Household budget advice please

[User135792468]

Hello fellow mumsnetters,

I was hoping to get some budget advice please and find out whether what I’m doing sounds about right.

I appreciate everyone is different and have different options. Dh and I are on a very comfortable income but since the start of the year, I’ve decided to track what we spend to cut back as much as we can as we’re buying a new house this year. It’s basically double the price of our current house so I’d like to save as much as we can to put down the biggest amount possible (whilst leaving savings, money to decorate and furnish etc.).

Dh finds my current obsession pretty tedious as he doesn’t feel we need to do this as we earn enough to (very luckily) not have to worry as such.

There are currently 4 of us, dh and I and then a 3 and 1 year old. My current budget for things including food/toiletries/cleaning products/nappies, wipes, milk/ overpriced organic baby snacks 😂 and any other extras is £600 per month. I just do a total for that as it’s easier as they overlap into the supermarket bill. It’s been easy to stick to I would say.

As it’s lockdown, I’ve also set a budget of £500 a month for everything else like treats/ takeaways/ anything needed for the children or house/ gifts for others. Basically just a fun money budget. I thought that given lockdown, we wouldn’t spend that amount but we easily do. God knows what we would spend before as we were out every weekend with the children on days out/ eating out etc.

I was just wondering whether this is what others spend? How much do you spend on food and household things? How much do you set aside for fun money?

I don’t mean it to be a how long is a piece of string question. More, how much would you say you spend on these things in a month so I can see if we’re about normal or whether I’m just underestimating how much everything actually adds up to?

I now have a Monzo account and bore my husband daily with updates 😂

That sounds about right to me,
For comparison, it's just me and DH at the moment but I'm pregnant with DC1.

Currently budget £350 for day to day grocery, cleaning supplies etc but anticipate this to increase to around £450-£500.

We keep £300 each 'fun' money to do what we want with
We have various pots in Monzo we add to each month
£100 gifts
£150 holidays
£100 for things we'll need for baby
£150 cars (to cover MOT/Services/Insurance)

Anything else gets put into general long term savings.
I also bore my husband regularly with money updates

Thanks for replying. It’s good to see that I’m not way off 😊

Bumping to see if I get anymore input

It's right if it works for you. As you say yourself you have a good income and all your bills are easily covered so how you spend/save is a personal preference. We're a family of 5 and spend just under £500 a month on groceries, cleaning items etc. We spend very little on household stuff as neither me or DH are bothered about styling the house. You do spend a lot on over paying the mortgage and going on holidays though because those things matter to us. If you're saving enough to keep you happy then all good, if you want to save more then cut back more

We're a family of 4 (dc age 5 and 8) I budget 80-100 per week for groceries/household items. I shop at lidl and ours is great so I have no complaints (but I know they can be hit and miss) we don't HAVE to budget technically but I like to know where my money is going so I account for everything. I don really do "fun" money at the moment as there's not much fun being had in lockdown to be honest. So I'm just saving anything that's not being spent.

Family of 4 here, 2 preteens that eat a fair bit, food shop (including alcohol and cleaning bits) costs £130-£140 a week so your food budget sounds fine. As for fun money, we don’t specifically have any set by, what’s it for? Does it have to pay for holidays or just days/meals out? If it’s the later, it sounds high.

Sorry but it is a 'how long is a piece of string' question and answers either way about whether the sums you mention are reasonable from people in different circumstances to you aren't helpful.

You say you are comfortable, but you don't say how you are for pensions, how you cover big expenses like car replacement or home improvements or what would happen if you lost one of your incomes.

Fair enough not budgeting to the penny or cutting spending to the bone if you've genuinely accounted for all eventual expenses and have good pensions and secure jobs because you're both doctors or whatever, but OTOH it would be pretty daft to have a high grocery budget and spend a lot of money for extras on top even when there's not really anything to spend your money on if you only have minimal pensions or have high fixed outgoings because you always have two nice cars on finance for example.

I see you're said it isn't a piece of string question but it totally is, everyone's circumstances are different, what they eat is different, where they shop, what they do in their spare time, what they consider fun ......

You get the picture, base your spending on your income and goals, it doesnt matter what I spend or other strangers

I don't really understand these type of threads.

You can’t compare yourself to others - it’s meaningless. There are people that will budget £25 per week for food and people who have no budget at all spending 20x that.

Keep tracking your money whilst ensuring you are working towards financial independence (no debt, sufficient savings and investments) and then you’ll get a clearer idea if there are areas where you need to cut back, either because you need to make additional savings or the expenditure seems absurd.

I got a payment card a few years back that automatically assigns payments to categories and made some being changes when I realised that I was spending four figures a month on take out

It's pretty pointless measuring against others as it depends on income in the first place & financial goals.

Wow your budgets are very generous for fun!

DH could afford to do that but have always been a bit boring with it, paying off mortgage, savings and are now looking at pensions and early retirement. I would try and reduce your spends considerably in your position so that you won’t have so much of a large mortgage when you move and/or have more rainy day savings or pension contributions.

Our entertainment budget is a tv licence and Netflix and we don’t get takeaways. Have you done a breakdown of this budget and gone through your direct debits and standing orders to see if you are paying for things you don’t use?

With your food bill if you want to cut it down, meal plan and get it online so you don’t deviate with expensive impulse buys. I would also look at if you can buy less branded labels and if you can cost up your favourite meals and try and minimise how often you have the most expensive ones.

There are some lovely meals that you can make on a budget, it just needs a bit of research. There is also A bbc tv show with Greg Wallace is it how to eat well for less or something than might give you some inspiration.

Sometimes it’s nice to do something intentional with your money other than spending it just because you can. I’m much more frugal than DH, but he is still pretty frugal as he is a saver, so he is on board, although I don’t point out that our home made falafel dinner only cost £x or than I used up the wilting veg in the soup. I just make the soup and cheaper dinners. I also often make four portions when I cook and freeze half so if we are knackered I can defrost a chilli or curry and have it with a packet of microwave rice. It’s better for the waistline as well.

We’re a family of 5 (including 2 permanently hungry teenagers).

I don’t really stick to a budget as such, but on average, food shopping including household items is about £150 a week.

We have 1 takeaway a week, normally Chinese or Indian food, which is between £35-55.

Fun money, we don’t have a specific monthly amount. We’re renovating our house at the moment, so all the spare cash is being ploughed into that. I’d have said though, that we used to spend a few hundred a month on frivolous and non essential things (make up, skincare, days out, books, music, hairdresser etc...).

I think your budget sounds very reasonable, I wouldn't cut back anymore on that. I dont think your fun budget sounds too high at all, ours is almost double that and we don't have any kids yet. As you say you're on comfortable incomes and can afford your lifestyle then I think you're doing great!

I would say it sounds about right, we're probably similar and our DC are the same age.

Food shopping (and other household items from supermarket like laundry or cleaning stuff) plus a takeaway at the weekend we probably spend £100-£120 per week.

We try to stick to £500 spend per month for everything else, but that would include petrol or anything for the house. Where we were really wasting money prior to lockdown was eating out....we could easily spend £30 just going to a café for lunch at the weekend as something to do. Lockdown knocked that on the head and we definitely noticed how much money we saved when we were eating all meals at home.