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.

Yes, that’s roughly how much we have after all bills are paid and we manage just fine.

After bills? Absolutely.

Actually pro rata the amount person is a good idea. Upthread I said I’d struggle on £1k a month after bills but per person it’s about £1660 which is about what I have post bills. This is enough for me to afford what I’d say is a pretty average life.

But you have to be able to afford an electric car in the first place. They are so expensive and are no way in our price range. And we also don't know the life span of electric cars.

Train prices are mad aren't they.
My daughter's train to college is £40 a week. There's no help for that so that's a huge chunk of budget that has just disappeared.

I keep coming back to this thread and marvel at the complete lack of understanding some people have about differing circumstances. Some sneering as if OP has won the lottery and others being more realistic. It isn't a race to the bottom and £1000 when you've deducted travel and food for a family of 4 with teenagers at college is not a king's ransom 🤷🏼‍♀️

My daughter's train to college is £40 a week.

It's £55 for bus to college - that's a reduced rate as well.

When the buses went on strike here just after DD1 started it was 10-12 taxi in most morning as train weren't early enough and it was too far to walk - train back and long walk - so it went up to £17 a day - it was working out about 350 a month for three months - that was a nasty shock. We don't drive so were out of options.

When DH changed jobs even though he goes in a day more it works out less in train fares - despite it being similar distance though now he has more trains in an hour - save about £45 a month.

So knowing where the money going is vital to know if Op could manage or not.

This - DCs bus fares to school are £60PW fuel is about £500 ish. We go in opposite directions. Family of 5/6 we spend about £200 pw on food. Don’t get me wrong - we live a very comfortable life. However, we spend £700 ish on commuting costs for everyone before anything else as we are relatively rural. We have 4 DC too - one at uni. Paying for that as well as they get no loan really.

Yes!
Lord we don't actually earn much more than £1000 a month! Between us our income in £1500 after tax we do get our income assisted by UC we get £300 a month so £1800 has to pay for everything mortgage included! We manage we live north east so maybe geography is relevant but we are still seeing the prices rise in the supermarket weekly food bill is around £60 used to be 35-40 shopping in Aldi 2 adults one child

It really does depend on circumstances.

A year ago we were spending about £600 just on fuel. Then with four teens the food would push us over, let alone everything else.
But now with a change of schools and jobs fuel is about half that and we could manage.

But there are so many factors that can vary and I doubt any two circumstances are the same.

You do realise most people cannot do it right ? Or can barely do it with that ? 1000 for a family to eat and transport is very little
Of course you could, what you mean is they couldn't maintain their current lifestyle, PP budgeting £160pm takeaways, that's easy saved. What do you think ppl earning NMW do?

Exactly @OnaBegonia

There's a lot of people blinded by their privilege on this thread.

Those saying 'we couldn't do it because we have to buy X, Y or Z' have lost sight of necessities vs luxuries.

We could survive on it but would drastically have to change our lifestyle.
Food and fuel are essential bills, I don’t consider those to be optional extras but they’re not really fixed costs in our house.
currently a household of 5 (4 pretty much adults and 1 11yo ds), food is about £200 a week and fuel roughly £150 a week (100 for dh and probably £50 in the smaller car that dd1 and I use and dd2 is learning in. We also have a family car but that’s not a weekly bill because it’s only really used at weekends). Dds bus for college is £80 a month. So that’s £1480 on food and fuel. We’ve got 5 family birthdays this month, I bought a dress and a bottle of wine for the one yesterday and it was about £70 and then our share of the dinner out was £200.
So i’m not actually sure we could manage on £1000 a month because of the petrol/bus tipping is over. It would be a big change in terms of not being able to eat what we like and do things we have become used to doing.

That’s exactly my point!!

Well I survive on a lot less after bills so yes.

Well, that's not quite right is it!

i do need a reasonable amount of fuel & I need to eat, but I don't do any of the other things you listed & it still disappears very quickly.

i could live on that if it was out of work benefits because I wouldn't need £400 fuel to commute.

There a huge band in the middle between splurging & frugal who are just commuting, buying food & paying non optional school lunches etc

I could try but it would be very frugal, we spend at least £250 a week on food and toiletries etc each week as a family of four. 2 adults and 2 teens.

Agree. I don’t spent a fortune (or anything) on coffees, lunches and take always. I do however spend a fortune on fuel! Dh and I spend at least £100 a week between us, I stick to £110 food budget (family of four shop in Aldi) add in DD’s bus pass for school £16 a week, ds’ wraparound care £50 a week - that’s £1000 gone on a four week month. It leaves nothing for any extras. I don’t think we should think ourselves lucky for just being able to survive. Luckily the wraparound care won’t be forever.

@Hayder
I'm sure if you had to you could shave something off £250 pw spend in supermarket, that's very high, there is a huge difference between need and want.

Could survive but in reality we spend around £600 on food and £1000 on other stuff, clothes, entertainment, kids activities, going out, travel to work (locally) for us and the two boys so wouldn't be easy to do that on £600 less. We can afford it though.

Without the luxuries and just the necessities, life is just a grind and not worth living though

For us that would be difficult as food and petrol would be more than 1k a month.
we have 3 teens living at home that cost a lot to feed, and live rural so.every journey involves the car.
If you could walk to work, shops ,activities and just had toddlers to feed then its doable but its not a luxury lifestyle once you factor in clothing, haircuts, dentist, home repairs, holidays, birthdays Xmas, etc

I’m surprised by the replies. I think people missed the part where you said it was to cover food and petrol?

We have teens and 2 diesel cars. £1000 pm after bills would probably be doable but extremely tight.

Or they don’t work full time. Which would probably explain a lot of answers in this thread.

Please don't try for a second baby until you can afford it. 1500 between 2 working adults is pittance..don't be a drain on society

I have about £1500 left after essential household bills and it’s a struggle !