Living on 1k a month advice please

[Debtgalore]

Hi MNers, long term poster but name changed as embarrassed.

Due to corona we've had a massive drop in income. We're still very lucky that we have £1,000 a month to live on (but that's significantly less than we're used to). Can we have any advice on how to make it stretch? There's two of us, two 10 year olds and a dog. It'll need to cover all food, petrol for 2 cars (we commute in opposite directions) and everything else.

Using the MSE boards we've made a budget for all our bills, switched energy suppliers, cancelled Sky, etc etc. The thousand is what's left over.

We sometimes shop at Aldi but will do this as our main shop now.

All help appreciated, I'm worried it won't go as far as we need.

Thank you,

If it doesn’t include rent/mortgage or bills then you are laughing OP.

We have a less than half of that each month after rent and bills and do okay.

We have no luxuries at all, very frugal food shopping (Meal plan, no treats, cheapest food we can find, veg from market stalls) no haircuts or new clothes for us, kids clothes from eBay only when desperate and never go out but that’s just life.

It's worth looking for the cheapest petrol, I'm finding Morrisons is low at the moment, so I fill up after shopping each week. Meal planning - I have saved a lot as I can't do the endless top up shops any more.

I've also noticed savings due to lock down - no more bought lunches if I haven't been organised with packed lunch, no meals out, no take aways.

10 year olds grow fast - either buy quality clothing and sell on, or second hand / cheaper clothing.

I earn that a month and have to use it for mortgage bills and food sorry no advice op!

@Rayn

250 a week is manageable but no fun. Do this include money for Christmas, emergencies or is that budgeted for elsewhere? If you have to budget for Christmas, birthdays, haircuts, travel, dentist , prescriptions then it is not a lot of money.

Yes, it includes Christmas etc and all the things you've listed.

It's a big lifestyle change for us- sorry to all the people that offends.

250 a week is manageable but no fun

We have less than this right now and it's fine. There's plenty of fun. We can afford the odd takeaway and do plenty of leisure activities.

How is anyone going to be able to help you when you've given no detail at all on what the £1000 has to cover?

@lifesalongsong

How is anyone going to be able to help you when you've given no detail at all on what the £1000 has to cover?

This. What is the £1000 covering?

Did I read it correctly that you mean you'll have £1000 left after bills have been paid. And this would be 'spending money' for fun stuff like days out / takeaways?

If so, I think you'll manage just fine. It's not like there are many opportunities to spend money at the moment anyway.

If I've misunderstood, give us an idea of what you need to cover with the £1000.

If it is £1000 a month then it works out at about £230 a week which if it has to cover food, petrol, haircuts, dentist, prescriptions, school lunches, birthday, christmas, travel and any other bits that come up then it is not a huge amount to be honest. It is doable but I wouldn't want to be that close to the wire long term.

It depends a lot on your lifestyle OP and what your used to. Me and my husband had a situation like this but he found a job after a few months. Is this likely to be long term?

As per PP, we used to split the budget up each week into categories and then kept a spreadsheet every time we went to the shops.

So each week set aside for Petrol, food, hair, school costs, dog costs and savings to include Christmas unexpected vet and car bills. Etc Also went vegetarian as when I looked our biggest outgoings were supermarket shops.

Have you anything you can sell on eBay, Depop?

Make sure you make weekly food meal plans as that saves a lot of food waste and money.

Make the most of the good weather and take kids to outdoor free places like playgrounds

Have a few months off alcohol- that can save a lot!

Although it seems a lot of money if it’s a big reduction of course it’s going to take time to get used to having less spare cash

Meal planning for us has easily saved £100-£200 a month from just 'popping' into the shops! One big shop once a week since COVID and we've really noticed the difference. Bulk buy the snacks and use own brand where you can. There will be some you don't like (Heinz baked beans are the only beans my one year old eats!) but it's worth a try. Cheap snacks like homemade pancakes, flapjacks or smoothies with frozen fruit.

For more/better advice, you need to specify how long this situation is going to on for. Is it a permanent thing or just a temporary 'shock'?

Do you mean that the £1000 is your disposable income? i.e. after all your regular/fixed bills? What, exactly, has to come out of that? Do you have any savings? Do you have a mortgage?

If you're both still commuting that would suggest that you're both still working, so how come your income has dropped so much?

And of course there are MNetters who are on higher incomes. But you also must realise that your OP was a tad insensitive given the financial difficulties of lots of people right now - who would give their right arm for 'only' £1000 a month.

What EXACTLY does it need to cover? Your OP isn't that clear, I'm afraid.

@Rayn

250 a week is manageable but no fun. Do this include money for Christmas, emergencies or is that budgeted for elsewhere? If you have to budget for Christmas, birthdays, haircuts, travel, dentist , prescriptions then it is not a lot of money.

We have less than this and manage to have fun thanks

How much is your rent?
My biggest saver is meal planning. Also buying frozen veg.
Your DCs - don’t buy clothes unless really need them and then go somewhere like ASDA.
Do free days out eg. to the beach
Maybe see how much a bus/train pass would be and see if it works out cheaper to do this and have only one car.

Tracking Ingoings and outgoings - I live on less that this but there are only 2 of us but it is possible as it’s surprising how much money you waste when you don’t track it.

Still don't know if op has to pay bills and housing out of this

I said in the OP it's leftover AFTER bills. So housing and bills are paid and there's a thousand left.

So is the grand a month purely for shopping/fuel/leisure?

If so, start shopping at cheaper supermarkets, meal plan, shop with a list and stick to it. No meals out, maybe a takeaway is budget allows? Work our how much you need to spend on fuel and remove that amount straight away. Start shopping round for any pending birthday/Christmas gifts, pick things up as you see them if it’s a good deal.

If your used to the high life and spending what you want when you want, that is what you will have to change, you’ll need to become much more organised and plan your spending.

... and your answers to the other questions?

£1000 after all bills is actually pretty good - so at the end of the year £12,000 savings. YOu could then overpay mortgage etc or buy any large items you need.

I am assuming you have cut costs back already. If you want to save more could either/both of you cycle/walk to work or car share with another person going in the same direction (masks/visors).

How much do you spend on petrol each week? And how much is your normal food shop?

£1000 left over is more than enough for food, petrol and extra bits on the side. You’ll be surprised how much you save by planning your meals and then writing your shopping list. There are good websites that helps you mean plan like - how to feed your family on £25 a week.

Cut out all adult activities and alcohol, you will have enough to entertain the children. It’s not super tight but if you are used to £100 hair cuts and £150 days trips, dinners out it will be a shift.

I'd recommend using Monzo or similar to split spends into specific categories (food shopping, kids clothes, days out etc) and when the money from that category is gone then that's it. It's helpful as you can see you have £x available to last x number of days for each category. Also I also second meal planning.

The spiteful comments on MN threads when someone has a household income higher than £12k and dares to suggest they might struggle is ridiculous. £1k a month after bills is a lot to some, not so much to others (personally I don't think it's a lot) It depends on lifestyle, where you live, family size etc. OP has two children approaching their teens and who knows what else to contend with.