How much do you have after bills?

[lancslass17]

Im trying to figure out if i can stay on reduced hours since returning to work after maternity.
Ive worked out after all bills we will have £800 per month for a family of 3 for food, petrol, clothes, shoes, repairs, hols.
How does this compare to other families?

That sounds like a lot, I imagine u will be fine

Family of 3 and we have £700 left over , we save £200 of that aslong as there's not some car issue/ unexpected bill and we then have £500 to live on

Have you a plan to save a reasonable chunk of that?

Ok thanks all, no plan yet this is me formulating the plan. Lots of ifs and buts to consider. Nursery costs a fortune!

I think that's a reasonable amount. Some of that would depend on what you spend on petrol and holidays, saving should be important too. If I had £800/month left I'd split it up with 25% saving which would work out to £200/month savings (long term, not hols) and £100/month holiday saving (should get you two UK budget breaks - maybe focus on self-catering hols in UK until nursery fees are finished) and then £100 a week to live off of for everything else. There may be some weeks that's tight depending on petrol and if you need new clothes etc. but start a little pot for clothing, shoes etc, even £15 a month adds up for bigger purchases.

We spend about £400 on food and £90 on petrol. Don't know about clothes or holiday. Save £150 a month. Really have nothing left after that

food, petrol, clothes, shoes, repairs, hols

Depends what your food and petrol costs are - that could vary massively.

You need to also save for birthdays, Christmas, household stuff, etc.

Best thing to do is go to moneysavingexpert and go through their really comprehensive budget planner. That will give you a better idea of where you’ll need to spend over a year and how much is truly ‘disposable’.

After all bills food and fuel and holiday for next years payment we have between us around £850-£1000 left.

Believe me come pay day we are dwindling

We've had some unexpected things in the last few months come up resulting in a fair chunk each month disappearing.

Do you have savings or a contingency?

I think that's really tight, if it was after food, OK but even then I wouldn't want to do it long term.

We actually put £800 a month in our "spends" account to cover groceries, petrol, takeaways/meals out, day to day expenses. We're a family of 4, 2 adults, two teens. I say it works out about right. In our case, though, we have plenty of savings in reserve, and are also adding to the savings monthly, plus have a separate budget for car costs/repairs, school costs, holidays and home repairs, so we're quite secure financially. If we had to cover things like a new fridge, or car repairs out of that spends account, I think we'd find it quite tight.