Is our monthly budget unrealistic?

[Ginghamricecakes]

Bit of a boring post, sorry!

About to buy our first home, two adults, we live in the north, combined income of 3k per month.
We have budgeted:

£700 mortgage
£600 bills (council tax, house insurance, gas, elec, internet)
£300 direct debits (gym, pet insurance, phones, Netflix...)
£400 travel (petrol, car insurance, tax)
£250 food

Left over cash to spend/save: £750 p/m

Is this reasonable? Are we over/under estimating or forgetting anything?

Also, it's a small 3 bed semi detached

that is a lot left over . you are ok so you can cover any breakdowns etc

We live in a 3 bedroom detached 65 miles north of london and our total bills a month are about £1,500

Sounds reasonable to me

1500 a month on bills for a 3 bed semi?

We are nearer 600 a month op

Well I would take it easy and just do the necessary at first, everything that is needed for your “4 walls”
Mortgage
Council tax
Electricity
Gas
Water
Insurance
These are all bills you HAVE to pay for the house.
THEN

Car-
Tax
Insurance
Fuel
Maintenance fees

You-
Food

Everything else is extra like internet, Netflix etc. I would add those in last

The only thing I think seems unrealistic is £250 per month for food. It always costs more than you think, especially if that budget doesn't include toiletries, cleaning products, toilet rolls etc.

Seems fair, so long as you've included all the relevant things in each category. You'll want to put a fair chunk of that £750 into savings for holidays, emergencies etc, and I notice you haven't budgeted anything for clothes, meals out, and other treats.

You might find your bills are lower than that. Ok I live alone but also up north, 2 beds
Monthly
Gasand electric ranges from £40 in summer to £60 in winter
C tax £110 but single person discount in that
Contents about £15
Water £22 on meter
Internet £22
My buildings insurance is included in my mortgage

@antisupermum I know it’s all relative but by meal planning I stick to 65 per week for a family of 4 so I think 250 is very realistic for 2 adults!

Thanks for the replies.
At the moment, we are paying all of the above apart from mortgage and bills, but we are currently putting away £1500 a month savings so that would be about what our bills and mortgage would total IYSWIM. So I don't think our monthly outgoings will be all to different to what they are now, and wages should be higher each 6months. At the moment we are comfortable with buying clothes/meals with that money left over and we are never spent at the end of the month, can always afford to pay for MOT bill/holiday ect. Hopefully we have budgeted enough, I have tried to over estimate our mortgage and direct debit cost, also.

@ClientListQueen ooh I hope you're right. Our council tax will be about £140 each month.

Seems very good to me.

Water and tv licence

Try it and review every few months.

where is your pension contribution?!

start saving now- compound interest and all that

Seems fine to me. No debt presumably?

The bills and direct debits are insanely high.

Is this a stealth boast!! £750 leftover per month.

We spend less as a family of 4 with a higher mortgage.

Plenty of people in your situation have less than £3k pm coming in, others will have far more. A lot of it depends on your lifestyle expectations and whether you are spenders or savers.

Some people can go through alarming amounts of money on clothes, beauty treatments, lunches, nights out etc etc, others spend hardly anything on these things, but it sounds like you will be OK.

Just make sure you have money put by for annual and irregular expenses like broken cars, pets (insurance comes with an excess and doesn't cover routine vaccinations etc) and washing machines, plus Christmas, holidays and the like.

Sounds like it might be a time to systematically review your finances and make sure you're on the best deal where possible.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/money-help/

Sounds about right but put at least £100 a month into a rainy day fund, houses need repairs

Thank you all for the replies. Our pension contributions are taken out before we see our wages, so haven't included that in budgeting.

@MyDcAreMarvel What would you say is more realistic?

No this isn't a stealth boast... We are just a young couple starting out, looking for some advice. Your outgoings are likely to be higher if you have children, I suppose, but we are child free and intend to be for the foreseeable

I'd definitely top up your food budget. You may not need it but some months when you all of a sudden need toilet roll, household cleaners, get a takeaway for a treat etc it can all add up. If you don't spend it just pop it back onto savings

£600 a month on bills sounds high - DH and I pay just over £400 a month in London for gas, electric, water, TV, home insurance, pet insurance, internet and council tax. And our home insurance is way too high - I need to shop around.

Better to over estimate than under though!

Your bill estimation sounds huge.......we're 3 adults in a 3 bed semi (( no mortgage as paid off)) and our bills come in at about £70 a week so £280 a month.

That's £30 council tax

£25 gas and electricity (( usually a lot less tbh))

£5 TV license

£5 water (( or there abouts))

£5 House / building insurance.