Could you survive on 1k?

[coffeeanteac]

If you had £1000 left after the main bills.

Could you survive on £1000 for food amd petrol and everything else takeaways, gifts, fun.

DH thinks most families couldn't. I think it should be ok. There are only 3 of us and we all live about three miles away from work and school.

Easily - although we barely have any commuting costs due to mainly WFH. It would be different for rural families who depend on cars to get around.

Yes I badly phrased it.

I couldn't at the moment but obviously if I had to I'd be shopping in Asda and binning cleaners, music lessons, yada yada.

I think two years is doable - however I'd suggest as likely many people have that you track you spending in short term and work out where your money is going and where you can make realistic cut backs if needed.

If you do have savings for the unexpected already that will also make it easier.

We do it but our lifestyle isn't yours - so you need information about your spending and what you value and go from there.

Well I could! At the moment that is my monthly income before bills. I am looking at upping my hours a bit as on paper it all worked out but in reality I’m finding I’m down to my last £100 in the payday week so more of a buffer is needed really! I live on my own with small ddog. I’m 53. Rent is approx £230 pcm ( shared ownership with no mortgage for the owned %. This gives me options ❤️ I run a cheap car(brand new 14 years ago) a local ‘pop’ rather than a commute. Shop in Aldi. Reduced energy usage with fake Oodie and heated throw. I’ve lived a frugal life, don’t need much. Clothes from charity shops but I already have a packed wardrobe so don’t really need any more. I am very happy with my little lot. I guess I feel most secure as my roof over my head will not be whipped away from me and I do have a nice savings cushion (approx £25000) should I need it.

Easily

Easily, no question.

We do it on £800 with a dog and a cheapish holiday a year.

Ps. I don’t spend ridiculous amounts on coffees and lunches in the week. I take pack-ups and have access to a kettle and microwave at work for coffees, cuppa-soups etc. I’m used to ‘cutting my cloth according to ?? Whatever!’ Not everyone is.

On enjoying life. Travel, eating out, going out, hobbies, family....

Yea of course!

It’s not a badge of honour to say you can/ can’t live on that amount. I have no idea why people have taken it so personally.

we would really struggle. To break it down there would be

food- £600 a month
petrol- £100 a month
daughter dance lessons - £100
sons cricket subs and gear - £50
hair for all of us - £120

so no money to save/ have for holidays or emergencies. And what about the months where we need school uniform, clothes or new shoes.

If you take out food and petrol, that's only £100pw. That's to cover eating out, clothes, haircuts, birthday and Christmas presents, new household appliances, pet extras, holidays, new phones every few years. We don't have an extravagant lifestyle but we'd really struggle on that. Definitely wouldn't be able to afford any type of holiday.

Yeah that's with me working part time around the kids and universal credit. I'm looking at increasing my hours/changing job now my youngest has started school, but it's not a massive amount to live on. I also know that my rent is reasonable in comparison to many others in the current situation.

It’s really not a stealth boast. £1k after bills is possible, but not comfortable by any means.

Do you think only those scraping by are allowed to post?

In theory I could, in practice I always go over my budget though. I'd have to be very strict with my spending

@bringincrazyback do you think the OP
is not entitled to post with this question? What’s your threshold for it being Ok? £300? £900? what?

I see these all the time and think we genuinely would struggle. £300 a month on food, and granted we have high fuel costs of around £400 a month. So £300 for the ‘fun stuff’ including clothes, any maintenance etc isn’t much. A year or so back we were working off a similar budget and found it really tough

@coffeeanteac Its doable, but it grinds you down and can be a source of considerable anxiety.

Fuel will be about £100 a month
Food is about £600 a month for 4 with pets (and that's Aldi / Lidl)

Then there's clothes, repairs, treats (a takeway costs about £25 and that's a big chunk of your remaining money), car service, saving up for replacement white goods / car, presents / Christmas etc etc.

It is doable - I've done it for the last three years - but its not pleasant long term. It seemed fine at first, but the reality of having bugger all spare and not being able to have a massage or a holiday or new clothes or brand name food really gets to you.

Hopefully you've an upper time limit on how long you're going to do this for (I've not read any updates if you've said), because long term its a bit miserable and you might end up resentful. I certainly can't afford a holiday or a fancy phone or a nice new car or a meal out. When something "goes wrong" it can be a lot of stress to not be able to sort it. You'll also have to get used to DIY.

Not insurance. Daughter is 15 so has different activities these days no more karate etc but do pay her gym membership £12.

so no money to save/ have for holidays or emergencies. And what about the months where we need school uniform, clothes or new shoes.

Ideally why ideally you need to have some left to save end of each month or savings already.

School uniform buying, present for birthdays/Christmas, food shopping frequent happens over many months for us - often using credit card to smooth payments out - we save all year in holiday fund. Some of that's predictable - school uniform will be needed - others out the blue fridge packing up.

I've been picking up and putting things aside for when eldest leaves home - earliest this September for university - and still expect we'll have unexpected bills there - so trying to make sure I get books for college and GCSE for other bit earlier than usual.

At least here the a possible pay off it better pay two years down the line and probably better job satisfaction - there's an end in sight.

We getting the pay off now of DH doing having similar in early 30s - a decade plus later- though we had a number of unexpected set backs and it was bloody hard - now though we have more money than if he hadn't. The kids were very young and more oblivious though stress on us was at times unbearable - it did eventually pay off.

I thought you meant before bills! After bills yes, living the dream.

We do too never buy work lunch out. Always take food.

AFTER outgoings? LOL. I'm lucky if I have a couple of hundred quid after all outgoings, and that all goes on food given the current rip off prices. I'd be in heaven with £1000 to spend. Never going to happen though.

though stress on us was at times unbearable

This is very true. Being stressed when you get post. Losing sleep because you are awake worrying about unexpected expenses. Cutting Christmas down to a minimum. Saying no to your kids activities and all the times they are asked to bring in £10 and £20 pounds for school trips. Saying no to hosting birthday parties and no to invitations because you can’t buy gifts. Problems with cars which arise unexpectedly and body several hundred to repair. Cutting out hairdressers appts and it would be out rather than reducing, family occasions, days out - even simple days out include coffee or ice cream, new shoes just to replace so a need rather than a want. Then an unexpected bill such as tv licence lands on your floor.
it’s an awful position to put yourself in voluntarily.
But as it is for two years, can you save frantically so you have a buffer for the above type of expenses? I would t try to do it unless I had £5-10K in the bank to fall back on.