To think 2 adults can live on £800 a month not incl rent?

[abacucat]

Just that really. I think this will be perfectly fine to live on and pay bills.

It’s enough for bills and food but not enough for luxuries or savings.

Yes, should be fine depending on where you live. What’s the issue?

Depends on your bills really. Everyone has different outgoings.

Not including things like a car loan and transport to work etc we could manage on half that amount and eat healthly.

Depends on things like travel costs, utilities, insurance premiums etc. It sounds tight to me.

Obviously you can if you have to however would be no ones first option. You can live on any means. It's just whether you want to or not

Been doing that for the last 8 years just fine.

Depends on your other bills, I have outgoings of around £600 a month after my mortgage so it’d be pretty miserable for me now.
When I was 27 it might have been ok....

Things like insurance premiums are pretty optional, apart from our car insurance. No car loan. Car insurance is about £360 a year. Council tax is about £1500 a year. Utilities are about £80 a month, but can have the heating on less if need to.

Depends on outgoings but I could do that easily as mine are small.

Depends on our outgoings, that would only just cover my direct debits for everything but mortgage. But if I had to I could scale that back (no dog walker, no gymnastics for DD, cancel sky, cancel life insurance etc).

Petrol costs me about £160 a month and there is no other way of getting to work so that would eat up a large % of £800.

Yep perfectly doable. No mortgage here, we both put £400 a month in the pot and it covers everything.

Looks doable with your outgoings. My bills before food come to more each month though!

Short term, yes. If you have an end in sight.

Long term, with no known end date, it will become very dispiriting.

Have you written down all the other outgoings and worked out how much cash you will have in hand every month?
3 lists:

1. Out of your control, MUST PAYS

Council tax, water, gas, electricity, TV licence (or alternative)

1. In control but essential

Food, transport

1. In control, wants not needs

Phones, internet, clothing, haircuts, coffee, magazines etc etc

And don't forget insurances, they can really add up!

And have you checked if you can claim any assistance WTC etc?

How can your bills come to more than £800 a month?

Well that’s a ridiculous question to ask here. It totally depends on where in the country you live and what bills/outgoings you have. Plus, this being AIBU, half the answers will be “yes that’s heaps, we live on half that and I have 17 children to feed” and the rest will be “of course not, anything less than £1,000,000 a month disposable income is basically below the poverty line” etc etc

It really depends on so many factors. Do you shop at Aldi and happy enough with basic meals, no acohol at home etc or do you like 'naice' food (nothing wrong with that BTW). A cinema trip is £30, one meal out a month is £50, a new pair of shoes or a suit for work or both could be £1-200. It always shocks me how quickly my balance goes down not on anything much really.

We are not entitled to any assistance, and yes will be long term.
We rarely buy clothes anyway. Spend no more than £200 a year in haircuts between us. Pay £40 a month for phone and internet. Another £10 a month for 2 mobile phones. TV licence. No insurance except car insurance. We already don't have coffees out or magazines. DP buys weekend newspapers for about a £5 a week. We have a pretty cheap lifestyle I guess anyway.

Mine are about £1200 after my mortgage and that doesn't include day to day spending, clothes, makeup, meals & drinks out, takeaways, tickets to theatre, cinema, gigs etc etc.
Are you including petrol, kids clubs, sky etc in that? In order to see if you can live on a budget you need to include absolutely everything

So your short list of expenses comes to £235/month minus petrol and food, phones etc.

£565

Conservatively adding £40/week petrol; £80/week for food

That leaves £85 per month for phones, internet, TV and everything else.

This kind of question is really off I couldn't do it, but plenty of people could.

Just depends on what lifestyle you are prepared to live. Sounds like you can manage it, so no need to canvas opinion.

*odd

And you extra list add another £67 per month, leaving you with £20 ish for anything else not listed.

Newspapers and your phones/internet will probably become a 'luxury' you can't afford...

We have done this, for about 8 years, but had an end in sight. I am not sure we would have survived, as a couple, if we hadn't.

Why are you asking?

We don't have sky. I don't wear make up. We have some very nice meals, but made by me. We like a lot of veggie meals where the ingredients are cheap and yes shop at ALDI. I drink about a bottle of wine a week. Normal going out probably costs us about £30 a week for 3 nights out. A cinema trip about £15 - we tend to go on nights where they offer cheaper tickets, and go maybe once a month. Rarely have take aways. May have to cut out eating out.