£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.

Could you do it for four months have a month off to get anything you may need to do and do it for another four and so on until you've done 18 months?

Thanks you are right. I can't go without dds Christmas but we have definitely cut down and don't buy for adults. I can go without haircuts etc though.

Dd's Dad may contribute to some things for her depending on his mood. Such as the year 7 blazer.

At least I don't have to buy food out of that too. I could do with cutting my food intake down to lose a stone anyway.

I think the days out will be the hardest thing for me and daughters clothes.

After all my bills, food etc is paid for I have less than this to live on with two kids and a dh, it’s a struggle and I’m horrifically in debt because of it, because I just can’t live on the £120 a month we have left over 😰😰 it’s hard, really hard.

I think it will be really tough. But for 18 months I could do it

I think it's doable as long as you're genuinely ok with missing out or cutting back. I'd suggest having a budget tracker spreadsheet, show how much you have spent, and how much you've saved each month. Seeing it written down can really help the motivation! Likewise knowing you're going to have to write down £4 for a coffee, and see it written down, and at the end of the month know it could have been saved, really helped me to stop indulging in whims when I was saving.

I think you can live on that amount for that length of time, especially with a clear goal. I do think you will find that both you and your child have to make sacrifices to do so. It's up to you whether you are willing to do that in order to save more quickly, or not.

we manage it for two adults (we've health plans separate to that which covers a couple of prescriptions and some basic private health and dental stuff though). We have one meal out/takeaway a month, DH has a reasonably priced haircut and i do my own hair and don't wear make up, clothes wise I get from sales, charity shops or ebay and DH just buys when he needs to replace things. We tend to get a fancier meal once a week, by getting creative with yellow sticker foods and freezing them when we find them.

DH made us a spreadsheet which goes red when we're overbudget in a certain category which is motivating, we've always been on a budget in our relationship, either when we were students, saving for our house and wedding and now saving for baby bits and paying off some debts from home improvements so having a goal helps you focus.
Could you get a current account that earns interest to help? many can waive the monthly fee if you put your wages in there and have a couple of direct debits coming out.