To ask for help budgeting

[crunchthenumbers]

Me and DH are moving back to the UK after years abroad. I really need to crunch the numbers (I'm a SAHM so it's important to get the budget right if we're going to live off one salary!). I have downloaded the money saving expert budget planner, but I've been away so long I have no concrete idea of how much the essentials cost. So, any families of 4 I need your help (2 adults, 1 toddler and 1 baby in case that makes a difference!). Do my guesstimates sound about right? (obviously lots of other costs not in there, like council tax/ mortgage or rent, but these are easier to find out).

Energy p.a.: £1200 (based on pretty high usage as I'll be home all day)
Water p.a.: £500
Household/garden maintenance/just in case fund p.a.: £800
Internet, TV, mobile (no landline): £747p.a. (including TV license but assuming v. basic phone tariff & freeview TV).
Weekly food shop: £115 (based on a test online shop I did)

Not sure if we can afford a car as no idea of how to estimate the running costs! I have factored in costs of public transport instead for the time being.

Sorry, I know it's boring, but I need your help.

Energy seems high, but depends on where you are living (detached, terraced, we'll insulated good boiler). Food shop a little low but feasible if you are a canny shopper. Overall seems realistic

To work out car costs work out what type of car you need, check out auto trader to find out costs locally. Then check out your best way of financing it (loan interest free CC etc) Use a vehicle registration of an appropriate type of car to dummy run insurance costs on a compare site. Add £300- £500 pa for repairs and unexpected running costs.

Have you looked into your council tax band?

£800 seems high for a just in case fund. But it depends what your including in this. Low if you are including someone to come in and mow etc for you

Some areas are surprisingly expensive.

I think your Tv is about right but this can be cheap or you could pay £100 pcm for movies and sports.

Does your weekly food shop include nappies, cleaning products and toiletries?

Thanks both that's really helpful, glad to know it's not completely ridiculous. I will check auto trader now. We don't have a place to live sorted yet, but know the rough area we'll be moving to / size of house we hope to get for energy costs and have estimated which council tax band we think we'll be in.

You're right the just in case / garden fund is quite high as it's based on the first year and I'm a bit keen on gardening so assuming some upfront costs of buying plants or equipment. Think I will re-do the supermarket shop to be sure (did it a few months ago now and I know costs are going up).

Sorry ratsrolypoly cross post. No it doesn't include nappies, have factored them in separate, but does include toiletries (we're both pretty low maintenance though, so aside from deodorant, shampoo and soap we don't spend much! I usually buy bulk cleaning products online to save money so have factored that in across the whole year if that makes sense)

Good idea to redo the supermarket shop. If I were you I would add an extra 10% - maybe even 15% - to your final figure; prices at the end of the year may be rather different to prices at the beginning, the way things seem to be going at the moment!

I think your Tv/phone budget seems quite low. Presuming broadband (we pay £30pcm for a very basic service) and £12 pcm TV licence, does it leave enough left to run two mobile phones and any call charges too. I'm thinking if you are moving from somewhere else you will have people you would like to stay in touch with so either call costs or decent internet to use Skype etc.

We've moved back to the UK about 18mths ago, so it's been interesting to see how our budget numbers have turned out. I'm a SAHM too, with 2 preschool age children.

We pay around:

£140/mth utilities (gas&electric)
£60/mth 2 mobiles/internet/no cable tv
£100-120/wk groceries including toiletries, wine, pull ups for 1 child (shopping in Waitrose, I spend less if I go to Aldi)

Car insurance has been a killer for us. Despite having driven for 20years and having had insurance, UK insurers viewed us as starting from scratch. The premiums were painful, but improving. Something to factor in!

That's good to know about car insurance scotinoz, do you know if the same is true of home/contents insurance by any chance?

I just re-did the supermarket shop and it has gone up to £130 a week in the space of a few months, yikes!

Thanks leatherboundanddown, it definitely assumes a bit of dependency on Skype, good point though, I will need to check broadband speeds as we are looking at a fairly rural area.

We pay about £25 a month for water so your estimate for that seems a bit high but overall not far off our bills with two pre schoolers (I'm a SAHM too so have the heating on a lot!).

We spend around £100-120 a week on groceries but whenever there are threads on here about 'how much do you spend a week on food etc' everyone spends less than me!

Your energy might be a bit high but overall I dont think you're too far off, and its better to overestimate.

Household insurance varies wildly depending on which part of town you live in and how much cover you want, but a basic policy is around £120 a year.
Council tax can be around £1,000.

That food shop seems excessive to me, if you can afford it why not but we are a family of 5, one baby that needs milk Nd nappies and £80 PW fills our cupboards, freezer and gets all essentials including formula and nappies.

Hi OP, can't help you myself but if you come along to the 'Credit Crunch' section and join the 'Frugaleers' thread, there are lots of lovely ladies there who I'm sure will be able to help you a lot.

I'd get yourself over to the Money Saving Expert website, lots of help and advice on the forum on there. www.moneysavingexpert.com/

crunchthenbers No, home/contents were fine, just the car insurance was ridiculous!

Family of two adults and one teen food costs for us are about £40 at Aldi and £15 at Asda each week. Then occasionally I spend another £20 on bits and bobs. This amount includes laundry and dishwasher detergent, paper products and toiletries.
Electric and gas is £105 a month
Water £200 and some change a year
Petrol we spend £15 a week on one car
Car ins £170 a year small 07 car.
Life insurance £15 a month
Car tax £14 a month
Sky tv and broadband £42 a month
Mobile phones £30 a month for all three
Dd school dinners £10 a week, she takes pack lunch some days.
House and contents insurance I forget but it's paid annually sure it's under £200 Mum has contents only and hers is £25 a year

We moved back in 2013 had to go into Swintons office for car insurance at first so paid more couldn't get anything online.
Sky we had to do over the phone and phones we bought outright and got plans with O2.

Wow troeislovessquinkies you are my hero, £55 on weekly food shop is amazing! OK, I definitely have work to do on ours, need to check what local supermarkets will be.

We ran in Tesco to get a small shop just after Christmas, feeling under the weather, and not wanting to go into town. Dh started laughing and told me after he can see why we don't shop there, it cost us as much as a week of food in Aldi.

Water varies hugely accros the country and whether you are on a meter or rates. We used to pay £15 a month rates in a small terraced house with no garden, but people in the south west, where water costs are very high could be paying £60/70 a month or more.

Moneysavingexpert is an excellent resourse for cutting all your costs.

eatnotspend.wordpress.com

This woman is a food budgeting genius

What part of the country are you moving to ?

spiderbabymum we're hopefully moving to Derbyshire. I'll take a look at that blog. Thanks everyone, it's very odd moving home and feeling a bit out of touch with everything so these tips are really helpful! Will get myself back over to money saving expert and the Frugaleers thread you mentioned meadowhay.

I am really hoping if we budget well we might be able to afford a summer holiday which would be lovely.