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.

Make sure you buy the cheapest petrol around - my cheapest locally is Asda. It makes a big difference in the month.
Switch where you shop, I have a £6k debt to pay off this year so I've switched my shopping to Lidl, buy in bulk and make everything from scratch. I save hundreds of pounds a month doing this.
Don't buy any ready made food.
I earn less than you after mortgage and bills have been paid and manage to save £500 a month.
Mind you I am brutal and buy nothing we don't need as a matter of urgency.

£1,352pcm
Food: £433 (£100 a week x4.33)
Fuel: £195 (£45 a week x 4.33)
Childcare: £130 (£30 a week x4.33)
NET: £594

I’ve rounded up your figures as you keep saying ‘roughly’ or ‘approximately’ or ‘realistically it’s more like’ so that means you’re almost certainly underestimating.

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!

£594.00
Car maintenance & repairs: £75 (tyres, MOT, insurance excess)

Health: £50 (prescriptions, dental, eye tests)

‘Emergencies’: £75 (breakages/repairs/vet)

Clothes: £100 (2x adults, 3 yr old, DH’s DC)

Leaves you almost £300 towards days out, personal spends, haircuts, holidays etc. If you want holidays they really need splitting out into a separate budget/savings account.

It seems to me like you don’t really know what you spend so an app like YNAB would be really useful as it forces you to think about your real priorities.

Have you thought about looking at your bills/mortgage to see if they can be reduced?

I have always saved money by taking my own food everywhere and drinks (get a good travel mug), being a member of the National Trust or Historic Houses (nice gardens to wander around) and meal planning. Like someone else suggested, I have a cheap meal one day a week (omelette and salad/soup and crusty bread). I also use ‘pots’ within my bank account (Lloyds) that I put money on for holidays/car bills etc.

Is your mortgage really big? Can it be reduced?

Can you go through your last few bank statements and identify where the money has been paid out?

We have only a little more left after mortgage and bills with similar food costs. We do lots of the things talked about above - at least annual check we are on the best rates/haggle with providers, etc etc.
The most helpful thing has been doing a thorough check through bank statements/transactions and seeing where all the money is really going.
Switching to starling helped me with this - it categorises your spending so you can tot up the true costs at the end of the month (can take some adjusting so it learns how to categorise each merchant)
Starling is great as it also allows you to create savings 'spaces' and we do this for a huge number of things - renovating the house, Christmas, emergency fund, days out etc.
I used to use YNAB which was excellent for learning some principles about giving every pound a job, using the envelope method of budgeting, etc. Their videos can be watched for free without the software I think.
Now I just use an excel spreadsheet. Couldn't do without it really as we've often had less money to play with.

I know this is going off thread a bit but you need to start paying into a pension. You’re missing out on employers contributions aka free money. Go for things like National Trust Membership, I think it’s under £20 a month for a family. I would be scouring the newspaper for free activity days in local parks and take the kids there. You can definitely get that food bill down too.