Realistic food/budgets single person

Pulsedriver

Pulsedriver

Pulsedriver

Soldato
Joined
19 Dec 2003
Posts
3,105
Location
UK
Hey all,

So I am pretty much about to buy a flat, and was calculating a budget, some around me have said I am over-budgeting, others unsure.

I have worked it out as this;

£450 mortgage & insurance
£95 council tax
£95 Maintainance
£40 Gas
£40 Electric
£40 Water
£250-300 Food
£350 petrol
£40 Mobile Phone
£45 Broadband/TV/Home Phone
£80 Take-aways*
£100 Lunches

That's a per month budget, so totals £1675 which is more than I earn :D

I have tried to exaggerate as much as possible, like on petrol and food my work journey is 42 miles return, and car does approx 330-350 miles to £60.

Of course I can wipe the £100 lunches out, that was just speculating £5 a day for lunch at work, it's often not that, most like £3.50 or so but I am trying to exagerate as better to do that than under-cost.

What do people think? I have way overdone it?
 
I'd suggest that council tax is low (although it depends where you live).

Food is probably a little high - I spend about £50 a week and eat well and healthily.

Do you really need Sky TV? If you can live without it, go with Orange broadband and phoneline. Buy a £10 PAYG sim from them, and you can get their broadband for £18 a month. I've been with them for about six months and they're excellent.

Electric is probably about right, although possibly slightly high. I live with another guy and together we spend about £45 a month. We don't have gas either, so that includes our cooking, heating, and hot water.

Stop eating takeaways, they make you fat and poor :D

EDIT: Oh, and make your own lunch. I started a couple of months ago, and the amount I'm saving through not buying random junk through the day is astonishing me.
 
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£300 a month for food? Unless your shopping at Harrods you don't need to budget even half that much. Plus an additional £80 for takeaways and £100 for lunch wtf!? And £40 a month for a mobile in addition to a landline? Unless you own a simming pool water should be around £10 a month.

manic111 said:
I'd suggest that council tax is low (although it depends where you live).
Click to expand...

25% discount remember.
 
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That council tax is the rate as I checked that out.

£45 is for the Television/Broadband, the landline just comes with it, doubt i'll use it. My mobile bills are usually about £25-29 but i've put £40 just to allow more.

In my food bill I also need to include cleaning products etc, but by the sounds of it I am way way out! :D

The takeaway bill is exaggerated again, once a week I go to a friends and have a take away, it is usually about £10-12 but i've put £20 just to 'overspec' so to speak.


Edit - I do not earn less than 20k... £1600 is roughly £26000, I am not far off that.
 
there are also other things you have not put in there

car repairs, car tax, car insurance, mot

clothes, shoes
 
That's what im worried about... Car insurance is not due for another year, but other things you mention, but surely people these days can't be spending £1500+ a month just on living, if they are single and live in a flat? I can understand a couple doing that, but then they split the bills so it's nice and easy.
 
£80 Take-aways*
£100 Lunches
£250-300 Food
Click to expand...

You can knock this down massively; £100 on all food is more than doable, including weekend takeaways. £5 a day on lunches??? 4 take aways a week??? If budget is a concern, you need to be more realistic.
 
Pulsedriver said:
That's what im worried about... Car insurance is not due for another year, but other things you mention, but surely people these days can't be spending £1500+ a month just on living, if they are single and live in a flat? I can understand a couple doing that, but then they split the bills so it's nice and easy.
Click to expand...

Instead of budgeting MASSIVELY over, just try it 10/20% over to try get it more realistic.
 
Pulsedriver said:
That's what im worried about... Car insurance is not due for another year, but other things you mention, but surely people these days can't be spending £1500+ a month just on living, if they are single and live in a flat? I can understand a couple doing that, but then they split the bills so it's nice and easy.
Click to expand...

Most people don't drive London to Glasgow every day, which is what I presume you're doing going by your petrol bill.
 
Two of us here live on £140 a month for food, £35 a week, and we eat very healthy. You just have to be smart with your meals, using leftovers for lunches, perhaps for another dinner and the like. And our cleaning products sometimes come out of the food budget.

Takeaways aren't so bad, although you could drop a fiver/week from your calculations, as you're overspeccing it quite a bit.

And lunches, if you use leftovers, or put a little more on your 'food', then you can make your own lunches and save a lot of money.

Have you looked into pay monthly combo options with your gas/elec, paying a set amount a month. It might work out cheaper.
 
you can definitely bring some costs down.

If you don't want to make your own lunch, make sure you go for a supermarket meal deal for c.£3 @ £60p/m

Cut your TV costs down. Freeview should be more than enough for most people. Most people who have sky rarely watch any of the other channels except the movies anyway.

Cut your takeaway budget in half. You don't need that much takeaway and I'd say £200-£250 should be enough for food if you buy wisely.
 
Will you be using the car much apart from going to work? Because from very rough calculations 42 miles*22 (approx working days in average month) gives you 924 miles so divide that by your 330 miles for the money and you get 2.8, multiply that by the £60 it costs you and I reckon you're on £168 for petrol unless you're missing out some information. However as pointed out that overbudgeting could count towards the other costs of running a car.

Not including lunches I probably spend around £30ish a week on food and that's without giving any particular consideration to budget, even if you upped that to £40 and count a month as 5 weeks you'd still only hit £200.

You don't appear to have budgeted anything for leisure activities unless takeaways is counted thus?
 
£200 PCM is my monthly food budget for me and my wife. We go over it often with restaurants and such, but £50 per week is plenty.
 
Your gas and water should be a lot lower, over a year I average about £20 a month on gas and about £15 a month on water. Your mobile phone tariff is obscene! £80 a week on takeaways is also obscene! I generally spend about £50 a week on food and that includes my weekly shop, lunches, the odd takeaway and I generally eat good food and eat healthily.
 
No idea how you manage to budget £300 for food, and a further £80 for takeaways. I had a takeaway last night, cost me £3.30 (portion of chips, scallop, jumbo spring roll - Damned tasty) £40-£50 per week will have you eating very well from tesco, and you can eat a hell of a lot cheaper if it comes to it.
 
With food you could get that down a lot more, go on a supermarkets website and 'trolley' you're average month of food, if you want this to be low yet still healthy then make sure you know how to cook sauces for pasta and curry.
 
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