Meeting budget targets

[Nitan]

I used to be really good with money but for the past year or so I've been really careless and usually always outspend my budget.

February is going to be particularly tight as it's my kid's birthdays, I need to put down a deposit on our holiday AND I need to pay for 3 passports....all in one month.

According to be "income and outgoings budget" I can do this and still have £250 left at the end of the month, this will be totally spare money (groceries are there as an outgoing so already accounted for).

So, can 1 adult and 2 kids survive on £250 for a whole month considering all bills and groceries etc have been paid?

I would love some tips and advice on how to stick to this budget for feb. Am I setting unrealistic targets?

i dont see why you should not be able to mange on £250, especially if your grocerys are paid for

february is only a 4 week month as well dont forget

you will only go over it if you (or dh) spends too much on lots of stuff you obviously dont need!

if you've paid all bills and groceries then I don't understand the question

what are you asking is £250 enough for a family of 3 to have fun with? .. I think I'm misunderstanding this .. what do you need to buy with the 250

its just that it all seems to disapear, I'd like to save £50 of that if possible so the other £200 just disapears on treats, days out, the odd item of clothes etc, especially with it being their birthdays and the february school holidays I'm going to draw £40 a week out and use that as spending money, once its gone its gone and if I can stick to that I should still have some money left in bank at the end of the month

but if you only have 1 month to budget in to make it all better ..you could just NOT fritter at all

can you make a list of all the stuff you can do for free in your area with the kids?

add treats onto supermarket shop to take out with you rather than buy

get a flask and take coffee out with you rather than buy etc

you don't need to fritter £40 a week on nothing .. you could make it a challenge

of course it won't be that much fun unless you plan very carefully and I can totally understand why one wouldn't want to do that

hth

ps .. am very impressed with getting supermarket shopping down to £60

we spend far too much on food .. I'd love to reduce that

I don't have anywhere near 250 quid left after all that

on any month

in no way does £250 to spare qualify as 'particularly tight' imo

there are plenty of trips out that don't cost too much

don't eat out

don't buy any clothes

but ct its relative to what you're used to not to other people

I know what you mean Twig

but you do get a lot of posts on here like the poor woman with £12 to get her through the week who had no petrol in the car and no nappies

and I do still think that it's a valid point - actually £250 is a hell of a lot of money in comparison; a lot of people need to make do with a lot less

you've made some good points which I hope will be of help to the OP

i reckon at least a £100 of the £250 will fritter away, kids are expensive and theres always something,parties, school trip,clothing etc etc etc

im setting up a direct debit to my mothers account for £50 a month because otherwise i wouldnt save anything for the car mot/tax/repairs