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.

that is loads after bills and food. What exactly is your concern? most people will have a lot less.

Packed lunches are a thing.

Seems to me there’s two possible situations here. One is you actually need to live on this budget out of sheer necessity, in which case you need to start being a lot more frugal. Might be boring but that’s just how it is. Or you actually don’t need to live on it, you’d just in theory like to pay off your debt. In which case you have some choices to make about your financial priorities. Other people’s experiences aren’t really going to help you here, you need to write your own budget and then either cut your cloth accordingly or, if the budget is optional, decide whether your priorities are socialising, takeaways and buying lunches or paying off your debt.

Either way I think I’d be more worried about not having money for entirely foreseeable things like a car or washing machine breaking than the loss of £100 nights out, but you do you.

That seems loads to me.

It’s really not flush once school expenses, money for your child, dentist, birthdays, Christmas presents, clothes and activities etc are all taken out. It’s obvious liveable but not particularly flash.

You CAN do it but you'll be scrimping and not having fun or wearing nice clothes

I would also drive to night outs to save alcohol funds and taxis

If something broke. I wouldn't have as much to pay the debt I guess.
I just hate it hanging over me. I could do it over 2 years but more interest.

Now a night out I would get a lift,walk or bus Don't really use taxis.

I don't even go out that much. Just have this month.

How much are dds lunches? I keep a budget spreadsheet and the amount I preload into ParentPay for the kids lunches is factored in as a Groceries cost, £3 per day, per dc, for each school day that month.

I'd say it depends on you current spending. If someone was getting through 5k a month and suddenly cut to 500 then I imagine they would find it hard. It is obviously possible but lifestyle changes aren't easy. If someone was cutting from 750pm to 500pm then it would be much easier.

Walk or cycle to work? Maximum of half an hour each way on foot, less on a bicycle.

After food and bills that is plenty lots of people have less then that left

Approx £15 a week.
She has Arfid so no pack lunches as she hardly eats anyway.

No but then I’d spend that I’m a week.

For some, it'd be loads; for others, it would barely be sufficient.
I wouldn't be thinking of having £100 if I were serious about paying off debts.
Have a frugal in '25, then 'go large' in '26?!

Should be ok but I would try to break that £500 down a bit further into budget categories and see how it feels.
Haircuts
Clothes
Home repairs/emergencies
Xmas & birthdays
School uniforms / school costs
Leisure
Travel
Toiletries/beauty

You always get those kinds of posts. "Is it a joke?"

Because some people have lived their whole lives scrimping and saving on low incomes and know how to make a tenner stretch a long way. If you are already set up and have made life choices to always be on a tight budget, any more than that would of course seem plenty.

If you've always been used to a general household budget of say £1.5k, it's not a daft question at all to query if you can cut it down to just a third of that, for a significant period.

We could, if we had too, but we couldn't out of choice for more than about three months. Because we've got numerous children, several vehicles, private healthcare etc. We wouldn't have chosen those things if we ever thought we'd be on a budget that made them unaffordable.

@candlelightees what large costs do you have. Car? The annual service is £500+. Then there's the MOT. Any pets? Boiler services. Birthdays, school trips, Christmas, all that jazz...

How much would you pay off the debt

You need budget everything including Christmas, hair cuts, beauty, birthdays, car repairs dentist, prescriptions, vet, entertainment, sport, lunches, holidays, weekends away, school trips, house matienance and essential home spending

He MSE budget planner linked is good

Then work out how much you have left.

Then save a 1000 emergency fund whilst still paying minimum.

Then payoff the debt.

Starling is helpful for saving spaces.

The You Need A Budget app is fantastic for working out how to cover expenses that only come up every so often, like car services and so on. I've been using it for just over a year and it's made such a difference to my (naturally terrible) ability to manage money. You can also do the same thing manually with a spreadsheet.