To ask how much you budget for sundries?

[Gruffalosandbuffalos]

Trying to do a household budget and have all the essentials down but need to come up with a sundries amount. Things like clothes, household items when they need replacing etc.

How much do others budget for this type of thing? Family of 4 if it helps.

Nothing. As we often don't have it spare after essentials. However we always find a way if needed

The kids have their CB. One has one month the other has the next.. I don't include that in budgets. That's for clothes or whatever needed.

£500 a year to replace washing machine or cooker, central heating boiler or dish washer, tv or laptop etc. I don’t always spend it, but this year we need a new front door which is crazy expensive. It’s more a sort of emergencies fund.
£300 each for dcs shoes/clothes. I spend about £500 on my clothes/shoes but it depends what you do for a living.

Is that per year for the clothes?

I would estimate at the minute I spend about £200 a month at least on clothing so I really need to cut back.

OP. It depends if you can afford it

@LesLavandes I appreciate that but I was wondered what others would usually budget.

After all the bills, food, essentials etc it leaves us £1000 a month. At the minute we are spending that without knowing what it’s going on so want to try and be more careful for a few months to build up some savings so I wanted to set a realistic budget.

I recently decided I was spending too much
downloaded a years worth of bank statements so get a bit more understanding of what/where I was spending. Sundries is a bit high - and I know that 'supermarket spend' is a lot wider than food.

I've made a loose budget - my NY resolution is to record and analyse what I spend into broad categories. - As I build up knowledge, it will be easier to target areas I can cut down on.

But the question really is a 'how long is a piece of string' question because budgets and priorities vary so hugely.

It would be ridiculous for a SAHP on a tight budget to spend £200 pm on clothes, because it really isn't necessary and it is very likely that the money would be needed for more important things. But it might be reasonable for a well paid professional in an industry where looking smart and groomed is an expectation.

If you have no savings and are frittering money, then you should spend as little as possible on clothes, think £50 pm or even lower. Wear the ones you have, use charity shops, outlet malls or ebay, only buy what is absolutely necessary, not just because you fancy something new. So there's a big chunk of money there.

You say you have £1000 pm, but have you cut your bills and food as much as you can or are you also overspending in that area?

If your idea of normal basic shopping is organic everything from Waitrose and are spending £200 pw for example, that could be cut down considerably by eating a more basic diet from a cheaper shop. Do you buy lunch, coffees etc or take a packed lunch - people can spend hundreds of pounds a month like this without thinking about how it's a luxury or can be cut down.

The moneysavingexpert money makeover is a good place to start, but you need to question every expenditure, large and small, but without seeing the details of what you are spending, it's impossible to say what is reasonable, or what you can cut back on.

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

If you have a lot of branded clothes you don't wear, you could also try selling them on ebay, to make money for the savings pot.

Do you need everything that you spend that £200 a month on? £200 clothing a month is a lot!
How much would you like to spend?

We don’t really need to cut back on the essentials- we’ve already been through and checked we are on the best deals for things and we shop mainly in Aldi with an occasional Tesco big shop.