Expenses list - how much do you put for clothes and footwear?

[AllChange2022]

I'm finding it impossible to track what I’ve spent as you can't tell what's online from eBay and Amazon or what's from the high street.

Do people put a standard number for this?

Same with entertainment.

And holidays!

I really struggled with this too and probably didn't put enough in.. So far the mediator hasn't even looked at it.. I think I put around £50 per month for clothes and I don't really go out😫 the kids entertainment added up though

Don't forget to factor in school uniform.
Plus they want designer gear as they get older and my god the cost of shoes!!
For reference...
I hardly buy any clothes for me. I hate shopping so it tends to be supermarket and sale stuff and my coat is 3 years old and I have about 6 pairs of shoes.
I budget c£30pm for me.
For kids I get a lot of 2nd hand stuff from lovely friends including uniform for dd. I buy from sports direct sale for my son and supermarkets for daughter. They have more shoes than me and good ones for school. They have decent coats. DD loves clothes and delights in new things (new to her) whereas DS is like me and is happy with having "enough" and not labels.
I budget £20pm for DD 6 and £20pm for DS12 (but he's 50/50 so ex pays on top of that)
So I'd take what we spend as a really, really low amount compared to most people. Obviously recognising some people are worse off than this.

My solicitor told me to put what we would have spent if still living together as a family….obviously minus ex’s share.

For my expenses - I put in estimates loosely based on total amount I was spending per month -
X pairs of shoes @…,; winter jacket every 4 years, x pairs of jeans; etc

For kids I tried to work off the total historical numbers, making sure I add uniform

ExH wasn’t allowed to question the number I submitted. According to the solicitors - theta how it works.
Judge at the consent hearing took mu number down a bit; but kept the numbers I submitted for the kids.

I think the judges have a general idea of ‘normal’ expense levels given the family income.

Thank you for these helpful thoughts

I downloaded all my bank expenditure into a spreadsheet and allocated each transaction against an expense. Laborious but accurate. I felt comfortable that if any of the expenses were queried, a few were, I could explain easily by filtering the spreadsheet

Oh you lightweights!!

Do some people put down what they think it will actually cost them then?
My ex went LARGE on the costs
Clothing for herself £4080, and for single DD and additional £2100
So £6,180/yr a mere £515/mth

Don't forget the "Pharmaceutical expenses" of £1,200 a year.
Not sure how much of that went up her nose before she filled in the form!!
Total came to over £80k, vastly more than my total income

Wow! You'd have thought she would have noticed expenditure outweighs your income! That just made me laugh. Didn't her solicitor point it out?

What actually happened?!

I'm gob smacked. Perhaps my operating costs ought to feature in my OLD profile!!

@Allchange2022
"What actually happened?!"

Unfortunately it is still ongoing.
Initially I fell off my chair!
Since then I have had 12 months of sleepless nights

If anyone is short of ideas for their form E, you could also try
£1,560 for Personal Hairdressing

£600 for a Beautician (to be fair, this is a bit light to make a dent on her soul! )
£1,200 Cosmetics
£828 Personal trainer
£600 on CDs/DVDs and Books - she's never read a book in her life!

I hope that the judge laughs her out of court....at the FDR which she is insisting on...

@RedLines

Can you enlighten me as to why couples have to go into such depths of detail? The advice I've gotten on another thread is that on about £90k a year with bonuses I'm unlikely to have to pay spousal maintenance - at least not for very long - because I "don't earn enough." However, most people still seem to have to go to excruciating levels of detail in a form E.

Is it a tactical game to get more than their fair share of the assets? Or are they trying it on for spousal maintenance that they are unlikely to get?

She is attempting to demonstrate that her needs are such that she needs spousal maintenance in order to retain the standard of living that she is accustomed to.
I am currently both renting and paying for all of the children's costs as she has stopped working (as a finance director).
Not working is another tactical move on her part in having no income further demonstrates that she needs spousal maintenance.

Unfortunately her level of expenditure claimed is about 30% higher than my net income and I don't believe that any court will award maintenance to a chartered accountant who is voluntarily out of work.
At least that is my hope....I have little faith in the courts though!

£600 a year on CDs, DVDs, books... who still buys CDs & DVDS ?

I'm helping a friend thru a divorce but this kind of thing is not being discussed. Thank goodness

@RedLines

She is attempting to demonstrate that her needs are such that she needs spousal maintenance in order to retain the standard of living that she is accustomed to. I am currently both renting and paying for all of the children's costs as she has stopped working (as a finance director). Not working is another tactical move on her part in having no income further demonstrates that she needs spousal maintenance.

Unfortunately her level of expenditure claimed is about 30% higher than my net income and I don't believe that any court will award maintenance to a chartered accountant who is voluntarily out of work.
At least that is my hope....I have little faith in the courts though!

From all the anecdotes I've heard she'll get laughed out of court. It also sounds like she should be earning more than you, not less. If you're bringing in - what - £55k net you must be on a similar basic salary to me, about £80-90k. An FD would normally earn six figures wouldn't they?

The advice I've received repeatedly is that asset splits and spousal maintenance are based on need and to assess need they look at the earning capacity of each person. Her earning capacity will be huge and I doubt they'll have much sympathy if she quit her job. They'll see right through it.

Yes, it is needs based.
I don't think that she will succeed at all, she is perfectly capable of a six figure salary, and have no doubt she'll get one immediately after the financial deal is sealed by the court.