A grand a month- reasonable?

[NellieBee]

Hi MNers,

We've made a plan with our finances which, for the next 2 years, will leave us with exactly £1,000 a month leftover. (This is after following all advice on here to get utilities cheapest they can be, etc).

Can we cope on this? I know families manage on less but I am feeling quite anxious about it.

We are a family of 4.

It will need to cover:

-All food
-School lunches
-Petrol (this is about 2-300 a month)
-Clothes
-Birthdays
-Christmas
-Pets (guinea pigs and cats)
-After school clubs
-Any extras

All advice appreciated, thank you.

You are going to get a whole load of abuse from people saying that most folk have less than that to pay for everything etc... just ignore it.

I’d find £1000 a month for all of that hard to manage, but possible. You just need to change your expectations and manage your food budget really well. You will be able to do it; it just might feel a bit rubbish during Xmas.

It depends. Does 'extras' include holiday trips, any unexpected white good replacements, savings against job loss/sickness?

Does the money you've allocated for your rent/mortgage allow for increases (whether in rent or interest rates)?

2-300 a month for petrol is a vastly ambiguous figure. It could mean the difference between managing and not managing. Could you not, say, put aside £250 per month for Petrol into an account so that if you don't use it all one month the money is still there for another month when you use £300 worth?

My immediate response is ‘yeah of course that’s doable’ but I’ve just added up what we spend on all those things and it’s significantly more than that.
What does ‘extras’ include? How much do you spend on after school clubs etc? Swimming lessons for my 2 is £100 per month.
Do you meal plan?

If you are spending between £2,400 and £3,600 per year on petrol, surely there must be scope for cutting down on your travel?

Agree your petrol bill is huge!

I try to do similar for s family of 3 and I find there's no room for extras!
Shopping at Aldi definitely helps. I use other funds for clothes and extras and keep to the grand for general expenses.

No, we can't cut down on petrol. We each work in opposite directions from home. The train would be double that!

Clubs are £50-100 each DC per term.

We won't be going on holiday during this time.

Christmas we expect to be a rather quiet affair this year!

It depends on your variables, and what standard of living you are looking to maintain.

What would come under ‘extras’? Holidays and days out, or ‘just’ emergency extras like white goods replacement or car servicing?

Are school lunches a set amount for meal at school, or costs for packed lunches? One is easier to budget for than the other...

I can’t manage on that amount for the list you have given. Spends on everyday stuff like school uniform and shoes really rack up my costs (2 teenagers growing like weeds, and one small child outgrowing shoes every time I blink!), so I’d look at the likihood of your costs remaining stable over 2 years as well - 3 years ago my clothing budget for dc was waaaay smaller than it is now, because they weren’t growing at such a rate. Food costs have also gone up as they are eating g lots more.

Your petrol bill sounds reasonable to me, but then mine is extortionate due to complicated school run logistics!

I think that's not enough. School lunches alone are going to be about £40 per month and you are not considering how exprnsove Christmas will be. It also doesn't allow for any unexpected spending, like the washing machine breaking.
I think you need to sub divide it into specific spending for each category. Definitely put money aside for Christmas and emergencies.

Does this include day to day / discretionary spending for you and your dh? E.g parking, coffee, magazine?

Also a family of 4 here, I think we manage on about the same amount, although our petrol bill is substantially less we also have bus fares to factor in. We don't have pets either.

I save at least £50 towards Christmas every month of the year and plan meticulously for it. I'm thinking about doing the same or similar for birthdays next year. We rarely buy new clothes for ourselves, our dc are still at the point of growing out of things regularly but we spend minimally on this and pass things around the extended family which reduces costs.

We allow ourselves a very small amount of 'pocket money' which also comes out of this. Basically we have enough to ensure everyone's needs are met but there is no capacity for a random splurge on an expensive something. Any purchase over about a tenner needs to be budgeted in to a subsequent month rather than just gone ahead with at the time. It's whether you think you can live like this?

If petrol is £400 a month that leaves you £150 a week.

I think it doable just.

Is it completely impractical for one of you to give up a vehicle and join a share-a-car service/arrangement or use a bicycle/moped? That is a lot of fuel to service.

A lot will depend on the age of your children because there are times when you could cry with the constant necessity to buy shoes/gym shoes.

It's possible to get the food bill down to a very modest amount and eat very well however it can take a lot of planning. When you're going to be living a very pared down life (with negligible alcohol consumption) you need food to be enjoyable rather than something to be endured and the children might need to get involved (if possible) so they don't miss the types of food many of their school friends might be eating. (Again, a lot depends on their ages.)

You can do it but it will be very miserable. I don't know what the 'plan ' is for but I would sacrifice 2 years of my children's lives living with the absolute basics to save up for something else.

Not that long ago, my commuting costs were £60 a week in fuel and £15 to park the car. £75 a week. No option to get the train as I had kids to pick up and drop off and train times didn't work for that.

That's £300 in a 4 week month and £375 in a 5 week month, so I can see how the OP has a range.

Is there any way either / both of you could work from home regularly (once a week perhaps) to get the fuel bill down (appreciate this depends on your job)? That’s a huge amount and leaves you quite vulnerable to petrol price rises.

Loyalty card points (Tesco/ nectar) can be a good way to have occasional treats when on a tight budget (eg use them for a meal out/ cinema etc)

I would say it might be doable without including bdays and Xmas. But very tight.

can you get rid of the car and use public transport/walking?

It’s going to be tight. Definitely save £60 per month for Xmas and birthdays.

Get your fuel from Tesco and get a club card

Should be doable food if planned properly should be between 200-300 per month and fuel leaves you 400 at least for everything else.

after all, the car won't just be costing you petrol, it will also be costing you insurance and maintenance, won't it

It depends on the objective and if white goods/boilers/cars etc are relatively new and accpunted for separately. Have you included everything, including phones, broadband, occasional cinema trip, haircuts, etc.

If it's to clear debt under a formal mgt plan then it's doable but will be very hard but it's what people on low incomes have to do all the time. If it is save up for a house deposit or similar I think there needs to be aittle more fun money, especially for school age children

The 2 year (well 26 months actually) plan is to get us debt free.

No we can't work from home (both work in schools- OH travels to different schools across the county so petrol can be varied from one month to the next, hence why I said £2-300) and no we can't lift share etc due to taking the DC to 2 different schools on the way.

Big emergencies would have to go on a credit card.

DC have mix of school lunches and packed lunches.

Car costs seem very high - ride sharing, biking, public transport (buses)?
With fuel, insurance, tax and maintenance the car seems to eat up way too much of your budget, IMO.

Do you have any savings? My worry would be not so much the day to day stuff but what happens when you need to repair the boiler or the car breaks down, etc. You don't seem to have much wiggle room in there at all.