Are we overcommitted?

[bookwormhere]

Hi,
I am trying to be a little more organised with our finances. We earn well but I am concerned that we are over committed. Here are our numbers....
Joint take home pay - 7.1K ( 4.8k dh and 2.1k me)
Mortgage - £1878 - this increased when the rates went up :(
Household bills inc insurances etc - £814
Food - £600 - on a good month!
Car payment - £325
Debt ( renovation and consolidation of debts) - £449
Credit card payment - £180
mobile phones X4 - £117
Internet - £21
MOT/car repair/house emergency fund - £200
Gym pass X 2 - £47
School trips/uniform/meals - £140
Contact lenses - £21
Prescriptions - £18
Christmas/birthday savings - £120
Days out/holidays - £250
Driving lessons for DS - £120
Fun money ( meals out, treats etc - £300
Total - £5700

So this means that out of our 7.1K we are spending 80% of it each month. It also means that we have about £1400 a month left to save etc. Our removations completely stripped our savings and we still have about 15K of work to do that I am not prepared to borrow for, so we need to save for that.
Do we appear to be overcommitted??

What's a commitment though? You've £670 for holidays and treats, you could reduce that then you'd have more for savings. The credit card, is that interest free or you paying it off in full each month? I'd pay that off if it isn't. Similarly the debt consolidation , what kind of interest rate is that?

I don't think you are over committed and presumably you won't be doing renovations, paying the debt forever? I'd be really uncomfortable with no savings though so am with you on that.

We went through our bills and non essential outgoings as we felt we should have more left at the end of the month. When I looked at my bills (outside the household stuff and food shopping) I thought I can't find any savings... but something had to give in. So what worked for us was to summarise monthly bills for the stuff we have to pay - so your mortgage, travel to work, household bills etc etc. The rest can be adjusted, so stopping a gym for a while for example.
As for the debt - loans and credit cards. I would encourage you to look into different debt repayment methods such as snowball method, you might be able to pay it off much quicker.

Seems perfectly manageable and comfortable to be honest. Looks like you have loads of room actually to pay your debts down quicker. The mortgage interest rate increase sucks, but eventually you can probably bring it down - are you on a fixed or variable rate?

After everything including days out and saving for car repairs, holidays and Christmas etc you have £1400 left over to save extra... I think this sounds fine. If you want to up it then spend less on holidays or days out

I wouldn't say you were over-committed, no. There are a number of things you spend monthly that you could drastically reduce if you had to: the gym, days out and fun money comes to nearly £600 a month, for instance.

Why are you considering your emergency fund savings as spending? Do you find yourself raiding it regularly (for your renovations?)?

You have two separate debt repayments listed. What was that debt for?

£1400 is more than a lot of people are able to save and it will fund your renovations in less than a year. Is that a timeline you can live with or do you need to cut something to get it done quicker?