Terrible Budget. Can't make it work. Can anyone advise?

[kravestix]

As a family we have £1352 per month left over after Mortgage and Bills. This DOESN'T include: Food, Petrol and Childcare.

So how would you allocate the remaining money?

Fuel Costs are around £190

Childcare roughly £125 until July 2022.

Food, I normally budget £350 but being realistic it's probably more like £410-£450.

Then whatever is left has to be budgeted for stuff like clothes, car repairs, emergencies like, breakages, repairs, prescriptions, eye tests, dental Emergencies, vet Emergencies. And sadly, I can't seem to make it stretch to more fun things like the odd day out, any personal spends, no chance of a holiday!

Other than upping income, I'm not sure how else to make it work.

£125 per month or per week? How many people and cars?

If you've got £600 left after all essential are paid for then I don't understand why you cant afford the odd day out?

Martin Lewis said that the quickest way to increase your income is to ask your employer for a payrise? Have you considered doing this?

Well after bills and the childcare, petrol and food at 450 you've got 580 odd left. I struggle to see how you can't budget for everything else. If it were me I'd shove maybe 400 in a savings account to go towards big things Ie holidays and car repairs and use the rest for the little bits you end up spending throughout the month.

Can you cut the fuel by walking anywhere?

Forgot to add neither of us are paying into a pension at the moment either which is worrying me. If we were that would be another £165 a month we lost from the budget.

This doesn’t sound too bad Op! I’m sure loads of people get by on much less!!

Find a cheap meal you like and have it once a week. Baked potatoes and salad/beans/coronation chicken, or bread and soup, the trick is not to share with everyone that it’s cheap just find something the like

@HumdrumGuga

£125 per month or per week? How many people and cars?

Two cars. Two adults and a 3 year old. Plus DHs 4 kids every other weekend.

@HumdrumGuga

£125 per month or per week? How many people and cars?

Sorry, it's 125 a month.

Health prepayment plan for dental etc?

Allocate a budget each month -
£100 unexpected car payments
£100 Health care/dentists
£100 days out £100 clothes
£100 Holidays fund
£80 savings fund
Once your childcare costs reduce, start paying into a pension?

Use different account or an account that let's you set up savings pots?

Pay into a pension. It’s tax efficient
Start with monzo. Use their pots or budgeting tab.
Stop eating meat.
So you really need two cars? Could you not cycle to work?
Honestly it doesn’t seem too bad.

So it’s £1037 after childcare and fuel.
Watch your food costs as that’s where you can make the most savings.
Anything else you can save on utilities? Make sure you’re getting the best deals.
I’d put £250 into savings every month in case of costs like appliance needs to be replaced or car needs attention. After a year, if you don’t need to use it, you’ll have £3000 and can use some to go on a mini break or something.

Days out can be free or cheap. Take picnics, take balls, bikes, kites and frisbees. Go to country parks, woods and beaches.
Take kids swimming and museums. Cinemas are open. They All used to do cheap kids films I’m not sure if they still do. Take your own drink, sweets and popcorn from a multipack.

Don’t go crazy on birthdays and Christmas. Kids can still have a great time doing stuff and getting a few presents.

@5zeds

Find a cheap meal you like and have it once a week. Baked potatoes and salad/beans/coronation chicken, or bread and soup, the trick is not to share with everyone that it’s cheap just find something the like

Thats a really good idea.

@Username7521

Pay into a pension. It’s tax efficient Start with monzo. Use their pots or budgeting tab. Stop eating meat. So you really need two cars? Could you not cycle to work? Honestly it doesn’t seem too bad.

DH could cycle but I couldn't, it's too far. Doubt he will though.

@Username7521

Pay into a pension. It’s tax efficient Start with monzo. Use their pots or budgeting tab. Stop eating meat. So you really need two cars? Could you not cycle to work? Honestly it doesn’t seem too bad.

And sadly he would still need his car anyway even if he cycled to work.

clothes - go through everything you all have, it can be surprising what you have but don't wear. Allocate a budget for nursery/school uniform and shoes.

car repairs - £190 of fuel being used per month, could be well over 1000 miles a month, so factor in a reasonable amount for car repairs, MOT, road tax, annual service. Can you reduce the car usage?

emergencies - have an emergency fund which is for general purpose use, such as 3 to 6 months of typical monthly expenses. Once it is at that amount, stop adding to it, only replenish what gets used.
Some things you can insure against... Pet Insurance for example.

Childcare cost seems quite low to me and ends in July 2022 - why does that end?

Decide what every pound will be spent on for the month ahead, be as detailed as you can, you can always be more broad with categories later once you have got spending in control.

Track everything, list it on a spreadsheet, in a budgeting app, or whatever you are happy using, it could just be a note book. £350 for food but it may be £450... you need to know what you are spending on food. If you have several supermarkets in your local area, sites like www.Trolley.co.uk can help compare prices between stores.
Avoid eating out and takeaways.

Give you ours for two adults and a 2yo
£240 food for the month, very rarely top up, normally if unexpected hosting

We don't eat out, we take picnics
We got for walks to go out or take from frozen peas to feed the ducks.

Over the last year we've been doing 'pots' that we keep track of on excel, paying £50 a month into for dentist, car repairs, holiday, DIY. Once they are at a level we are happy with with then look at reallocating the money unless we have to dip into that pot if that makes sense.

I would prioritise the pension over going out tbh

1352 - 125 (childcare) - 450 (food) - 190 (fuel) = 587.

Car repairs are a bill if you have to have a car. My estimate is that each car costs around £100 a month in costs (excluding purchase), so that leaves you with £387.

I guess you also have to buy clothes out of that as well as vet bills, household repair/ replacement bills, and health related costs? That seems very tight to me. Maybe you spend £100 a month on clothes for you and all the kids, and another £50-100 on the other costs? So maybe you have around £200 a month left - and from that you'll want to buy presents for 5 kids at birthday and at Xmas. Not a lot left really for other fun spends. Perhaps it would help to keep track of spends more and see what your full bills really are?

Is there a way to reduce costs? E.g. rent somewhere cheaper, re-mortgage, share a car, cut down food costs? If not I think things will remain tight until your bills go down or income goes up.

DH could cycle but I couldn't, it's too far. Doubt he will though.

OP it’s all about priorities (as someone told me on this site is not a very nice way when I was asking about budget a few years ago).
You either draw up a budget to fit your lifestyle or you make your lifestyle fit your budget.
Or you get a pay rise (I did this).
Have a really good think about priorities and plan accordingly. Good luck!

The mistake is to overthink this. As you've no idea when your washing machine will conk out or when you'll get a flat tyre, just stick £480 a month into a separate account and keep £100 for a couple of days out. This separate account is for all emergencies and should give you peace of mind.

Join national Trust or English Heritage or both. I can take 12 children on my membership tickets though 2 is enough for me!

Is £1352 after yearly expenses or before?

My yearly expenses I mean car insurance, Xmas, kids birthdays, home insurance, MOT, TV license etc.

If it’s really too far to walk or cycle then you can’t save that way, but weirdly you can go much further than you think. (I’m fat and unsporty). Don’t try and cycle/walk all the time try once a week. What saves money is lots of small changes. Don’t buy coffee out and carry nice cold water in the car. In my experience dh is better at sticking to healthy changes (eg cycling at the weekend instead of buying stuff/trips) than budget stuff. I think we all are really.

I live off what you have left over every month with 5 of us. It is doable though hard.