To ask if you can live on £500 a month?

[calliiee]

No housing costs but council tax, electricity and gas and insurance, phone, Internet and groceries. Is it doable?

[MadJeffBarn]

For us council tax = 130
Gas/electric = 69
Water = 49
Phones = 70
Insurances = 25
Sky = 37.59
Then groceries out of what's left. If you're frugle £100 might be enough for the two of you, I earn about £1100 a month and pay all this and £400 rent (but we buy groceries out of weekly child benefit) xx

[noeffingidea]

Some people are listing sky and netflix as 'bills'. They are not, they are luxuries.
The OP needs to list essential bills that she has to pay - council tax, water rates, etc. which are non negotiable. Then things such as energy, phone and broadband which can be shopped around for to find the cheapest deal. Then groceries. Everything left over is for spending/saving for emergencies.

[Me2017]

(I don't mislead people. However I am happy to clarify that I have always worked time even when I had babies and I have been a single parent for 13 years (and yes when the babies were babies I was still married and worked full time from when they were 2 weeks old and paid a nanny). If my post implied I had been a single mother when I had a small baby that is wrong. I was 4 when we divorced but my point still holds. You can work full time when you have a baby. It's not easy. i was chasing home to get back for 6.30pm after a commute because of child care and I could not leave until whoever was looking after the baby arrived in the morning none of which is great for careers but yes it is true that my children's fahter also got home around 6 or 6.30pm at least 4 nights a week so that was indeed helpful.

It is usually much easier to increase income actually and work longer hours than it is to save money in many cases so I suspect women should look first to that route rather than sitting by the one bar electric fire night after night. A night working in the warm local pub whilst you pay a friend's teenager to mind the sleeping baby might be better financially.

[Alabastard]

Yes. I survive on far less.

[blitheringbuzzards1234]

It's doable but very frugal. As a childless widow (sounds tragic but it's bearable) I've worked out that I need about £650 a month. I live fairly frugally on a small pension and about four times a year I transfer money from a savings account to the current account.
I don't smoke/drink/take expensive holidays/follow fashion but I like to splash out a little for Christmas and the occasional day out/concert and I run a small car and enjoy hobbies.
My council tax is two thirds of what it was before I moved to a smaller, newer house. I'd say my car is a luxury which makes life easier.

[Woolyheads]

Sort of. As childcare is £871 a month and commuting is £300, then what is left of my salary after the cost of getting to work to earn it in the first place means that yes you can live off £500 a month.

[FlissMumsnet]

Morning All,
We're taking a little look at this thread behind the scenes to make sure everyone is who they claim to be.....

[Manumission]

Sheesh. I might stick to the housekeeping board for a bit.

[Whathaveilost]

Not at the moment no. Even if I was single I guess I could but it would be a huge down step for me.

[ghostspirit]

I think it would be very hard. Sone people are not in the position to work full time fuel to childcare costs.

[Firef1y72]

I could but not for an extended period. There was a time a few years back that the government felt fit to give me just £28 a week to live on as a single person(no council tax) which taught me how to budget really well and make the most of every penny, which I still practice to a point (no where nearly as savagely) now.

In a 2 bed flat :
Council tax : £100
Gas : £40
Electric : £40
Travel : £98 (4 week bus pass)
Phone : £20
Internet : £25

Total : £322
Leaves £178 for food and incidentals, with a little savvy shopping I can easily feed 2 adults and 2 children for £250 a month so one adult and a baby for £178 is really easy.

Of course our rent itself is more than the £500 a month now so when that's taken in to account we probably don't have much more than £500 anyway.

[pollymere]

I used to earn £1100 a month with rent of over £600 but that included bills. I'm not sure it's that doable with the increase in food prices and transport costs. I used to be able to spend £30 a week on food, or try to shop every eight days as it makes food last a little bit longer. Maybe just doable as a room in a shared house with shared bills?

[toastytoastbear]

I am surprised by some of the figures given here, £75 for gas & electricity? My electricity bill is over £60 a month, the gas closer to £100

wtf? My gas AND electric is £20 a month and that's more than it needs to be according to my meter readings- I'll be in credit when I leave. How is yours so expensive?!

[whyohwhy000]

I would expect to spend at the very minimum:

£100 council tax
£25 gas (provided you're not on a meter and pay by Direct Debit)
£50 electricity (as above)
£50 car insurance (paid monthly by Direct Debit)
£15 car tax (paid monthly by direct debit)
£10 PAYG phone (O2 big bundle - 200 minutes, 1000 texts, 500 MB data)
£40 internet
£200 food (the average is about £20 per person, with extra for the baby)

= £490
So it's possible to survive, as long as you stick to a budget.

[whyohwhy000]

But that's for 1 adult and 1 baby; some people are arguing about gas and electricity.

I'm with British Gas and I pay £35 for the gas and £75 for the electricity (not on a meter).

[3boys1girl]

Strange that a couple of weeks ago on the benefits cap thread 500 pounds after housing ( what the benefits cap amounts to in the south as many properties are in excess of a grand) was seen as plenty to live on. I wish you luck Op I lived on £400 monthly with my baby but that was 15 yrs ago!It will be tight but you can do.it. Go on entitled to you should get tax credits.

[thisgirlrides]

Bloody hell my gas & elec are £130, water £75, c/tax £220 - we live in a modern 3 bed, 1 bath house. How on earth do some of you get such cheap energy or water?

[YelloDraw]

Bloody hell my gas & elec are £130, water £75, c/tax £220 - we live in a modern 3 bed, 1 bath house. How on earth do some of you get such cheap energy or water

That is a fuck of a lot of water. Have you checked your meter to make sure you don't have a leak? Turn stop cock off and see if meter still increases.

Gas and electricity - 1) use comparison websites and switch onto best deal and 2) don't have the heating on much! If you're out at work during the day and active while you're home you don't need as much as if you are in all the time or sitting still.

[YelloDraw]

If I ever WFHheating Bull goes up hugely because my hands get so cold sitting still at a laptop!

[anotheronebitthedust]

toastytoastbear - I was thinking similar when I read this thread - I knew my g&e was cheap but had no idea it was so much cheaper than a lot of other peoples'. Then I saw another thread currently on chat where a poster was saying she was cold in winter and asking when she should put the heating on and for how often - and it became clear.

Different tariffs and not switching and comparing can make a big difference, but basically some people use heating/water/appliances constantly and others hardly at all.

There were people on the other thread who had their heating on constantly all year round, including a poster who kept her house at a constant 23 degrees, even in summer. I can imagine this would make a huge difference. Same with all the threads where some people shower every other day, but others shower 3 times a day - everyone thinks other people have fairly similar daily habits and routines to them but they really don't!

MN has been such an eye opener for me in this regard, it's great!