Gaging opinion £400 pw

[Toomuchtrouble4me]

Simply that. Family of 4. Is £400 a week reasonable to live in? This is without any bills so includes:
food for 4
household shopping (detergent etc)
clothing
treats (coffees etc)
household essentials (lightbulbs, batteries etc)
medicines and beauty products
Basically mortgage, bills, large expenses are separate, but thus includes all bits and bobs that are bought weekly plus funds for kids outings and buying gifts if they are going to a party etc.
Is it enough?
we’re trialing how much we need to spend on these things in a week and I don’t seem to be able to manage in £400.

£400 a week is more than plenty to get by comfortably. We’ve had to cut things back considerably in the past because of long term health issues impacting income. That would have lasted the month at times.

There could be lots of annual or 6 monthly costs throwing her out though. Eg a month where you had the dentist or a haircut could easily take up a lot of the weekly budget. Throw in a car MOT or a blown tire and then suddenly you’re massively over. I suspect it isn’t the weekly spend that’s the problem but the less frequent stuff that people tend to forget about.

its not clear if the £400 has to include any commuting costs. If so, I’d be down £320 immediately without even thinking about petrol or car maintenance. A lot depends on what people class as their before/after bills expenditure.

Lazy journo post?

Daily Mail fail?

Of course £400/wk spending money is manageable.

I don’t think you’ll get much sympathy from people if you can’t make £400 quid cover what you need for a family of four in one week if it was for a month sure I’d say yep that could be tight; but weekly stop taking the piss there are people out there that would rip your arm off to be that fortunate!!!

The age of kids makes a big difference, little kids are much, much cheaper than teens! Depends exactly what you’re including as well. One hour of tutoring each for kids or driving lesson is going to be about £100 each week alone. Then gym membership for adults another £40. Couple of activities each for kids £40. Petrol for 2 commutes to work plus ferrying around kids etc £100. £120 food and that’s your lot!

Er 🤔

Who buys clothes, lightbulbs etc on a weekly basis?! My god! Most people don’t even live off that amount a month including bills etc. You need a reality check.

I find these “have I got enough money?” posts completely ridiculous. It’s a pointless question to ask other people when we have no idea whether you’ve got a secret crack habit or whether you knit your own food or whatever. People can only bring their own perception of what is enough or more than enough or not enough money to live on based on their own lives, not yours.

£400pw?! We’re a family of 4 spend about £100pw on fuel for Range Rover and a5, £50-£70pw on food, £20-£30 for toiletries etc. I never buy bits and bobs of clothes I prefer to bulk buy at beginning of new season. I think £200-£250pw is more than enough

Christ I have £400 a month?!!

I'd manage on that with plenty to spare as a family of 5 with a expensive competitive figure skater thrown in.

We’re a family of 5, we spend £150 a week on groceries, £40 on fuel and travel costs, £15 on karate lessons for ds2, £20 on 2 gym memberships (£40 each pm) and probably £50 a week on clothes or shoes for one of the DC.
We are comfortable and I don’t particularly budget but still, £400 is loads!

Again, more ignorance if you think that everyone raising families on minumum wage are in social housing. I can't believe people have so little understanding sometimes. Most low earning families are in private rented accommodation, social housing is very hard to come by and usually only goes to people who are seriously hard up - you have to basically be homeless to be considered nowadays.

Nobody is asking you to feel guilty, but it's just silly to say £400pw is not much money. It's plenty. Trips out to restaurants/cafes aren't a weekly occurence for most people, nor do they have to be. Shoes/clothes - who buys new shoes every week? I think I bought myself 3 pairs of shoes last year for the entire year, and my disposable income is around £300pw for just two of us so it's not for lack of money, I just don't think we need so much "stuff."

Slight derail but how are people feeding families of 4 on £50 pw? I spend about £70 - £90 pw for 2 people and on top of that we usually eat out at least once or twice a week (often one lunch and one dinner). I pretty much cook from scratch and I don't waste much at all. TBF we do eat meat and fish but I am good at making it stretch and often buy yellow sticker things for more expensive items (beef etc..)

That does include household cleaning stuff and toilet roll though.

It helps to be veggie, already have a well stocked pantry/cupboard and a breadmaker/slow cooker. The latter two are of course a privilege and further example of how expensive it is to be poor and how much easier it is to economise when you don't actually have to.

We keep a well stocked kitchen and freezer too. I suppose I could get it down to £50 a week but the meals would be pretty repetitive and carb based. Also I think part of the issue is Mr Monkey is constantly marathon training and eats like a horse.

Anyway we are lucky that we can more than afford what we do spend on food and are happy to do so, I was just idly wondering how people fed a family of 4 on £50 a week.

£400 a week for food fuel and any extras goes very quickly

Just had a week where one dd needed new school shoes and shin pads and subs for a club,oh and lunch card topped up. That came to £120

A new tyre as blew out on me. £98

That sort of thing I don't dip into savings for so it comes out of the disposable so nearly £220 gone in one day. Obviously I don't get thru £400 every week so there's an over spill but it still doesn't go far anymore

YABU
Im not sure if you’ve got your bills worked out right if you’re spending more than £400 a week.
Perhaps you should try to write down everything you are spending for a couple of weeks and see where it’s all going because that does sound excessive.
I think that perhaps you are including necessary expenses that I would class as bills like petrol and have to travel a lot. Otherwise are you having nails, eyebrows and hair done on a regular basis?
it would be good to understand where you are spending the money to be able to help

Just plugged minimum wage into a benefits calculator and a family of four would receive £469.83 / weekly.

Wages after tax = £335.55

Total post tax income = £805.38 p/w

That equates to £41,880 p/a

That's equivalent to £55k pre tax and you don't have to pay council tax. You also straight for various cost of living payments.

Even with rent at £400 p/w and bills at £100 p/w, you'd have £305 p/w.

So an extra £100 a week above the spending power of a family living on a single minimum wage doesn't seem excessive.

@ThisGirlNever are you sure... it gave me £233

This is based upon a London postcode and maximum rent claim for the borough (£340 p/w, but you'd struggle to find a rent that cheap outside of social housing)

Ok so either this is a ‘look how much money I’ve got’ post in which case it’s further evidence that wealth doesn’t buy class or it’s genuine, if the latter is true then you need to take some of that income and pay for some education in budgeting, running a house and general life skills!!

No it's not at all .you poor thing how on earth will you cope

Hmmmm.!

@Toomuchtrouble4me Not sure if you are reading but in your other posts you said you were a teacher and wouldn't ever go back.

That was 2 days ago.

Now, you are saying in another post ( very recent) that you are working as a teacher.

Which is it?

And this does cast some doubt on your figures here if you are giving a different story in all your posts.