To ask how much you spend per month?

[Revupk]

On the basis that people are more likely to be open on an anonymous forum? To make it comparable, lets exclude mortgage/rent and childcare costs as these can vary significantly.

We spend 2800 pcm on average two of us and two DCs. This includes everything - insurances, MOT, unanticipated costs, hols, christmas spending etc.

Wow that is a lot! More like £1,000 - £1,250 here (excluding rent).

Should have added we live in London to put things in perspective. Also includes travel costs etc. (I know Im beginning to sound defensive.....)

direct debit bill are about £2000 all in (inc mortgage & insurances and whatnot)

food is about £180 a week
petrol is about £70 a week

rent £695
council tax £120
other bills roughly £400
food £400
school dinners £80
random £200 ish depending on month

About £3000 all in - rent (London), full time childcare (1xDS), monthly trvlecards, water gas and elec, sky, broadband, two mobiles, charity payments, food Inc lunches, insurance.

Eek.

Rent £575
Car payment £350
Car service fund £42
Sky TV/phone/broadband £65
Mobiles £25
Fuel £200
Groceries £200
Gas/electric direct debit £86
Home insurance £6
Credit cards £30
Water £27
TV licence £12
Council tax £130

Which reminds me, I must pay the credit card...

Excluding rent and childcare
Utilities - 160
Council tax - 120
food shop - 200
Vehicle costs - 250
Phones and internet - 60
debts - 150
sundries (contacts, lovefilm etc) - 20
We are left with a very little over and above this, but enough.

God I didn't read your OP properly

Excluding rent and CM, £850.

excluding mortgage and school fees: Approximately £5k per month and that included: council tax, car insurance, car tax, petrol, hour insurance, water rates, health insurance, christmas, supermarket, holiday, clothes, hair, dc's clothes, general maintenance and household, cleaning, dentist for 4, school lunches and fares, 2 school trips, singing lessons, going to work for me and DH, theatre x 6, meals out x 12, gas, electricity, life insurance, pension contributions. No mortgate but the school fees add another 2450 pcm. Below are my estimated costs and accept we do not need: health insurance, two cars, meals out and theatre trips and if push came to shove could have a cheaper holiday and spend less at the supermarket.

Council tax 1400 pa
Parking permits 600 pa
Car insurance 950 pa
Car tax 390 pa
Petrol 2000pa
Insurance house 1750
water rates c400
health insurance 3000
Christmas 1000
supermarket 10000
Holiday 5000
Clothes, hair 1500
dc clothes 700
general maintenance and household 6000
cleaning 2000
Dentist for 4 600
School ex's lunch and fares 1520
2 school trips 1500
singing lessons 855
Going to work 880
Going to work DH 3910
Theatre x 6 600
Meals out x 12 1200
Gas, Elec, 2000
Phone Contracts 1200
Life Insurance 1200
Pensions 8500

£3-500 on household bills
£80 on petrol (2 cars)

No rent or mortgage. Childcare is astronomical.

marriedinwhite how much do you guys earn in a year to be able to spend that much??!!

Excluding rent we spend about £650 for two adults and two DC/3DC on the weekends.

That's including bills. We live on a budget.

Excluding mortgage:

£1100 inc budgeting savings (for annual insurances etc) but not inc incidentals and random spending money.

Covers insurances, TV/phone/internet, food, fuel, pets, loan repayment, utilities.

Whoops petrol is our weekly price it's £160 per car there abouts (a tank of petrol a week)

Im surprised at how little you spend* (it may be a self selecting sample). Are you including eating out, hols, entertaining DCs etc?

• Marriedinwhite excluded of course!

Wow, (most of) you have cheap home insurance. Ours is more like 45pcm.

GeneralCustardsHardHat not that much for SW London where, relatively speaking, we live quite modestly - at the age of 50 I have just got my first ever brand new car - a Ford.

About 2.5k -2.8k, but that includes mortgage,council tax,electricity,food etc.

DH worked this out the other day - Think it is about £1700, excluding 'living' - so this is just bills, not food or petrol, or clothes etc. Some of that is debt though, which will be gone in th next few months bar one blooming loan which will take about 12 more years. Petrol is 'optional' at the moment as DH cycles to work , and DSs school is walking distance, but more than likely one of us will use the car. Food/supermarket 'stuff' is about £150 a week - seems a huge amount, but we pop in for bread/milk/bits and bobs and spend £20 here and there throughout the week!

marriedinwhite is that a yearly list or monthly?
10000 on supermarket???

£800 - 1k ish per month. Not including rent or child care. 2 Adults, 2DC

MIW - your post is interesting. I dont think we spend a lot either and we live in SW London as well. Excluding pensions, insurance, singing lessons, school trips, telephone contracts etc (all of which I realised I didnt include in my estimate), your monthly spend comes to c. £3600 - which isnt that far off from £2800 with two babies. Scary!

Btw - am Extremely impressed by the detail in your post.

About £4k a month. Food and utility bills account for most of that.

Pissesgliter, I think MIW's £10,000 is an annual figure for supermarket i.e. about £833 per month. Our spend is about £500 pcm - this is Tesco online shopping and includes top ups from Sainsbury, Waitrose, M&S, market, butches and fishmongers - so not the most extravagent shop. Excludes wine shopping