Total Income - Total Outgoings = £250 p/m. Is it enough ?

Andr3w said:
After my bills i have around £600, i'm single and i always seem to spend it all.
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Same here. When i was on £9500 (:eek:) I seemed to have more money than I do now.

However much you end up earning, you always seem to spend it. I tried to save £300 a couple of months ago as i was at home for 2 weekends and i ended up being £80 down on my credit card with 0 saved :confused:
 
£250 should just about be ok on your lifestyle (given you have savings). I use to save jsut over 1.2k per month but now mortgage bites!
 
No way is that enough. I've just decided to wait 12 months before I buy a house because I worked out that I'd have £400 per month to spare, which is nowhere near enough, especially when things like car insurance/tax etc roll around.
 
I currently have about £270 left to myself after all of my outgoings (That's after investing some into savings) and I still often worry about over spending!

I'd say that £250 between two is not enough.
 
Ripper said:
No way is that enough. I've just decided to wait 12 months before I buy a house because I worked out that I'd have £400 per month to spare, which is nowhere near enough, especially when things like car insurance/tax etc roll around.
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It is enough as long as the initial budget accomodated for these sorts of activities.
 
Take it from someone whose disposable income is about £80 a month. £250 isn't enough for the two of you. You don't realise how much you spend on odd treats here and there until you don't have them anymore. And a month is a long time.
 
I see what you are all saying and it makes a very interesting read. This thread has had the exact response i needed, so thanks all so far.

So ok then, if there we two of you, how much on average a month do you spend on shopping ? (we have budgeted £250)

How much on average for electricity and water ? (we have budgeted £75pm for each)
 
It's doable, it won't be a comfortable lifestyle no, you'd wanna try be quite self sufficient, grow your own veg, don't waste anything etc.
Get stuff off freecycle, don't buy it.
If you maybe got some overtime (if possible, dunno where you work obviously) or got a part time mcjob for extra cash. It'd be better.
 
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Me and the wife spend £240 month on shopping - sometimes more sometimes less, but that is a rough mean figure. elec/gas/water come to roughly £110/month.

We have about £250 a month disposable, its hard and gets you down but it is do-able.
Thankfully it wont be for much longer, i wouldn't want to do it on a permanent basis :)
 
Cobra-UK said:
I see what you are all saying and it makes a very interesting read. This thread has had the exact response i needed, so thanks all so far.

So ok then, if there we two of you, how much on average a month do you spend on shopping ? (we have budgeted £250)

How much on average for electricity and water ? (we have budgeted £75pm for each)
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Rough break down for the two of us in my house (both supported off my wages)

Mortgate - £700
Water - £30
Electricity - £30
Council Tax - £100
Food - £350
Car insurance - £60
Contents insurance - £10
Gym - £119
TV License - 9
Sky, Broadband - £24.50
Line Rental - £9

Think that's it.
 
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Thats great, thank you.

Comparing us with you and your other half :

So potentially we could be really over budgeting on water (Obviously based on normal usage for 2 people), we could also be slightly over budget with electricity.

Im not saying that ours would be the same as yours but it could give us some scope.
 
I still think you are in cloud cookoo land at thinking that a ballpark of £250 is going to be in any way enough disposable income to get by on, i cant fathom how this will possibly work short of literally not doing *anything* ever. You will be wiping out the entire months disposable simply buying mundane things that dont even notice like clothes and alcohol.

Plus to make this even more baffling, this is before even saving a penny. You ideally should be saving more than this figure alone, let alone having it as a base after bills.

To contribute to the actual question for a moment though, water is not likely to be any more than £30. £30 is the unmetered rate in oxfordshire for 3 bedroom houses for example.
 
Jez said:
I still think you are in cloud cookoo land at thinking that a ballpark of £250 is going to be in any way enough disposable income to get by on,
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I havent suggested this would be enough, i wanted to see what others think and what kind of idea of money left over they have after everything. Remember though that peoples lifestyles are different and we all live in different parts of the country which affects what we perceive to be enough money.

I do know what your saying though and i do agree with most of it. I think someone summed it up very well earlier. They saw £250 a month a luxury where as some people might not be able to cope with such a paltry amount.

Jez said:
To contribute to the actual question for a moment though, water is not likely to be any more than £30. £30 is the unmetered rate in oxfordshire for 3 bedroom houses for example.
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Ah right. See in terms of our budget we are over by £40 per month comparing the two (of course not suggesting they would be the same).
 
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Paste the list of everything you have thought of here, i run loads of properties for both myself and for family so have a fairly good idea at what people use. We can all chip in and place likely real values against each entry. :)
 
The problem is theres always things you've probably forgot, have you included contents insurance for example? Just little things like this all add up
However if you have included everything and your happy with £125 each then I dont see a problem, people probably do it on less. I would recommend you do have a few hundred quid spare somewhere incase you have a bad month.
 
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