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?

Jeez £750 a month left! I don't have £7.50 a month to save/spend after everything is accounted for!

OP I live northwest and we run two cars and own a home.

Combined income of 3k same as you.

I find all our bills total up to around £1,800 and we have £1,200 per month spare. Our car costs are around £200 cheaper than yours and our mortgage £100 so based on that I'd say yes your budget looks bang on.

Sounds similar to us. Our mortgage is £750 a month, so we transfer £1600 between us a month to cover that, all bills (not including transport, but including council tax of £250) and food, with a bit left over for diy supplies/meals out.

We're a couple in a 3 bed (large) terrace in the north west and your bills seem fine to me too. We spend a lot more on food but we only buy organic/local farm shop etc, and I like nice wine!

We pay 400 for bills including gas, electric, water, house insurance and we are a family of 4 so I think you may have overestimated there. Assuming you are both working full time you won't be home all day, switch off appliances and use the heating as and when you need to and this ought to be less than £600.

I also think your food bill sounds high for 2 people unless it includes a lot of ready meals or you shop at more expensive stores. If you shop around you could probably reduce this. That being said you have a really healthy amount left over which is great! I would put a decent amount into savings should you be planning life in the future as childcare is expensive, otherwise enjoy yourselves x

*should you be planning kids

Food budget seems very low

On Eat Well for Less a couple of weeks ago, they said the average food spend for a couple with no children was around £57 pw, so the OPs £250 pm is just about bang on, and that's probably realistic for her as it sounds like they are already living together and she says they are paying most of the bills listed already, just not the mortgage, council tax, utiltiies etc for their new home.