Monthly Household Expenditure

[marz]

Just finished my mortgage application with Abbey and the guy said that the average monthly expenditure incl food and clothing and all basics is around 650-850 per month!!! (for a couple and two children) Well....I am pretty sure mine is nearer to a thousand...am I just really extravagant or are they wrong?
I really want to be able to cut down and have refused before to really sit and "budget" as I am sure I would hate it and get very depressed but I do not also want to be wasting money away....
Do you all spend about that amount?

BTW, someone told me that Lidl is owned by some German philanthropist who wanted to make "good" food more affordable, so it is run on a shoestring, the profits are ploughed back in to the business and the staff, who are all "multi-taskers", are actually relatively well paid (for the retail trade).

It's like shopping in the olden days - you aren't voerwhlemd with choice and eat what is available.

It also has half an aisle that is devoted to "that week's offers" which could be gardening stuff, stuff for the home office, cycling gear, kiddies clothes..... but when they're gone they're gone, as they are all special purchases..

omg - does the £850/month figure include rent?? ours is £495 just for that, plus £120/month council tax.

even w/o rent, £650-£850 is pretty lean in a place like edinburgh, which has a fairly high cost of living.

problem with all these figures is that basically the more you have the more you spend. But I agree it seems quite low. I am trying to work out why we seem to spend a lot when (I think) we are quite frugal. Excluding mortgage and childcare we seem to spend about £1800 a month. i worked out that about £550 is on bills (not food, just bills - includes professional subs and car and house insurance) and about £800 on food and leisure. can't think where the rest is going though

I don't think it includes rent (as the guy was looking at the afforability of a mortgage), but would include council tax. Plus presumably travel costs.

ie what do you need to feed/clothe/house/heat/transport (except for mortgage/rent) yourself.

Probably doesn't include childcare as the "average" household doesn't have that cost (only all those of us who work and have children under 5).

Hmm. Including council tax, then, £650-$850 for four people does seem pretty low. I mean, hell, our power bill for this two-bed flat alone is £74/month - and that's w/one heater on (storage heater. hate it, but can't change it b/c this is a rental home) and never using the dryer. There are only three of us and we shop cheap but it still runs us about £300/month to eat.

Not in total agreement with your last sentence pretty bird - I'm still going to need childcare for DS when he starts reception in September! I find it hard to work this out without looking at our household accounts largely because DH and I classify things differently - we have "bills" and "expenditure". So bills include the mortgage and all the other DDs/SOs which are all the utilities, house insurance, savings for the kids, £100 a month saving for new car, £50 a month to pay for suite (purchased on interest free because why take the money out of our savings), savings towards DH's golf club membership so that we are not hit with a £650 bill for it in January etc, any other savings etc. Expenditure is anything else, ie what we are left with after all the SOs/DDs have gone out basically gets spent. We are the sort of people who have to put savings away at the beginning of the month, we would never have any leftover cash.

I accept for many, the child care costs will continue even once they have gone to school. All I was meanig to say was that I don't think these "average family expenditures" include childcare costs, as that is specific to peole with young(ish) children.

The childmider we use doens't do pick-ups, so when ds starts school, unless we can get him into the afterschool club (restricted numbers), we're in difficulty: either dh (currently studying at home) will have to accept that his work day finishes at 3.15, or we have to rope in the grandparents (one set already do the pick-up and look after of other grandchildren from a school in a different direction, and the other grandparents live on the other side of the city, about half an hour away). So for us, there won't be a cost - just a lot of inconvenience!

LOL I'm the other way - DS and DD currently at nursery, no afterschool club, grandparents not local, so I will be getting a child minder. But yes I see your point and actually on my previous split childcare is part of the bills side of the equation. I think we normally have £1000 ish left after all the bills and that gets spent but does include one-offs eg car service, holiday etc.

Lol!

You made me think of another area I hadn't considered - which is the running cost of a car. Didn't factor it in because company pays me a rather generous monthly allowance, which at the moment goes towards the motnhly repayment, but which, at the end of the three year loan will be "free" money as I don't intend to get a new car for quite a while after that (and even when I do, I will have a reasonalbe car to use as part exchange, so the next loan will be much lower). So that will more than cover its running costs.

Well we were in the fortunate position to be able to pay for our car and so are working on the plan that saving £100 a month in an ISA plus the part exchange will buy us a reasonable car when this one gets to five years old. Its a second car and small anyway. But even on top of this ended up costing us £600 in February (insurance, service, two tyres) so that wouldn't have left us with much over out of the £650 per month.

It adds up doesn't it!

Just becasue I get "paid" for my car doesn't mean I shouldn't factor it - and its insurance - into our monthly expenditure. I'm sure these 2averages" include a running cost - averaged over the year.

Plus, as you say, there is house insurance...... and other things like TV licence..... dental fees (even on the NHS!).... birthday and Christmas presents (essential of course !)......

Mortgage and bills comes to about £1000 a month, not included food, clothes.

Food and household is probaably about £400 a month ( includes feeding a pampered cat and dog!)

Nursery about £40 a month but her dancing and gymanistics is about another £50 a month. My degree cost £60 a month.

And the rest all goes somewhere - not quite sure where though!!

Ours makes depressing reading... 1600 morgage,200 gas and lec, 200 council tax..200 other bills, 100 insurance, plus dh pays 500 amonth rent in london and 400 on petrol, then theres 600 amonth on school fees.
no wonder i feel skint at the moment, something has to give.

With you prettybird-Lidls great for asaid bits-I also shop in Aldi-parmesan lump for £1.99 v Sainsburys £3.99-um,now lets add that up-I also go to Costco which do great birthday cakes that are huge and scrummy for £9.99.

Sorry, all others who were in midst of calculation depression-thought cake might help!!!!!

eek spinelli!

That was why I left London after paying £2000 a month rent. Now pay a third of that for a bigger house that is my own.

spinelli!!!WOW!!!!

what on earth do you and your dp do for a living?or have you got a money printing machine in the attic!!

ssd i wish we did have a money printing machine
but at the moment it feels as if we are living beyond our means. once those things are paid ther is not a lot left over for other expenses.
and all that is just with dhs salary as i don't work.

spinelli, my sympathies, largish mortgage - £1200, school fees £2000 a month,( 2 children) thought we'd be saving now DD is at Uni, but as she is in Paris ( part of University of London, though) it is costing the same as her school fees did, her studio flat (25sqm!) costs £600 a month, so got that for another 3 years, plus fares, food, etc.

Council tax £180 a month gas and Elec £150, our outgoings are £4500 a month, that's with things such as car insurance and petrol and entertainment, going through the business.
We are just about managing to spend less than we earn now!