Budget for moving to live in North London (Zone 5)

[Jac915]

Is this a reasonable? Cook most of the time and enjoy free activities, for 2 adults and 2 kids ( 1 tween, 1 primary). utilities cost I get from Zoopla

Monthly Expense (2190)
Essentials (1540)
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Utilities 239 (gas, electricity, water, internet, 2 mobile, tv, house insurance)
Council tax 175
Transports 136
Groceries (food + household items) 800
School lunch (for 2 children) 100
School uniform and supply (for 2 children) 40
Clothing/Personal/Haircut ( 150 per annual) 50

Fun (450)
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Hobbies (Gyms/Classes) 200
Take-away meal(a few times per month) 50
Eat out/Family outings once a week(50 each) 200

Others (200)
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Savings for others like maintenance, electrical appliances , repairs etc. 200

Seems reasonable if you've worked out your commute costs correctly. Rent or mortgage on top? Gas/electric costs will depend on the size of the property.

What about rent/mortgage

Are you cash buyers?

Seems a healthy enough budget if you’ve no rent or mortgage to pay. Are you putting anything into savings for a rainy day?

Not sure you'd be able to get takeaways for family a few times a month for £50 or do a day out a week (unless some outings are free). Hope the move goes well OP.

Yes the takeaways seems way off, £50 will do 1-2 takeaways depending what you get, so not 'a few times a month'.

Transport seems low too unless you walk and cycle a lot. But there should be some slack in the food budget if needs be.

You could download a few months of expenses into excel to categorise.

Do you never go on holiday? You'd need to save £2-300 pm as a minimum to have a week abroad in the school holidays unless you do it very bargain basement - little eating out or paid activities.

Or try the moneysavingexpert budget planner, for a full list of everything you could ever spend money on.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/budget-planning/

Thank you for your reply

I am renting and on Zoopla it is around 1.2k-1.7k for a 2-3 BR flat on Zone 5, sorry I should say this is excluding rent as more or less I want to see if my other budget looks okay.

So it seems takeaway/outings is a bit on the low side. I think I would have to adjust and do free activities like museums visit alternatively to balance my budget.

For commute, I am still looking for a job so haven't included the work commute yet.

Zone 5 - look up the Oyster card costs of on the tube or National Rail if it's on an overland train. With that budget you should be able to rent a house rather than a flat in Zone 5.

Do you know what you currently spend? Surely it’ll be the same as that but travel might vary.

Council tax might also change, it does vary quite a lot across the country, as does water.

Cost of gas and electric will vary depending on the type of heating, insulation and windows in the property.

The OP hasn't said where she's moving from, so it's impossible to say what the effect of this could be. Even a simple change like Aldi vs Waitrose for groceries could affect the budget by a significant amount.

Oh yeah, you’re right Barbara

Food and fun stuff should all be the same.

Are you moving from abroad?

I think 800 is quite generous for groceries/cleaning products. That’s probably enough for shopping at the nicest supermarket and getting organic stuff etc. You could probably spend under £500 shopping in a cheaper supermarket and cooking at home.

Personally, I’d really struggle on that amount for personal expenses. My visit to a hairdresser’s is over £100 but a cheap haircut for a man or child will probably be £8-15.

A takeaway meal for a family will probably be £25 for McDonalds but 4 nice but cheap main meals can be had for about £40 in outer London.

Outings needn’t cost much, especially if you take a packed lunch. Not sure what’s happening to free travel for children, though. Many museums are free and you can find free events and festivals so only some outings will cost 50-100 (eg theatre tickets or entry to attractions such as the zoo or Buckingham Palace) but then most families don’t do those every week + there are some special offers to be had.

I would also say that South of the river is cheaper if you want to rent for less and buy for less in the future. There’s nothing particularly better about being in N London, either. It’s slightly random, historical pricing.