500 pcm for spends.

[candlelightees]

Could you have £500 only for petrol and monthly spends?

I want to pay off a house renovation loan and get out of debt. All bills food would be covered if budgetws carefully.
I would have 500 left for petrol and anything else. I live 1.5 miles from my work. So petrol isn't that much. This would be for clothes, house stuff, odd £5 for a teen, takeaways, pub, entertainment, cafe visits. Basically fun stuff but petrol and dentist, prescriptions would have to come out of it if needed. Also any school extras for teen such as y11 hoodies, yearbook etc.
so £500 would have to cover everything but household bills and food.

Could you do it? Money just seems to disappear these days. One night out would blow 1/5th of it.
I think I need a boring year. I also want to do tbe garden but that will have to wait.

This would have to be for at least a year I think maybe longer.

I think that's plenty. I guess it depends on how much debt you're in and how quickly you want to pay it off. When I was in debt I wanted to pay it off as quick as possible so I cut everything back. It was miserable to be honest but it did the job and then I saved to go travelling. Going without also made me appreciate the small things!

Me too.

I have about 500p per month. Do it, it's easy 👍

That's lots if not including food.

I spent around £60 on petrol, can't remember last takeaway, we go to the pub most weekends which is £20-30, I doubt you really need clothes, skip the coffees out and you'll be fine

I would budget the £500 further, be realistic about what comes out of it on a annual basis say 2 prescriptions and dental visits ( maybe £30 a month), petrol (£60) personal grooming including hair cuts and nails (and non supermarket toiletries like perfume makeup.( £50 a month) your clothes budget (£50 a month), teens pocketmoney or fun stuff,(£50) takeawys £50, house stuff £50 you might find that in reality your genuine free money is £160 for coffee nights out cinema drinks etc

I presume kids clothes, regular pocket money, birthdays, christmas, holidays, house maintenance car maintenance are accounted for elsewhere and you have an emergency fund for say a broken washing machine

my completely free disposable spare cash per month is £100 and out of that I need to buy clothes and pay for gym / swimming at £27 so basically clothes etc are £50 or £600 a year and that leaves me £23 for coffees etc it is occasionally supplemented by birthday / christmas money and an extra job I do 2-3 times a year for about £220. However things like birthdays and emergency funds and savings are all accounted for separately

How long for? It’s doable short term as you can just not buy clothes etc. but longer term it’s trickier. And what if your phone breaks. Or your car. Or you need need to travel to see a sick relative. What about holidays.

has the teen got their own income?

Have you budgeted for savings? If not I’d be putting £200 away each month to build an emergency pot and really curtailing eating out, new clothes etc. On a month to month basis £500 is fine for discretionary spending but it won’t stretch if you have a car repair or something in the month.

That is plenty!

This is a joke right?
I pay myself 500 per month and save 200. The rest covers everything excluding rent and bills including food, nappies, toiletries etc

It’s about what I have and it’s fine, except for Christmas and birthday presents, or paying off holidays. I don’t buy coffees ever now, and only go out to eat once a month (with four of us a meal out is easy £150).

That’s roughly what I have after all bills/ food/ rent- and it is doable (LP, one child) and I’m paying down debt too. It’s fine MOST of the time- we have money for top up shops, the odd treat, DS’s clubs… I can’t generally afford a night out unless it’s local and cheap. Where it gets tricky is when you have a month with a few birthdays or a wedding or other celebration, or i need to see a dentist. Christmas is a bloody nightmare even done frugally.

so yes, it’s fine, but be prepared for squeaky months!

Yes easily. I allow myself £250 after bills inc petrol etc.

I wouldn't have 500 aimlessly flapping around.
I would designate it, 150 to weekend spends, 100 for teens clothes and needs 100 for take aways etc. 100 for Christmas and birthday

Yes that is easily doable

But regardless of that, you could ditch the car and walk to work at 1.5 miles!

Sounds a lot!

Why drive to work if its 1.5m?

You drive 1.5 miles to work?

My four year old walks that to school.

It has to include all of this too. No holiday this year though.

The teen is very expensive. Nails? Eyes etc but she has a little job which will pay for that.

Thanks all it is interesting how it is loads to some but others may struggle.

I am not joking to pp. it's not like I have a few thousand spare.

That is loads. I read things like this and seriously wonder how people live. We're savers and live very frugally, certainly without most of the things listed, but still feel quite 'abundant' and hardly as if we're missing out on anything.

You can do it, easily.

Good idea. My money aimlessly flaps but your idea is much better

I have too much to carry and it starts really early. Petrol is £30 pcm really.

Yes it should do. It's £100 a week give or take. You have to tailor your lifestyle to match your budget, not the other way round. And if this means that some months there is no takeaways or visits to coffee shops then so be it.

Write out a proper budget that includes everything, not vague handwavium estimates. £500/month after housing costs, bills, and food should be plenty if you can keep control and avoid extravagance.

Just stepped straight back to 1955 with that response, which I sincerely hope was a joke.

Clothing, footwear, car maintenance covered? Emergencies like phone or washing machine breaking or needing a plumber or electrician covered?