AIBU to worry that £1000 a month after bills is not enough?

If opticians and dental are a concern I think you'll find that a lot of people with less disposable income than you have already cut those....

Some people don't have all of these costs.

UC is £1600 per couple

£1000 after bills sounds grea, but when you think about it - it isn't just for food, it's for everything that isn't a monthly bill. Dentist, opticians, plumbing emergencies, car repairs, vet bills, holidays, travel to see family, petrol, clothes, home repairs, any home furniture/fixtures/fittings etc. Even annual costs like home insurance, car insurance etc. if they aren't included in the monthly figure. It could be tight tbh, I'd try and put a little bit in an emergency fund each month if you don't already have one.

agreed

I think it’s a bit tight but I also think you’re spending FAR too much on food and toiletries!

The problem with MN is that everyone is either a gazillionaire or existing on tuppence a week.

A drop in income is worrying for most people. You won’t be able to be as carefree as you are now, but with some planning I think you will manage. You seem to have a well laid out life and you know what you want/need. It’s good that you are considering the periodic expenses as these are where folks often fall down. Easy to look at monthly payments and think that those are all your bills and loads of people forget that Christmas comes around every December. MSE is a great resource and I hope your health is more manageable with less work.

Wow. How's that goady? £1k per month for everything beyond bills can be wiped out so easily.

£200 per month between 2 people isn't much fun for "whatever money"

You're being a twat

Goady as fuck.

You know why you posted this OP. As do most people reading this. Is your ego really that fragile???

It’s enough but if you have anything break you won’t have nice stuff that month. I don’t think I could cope with that little disposable income. Remember clothes etc will need to be added on. We have more than twice as much and I still do online surveys with ipsos and food tasting stuff to bump my fun money. We do have a holiday though- in school holidays.

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/budgeting1/work-out-your-budget/ Try this to be certain

I think you can still cut back on £150pw for two people on toiletries and food tbh. If you’re saying that doesn’t include alcohol, I don’t quite understand what you’re buying for two people?

If £150 pw is accurate that leaves you £400per month for ad hoc spend/savings/luxuries etc.

£4800 per year - do you think you can do all the extras you want (not need) for that? Peoples birthdays, christmases, holidays, MOT’s etc? I personally couldn’t. I would probably revise my food shop though at 150 without booze for two per week.

You will be able to save fine. We spend on average £100 per week for food and household stuff without budgeting - if we see something in the supermarket we want, we get it. £25 for fuel for the car, and £10 for dog food. We put on average £250 a month into savings and still go out once or twice a month.

If you can no longer work due to health reasons and are under pension age you should apply for PIP.
It's best to get help in how to do this effectively.
There's a lot of jargon involved.
Taking a common sense approach often fails.
Look up a support group for your health condition.

Such expert patients can often share tips on applying.
You need to cover your National Insurance anyway or there can be problems re pension.
All the best.

Yeah figured out the 3 month thing. Still think it's a cheek that us in England cough up for prescriptions ( well some of us) while everyone else gets them free

I'm glad I have the ability to do basic electrical repairs, plumbing etc as saving me coughing up £££ for tradesmen

I wouldn't buy dry clean only clothes because that's an expense and hassle we can all do without.

Not sure £32 worth of weedkiller is a necessity either unless you have a small holding. I bought a litre of industrial strength from Amazon for less than half that and have used about 10% of it on a lot of weeds.

It's every 3 months (so we only get 2 months off from paying it!) but between now and then, we have a long list of "incidentals"...

Two of the smoke alarms have just gone and the outside lights on the other side of the house seem to have an electrical issue so time to get the electrician out. And the gas fire needs replacing because, having paid for an engineer to come and fix it, it can't be fixed.

Yeah, dry cleaning is so expensive 😭 The other half wears a three-piece to work so it's another bill on rotation.

Oh like the prepayment thing. I thought was about a tenner a month. So your£32 isn't for every month then

However I'd cry at £26 to get a suit dry cleaned. Didn't realize it had gone up that much

Agree with others you're over-worrying. I really don't think you're at risk of being on the breadline.

I'm like you though...I have a hypothetical budget over a full year and not month to month so completely understand the optician and dentist thing. Would second Martin Lewis's MSE tool on this.

I would look at it as a bit of a challenge...cutting out a bottle of wine would be great healthwise. And you may get a bit of a kick out of seeing you've saved a tenner! Same with other habitual treat things. But just make sure it's a balance so you still enjoy life.

For example, DH needed my car today and I'd promised DS a trip to town for McDonald's. We got the bus there for a fiver and I made him walk back. So saved a fiver back and had a lovely long walk back and a chat in the sunshine, working off a bit of the McDs. Of course you could say we could have walked both ways but that would have been pushing it for a 12 year old who doesn't generally agree to a walk at the best of times!
Got a free coffee on the McDs app as well. Im really lucky that I dont really need to worry about the odd fiver and could easily afford a coffee but Ive become quite a geek about it and enjoy little savings like this.

Your DH should also look at switching offers for his current account...so easy and free money...again MSE is good for this.

Sure thing - it's where you pay a sum and then you can have as many prescriptions as you need within that 3 or 12 month period (rather than paying per prescription). If you need more than one prescription per month, it works out more cost effective.

Can I ask what an NHS certificate is?

She lives in a HA house so they are responsible for repairs and doesn't have a car

Isn't the UC threshold 2600 for a couple? You might be entitled to make a claim. It won't cover dentists or opticians as there's a threshold within UC but it's a small boost to income.

Ah I understand where you're coming from now. I did the homeless thing in my teens and 20 quid was a fortune and stretched quite a ways. We don't truly bury those feelings of having nothing. Yours has risen up and made you panic. But it's really not as bad as your brains trying to make you think. There are other ways to meet needs, they're just less convenient.

Give yourself a reset. Stay out of shops outside of shopping days as much as possible. Those little spends rack up. The panic will calm down.