AIBU to worry that £1000 a month after bills is not enough?

[OhFuckety]

We have had a sudden drop in income. We didn't have loads to begin with but now we have even less and I'm panicking a bit.

After all bills but without food, we will have very slightly £1000 left. There's just me and DH. Is this doable? I've budgeted to within an inch of my life and cut ALL necessary crap but I'm thinking food/toiletries/household stuff is going to eat away about £150 a week of that at least.

We have no way of earning more for the time being but DH hopes to change jobs in the new year which will hopefully bump up our income by about £150pm.

Tell me I'm being a twat and this is completely possible and we'll still have enough for the occasional nice thing!

If there's only two adults then I would think that's fine if you're sensible with your food shop.

Are you taking the piss?

Have you really accounted for all expenses? People say that but then realise they've not accounted for, say, annual bills or incidental expenses like hair cuts.

I believe Money Saving Expert has a useful checklist.

What do you need to buy out of that £1000? We're a family of 4 and spend about £500 a month on food. If you've cut out all unnecessary spending and accounted for all bills, what else are you spending it on?

How many to feed? It’s doable but won’t leave much spare.

What are you eating/doing to think you need to spend £250 a week on food and cleaning products for 2 people?!
We spend less than that for 4 people, including a takeaway every couple of weeks. You’ll be fine!

After bills? It’s completely fine.

This is actually the sort of response I was after!

We've lost about £600pm which we used to save for Christmas/use for trips and things. I was worried that we wouldn't be able to afford the occasional trips or meal out on that. I know it's enough to cover food and groceries but my calculations looked a bit worrying.

Thank you for being blunt, it's exactly what I needed.

Agree with this. There’s a lot that isn’t necessarily a monthly bill but has to be accounted for. Christmas, birthdays, dental, haircuts, car servicing and repairs, boiler service, home maintenance, replacing household equipment, etc.

Is that amount excluding savings and emergency funds like car repairs? If you haven't accounted for those then £1000 might be tight.

Not so long ago I had about £600 after bills for 5 of us and that had to do all food shops and any other "life" spends!

So yeah, I'm sure you will cope 🙄

£1000 for food shopping for two people for a month…. I’m sure you’ll be fine. Just be mindful about what goes in your trolley if you usually would spend around that amount

I trained as a hairdresser many moons ago so I take care of our hair. I was worried about things like dental/opticians bills which is one of the things we used to put money aside for. We won't be able to save much or at all now and that's what really worries me.

Good heavens some families have less than that each move to live on . Of course two people can easily manage with that income.

So that equates to 250 a week for 2 adults, what are you eating, spraying on yourselves that you will struggle to manage? 😂

It depends how comprehensive your budget is and what other day to day expenses you had.

If you had to get the car repaired, replace the washing machine or pay a prescription, have you money put aside for this or would it come out of the £1000?

What about travel to work? How much is your petrol/tickets etc?

I'd have thought you could do the food budget on significantly less than £500 pm so you should have spare money for a bit of a life, but it really depends.

Does that include all your groceries eg toiletries/cleaning products etc?

We weren't massively well off before but we were used to just chucking stuff we fancied in the trolley when we went shopping and it not being an issue. We will be cutting back hugely from that and cutting out booze (we used to spend maybe £20 a week in a couple of bottles of wine).

It's not being able to save that's really bothering me, though. I have crappy teeth and eyes and my glasses/dentist bills mount up, we used to save towards that but I'm not sure how we can now.

I was worried about things like dental/opticians bills which is one of the things we used to put money aside for. We won't be able to save much or at all now and that's what really worries me.

Well you've proven my point - your £1,000 isn't just for food. You need to do a proper list of expenses and work out what's essential and what's desirable. And where you can shop around for cheaper suppliers.

We rent from a HA so no worries re boilers/household repairs etc, thankfully. But dentist and opticians is a worry.

Just me and DH.

Well you won’t be going on multiple 5* holidays, but you’re not going to starve. “Enough” for what exactly? What level of comfort are you hoping for?

No car and transport is negligible as WFH. HA so no major household repairs to worry about. We won't be able to save for things like dentist bills though.

This is exactly what I came to say.

People do regular expenses only, not car MOT, christmas, maintenance costs and all the other annual costs.

A good budget includes these too and @DisplayPurposesOnly is right that MSE has a good one.

I think you need to be ruthless on the food shop. £150 a week for two is generous. We are about £100 for four. Aldi and Lidl are cheaper as long as you avoid branded.

Use the money you save here to put aside for other expenses/and emergency fund.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/budget-planning/

Scroll down to find the spreadsheet. It will give you a good idea of where your money needs to go.

It's not just food shopping though unfortunately, it's everything shopping including clothes, toiletries etc. And to save for things like Christmas, the occasional treat plus stuff like dentist and opticians.

I think it's likely we're a bit fucked but not quite as fucked as I imagined