£1000 to spend

[Userjal]

Hi, I know this probably has been asked 1000 times before but I’m struggling with money and I need a bit of a reality check if I’m honest. So we currently work on whatever is left after bills food and fuel is disposable money. Which is £1000 roughly. Now this £1000 is always gone by then end of the month with very little to show for it. I need help budgeting and I just need to understand how other people are doing this. So your ‘disposable income’ is this what’s left after you’ve saved for Christmas, birthdays, kids clothes, holidays etc.or do all of these
things come from your disposal income, I need a reality check but I don’t know if I’m living beyond my means or if £1000 to clothes kids, days out, nights out meals out adhoc stuff isn’t enough. For reference we are a family of 4. Thanks

Add up all your regular bills and work out the monthly amount this adds up to. Include absolutely everything and include annual expenses like car tax etc (just divide the annual amount my 12 to get the equivalent monthly amount). Then I give myself £100 per week for other spends eg new clothes, lunch out, trip to the cinema. What’s left goes into savings (for us and for the kids). Some months I earn a bit extra through picking up extra shifts or some other consultancy work I do and I try to add this to the savings pot, although some months I admit I end up spending it but only on something I really want/need, it doesn’t get frizzled away.

It generally works quite well most months. Opening a Monzo account really helped me as I can have different pots eg one for bills so it’s easier to see what is going where.

I do a zero based budget…which basically means every penny gets a job. Also a family of 4.
Here’s my budget.
Me 3100
DP4100
CB 280
Total 7480

Housing
Mortgage: 1900.
Insurances(life, house): 150
Property tax:50
Total Housing: 2100
Utilities
Electricity 150
Waste collection: 30
Broadband & TV: 70
Mobile phones x3: 60
Total Utilities: 310
Food & Groceries
Groceries & household food: 500
Dining out / takeaways: 200
Total Food: 700
Transportation
Fuel: 250
Car insurance & tax: 150
Maintenance & NCT: 100
Public transport / Parking: 20
Total Transport: €520
Education & Kids
School books, uniforms, fees: €50
Activities, sports, clubs: €50
Pocket money/treats: €60
Total Kids & Education: €160
Entertainment & Lifestyle
Family outings, hobbies, gifts: €200
Subscriptions, books, etc.: €60
Miscellaneous expenses (haircuts,nails): €60
Personal spends:€200 x 2 = €400
Total Entertainment: €730
Savings & Miscellaneous
Emergency fund / Savings: €2,000
Holidays (monthly allocation): €500
Clothing: €200
Miscellaneous buffer: €250
Total Savings & Misc.: €2950
TOTAL MONTHLY SPENDING: €7,480

I’ve see things on here before so like £100 a week to spend and I just don’t know how it goes any where. If I have a night out with my friends it’s £100 for a example, does that then mean I can’t leave the house at all the rest of the week it’s this kind of thing I’m struggling with and I don’t know what’s realistic. After all the bills including car tax fuel for example it’s the £1000 that’s left to spend, some months it will be school uniform £50 for a example so will just come out of that £1000 or car mot for example. There’s never a penny left and I don’t know where I’m going wrong. I seem to think of myself as a poor person- I know I’ll get flamed by the people who have 40p left a month but I think I’m genuinely spending above my means

I’m struggling to understand what the problem is that you’re trying solve. You seem to have all essentials covered and this £1000 is just ‘spare’. So roughly £250 per week to just have fun with? How can that possibly be difficult to stretch?

maybe you’re not including everything in your monthly budget? Uniforms, swim club, dentists, window cleaner etc.

maybe note down every penny you spend for a few months. Decide which is your priority. Make sure you put some into savings. Whatever is left is your free money, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend it all.

This is exactly the thing, so all clubs are I included in the monthly bills but like school uniform. Generally it’s a once maybe twice a year thing, so do people put away for that monthly. It’s this kind of thing I’m struggling with. I don’t know how to manage our money.

I think the important thing to keep in mind is that a lot of costs don’t arise every month - they can be bumpy throughout the year, and they can also be relatively expensive (e.g. Christmas). So, you need to have a very detailed budget, similar to the one posted upthread, and to save money every month towards these expenses.

Yes. You save for things like uniforms. Put X amount away each month. For trips, birthdays, parties, dentist, that stuff. So your £1k (what a fabulous "problem' to have!) is probably more like £500 to include school shoes and whatnot. Save the rest for unexpected expenses.

I guess this is what I’m asking I’m fully aware £1000 sounds fantastic but like you say it’s not £1000 fun money it does have to pay for things that aren’t necessarily bills but essential things that do crop up which I would then have to pay out of that. I think I just kind of had in my head if I have £500 left after all these bits put away it doesn’t seem much but I suppose if I have them don’t have an adhoc bill of £100 for new tyre for example it will go further

If you’re telling yourself you have £1000, you’ll spend £1000. If you only had £600, you’d make £600 stretch. Start budgeting for ‘savings’ out of the £1000.

You say a night out is £100, so would that mean you couldn’t do anything else for that week. Of course not, you could pull your belt in for the rest of the week and the following week to even it out. Surely you’re not spending £100 on a night out every single week? Could you have one big night out a month, and just do cheaper things for the rest of the month?

I have an account with Hyperjar. Its not a bank and doesn't pay interest, but I use it to save for 'stuff'.

You can set up 'jars' and put money in each one. For example, I have an MOT jar, a vet excess jar (in case dog needs a claim), a Christmas jar, a panic jar (for when I panic about not having any money!).

You may want to have a look at that or something similar. You could take your £1k, allocate it into whatever jars and have a 'fun' jar which you you could have fun with at the end of the year or whenever!

Yeh it’s once every 6-8 weeks to be honest. So not particularly often. I think its the little bits that add up that I’m using it as a target, if I feel like we’re doing ok for money I’ll go and blow £80 in b n m or something when really that money could got towards something else.

I definitely need to start allocating - I feel like the money should go further than it does, but maybe in the cost of living it just isn’t enough to live the life we’re currently trying to live

Oh and if you know you can afford £1k, the moment you get paid, put it straight in your savings account.

If you can get used to not having it, as it were, you won't miss it.

This is all we have after bills so if we were to put it all away there would be no day out with the kids all month, or going for a coffee with friends or is that a normal thing

Don't start me on B&M!!

Have a look at Hyperjar or your bank account may offer similar.

If you can put the money away ASAP before you notice, save it in pots or jars or whatever you want to call them, then you'll have uniform money, money for shoes and tyres and all that stuff.

If I have a night out with my friends it’s £100 for a example, does that then mean I can’t leave the house at all the rest of the week

If, after properly budgeting everything, you find out you have £100 per week “fun money” and you spend it in one night then yes it does mean you would need to do free activities the rest of the week.

However if you regularly go out you might want to budget for it in advance and e.g. put aside £200 per month for nights out, leaving you with £50 per week unbudgeted “fun money”

Just read your update. So, work out what is realistic for your days out, your coffees, so on. Take that from your £1k.

You have to live!

Then look at what you have left. Say, £500. Divvy that up into saving pots.

Tbh I have the hyperjar saving thing but I have to text myself everytime I spend! I have £120 a month for food and whatnots so I text myself whenever I spend so I know what I have left. I use the account for dog, car, emergency house things, panic buying...!

If you don’t mind me asking how many people live in your household and how much are you putting away

Definitely start budging for all your annual bills. I’ve started using the YNAB app (you need a budget) and checking my account daily and adding new lines to the budget as I remember things.

We have significantly more after bills but it needs to be allocated and do quite a lot. I have physio and hydrotherapy bills which are a few hundred a month, so as much as I want to spend that on clothes I can’t or another area in my budget will be under. We prioritise pensions and filling isa and other things and not coffees and nights out, so our budgets for those items are very different.

I’ve been amazed at all the little things I don’t realise we are paying for and looking at what is truly left after I’ve allocated for all our wants and needs is eye opening. Dh and I have £150 a month each for fun money. Not clothes or personal care / gym / medical expenses / clothes but things that are more random. We don’t go out much and do have an entertaining and eating out line separately but don’t need £100 a month for evenings out.

If £1000 a month is all you have left after bills, then really you probably only have £100/week max to spend on 'fun stuff' as a family. The majority of your 'funds after bills' needs to be saved for ad hoc, but essential stuff. Car MOT, car repairs, car replacement, new washing machine/microwave/dishwasher/oven, boiler repair/replacement, redecoration, general household maintenance, garden maintenance, new school uniforms, new kids shoes, new kids bikes, birthday parties and presents, Christmas, passport renewals and a whole lot of other stuff I can't think of right now.

I’m starting to think we possibly live beyond our means

Is this not a lot to live off generally? We don’t own a house so house repairs aren’t an issue at the moment but things like garden repairs we’d normally just pay out right

I do save for Xmas that is within my monthly bills but saving for something like a passport seems crazy to me. Someone that costs £100 every 10 years seems like a none issue

It’s very easy to do, even with a very decent income if you aren’t controlling it, it will control you.

This week I’ve had £100 on the plumber, £350 car insurance, £150 on drum lessons all semi unexpected. Next week dh tells me the car needs a major service and that will be £1k. Also the plumber is coming back to do another £600 of work. All semi unexpected but not really unusually. We will easily swallow all that, but I’m using those to work out how much I need to be saving for house maintenance, car maintenance, the ever growing list of music lessons. So that next time those come out they will come from the designated and fully funded pots instead of just out of the account.