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.

If you have a family and that £1000 has to include food and petrol, then depending on your circumstances (where you live, commute length, number and age of kids etc etc), then I can see why you might find it tricky.

Obviously many people have to get by on far less. I did too at one point. It was shit.

That's more than we have surplus every month. Of course £1,000 is enough. But then we rarely do takeaways. Gifts?? How often do you buy presents for people?

I’d feel rich if I had that left over after the necessities had been paid for. I find budgeting easier if I divide the disposable income up by the weeks in the month till next payday (including variables) to give me a weekly budget. I can go under it but I can’t go over it. If I do go over then I’ll go under the following week to make up the difference. I find that better than just randomly spending the money.

£1000 per month on a month with 31 days is £32 per day. I think a lot of people spend £32 per day on average on food/travel/clothes/shoes/school trips/etc.

I have £1000 a month after bills, almost exactly. It’s really tough. Food is about £400pm. Petrol/trains for work and school is easily £250. That leaves me with £350 for everything else. That’s £11.20 per day. I can easily spend that on the most boring, tedious essentials for my children.

Absolutely. And have some to put away.
Unless you are driving a tonne for work and use a lot of petrol?

You could certainly survive….but I’d question if you could ‘live’

I’m one of 4 with 4DC, 3 school age who have their own friends and I have 15 nieces and nephews.
We have at least 1 birthday every month to buy for.

Yes. Easily.

Of course. That’s doing OK. Plenty of people on less. Some much much less.

it would be very tight for us - we have some debt for a start but even not accounting for that there’s feeding 2 adults and 3 hungry kids, clothing (second hand eBay) for kids who are growing like weeds and normally at least one of them needs something every month, shoes, travel to work which is £££ (London), nappies/wipes, household items like washing powder (I have to do a big wash everyday to keep on top of everything.

There would be absolutely no slack for emergencies like the boiler or car breaking down let alone holidays or saving for birthdays /Christmas etc.

Just 30 quid a day to spend on luxuries, you cannot be serious!!!

That’s a choice though, you don’t have to.

If you’d have asked me 2 years ago, no problem but with rising fuel & shopping costs this would leave us about £50 a week for presents, going out, kids sports, holidays, savings so not ideal but not far off our reality and why we’re always overdrawn!

Those of you spending so little on food nowadays, how are you doing this? I spend about £125 a week in Lidl, mainly cook from scratch, no alcohol but does include packed lunch stuff for 5 days. We spend another £10ish on milk/bread top-ups so minimum £550 -£600 a month for 4 adults (parent& teen boys) and 2 cats. Where am I going wrong?

I could take up smoking again!!!!

i mean, i live on £500 for the month for food and all other stuff so yes i definitely could, its a struggle on 500 but manage but its only temporary

Clearly all families are different. I’m very lucky we don’t have any money worries but I would never not buy for my family on their birthday.

God that would be lovely

I can see that it would be tight by the way, and you would have to manage it well to afford any extras, but it is OK.

We could do it but would have to curtail our quality of life a lot. £150 a week on food would leave about £400 for the month for everything else. Depending on how much of that you need for fuel, you could easily be left with £50 a week for all discretionary spending which with a family could absolutely disappear. Kid needs new shoes and a pair of trousers - that’s it for the week.

People on here love to tell you that this sort of money is fabulous and comfortable but to live any sort of reasonable quality family life, it’s very tight indeed.

Your husband is right. That’s what I have (only work very part time) and my husband pays all bills, including most of the food shopping and my car fuel.

£1,000 does not go far.

Of course after bills etc we have around £1000 and have a good social life
There's only 2 of us and can easily manage on £300 a month or less for food

Ignore me because I have topped it up in my head and we drive so little that petrol wouldn't even be considered a monthly cost so I feel a bit bad about that comment now. This makes a huge difference.

We also spend alot of time meal planning and budgeting which keeps that cost down meaning there is room for a takeaway in the budget.

@MsJD £32 per day for food, petrol and everything bb else that crops up in normal family life. It doesn’t allow much room for non essentials.

If you're having to pay for food, MOTs, emergency repairs etc out of that you won't have much left over for fun each month.

What's his proposal if that's not enough?

Some of us have to live on much, much less. So good for you that you have that. It's not a question of 'can't', it's that many have to.