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

You have much more then most people do after bills currently we are a one income house and have rent and food to pay 2 adults and have a he'll of a lot less then that left wow

I survive on 1,200 a mth give or take total and that has to cover rent bills AND food for two so you're going to be fine x

I think it's doable but there won't be much fun money after weekly food costs.

About £200 each?

personally didnt find surveys worth the effort. I do use microsoft rewards - few minutes a day gets you £5 shopping vouchers roughly every 3 months. If I used the app or made it my default search it would be faster but mine go to charity so I dont. There are referral codes but I dont do that either. Reddit even has threads about earning more points, mostly by gaming. www.reddit.com/r/MicrosoftRewards/comments/1wnzyrt/how_do_you_guys_earn_insane_amounts_of_points_per/

Child benefit pays for birthday and Christmas gifts for DC, including gifts for their friends, any school related expenses and days out etc. I do all of our hair, DP and I don't really do gifts between ourselves, and our hobbies are things like walking, foraging and allotment gardening, so very cheap. I suppose we're frugal by many's standards. We've been lucky with dental expenses, but when I recently needed a treatment in addition to our regular checkup, I did use our savings to pay for it. Ditto when a frequently used power tool needed replacing. Other tools and appliances we can borrow from our local 'Library of Things' as required.

@OhFuckety I wasn't surprised when I read your update ❤️ DP is similar, having grown up with poverty and neglect.

So these expenses don’t come out of the £500 you mentioned earlier?

We put CB aside each month for DC related expenses, as detailed above, so I treat that as separate from our household income as it only goes on them. I mention £1000, so two lots of £500 -are you referring to the £500 we spend or the £500 we save? We try not to touch the savings if we can help it -the £500 for spending can usually be stretched to cover most things. One savings bond matured recently and paid out £1800 in interest -we chose not to put it away again, we knew it was coming so earmarked it for a home improvement / repair.

Join the mse frugal boards. £1000 a minth after bills with no transport or home diy costs would be a dream for many. Plan your meala for week and only buy what you need - I spend a lot less doing click and collect or delivery. You mention clothes wear what you have, or sell and buy on vinted. We have a holiday booked in october I haven't spent a penny for me and my son I just bought a few things using my sales balance on Vinted.

We have less than that to spend for a family of 4. We budget carefully and manage.

This is taking the piss, I only have £300 spare for food for two people after all DD have gone out

That’s plenty, we are a family of 5 and spend around £120 a week on shopping from Aldi. That includes cleaning products and basic toiletries, shampoo shower gel etc. Plus food for two pets. We don’t budget that’s just what I spend but I do cook a lot from scratch.

your shopping sounds very high for two people from Aldi. Is there a lot of alcohol?

you can get much cheaper glasses online, mine cost about £60 for two pair. I know what shape suits me so it’s fine

Yes you are a twat.
You buy cheaper stuff. There are 2 of us and £1000 after bills would be amazing. There is nothing wrong with toiletries from Aldi or Home Bargains. ASDA has some great deals on 3 for £12 meats. Just use your head

A word of caution if you have a glasses prescription that is not completely run of the mill. Online retailers are cheaper for a reason and many prescriptions need measuring properly in order to be fully effective/not give you headaches/double vision.

perfectly doable. I do a bi- monthly Aldi & B&M shop (toilet rolls, cleaning products, tea bags, pasta, biscuits etc). Iceland for tins (beans/juice/cereal there are always deals on). I shop twice a week at local butcher for top quality meat, once a week M&S for meal deals, I use just eat whatever days they’re doing half price fruit & veg every week & with the savings from this I add pasta sauce, cheese & anything else I fancy. We never eat freezer food either so that doesn’t cost anything. I’m lucky if I spend £400 a month & we eat very well

If that amount left over will have to include her food shop, then yes, she has every right to be concerned.

I have £600 left after bills and food and my DH probably has around £1,500 - and we have to be extremely careful.

It’s not though - what about emergencies, like a car needs expensive repairs? That can easily take £500 of that.

Funnily enough our household of 2 is basically like this now. I had to take a lower paid job last year.

Having never had to really think about money, it is a shock to have to.

£1k per month is fine if nothing happens - but there is always something, isn't there.

If it's not the car, it's the dentist or some white goods or Christmas. or DD at Uni

I have savings, from before, but we don't seem to be able to top them up.

Yes, I appreciate plenty of people survive on less - but at 55 with most of my career behind me it is a bit of a downer.

£150 a week on food should be more than enough, there is plenty of meals that cost pennies if needed, ie beans on toast, jacket potatoes, pasta with sauce. That still leaves you £400 for non essentials, your in a better position than most even if you consider it hard for a few months. Just decide what you really need and what you can do without for a bit

You must go through a lot of toiletries.

Totally ' doable' ...wish we had this much left over every month . Blimey !!

Cut down on the food shopping, cut out some unnecessary things and save what you have left at the end of the month.

MSE has a great budget planner where you can record your monthly income and expenses, and it also prompts for things like gifts, dentist, doctor, annual expenses etc. It will then show you how much you need each month.

I have £400 after bills if I'm lucky. I'm a single parent with 2 kids. We manage and you seem very out of touch and entitled.

You’ve come on a forum called mumsnet to whine about only having £1000 a month for 2 people to live on once your bills are paid when there are families with children struggling to even pay the essential bills.
Delete this post, you’re making a show of yourself.

I don't think you're being unreasonable to ask but you don't need to panic. We had a similar shift (losing £600 per month) and the difference was going from our budgets working but having the spare cash to deal with the incidentals and some left over for treats, to having to budget for everything very carefully, having no wiggle room and really struggling with the incidentals.

My advice is have as many small budgets as you can (for clothes, gifts, pocket money, bills etc) then, whatever you budget for food, knock £100 off and put that aside for the incidentals so that you have spare cash for the stuff you can't foresee that crops up every month...

Last month, our housekeeping budget got ripped to shreds by:

• NHS certificate £32
• NHS certificate £32
• weed killer £30
• suit dry clean £26
• repair on the washing machine £60
• shoes needed reheeling £15
• a bunch of bulbs went at the same time £10

That was £200 out of our £600 "housekeeping" budget, leaving us just £400 for food, toiletries, cleaning products etc for the month.

The month before it was dental work, a tile needed repairing on the roof and the gutters had a clean out.

The month before that it was buying a fan and the boiler service.

I feel every month is the same. There's always something and it adds up so quickly.

So call it £600 a month groceries (this is still a generous budget for 2 people), save £200 for rainy day expenses, and you still have £200 a month left over for "whatever"... you're absolutely fine.