegans, vegetarians AND meat eaters!