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.

Spends is such an annoying word. Yabu for that alone

1.5m to work - I’d cycle. Save lots long term.

Oh has she posted about it before

Reported

Nope this is not covered.

Erm ok.

Everything annoys someone on here.

I don't have a bike. I need to drive really.

Why?

Honestly stop troll hunting. I am absolutely serious. 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

So am I

I am genuinely asking for others experience. Don't come on the thread if it bothers you that much.

How very strange?

Given you're in debt because of house renovations, £500 per month is not a lot. I say that based on the assumption that you are a homeowner, so some of that disposable £500 will need to go into a savings pot for what I call my "house shit gone wrong" pot, unless you have budgeted for house savings separately. Same for "car shit gone wrong" savings. I assume you want to stay out of debt for a while.

So then we're realistically looking at £300 per month spending money, which becomes £270 minus the cost of your petrol. It's still doable, even with the occasional treat, but it will feel tight at times and will likely exclude you from certain events like work nights out and weddings.

The teen, depending on age, can look for a job to fund a lifestyle beyond whatever pocket money they get. Mine got a predictable amount, from which they were expected to fund travel to and from town as well as days out with friends, and when it was gone it was tough luck.

I would need to tighten my belt to stick to that budget:
dentists
contacts
car maintenance
pocket money
clothes and shoes for kids and me
family and friends birthday gifts
Christmas
weekly shop
this would take me to about £500pcm without any ad hoc stuff

but you cut your cloth. If that’s all I had I would make it work but for me there would be some massive changes.

🤷‍♀️why tho ?

It’s totally doable, and for some would seem like a lot of disposable income.

HOWEVER

it depends massively on what you’re used to spending. If it’s previously been much higher then it’s going to be a big adjustment. If it needs to cover one off stuff as well as routine then you’re likely to get it ‘right’ if you chunk things out a bit more.

So work out what’s for fuel, what’s for the teen, what’s for ‘other stuff’ like MOT, weddings etc.
That probably gives you more like £200/month for personal disposable income spending. £100 a month to put aside for the ad hoc costs, £70 for car stuff etc.

Do you have separate money going to savings? If not, I'd split it:-

Savings £100 (house and car repairs)
Teen £25pm pocket money (as they have their wages)
Clothing pot for you £100
Nights out pot £75 (I don't go out much so this would roll over)
£50 grooming pot (rolling over for salon trips if you do these)
£100 gifts savings (for Xmas bday)
£50 ad hoc in the purse cash for coffees out etc

If you have a Monzo account you can literally direct debit yourself the 500 and split it into pots.

For takeaways, I'd just see what what left of the separate Groceries budget at month end and use that.

Petrol money £30pcm could mean an annual saving of £360 if you just walked to work and back.

Seriously? I can't even cover my bills each month. £500 each month to spaff up a wall would be a dream.

So this is roughly what I put aside outside of bills money and the 'family care' budget which is clothes, entertainment, medical, extra-curricular. Not necessarily spend but put aside so I have the money there when I need it.

£100 per month Christmas
£30-40 a month for each child's birthday
£50 a month car maintenance
£50 a month home maintenance (reduced to this as we have a healthy fund there now)
£50 a month for miscellaneous emergencies
£200-300 a month holiday fund
£30 a month for misc birthday gifts for DDs' friends, other family members, etc.
£10 a month for annual boiler service
And some other small stuff for annual or bi-annual type stuff.

So if I had to cover all of the above stuff plus clothes, entertainment, petrol, dentist etc for £500 obviously that doesn't really work out. I'd have to trim a lot of stuff to get there.

The problem when you don't account for everything is that you have months when you're feeling flush and then months where you're 'surprised' by predicable expenses. Cars always need MoTs, new tyres, basic repairs.

Obviously some stuff you can cut, holidays for example, but the MSE budget planner is good for working out what your monthly 'outgoings' actually look like, not what they think they are based on what goes out of your account via direct debit each month.

And this is why 'disposable' income is problematic because people view it as disposable but actually sometimes 50%+ of it really needs to be allocated to other stuff and isn't actually disposable. Until you account for everything, you can't have an accurate picture of your finances.

That’s a fortune to have as disposable income

I forgot teens lunch money. It really does just go.

That’s tons. If you’d said that did not include food then that would be tight. But not including bills and food? Sounds like a dream. Wish I had even half of that as pure disposable income.

It really does just go.

Well of course it does if you drop £100 on a night out while in debt, in addition to indulging in takeaways, pubs, cafés.

I rarely go to pub or coffees but I do love a breakfast out. This will have to go.