Monthly Household Budget

cf83

Hi,

I'm looking for some advice/views and hopefully this is the most appropriate section to post. I've been looking at our household incomings and outgoings per month and looking to be a wee bit more organised with our spending. We need a new car and I'm unsure how far to stretch. My wife is a bit more cautious than I am so we're undecided.

After all bills and savings are accounted for, including the new car budget that I'm keen on, we'll have £2000 left to spend on doing things such as going out, new clothes, unforeseen expenses etc. We have quite a bit of money already in savings.

In short, do you consider this amount being left after all our commitments to be a healthy figure? Genuinely interested in your take on this.

sausage_time

There's no one size fits all, so I don't think you will get a single coherent response.  

Can you analyse what you actually spent on "going out, new clothes, unforeseen expenses etc" over the past year or so?  Is that typical?  Would that include car payments/expenses?  Any scope for reducing?  Any surprises? 

My big ticket  "out of the ordinary" items tend to be holidays, car repairs (almost £1000 damage due to a pot hole recently!), and major DIY projects.  If I was trying to save I'd ease back on holidays and push home improvement projects out.

daveyjp

If all your unavoidable costs (housing etc) and priority costs (pension, savings) are at a healthy level what you do with the rest is up to you.

Your post comes across that you may be considering borrowing to fund a vehicle.  Only do this if it is cheaper than using savings.  You can repay the savings from your £2,000.

elsien

Your £2000 surplus is my monthly take home pay, so from from my perspective absolutely you’ve got plenty of legroom.