Is £475 a month after rent + bills enough to live on?

[Onaloop]

Due to unexpected circumstances our monthly income is going down by a lot. After we've paid our rent, gas, electric plus internet we'll now have around £475 per month for food and anything else. We have a car but don't need to use it for work. We're also about to have a baby (we've been given a lot of 2nd hand things and will only need to buy the disposable stuff like nappies). We have some savings but would prefer not to go into them if possible.

Is it possible for a family of 3 to live on this amount per month and does anyone have any tips? I think I'm just nervous as our income is going down so much plus the uncertainty of having a new baby and not know what to expect. Thanks!

Depends on your lifestyle surely?
How much do you usually spend on food a week? Do you like to go out and do activities or hobbies?

Our weekly shop for 2 adults and a baby (who’s weaned) is about £60 pw and I’d be able to get that lower if I bothered to shop at Aldi and not Sainsburys.

We’d be able to live off £60 pw for extras. I hardly spent anything on maternity leave, most groups etc are a couple of quid if you want to do those when the little one is a bit older.

How long would it be for though? I wouldn’t want to do it for months on end.

We are pretty frugal already, we don't go out a lot and only have the occasional takeaway, cook fresh food. Due to covid we havent been out much anyway so we could live without cinemas or nights out (unlikely with a newborn baby anyway!)

We don't have expensive hobbies either. I think food is probably the biggest expense, we don't have a budget and don't plan weekly meals, but will have to. My husband has a big appetite too.

I think I'm just anxious at not having the security of the extra money!

Probably a few months but not long term hopefully!

It’s definitely possible provided you are a savvy food shopper, plan meals and batch cook. However running a car on this budget could be tight, even if you don’t use your car very often, it’s not just petrol that’s costly, annual bills such as insurance, car service, MOT & ad hoc repairs can be expensive.

On the plus side, when baby arrives you should be entitled to Child Benefit and Universal Credit so that should give your monthly income a good boost.

Definitely possible. Partic if you and dh/dp are good for warm clothes/coats etc.
Congrats and good luck.

It’s probably manageable for about 6 months. I didn’t really do expensive classes etc with DS, but made some mum friends and did coffee play dates instead for free.

I’d suggest splitting your leftover money into some for you, some for your partner & some for “the baby”, so that anything for them isn’t automatically being paid for by you.

I'd say so! Just need to be a tad more savvy when it comes to food shopping.

We have around that much left after bills per month for 6 of us. Its sort of doable but very stressful and like now, 2 weeks before payday, I have no idea how I'm going to feed us after next Friday.

Absolutely. It wont be hugely fun, but certainly entirely possible. Mine was £500 to include all bills for a year or so 2 years ago (1 adult, 2 children), it was boring, but achievable. You'll be ok OP! I highly recomend saving anything you can for when something breaks though... Even £20 a month helps.

If you don't need the car for work could you SORN it? You'll get any remaining tax refunded and I believe won't need to insure it whilst off the road.

I think it's doable but would be very tight and you'd need to plan well. I can recommend moneysavingexpert Old Style forums for meal planning/grocery challenge threads and cheap meal ideas.

Also if you're off work you may find some time to engage in the MN make £10 a day thread and check out apps like Olio to get some free bits?

@MaverickDanger

Our weekly shop for 2 adults and a baby (who’s weaned) is about £60 pw and I’d be able to get that lower if I bothered to shop at Aldi and not Sainsburys.

We’d be able to live off £60 pw for extras. I hardly spent anything on maternity leave, most groups etc are a couple of quid if you want to do those when the little one is a bit older.

How long would it be for though? I wouldn’t want to do it for months on end.

Please can you tell me where the groups that are a couple of quid are? All the ones around us are £5+. There aren’t even things at the library or churches near us.

Our weekly shop is around £70 (EBF baby). A tank of fuel each month is £60 (also don’t use it for work but live rurally).

Its the unexpected bills that will be the problem. It might be doable for a few months but not in the longer term.

We're a family of four and after bills we have about £450 left a month but we're on disability benefits. It's doable but it's never going to be fun. We're on a prepay meter for electric so it genuinely can be heat or eat for us so if you are on prepay and you have the option get on pay monthly it's cheaper and gives you more breathing room with the gas.
Hit your supermarket up around 4-5pm for reduced food.
Do as many crappy online surveys as you can it's only a little extra but it can make a big difference.
Find your local parks and look forward to some nice walks on dry days.
Charity shops if you need anything replacing or clothing even shoes can be brought from them.
Join sites like HUKD facebook groups for deals and bargains for Xmas and birthdays or even essentials.
Subscribe and save on amazon for your regular cleaning products - loo roll in bulk, pet food etc if you get more than 5 items a month it takes an extra 15% off. I pay just under £10 for 54 loo rolls and that lasts us 2 months.

Thanks everyone. I actually live abroad so we won't get any extra tax credits etc, the 475 includes everything. Also not possible to declare the car as SORN here but they only have MOTs every 2 years and ours runs out in 2023. My husband usually does any repairs needed luckily. We'll probably sell it in the spring anyway (its actually a campervan so it would be a better time to sell).

We do have some savings so if we really need to we can eat into them.

Thanks for all your suggestions!

As you don't live in the uk, it's going to be almost impossible for anyone on mumsnet to advise you because we have no idea of your local cost of living... If food, nappies and fuel are cheap where you are, it will probably be fine. If you have to factor in things like health insurance, you might struggle. You haven't mentioned insurance as an outgoing but it might be wise to consider it once you have a child.

@MorganSeventh, I live in Germany and from talking to my uk family and friends i believe we have pretty similar living costs to the UK, its been a couple of years since we moved so I know things might not be exactly the same and food can be a bit cheaper here. I converted the amount to pounds to give a clearer amount for the uk users.

We have compulsory health insurance here (which I've included in the bills before the 475) the insurance covers the baby too so luckily that's something we don't have to worry about!