£200 a month disposable/discretionary pcm?

[needtosave]

I never know the difference between the two meanings but how hard would it be to only spend £200 pcm for 18 months?

All monthly bills would be paid and a very basic food bill.
The £200 would have to cover all treats, days out, clothes, family birthdays, nights out, takeaways, easter eggs, Christmas, school uniforms, make up, smellies, ' posher food 'prescriptions, dentist and anything else really that may crop up ie school trips, photos, contributions etc.

It would be for myself and an 11 year old.

My friends say I am BU and maybe I am? I am sure people live on less but reading some of the posts recently on here maybe I am kidding myself.

Its to save a deposit to buy a house in 18months time.

It would be difficult, what if something breaks down and you need to get it fixed/ call out an engineer? There’s endless things that could come up: close friend gets married and all the costs associated, school trip, DC lose their coat etc etc

I reckon you could do it but it would mean living really frugally. I’ve done similar in the past. We joined Scottish National Trust and always went to a NT place with a packed lunch for days out. Did without any fancy stuff at all and kids clothes were all friends’ cast offs. My clothes were second hand. We paid off a 30k credit card bill.

It can be done. Thousands of people do it every day on far less and it very much depends on your perceived acceptable standard of living.

Are you usually tempted by luxuries (clothes you are not absolutely 100% in dire need of, days out, food that isn't in the weekly budget etc?) If not, you may have an easier time with it.

If you like a bit of wiggle room, up the budget to £250/300 and take a little bit longer to save the deposit. Is there any real need to have it within 18 months or would 20/24 months work just as well?

I do it just for me, but that's not including an 11 year old and I don't find it easy and have to consciously stop myself from spending quite a lot. If I fancy a coffee, I think I'll make one at home when I get back or whatever. It's not hard, it's just bloody constant.

Oh and the rest of my earnings go into savings so I'm covered for emergencies and this is genuinely just spending money so I think it's doable for you but will tough

I think it might be doable. Is 18 months a set in stone end date ie would it be OK to push it back a couple of months if you had an emergency and had to use some of the savings to cover it?

If your basics are covered then realistically how many birthdays are there (set spending budget of a tenner) how many school trips etc? Days out don't have to involve massive amount of spending - parks, walks in the woods, bikes along the canal path or whatever. Take sandwiches and juice so you don't feel tempted to just pop in somewhere for food.

I think people just get used to spending loads of money so the thought of not doing so shocks them.

It sounds like a struggle to me. Fine for a couple of months, but 18 months would be a slog. Doable, but not fun.

Try 🤷
Keep some of the saving in an accessible account in case of unexpected cost such as far break down etc. Change the plan if you are struggling.

Doable, except don’t include dentist in it. That’s necessity not discretionary. Works out better in the long run to value yourself a bit more.

Or prescriptions.

Even my old boss, with two of them earning $100,000 each had to have a tough year to save a deposit. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t tbh.

Have you got help to save account from the government? This in in addition to the first home owners account.
So there’s a couple of grand from
The government to help out too
www.gov.uk/get-help-savings-low-income

If you've an end date work out what your going to need to buy for the next 18months and cost it out down to the pound and see how much you've left over for unpredictable expenses like prescriptions. I save for everything all year round Christmas, holidays, everyone's (kids, parents, uncles etc) birthday etc. It's taken the financial stress out of our lives and we've being doing it for years

I actually think it would be practically impossible to have all of this on £200 a month.

"The £200 would have to cover all treats, days out, clothes, family birthdays, nights out, takeaways, easter eggs, Christmas, school uniforms, make up, smellies, ' posher food 'prescriptions, dentist and anything else really that may crop up ie school trips, photos, contributions etc."

I think the point is that pretty much you couldn't have the years, the birthdays out, new clothes, take aways, make up etc. You simply can't get all that in on £50 a week. You will have to fundamentally change your expectations of what you will have in your life to manage it.

What are smellies?
Do you have savings? Good insurances? Where do you live?
We live in London and managing day to day would be possible but tight - definitely no 'posher food'. But I'm not sure you'd have any fallback if for example you had to take unpaid sick leave, or if you had a boiler break down or similar.

We're a family of 5 and we live on just over £200 a month fairly well. I manage to cover birthdays and the like by planning far ahead & shopping around. We eat out rarely and days out are usually to free places.

However as soon as the car needs repairing or any white goodd need replacing its a bit of a bind but we manage.

Honestly i find it amazing that people think £200 a month isnt enough for run of the mill expenses.

DP and I get £140 a month each spending money! We have a toddler too so this covers soft play etc. It's a bit shit but definitely doable, don't feel like we miss out really!

Thanks all. I can't do the government ISA as I owned 15 years ago before my divorce.

I am staying with parents so bills are all in. So if something breaks then they would probably cover that though I will help out.

I guess it could be longer but though I am grateful to my parents things can be a bit tough for one reason or another. Lots of my friends say they couldn't stay with parents but guess that's another AIBU.

I feel like I am starting again at 39 when I was all sorted at 26 owned my own house. I wasn't happy though. I guess thats what's important.

I would do it as a single person and have and maybe if the chid was pre school aged but I wouldn't by choice with an eleven year old.

I'd up my hours instead or get a second job.

needtosave - you can do the link I sent you, anyone getting tax credits can and that’s worth £1200 to you

We're a family of 5 and we live on just over £200 a month fairly well.

I'm impressed. £50 a week doesn't go very far when there are 5 of you. I imagine for many families it wouldn't be doable.

I think it sounds totally do-able. I used to have £400 per month to cover car, phone, all food, clothes, all treats - everything - for 3 of us. Some months you won't need as much and other months you may want more, it will balance out. But knowing that it is all for a good reason will spur you on. 18 months isn't that long. Over that time you could even start viewing houses with your daughter so she can see what the sacrifice is for.

You can do it. Buy food from market (fruit and veg much cheaper), minimal meat, tins from Lidl/Aldi. Only buy stuff you absolutely have to. Days out - the DDs’ best memories as children are when we took a picnic to the river and they paddled/swam in it. Get a family railcard for travel. Clothes from charity shop or Primark/supermarkets. We did this, and it was tough but do-able.

Inliverpool thank you for the link. I wish I had known about that earlier. I earn too much for working tax credits now.

It won't be fun. A lot of what you've listed can't be done really. I've been there, there are no takeaways or 'nice' food. Birthdays etc would be spent doing free enjoyable activities, nothing in the way of presents really. I skipped the dentist. Rarely bought clothes and got very cheap make up that I only used for work.

Of course it's doable! But.... your mindset has to change completely. If you're thinking £200 a month has to include:
'treats, days out, clothes, family birthdays, nights out, takeaways, easter eggs, Christmas, school uniforms, make up, smellies, ' posher food 'prescriptions, dentist and anything else really that may crop up ie school trips, photos, contributions etc.'

Then you can't do it. However if you think for 18 months I will go without:

'treats, days out, clothes, family birthdays, nights out, takeaways, easter eggs, Christmas, school uniforms, make up, smellies, ' posher food 'prescriptions, dentist and anything else really that may crop up ie school trips, photos, contributions etc.'

Then you can absolutely do it.