How much on petrol, food & family spends?

[newcamper]

Hubby & I used to get angry with ourselves that we couldn't live off the 600 left over after bills. We have 2LO's.

Watching rich house, poor house, the poorest families are described as having 600 after bills to live off. I realised this was not a lot.

I now earn more and am trying to save. We have v large extended family so Xmas and birthdays are expensive. Trying to figure out what budget would allow us the occasional take away/bottle of wine, grocery shopping for 4, party presents, clothes etc. So basically asking what your spend is on this per month.

I know this varies hugely dependent on income/clubs etc. I'm just trying to gauge what most people think a reasonable figure is for that stuff.

Thanks.

Probably about £1500 for two of us but we are always doing work on the house.

A shocking amount. About £1.8k but that includes all bills except mortgage and childcare.

£600 food
£300 council tax
£150 oil and electricity
£100 petrol
£650 on god bloody knows what but there’s always an insurance bill or plumber or gardening stuff or yearly sports membership or car repair or something. I have no idea how people survive on so much less. We barely buy clothes, never buy makeup or hair, almost no alcohol, most months no take aways or dinners out, I meal plan and keep groceries pretty low. We do spend on the house and garden I guess which is unnecessary.

@Auntypatricia it's the 'God knows bloody what' that I'm trying to reduce too

Wouldn't mind if I was manicured, pedicured, wearing the latest stuff! Feel like we are careful but really need to tighten up. We've become a bit slack.

Excluding loan payments we are on the same as you @auntiepatricia. Plus i take the same measures as you do about meals etc. It feels we are always on a knife edge!

Phew! You guys make me feel better. I will admit I pay a fortune in soft play fees. It’s not like I fucking even enjoy it there😭 And then there’s the shitty food you pay another fortune for just to avoid bringing home 4 small, evil, soft-played-out, hangry lunatics.

My amount doesn't include bills and I have no kids... I feel bad now. Urghhhh. Life is expensive though isn't it.

I only really go out for friends' birthday nights out but it all adds up. My parents never went out but I feel bad constantly saying no. Every meet up involves food too so even if I say to come to mine I end up buying prosecco & nibbles amounting to more than going out!

£50 petrol
£400-500 food & drinks
Then swimming, ballet etc etc for DD
Approx £650/month
Doesn't incl council tax, phones & other household bills.

Every month both my husband and I have to use two full tanks of petrol each mostly for work. I know it costs around 60 to fill up so I withdraw 120 on payday and keep the cash in my car. Any left over gets chucked in a savings jar.

With food we operate a similar process. We allocate 500 per month for 2 adults and 4 children. This is plenty. Usually I have to odd 50 left over. Chuck it in the savings jar.

With presents in January I write down all who we have to buy for and the amount I spend on each. I then pick up things as I see them on sale. Put in loft. Keep a list on my phone of what I've bought. This saves loads as if you have an idea of what you need to buy you can just get things as you go along if you have a storage box to keep it in. Any left over I save. Christmas I work out what we spend on food and presents and travel etc and divide by 12 months so save 80 per month for Xmas but still buy as I go along.

The savings jar I keep taking about pays for our holiday spending money and petrol to get there.

Not quite what you asked, but is there any way you could reduce the number of presents you buy? If you are buying for a large extended family, both for Christmas and birthdays, that is going to add up to a lot of £. Try and estimate what you spend over a year - it will be an eye-opener!

Could you agree on, for example, only buying for the children in your family? Or agree to have a present moratorium with family for say, one year, see what difference it makes? Or agree to only buy for birthdays but not for Christmas? There are lots of different ways of reducing the number of presents you buy (which obv also reduces the number of presents you receive).

In my extended family we only buy for nieces/ nephews. Which means 5 presents, twice a year. That works really well for us - we can concentrate on getting them something highly desired but the yearly cost is very doable. It also feels very freeing being released from constant present giving/ receiving.

Thanks. Yes, we only buy for nieces and nephews but we have 19. We are in unique position as both of us have many siblings. Rest of family have married someone who only has 1 sibling so fewer nieces and nephews. I don't mind buying for them all as we are blessed really. Child benefit goes towards family Christmas, it's more the continuous stream of parties that I don't plan for.

Yes, stop buying presents for extended family. Chances are everyone finds this stressful and too expensive.

Do the MSE No Unnecessary Presents Pact now before anyone can claim that it's too late for this year as they've started their Christmas Shopping.

Use the excuse that you've just paid the Christmas credit card bill and realised it's unaffordable.

Also go through the Moneysavingexpert Money Makeover to see if you can increase that £600 a little by increasing your income and reducing your expenses. Also sign up to the weekly email, for ongoing moneysaving tips. It can make a huge differenece to your disposable income.

A lot - our bills make up about half our quite substantial income, I save £200 for my pension plus £60/ per kid and we spend 80% or the rest on average, £1500 or so, on food, petrol and leisure plus clothes, technology etc

19 nieces and nephews? Wow! Sounds rather marvellous. My son would be in actual heaven with all those cousins.