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 I could.

We couldn’t but our food and fuel combined as around £1000 a month (more fuel than food).

It depends on your spending and how willing you are to adapt.

If you have a long commute so use lots of fuel, spend a fortune on daily coffee, work lunches, have expensive takeaways multiple times every week, socialise eating out a lot, dont meal plan, expensive toiletries/hair, gifts could amount to anything depending on your attitude to them etc £1k will dissapear quite easily.

Living frugally to survive, £1k is a lot and you should be able to save some every month.

I had a short time two years ago where I lived off 1k total. Paid mortgage, bills, council taxes and food shopping. Friends passed on hand me downs for the kid’s clothes and I didn’t have to pay for hobbies due to lockdown. I got free school meals for the kids and discounted council tax. Wasn’t easy but I did it.

Oh goodness yes.

One main thing we did on very little was almost halt everything for a year. Then during that time saved in teeny amounts for everything.

I brought some of those tins you can only open with a can opener and had one for everything like Christmas, holidays, birthdays.

Dh set up seperate accounts for the childrens stuff like school meals, clothes, extras. It took a year of monthly small payments to give us a foundation to pull on.
So by the second year, our finances were so much more stable because when it came to dc bday we already had some money. When it came to Xmas we already had some money.
Each week we knew exactly what we had for fun at weekend or a take away, petrol and so on.

Each month money is assigned somewhere now.

We couldn't but we're a family of 6 and £200 is gone on fuel straight away and spending at least £150 a week on food currently. We would struggle to cover everything else on £200 a month but we could and have done when we were a family of 3

I dream of having £1000 left after my bills are paid.

Wow easily we could, we have around £400 after mortgage, bills etc per month for fuel, food and everything else. Family of 4. We have nothing left at the end and don't get to go on holidays but we definitely survive and are better off than a lot of families.

I'd love 1000 to spend affer bills. 🤣🤣 I'd feel loaded. We literally have about 500 a month after all bills and childcare, that almost all goes on food/baby clothes.
Forever treading water.

Quite easily! That is my budget. In short:

300 for food
200 saving
150 for petrol
150 for social and treats
100 for miscellaneous stuff
25 for gifts
20 pet food
10 charity
and a bit left over.

Yes it's doable but it's tight unless you live very frugally imo. A couple of years ago you could have a very nice life with it though!

Yes it's entirely possible. But you would have to watch all your spending. You wouldn't be able to build emergency savings and if you needed a large item- car/boiler/ double glazing/ school trip/ washing machine bla bla bla, it would be difficult.
But month to month, being careful, buying necessaries but no indulgences.... yes.

I probably could. I’d be miserable though. Having to keep track of spending and wonder whether you can afford something you like the look of all the time must suck. But I suppose you just learn to get used to finding deals and cheap / free stuff to entertain yourself with.

How much is your monthly food shop op?

And your fuel costs?

Do you get take away or eat out?

When you say gifts do you mean for your family for birthdays etc?

What about vehicle maintenance ?is that already covered?

Do you have an emergency fund if an appliance goes wrong or a tyre blows?

Our food monthly is around £700 and fuel around £300 so it wouldn't work for us at all but everyone's circumstances are different

Haha yes of course. We manage on much less with 3 children and 2 cats.

After main bills? A huge number of people and families in this country not only could, but already do. To not know this is staggeringly, wilfully ignorant.

For the millions of people who would be overjoyed at having £1000 left each month after bills, it's a kick in the teeth.

That would be the dream!

Our groceries come to around £600 a month. Diesel for all cars £600 a month.

That’s already over £1000 with absolutely nothing left for takeaways, days out, meals out, cinema, bowling etc

Okay but I’m guessing you don’t shop in Lidl and you don’t run two ford fiestas?

I think most people survive on nothing after bills, but 1k is a huge amount

The majority of people do.

I shop in Aldi mainly & Asda for the few bits I can’t get in Aldi. There are 6 of us.

I’m guessing the people here who say they couldn't possibly afford it just mean they couldn’t maintain their current lifestyle on it.

Guess it comes down to what you mean by ‘afford’.

@moveoverye I think there are too many variables, a family of 4 would find it easier than a family of 8.

A family who have a 2 hour commute will use a lot more fuel than people who can walk to work 🤷🏼‍♀️

Think your DH is a bit stupid. Most of us manage on much less as we have no choice!