To ask if you can live on £500 a month?

[calliiee]

No housing costs but council tax, electricity and gas and insurance, phone, Internet and groceries. Is it doable?

[Manumission]

How many people?

[whatishappeningo]

Is that just for yourself, any children?

[Suppermummy02]

If your single, yes.

[Feckerlino]

Nope. Childcare alone costs me £570 a month.

[MillionToOneChances]

Depends how big the home is, so how high the bills are. Transport etc...

[Manumission]

Just for one, or maybe a couple, in a small modern flat, say, I'd think it's just about doable with extreme discipline and concentration. It would be a frugal, no-frills life though.

What's the situation? Would it be long term?

[Feckerlino]

In all seriousness though, it depends. If you are single, live in a small house (minimal heating, low council tax), don't need to use much fuel for commuting etc, it may be doable but difficult imo - wouldnt allow anything extra for emergencies

[AndNowItsSeven]

As a single person yes a couple at a push.

[MatildaTheCat]

It might help if you gave a breakdown of the actual costs of those bills and whether you would be solely responsible for them. And how many people?

[specialsubject]

Without a car and with care - shopping around, no clothes buying except to replace, no presents given or received, low council tax - should be possible for one.

[TaterTots]

If the housing costs are covered then yes, it's doable. Not desirable, but doable.

[Mabelface]

I do it and it's horrible.

[MairyHoles]

A single person on Jobseeker's Allowance gets £73.10 per week (and may have to contribute to rent and council tax) so it's doable but not easy and most likely quite stressful.

[FairyDogMother11]

My partner and I have these outgoings and it's just us and a dog:
£125: Council tax
£100: Gas and electric
£29.99: Phone and Internet
£250 (depending on toiletries and cleaning products, which I don't buy every week)

That's not including our home insurance, life insurance, pet insurance, water bills...we probably do go a bit over board on shopping but we like nice food and we can afford it. I'm really not sure if there was more of us we could live on less than we do apart from the food bill though; we don't have anything like Sky (just Netflix but I pay for that out of "my" money, not joint money).

[nancy75]

My council tax alone is £147, with my bills as they are at the moment we would have £50 a month for food, for me the answer is no

[mumonashoestring]

We'd struggle to and that's with one DC in a small 2-bed house - as previous posters have said it depends whether you're single, what council tax band you'd be in, whether you have shops nearby... It can even come down to how well insulated your home is, what phone contract you're on...

[FairyDogMother11]

I meant to say that's monthly!

[calliiee]

Sorry, I didn't give anything like enough info. One person and one baby.

[Andbabymakesthree]

Depends on context.

[Manumission]

Does the £500 include child benefit and tax credits?

[Manumission]

Are you hoping to go PT after ML? Something like that?

[calliiee]

Yes. The exact amount is £558

[calliiee]

X post sorry - 'yes' to including CB.

[Piehunter]

£100 council tax (I'm assuming 1/2 bed house) £75 gas and electric, Internet and home phone £20, £10 top up for phone (get a bundle), contents insurance £7 a month.. Groceries for a couple we've done £50 a month in the past when things were very tough. It's doable, you need to have a budget in place and only spend what's in it, keep a record of all spending. In the past 2 of us have lived on £1,000 a month with rent of 475, we both have cars to run too (approx £200 a month in essential fuel) it was very very tight and horrible but we did it for 3 months before we got housing benefit sorted (I'm disabled so we were entitled when others wouldn't be).

[Matchingbluesocks]

No. Well, you wouldn't die on it but it would be miserable, unrealistic and unsustainable in the medium to long term