Does anyone get by on about £2k/month net spending?

[lljkk]

Basically, we are spending too much, am wondering what our spending might look like if we reduced it to something rather more sensible!! Anyone willing to share what their avg. monthly spends look like, how much spent in different categories, I mean, especially if it's around the £2k mark?

Thx in Advance.

But they only need one blazer, even x2 and over 12 months that is only £8 pm. And yes buy 2nd hand for larger ticket and less well used items.

I think saying "first world problem" is a bit patronising to people in the third world! Do you imagine they don't write budgets too? I think most people find spare money (even if later in the month find it wasn't spare!) Ends up being spent on useless crap from Brighton to Bali -that's human nature. Plus you'll notice no one complains about their budget going on tax which pays for a society the third world can only dream of. ax

Um, maybe it's because you aren't spreading the cost of uniforms over 12 months. Like LIZS says? Of course it would sound horrendous when the big bills come in.

v impressed with anyone who can write down all their expenses in detail

can you try a month of cash only to make you feel like it's 'real money'?

took bloody hours to work it all out, Merci.

hmmm... bit late for me to start a thread about uniform costs. Would be very interested if anyone else wants to get that going!

First world problem - that's where everyone here lives, so it's sort of inevitable

I don't understand why people would choose to be judgemental/sarcastic about other peoples money. Some people work damn hard for what they have, some people have better jobs because (I dont mean to be horrible here) they made better choices earlier on in life and therefore got better jobs.

No doubt I will get shot for this...but there have been times (last year included when DH was made redundant) when we have lived on a shoe string

Mortgage: £2000
Food: £500 (3 adults, 3 children, 2 dogs, 2 cats and a rabbit)
Gas/electricity: £150
Council tax: £210
Phone/Broadband: £30
Aupair: £300

Cleaner: £160
Park savings for Xmas: £225
Childrens clothes: £225
Holiday savings: £200
Car savings: £200
We have (roughly) 1k a month each to spend- car insurance, petrol, trips out (we take it in turns to pay), nights out with friends, dates (again we take it in turns), clothes, golf, gym membership and personal savings.

We pay most of our big expenses in one go, but dividing it out it's roughly this. We never go out and don't buy smokes/alcohol. We do spend a lot on food though.

£450 rent
£600 groceries
£20 landline
£15 internet
£25 council tax
£133 gas/eletricity
£130 car (this includes petrol, services and insurance)
£33 water
£17 content's insurance
£20 or so on entertainment (buying new books, games, etc.)

We put a total of £2k in the joint account each month to cover:

Mortgage £1200
Gas / electric £200
Nursery £105
Council tax £110
Phone/Internet £20
Water & sewerage £45
Petrol £50
Food shopping £250

I salary sacrifice the rest of DD's nursery fees, then we DH and I both have £400 each for spending (mobiles, gym, haircuts, clothes, lunches, DD treats etc) plus we save a chunk too.

2k a month:0
Wow!
405 on groceries dont think so! Go to iceland farmfoods (supermarket own brand etc!) lidl aldi
367 on hobbies! Hobbies arent essential therefore you shouldnt do them! Unless after totaling up a moth of spending & realising ok i have 400 left so 200 wil go to saving 200 for hobbies!
185 house improvements like decoratating rooms to suit someone dont think so... If its not broken dont fix it if the rooms not looking horrible dont change it
70 on swim lessons im sorry but go out as a family one day & teach them yourself
75 other kids clubs kids can socailize at parks at school etc dont need clubs for excersize eithe they can go a jog
52 on kids uniforn go to primark!
36 on pocket money i never had a pocket money in my life it teaches you to be more grateful when given money!
30 on charity give for puddleducks sake! Your spending far too much the first charity is home!

Sorry for rant but your spending is shocking!
You need to write they amount coming in add up all of this then take it away from the amount u get in see what number it is if its is a negative number you have serisous isues! Positive number slightly better but stil need to cut back on non esetialis like things i have mentioned above!

I am commenting as a rogue here - my income is barely £300 a month. But my daughter lived a while in similar sense to you, and my suggestions are based on what I suggested to her (to little / no avail, I might add)

Firstly, much praise for writing down the figures in the first place, you have starting point and can maybe compare with next month ? Can any of your DC kick it into Excel for you and produce a graph ?
Wow, you spend £12,000 a year on birthdays and Christmas ? That seems a lot to me, but I am Scrooge and send handmade cards.

Take-aways come to more than you might think, and an awful lot of your mysterious £681. Have a look at the 2 dine for £10 in M&S or Tesco, and scale up for your numbers. Unless each takeaway already costs less than £30.

You've said to reduce your spend on kids clothing inc shoes from £40 a month. £40 is very reasonable for 4 DC. Similarly running 2 cars for £255 sounds ok.

£240 a month mortgage
£400 a month food approx
£80 a month petrol
£25 a month house insurance
£110 a month council tax
£98 a month gas and electricity
£48 a month water
Tv licence......? £12 a month?
£40 a month life insurance policy thing
£25. A month car insurance
£28 a month mobile phone
Then however much he broadband, cable tv, line rental is .....maybe £40 a month.

£405 on groceries is ok - for 6 people.
I spend £15 a week for 1 person + 1 cat, multiply that up and its £90 for 6 a week.
But not if your groceries are for 6 people for 1 day and the other 6 days you're eating out.

Apples, why should she cut back if her budget left her with excess? There's no virtue in being tight for the sake of it.

OP, apart from tracking all your miscellaneous and adult hobby spends closely, I'd suggest cutting back on birthday and christmas spending where possible. children do not need a lot of stuff. Perhaps include their hobbies as gifts eg. new tap shoes as a christmas pressie.

What sort of house improvements are you doing?

I can't see any sort of potential spending that you don't have something down for, perhaps think about whether you have a spending problem? I've had to fight that urge to part with cash at all costs at times in the past.

£36 pocket money for 4 DC a month?
That's £9 each, barely £2 a week.
You're buying a lot for them - hobbies, clubs etc - but that's not teaching the older one's to manage their money. You're giving them a luxurious lifestyle without them having to think about budgeting. Ring any bells?

Neah, I honestly don't think I've a spending problem except that we got in the habit of saying yes to most things without thinking. I am naturally anorexic with money, took me a long time to learn to spend it.

There is some double counting in my figures, like some of the leisure category is actually commuting to work I just don't know how much.

I think I went overboard letting DD actually have new items for uniform this year, although (on the other thread) my spend is actually pretty typical, not outlandish. ( Two blazers? Are you mad? ) Think you lot will be shocked when I get around to reporting next update on the cash figures. I'm not cutting some things like swimming. I will dig into savings if I have to, for that. Swim lessons are only £1 more than me taking them, by the way!!

House Improvement: DH knocked thru a room this year . Lintel & workman & electrician (DH did own plastering & joinery though). The carpets are knackered but I have shelved plans to do anything about them until we're rich again.

Thanks for numbers, it is helping me figure a lot out.

It's a good start having a list of where your money goes. I'd suggest that your top priority is working out that unassigned amount... that's going to be where you stand to gain the most.

Second step, go through all Direct Debits coming out of any of your accounts and work out are they essential or non-essential. If non-essential, cancel whatever it is they're paying for. If essential then spend an afternoon on comparison sites seeing if you can get the same goods or services cheaper.

Third step is to tackle the irregular outgoings, the cash withdrawals, the groceries, the petrol consumption, clothes purchases. Because they're ad hoc these can quickly spiral if you don't set yourself a limit.

My income's higher but roughly speaking
£1000 - mortgage
£500 - fixed outgoings such as utilities, insurance, council tax, etc
£300 - supermarket
£150 - cash withdrawals
£400+ - incidentals (days out, clothes purchases, gifts, house repairs, hobbies etc)
The rest goes into various savings for big ticket items like holidays, replacement appliances, Christmas presents

I should so like to see Apples & Wobbly put down their own numbers.

I do love your numbers, JessMcL. :)

Rent 550
Council tax 120
Contents insurance 10
Utilities 150
Home phone 14
Internet 10.50
Tv licence 18
Gardener 21 (2 weekly)
Phone card to call family abroad 5 (2 weekly)
Contract phone 18
Groceries 70
Lunch at work 10
Children's clothes 30
Adults clothes 40
Hairdressers 50 (quarterly)
Loan repayment 20
Credit card 30
Savings for DS 20
Nappies 20
Pet food, insurance 18
Petrol 120
Car insurance 33
Car expenses 30
Days out 40
Birthdays 20
Toiletries 10

This leaves around £300 from total income of just over £2100.

Groceries figure is per week sorry. So 280 every 4 weeks

Envelope budgeting software is very good for keeping an eye in what is spent in different categories. It's the electronic equivalent of keeping your money in different envelopes for different things:

www.eebacanhelp.com

2k income

450 mortgage
100 media - internet, tv, two.mobiles
200 car repayments
300 food
100 gas and electric
30 uni loan
200 childcare
100 water, council tax and tv license
60 petrol
60 rail pass
20 car tax and rac

We then each take 50 on a friday for spends.
Anything left rolls over to next month.

Sorry, 2.3k income

the only thing that has worked dot me is to add up all the direct debits. i live on much less income than you but i have now begun taking out the cash i can afford every Monday and try to stick to it.
whatever your budget using your card here and there makes for a huge amount that you don't keep an eye on.

its simple to put an amount in a tin each week and does help overall.