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.

No not really. I need £250 for fuel just for my car, then we spend about £500 for food/household needs, that leaves £250 per month for the kids clothes, our clothes, shoes etc. Holidays, birthdays, Christmas, days out, coffees out... I'd find it right to be honest. And it also depends on what counts as "main bills".

I don't understand why people are so nasty here. OP read other threads that clearly say they'd struggle with £1900 leftover (I remember that thread!) which has worried her.

That threads worried me too but thankfully I manage on much much much less.

Ugh sorry for typos. Am on a bumpy bus.

Thing is - food and petrol (or public transport costs) to me goes in the essential bills section not discretionary spend.

So it would make more sense if you calculated what was left after bills (eg energy, rent/mortgage, council tax, mobiles etc..) AND food and travel. That is your money for going out, hobbies, holidays, clothes, savings, emergencies, personal grooming, presents etc..

So we live fairly frugally but I would struggle to get it below £2000 a mnth for essental bills (we could cut down food spendign a but I think) for the two of us per month our basic essential costs are:

Mortgage - £1000
Council Tax - £150
Water - £46
Energy - £109
Insurance - £18
Mobiles - £30
Broadband - £22
Service charge - £200
Food and cleaning products (excl eating out) - £320
Transport - £150
Essential cosmetics (deoderant, toothpaste etc..) - £30

So just over £2000 on essential bills.

Easily!

This is to the several of you who have mentioned £200, £450, £600 per month on petrol/diesel: have you looked into an electric car at all?

If you need to charge away from home a lot - or even all the time, because you can’t install a charger at home - the case is a lot less clear cut. But if you can charge mostly at home, you could slash those fuel bills to a fraction of their size.

Example: DH runs a little petrol Toyota iQ and is miffed if he doesn’t get 60mpg out of it. At £1.46 a litre, that works out 11p per mile for fuel. My Hyundai Kona electric (a much bigger car) easily does 4 miles per kWh, that works out less than 5p per mile on my current tariff. But I only switched to that one in order to get higher export rates for solar - on a pure EV tariff, it would be 3p per mile.

So you could cut your fuel bill by 50, 60, maybe 80%. EV’s are currently more expensive to buy/lease, but take account of those monthly savings and there are ways of making it work. For example, the person spending £600 per month on diesel for 2 cars, swap one of them for an EV: bill halved, electricity bill goes up by £50, PCP payment £100 higher, you are £150 better off.

Stealth. I live on a crowded street in the North. Nothing to boast about.

Do you have to buy food and petrol?

Hell, I was going to give you my tips to survive on 1K a month then read you're talking after bills. I'd be fine. Depends how extravagant you are.

Just me absolutely. Me and my 3 adult sized teenagers, its a struggle.

@coffeeanteac I once posted that I spent £70 a week on groceries and I was literally told I must be either homeless or failing to care for my children adequately. No joke.

I also posted a list of free things for families to do at Christmas and someone replied with "you clearly don't have a job"

It can be quite a nasty place when it comes to money.

What an odd question. People manage on much less. If you're asking would there be much left over, probably not but Takeaways, gifts, fun.....well those are luxuries aren't they. Sending your kids to Brownies could be a luxery for some if you cant affordcthe uniform. There are plenty of families still paying off Xmas. They won't have a holiday and if they have a car they'll be worrying about how they are going to get it through it's MOT or pay for their insurance. These aren't necessarily unemployed people either, it's working families crippled by £1k pcm rents and utility/food costs. Parents unable to buy their child a birthday present. No party for them and they darent attend others as they've bought no gift. I've regularly turned down invitations to meals and events because I don't have £50 spare for a ticket. I get particularly irritated when colleagues say 'oh but it's only £25', youve got a month. Decline too often and you're out of the group.
Your OH is very naive.

Yes both work.

"Survive".... well yeah easily survive on £1k after bills.

I think there's a difference between

1. Can you survive with £1000 a month and
2. Would you have a good standard of living.

The main variable for me is fuel/commuting costs. Some people work at home. Some people have eyewatering commuting costs. If you're spending £100 a week on fuel/transport, then suddenly £1000 is gone with just fuel and food.

For our family of 5 we spend about £500 a month on food, which, whilst not economising, is hardly splashing the cash about either. (We are 3 adults and 1 teen).
About £100 a month on fuel/public transport - which I would say is lower than other people.

That's us down to £100 a week - which has to cover clothes, presents, any type of social activity, children's activities, holidays, plus some money put away to cover things like the washing machine breaking.

I think it's possible, and absolutely appreciate that people do it day in, day out, but I also suspect they are constantly watching their pennies and having to economise and cut back.

@JudgeRudy the only one who is odd - is you. Look at your long rambling post. Just to be snippy and patronise the OP? Wow what an achievement 👏 you must be proud.

I have £300, so £1000 is a dream

We couldn’t. Not with commuting costs, dogs, food, tutoring for exam-aged DC (thank you Covid 🤬) and just general living.

@Ginmonkeyagain while food is essential, there is also a lot of discretion in how much you spend on it. There’s just me and DH and we typically spend £80 on a supermarket shop, can be £100 if we’re stocking up on coffee/dishwasher tabs/laundry stuff, but I know I could cut that down by doing more cooking from scratch. We also have lunch out once or twice a week - nice, but not essential.

Similarly - petrol, bus fares, whatever. Getting to work/school is essential, but not all trips are. And there may be alternative modes of travel which are cheaper, but less convenient. So again, there is usually some discretion in travel costs.

You're spending roughly £100 on fuel and let's say £300 on food a month. That leaves you with £600 to save or spend on luxuries! Surely that's plenty, unless you're eating takeaways 3 times a week and spending a tenner a day on coffee.

We have £500. Am currently wondering how on earth do I buy DC clothes for Summer? They've grown SO much and even Vinted is expensive at the moment!

But no, I don't come onto Mumsnet with the sole purpose of making someone else feel like crap because they have their own worries.

Just daft.

Those that are saying they can’t generally have high fuel costs. Yours are pretty low so you should be ok. It’s not going to be a dream life. But it should be ok with no hard “eating or heating” decisions either.

Yes, absolutely! I help to run a food bank and, for debt referrals, the accepted referral limit for disposable income used by many agencies is if you have less than £200 per month left after food/bills/‘entertainment and communication’ etc…

Roughly £150 a week isn’t much for a family to save and enjoy things though. If you don’t have savings as a bill, that’s got to come out of £600 a month as well as meals out, day trips, takeaways etc. People might have to save for repairs, home improvements, holidays etc which drastically reduces the amount left for living.
I don’t think that’s much for most families.

Lol at the idea of electric cars as a cheap option. The upfront costs are astronomical. There are cars that are much cheaper to run than others though - perhaps people should look again at their Chelsea tractors?

I think you need to clarify what counts as ‘main bills’ op. Most people seem to be excluding heating and electricity.

I have survived with only £50 left after all bills and expenses paid, but that was before I had kids.