Is £300 enough to live on for a month?

ARN92_

Hi.

I am looking at getting rid of my final debt of £500. This will leave me with £300 to spend, does this cover me for the rest of the month baring in mind I have few hobbies such as theatre and the cinema and paying for dog treats, snacks, takeaways. 

elsien

If it’s just for social activities, then of course it’s plenty. Just don’t go to the cinema or the theatre this month.
If you’re paying bills, food petrol et cetera out of it, then that’s a different discussion.

All the expenses you are talking about our optional ones. Takeaways are not an essential requirement, so basically it comes down to how badly you want to get rid of your debt in one go. 

ARN92_

Yeah. This is all after bills, not that I have much bills since that I am living with parents and only pay them £100 towards the rent. But yeah, takeaways are a waste of money half the time.

I want to get rid of it so much so that I can use the money at the end of September on payday on whatever I want without worrying.

theoretica

A lot of people have far less than that to spend - so the question is how you feel about your own spending. Look what's coming up in the cinema/theatre - anything you really really want to see and not postpone until your next paycheque - how much will the tickets be?

ARN92_

theoretica said:

A lot of people have far less than that to spend - so the question is how you feel about your own spending. Look what's coming up in the cinema/theatre - anything you really really want to see and not postpone until your next paycheque - how much will the tickets be?

£3 tickets this weekend for national cinema day, and £24 for theatre tickets

beanielou

ARN92_ said:

Hi.

I am looking at getting rid of my final debt of £500. This will leave me with £300 to spend, does this cover me for the rest of the month baring in mind I have few hobbies such as theatre and the cinema and paying for dog treats, snacks, takeaways. 

That is £100 for theatre, 
            £100 for cinema
            £100 for snacks & takeaways.
For one month that is a lot!

ARN92_

Thanks - was getting worried in case I’d be skint by day 28th of September (before payday) despite just getting paid

fatbelly

Once that debt is out of the way, what about getting into the habit of saving?

There are some decent rates around now. For instance if you have a lloyds club current account you can get 6.25% on anything up to £400 per month.

Better to make them pay you interest rather than the other way around

[Deleted User]

I am in my first year of full retirement after being semi-retired for 6 years. Until next July I will only have my occupational pension and a small annuity for income. Fortunately both are sufficient for my needs.

However, to answer your question I allow myself £228 a month for personal spends. This includes haircuts, eating out, books and magazines, £10 a month on the lottery and a few miscellaneous items.
This amount comes after all bills, savings and a monthly amount sent to my S&S ISA.

Everything not mentioned in personal spends has its own budget and pot. That way I never have to worry about the money being there when needed.

I do not have debt and own my own house. I also do not smoke or drink alcohol.

I strongly recommend that once out of debt you create a realistic budget for yourself that covers bills, personal spends and some savings. This will help you stay out of debt and eventually allow you to set up on your own.

Paying only a £100 rent to your parents is protecting you from the true cost of living at the moment.

Well done on paying off your debts and best wishes with future plans.

If interested you can read more about how I and some others do things here;
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6461984/the-senior-wonder-years/p1

In some  parts of this forum you will find many examples of people managing to live full lives on a low income or who have successfully paid off debt.
In most cases good budgeting is the key.

gwynlas

When I had a lean month I would set myself a daily allowance for example £5 and if I spent less han this would carry over extra to the following day. If I did not stick to this I could run out of money before I ran out of month. It really makes you think when shopping or thinking of a take away. Even at todays prices you could just have a portion of chips or a burger rather than both.

enthusiasticsaver

I have £300 personal spends each month as does my husband. This is separate from bills, food, fuel, etc so purely for hobbies and personal items like haircuts, nails and clothes etc. I also pay for my walking holidays out of there and save about £50 a month for things like new phones, iPad etc so I would say £300 is plenty even with theatre trips, etc. hHowever if you go to the theatre every week and eat out a lot it may be gone but those are not essentials. If I had debt I would want rid of it. Are you paying interest? Why not pay £250 off now and then if you still have some money left mid month pay the rest off then?