Is £2250, month, enough to live in post all livings costs are paid for

[Isitenough2250]

I am very aware that I may get slammed, and I am
prepared. DP has had a terrible time at work the past few years, as we have both seen terrible side affects of what stress can do heart attack/ stroke/
severe mental health issues - we thought it best for him to leave the job. Having worked out our budget, post mortgage/ bills/ insurances etc being paid we have £2250 left a month. That is for two adults and a cat. Out of which is food and then life costs, as in choices - gym/ hair cut/ going to the cinema.

Having never had to budget ever, is this enough? Sufficent savings/ investments for emergencies…..it is 2250 that we have come up with for food and miscellaneous spending.

Am prepared to be roasted, also any budgeting tips appreciated.

We think it will be about a year.

You're surely joking 🤣

This seems like a fake attention seeking post to me

You ought to be able to have fun and save with what is left.

More than enough i have £85 to last a month and thats got more bills to come out and food

You will be fine. Go through last 2 months bank statements and work out to the penny what you spent your money on. Ie £50 Costa coffee. Then you can decide what you enjoy best in life and what you could do without.
you can often shop cheaper so maybe change to a cheaper supermarket and gym.
maybe go to cinema on a cheaper day.
dint forget to add in things like window cleaner gardener or any bills like car insurance if you pay annually for example.
things like having nails done are essential but I think there be room in your budget for a few treats.
don’t worry about savings if you have some. Although I think you might need to be prepared that your husband might never return to his previous income and that ok. Health is wealth and you will still have enjoyed a nice lifestyle.
there are plenty of saving tips to reduce bills on money supermarket start watching Martin Lewis programmes for tips to bring bills down.
we don’t have your income but things we had to cut back on are buying sandwiches for work, eating out or eating out very occasionally and not ordering expensive cocktails, space out hair cuts and colours a bit longer and only get nails done for holidays.
stop buying new clothes for a while too. Pick a cheaper last minute holiday so go 4 star maybe than 5 star and fly economy. Go for a week or 10 days not 2 weeks. Cinema on a Sunday and theatre often have bargains it’s still enjoyable in the back row. Have an older car and not in lease.
Hope that helps.
keep asking for tips and advice lots of people willing to help you.

Thanks, luckily I rarely drink, and started the batch cooking at the weekend. I think I panicked and was an idiot and posted!

There has been some great advice though and resources I didn’t know existed.

Contrary to what some posters have posted, I have always out earned partner, high salary and bonus.

Thank you, I appreciate you taking the time to respond. I have been checking out the Martin Lewis website, switched the energy providers and am noting all the tips.

I have really seen that health is wealth, and there is no job worth it. Thankfully we have never been into the lifestyle and don’t have the expensive cars or feel the need to keep up the neighbours and have got decent pensions, don’t have massive debt etc. I think we were always aware that in the type of jobs we do it was a risk, but being aware of it and it actually happening are two very different things. I had a massive panic and posted this thread and there has been some great tips which I have been very grateful for.

Nails are not essential- that’s nonsense

My other best tip would be divide what you have left by weeks and take that out bank in cash and that’s it when it’s gone it’s gone. So easy just to tap and not think what buying.
when you have to break into your last £20 for a coffee it will make you think do I really need this ? I’ve spent so much since cards I was much better with cash.
I love your attitude seeing this a fun challenge it will really open up your eyes to how much money you probably wasted when you had more to spend & that’s ok you could afford it then & now you in a new chapter I promise it will get easier.
my mum always said just shave a little of all your lifestyle and you will get there when I thought I’d have to return to full time work rather than part time work.
be prepared if you have rich friends we seem to have a lot and it might be that you need to skip some fancy dinners or entertain at home
sign up to superdrug boots and asda and Tesco reward cards they add up nicely.
buy deluxe ranges in Lidl Aldi and asda to begin with they often as good as Waitrose and marks almost! John Lewis often give away free coffee and cake on their rewards it’s great getting something for free on a budget.
dont upgrade phones switch to sim only.

Sorry I meant not essential typo ! Hence I said mine only done for holidays but plenty of people I know have small incomes choose nails over stuff I would prefer. Guess it’s a cheap treat compared to say a holiday

My suggestion would be to save as much as you can, minimum of £1000 pcm. I budget £500 for food and fuel and any meals out.

You are being ridiculous of course it's more than enough most people would love to have this amount.

Glad you cleared that up, thank you!

Christ on a bike, that’s nearly two months wages for me!

Errr it’s loads. I don’t think I could spend all that!

It depends on what your social circle will expect of you. Not buying luxury items for a year is much easier than saying "no" to social events.

Yes it’s more than enough, but of course it does depend on how much you spend out on various things - we have economised in the past to spend more money on house renovations. We are a bigger family (2 adults, 2 teen / tween children, a dog, 2 cats, 2 horses and a flock of chickens), and we spend approximately £2400 above our mortgage, bills, insurances and council taxes each month. We bring home about £5000 between us (husband is FT and I am
PT) and our outgoings are roughly:

BILLS
£900 on mortgage
£300 on council taxes as we have 2 properties on our land
£100 water
£200 electricity for both properties (have solar panels on one)
£150 oil for central heating
£30 tv licenses
£120 phone, mobiles and broadband
£200 car and horse insurance

AFTER BILLS
£700 on grocery shopping
£400 on sports clubs memberships / training sessions
£300 on diesel
£50 on car parking
£100 on fun activities like the cinema / entry to a garden etc
£100 on animal feed / farrier
£100 on competition entry fees
£50 on random things like sweets / Pokemon cards / a treat of a magazine or similar for the children
£200 on school extras (trips, mess hall fees etc)
£200 into general savings
£200 averaged out on car MOTs / fixing.

Anything that’s left we bung into savings as things like the cars going wrong only happens once in a while. we spend a lot on sports memberships / training as we both do 2 sports and our children do loads of sports, and compete at national / regional level in at least 2 each. Plus I have my horses which are cheap because they are kept at home but have expensive costs occasionally (tack, vets). We don’t however, have to pay for holidays or school fees as that all comes from a sort of trust fund, and our mortgage is relatively small (£150k ish on a £1.1 million property) so we are very lucky in that respect.

I think you should be fine - to some extent when you first have to budget it’s a case of being frugal to start with and adding things in as it becomes clear you can afford to spend a bit more. But unless you have very expensive hobbies or tastes the amount you have to spend after bills sounds quite comfortable.

I make about 1800 a month and that pays my rent (3bed house in northern Ireland) car insurance, electric, oil and food, baby milk ect. It's hard, especially with a 3 year old and 11 month old but I manage.

Find a spreadsheet (Excel is what I use) and list all your regular outgoings e.g. council tax etc. save it as a master sheet. Then start to create monthly ones going forward so you can plan/add extra expenditure for when car services etc that crop up periodically are due. This then gives me a total of what is left after essentials which I divide up by the amount of weekends in the month (some months have 5 weekends so I need to be a little more careful with my spending)

I also allocate a set amount to to invested in a Stocks and Shares ISA and a cash ISA which is my contingency money to raid (rather than existing savings) if an unexpected bill came in.

How do you know you will be roasted unless you are aware that's a large amount of money to have left over? 🤔

To start creating your budget spreadsheet, I suggest you download your bank statement for the past 3 months and go through it, categorising every spend (food, insurance, travel, car, clothes, entertainment etc) so that you can see where your moneys gone in tbe past. And don't be too generous with the Miscellaneous category! You will then see where there is opportunity for saving, and how much your non-discretionary spend is. It will probably be an eye-opener!
You look at the last 3 months to allow for fluctuations and ad hoc spend.

Don’t you have an online bank account? Download it in a csv file and paste into excel - you need to do your own analysis in what you have spent over last 12 mths- essential, desirable and non essential. Only YOU can do this.

You also need a buffer and decide what you do about the big purchases or potential extras eg cars, garage repairs, holidays. You also really should have min 6 mths net income savings before OH gives his job up. So £12-14k.

Cant OH just downsize his job get something locally less money with less stress?

I think you’ll be fine 🙄

I run a house, a car, 2 of us and 2 dogs for £850 per month, to pay all living costs. Don’t really get to save, though…always something crops up like tyres, toaster breaks - those are this years extras so far. I’d love £1000 so I didn’t have to watch the pennies towards the end of the month.

I don’t get coffee out..like no Starbucks or Costa, but we do eat well.

I am not saying you can’t manage- just that I personally can easily get through £250 a week without going too mad. My two hobbies are £50 a week alone and aren’t especially extravagant.