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.

Yes we manage on just over that. Prob nearer 1200. 5 of us and pets.

Ooh, Costco. I've never been before!

In my village there is a bus 3 times a week, I always laugh at the you don’t need a car you can use public transport comments

Just placemarking x

Live as if you were working on 24 months, put the difference between 24 and 36 months into savings for contingencies. Put that difference back into the debt every 6 months, if not needed.

Ignore the poeple who have public transport at a click of a finger. I have buses i could only have dreamed of in my last house and still spend ages in bus stops twiddling my thumbs.

Regularly declutter old stuff and sell via car bootsales etc and keep the cash for emergencies. My sil cleared her house of clutter and did a car bootsale and made £200. Not bad for a few hours of work in the morning. Try and sell old stuff regularly and keep the cash for emergencies or buy supermarket vouchers with it to put towards your Christmas food shop.

Yes, this is our self imposed timeline so it's not the end of the world if something comes up and it takes longer, or if we realise in a month or two it's not sustainable and need to extend.

That's a very sensible approach to take. I look forward to your updates.

Once again, good luck.

Costco? You’ll need a car 😂 🚗

buying supermarket vouchers is a bad idea - risk of loss and ties you to one shop. put the money in the bank..

Claire

I could technically manage without car but it takes me 32 minutes to drive to work 18 miles away across country so to be at work for 9am i leave about 8.20 as we live rurally DD gets school bus

I can get to work on public transport, I need to catch the 7.08 bus to town 8 miles away then 8.05 train for 3 stops get off, catch another train for 3 stops and I would at work 4 minutes late every day, the public transport journey is not direct and is about 28 miles however DD is 8 so she would need child minding from 7am to 8.15 however the only childminder in village only takes children from 8am_6pm so it just won't work.
lots of people when they lose driving licence though ill health etc find themselves isolated and unable to do somethings they could do before for some it means they lose their job

Public transport often works quite well if you need to get to nearest town /city it works much less well if you need to get to village 8 miles away to west of town it almost certainly means going into town and back out again

to use an example if you live in Dudley and work in wolverhampton you have a lot of transport options if you work in wombourne almost the same distance from Dudley but technically in another county your options are more restricted to say the least but it is still possible however living in wombourne and needing to get to claverley daily it would be a struggle

specialsubject I always buy a few quid in Christmas savings stamps each week, works for me but everyone is different I suppose.

it works but it really is a bad use of money. even at the moment you can get a little interest on it. or buy premium bonds where there is a tiny chance of a win and you can get the money back.

Some supermarket savings schemes pay a bonus so the absolute moneysavvy thing to do would be to put the money in a savings account all year and just before the bonus day, take the money out and buy the savings stamps and get the bonus.

But need to check that you will spend the money in that particular supermarket by any particular deadline or else you find yourself spending the money on nothing to use the stamps.

Also savings stamps can be lost or stolen so you have to be confident you're not the type of person who puts things away safely and can't remember where you put them.

Off to Costco in the morning- what should I buy?!

It gives you next to no money for general spending though - a pub meal for four could easily be £50, trip to the cinema similar - odd night out etc... I know these things aren't essential but it does make life a bit dull when you can't ever have the odd treat