Essentials....

[Becca xo]

My OH has a decent job as a maintenance engineer & brings home on average about £1,500 PCM & on top of that we receive £51.87 child tax credit a week, £25 in housing and council tax benefit every 2 weeks & his £81.87 in child benefit every 4 weeks. I'd say we where comfortable in our lifestyle but our money just seems to disappear really quickly. This is a breakdown of what we spend on month on average;

Rent £575
Council tax £95
Loan repayment £100
Water bill £9.50 (on payment plan card)
Electricity bill £30 to £40 (Electric only house)
TV license £12.50
Virgin & internet £45 (XL package)
2 x phones £60 (mine is £20 & partners £40)
Shopping - essentials £200 (£50 a week on average including baby milk & nappies)

Total money out: £1137
Total money in: £1839.35

Yeah we have £702.35 left over but it disspears really fast & have no idea how its like it just disspears into thin air sometimes!

 

[StarBound]

You didn't include petrol or random bits that you sometimes need that cause you to pay out extra .

Our income isn't that much different from yours ;

my wages; £515 month
James wages; £800 a month
child benefit ; £80 a month
child tax credits; £222 a month
working tax credits; £110 a month
second job income ; £45 a month
------------total £1702 monthly

outgoings;
rent ; £354.64
shopping; £250 at least
petrol; £160 monthly
joeys activities ; £55 monthly
tv license; £24.25.
bt ; £30
council tax; £125
savings; £20
electric; £60 (payment meter)
uni parking; £32
clothes; £20-30
debts; £150
------------------total £1244 approx

So yes apparently we have money left over too but I don't know where lol xD

 

[Becca xo]

My OH company pay for the petrol in his car, they give him a card that he gives when he pays for the petrol which goes straight on the company books, we don't buy clothes every month we do one big clothes shop every other 2 months most probs, honestly money just seems to disappear into thin air x

 

[MadameJ]

Mines could be interesting...

Ingoings :

Graemes wage - £1200
WTC - £312
CTC - £436
CB - £134
= £2082

Outgoings :

Rent - £500
Council tax - £120
Electricity - £50
Gas - £60
House Ins - £12
Tv lic - £12
Sky - £60
Sofa fin - £36
Food - £300
Car ins - £64
Petrol - £100
Mobiles - £60
Credit ca - £65
Extra's - £100
= £1539


So £543 left over each month(which we never see because were both trying to get out of our over drafts)

 

[Becca xo]

Oh forgot house insurance
That is £11.50 a month x

 

[ellie27]

What about home or car insurance?

 

[Ruby x]

OMG I would LOOVE to have that much left over each month. Heres ours;
OH wages with 40 hrs overtime per month & comission = £1400
My mat pay £500ish
Child benefit £80

Rent £550
c/tax £105
home insurance £15
internet £20
Mobiles £40
Elec £25
Food £200
OH CSA £220
car finance £120
car insurance £35
o/d fee £30
contact lenses £30
OH travel to work (40 miles a day & to see kids 100 miles each week) £300
= 1690

 

[xxembobxx]

We have a good income but still nothing to show for it. I've been saying for ages we should be able to save a chunk of money each week but another week passes and our savings are still low
Have you taken into account lunches? Those daily trips to the shop can add up (I know this as OH spends far too much topping up his lunch box lol)
Also magazines, smoking, drinks, makeup, takeaways etc all add up.
It's the little things that you spend on that eat up your income. Apparently keeping a daily diary will show where your money goes but I've yet to be that organised!
I have to say £200 a month on shopping including nappies and baby milk seems an impossibility to me. We have a big family but I can spend £100 a week easily

 

[Becca xo]

This is everything in one average month;

Rent £575
Council tax £95
Loan repayment £100
Water bill £9.50 (on payment plan card)
Electricity bill £30 to £40 (Electric only house)
TV license £12.50
Virgin & internet £45 (XL package)
2 x phones £60 (mine is £20 & partners £40)
Shopping - essentials £200 (£50 a week on average including baby milk & nappies)
Petrol & car insurance - nothing my OH company pays it all

Extras;
Clothes - £40ish not every month though
Clothes for LO - £30 not every month
take away - £20 a month (1 a month)
Date night - £40 (1 a month)
Make-up - £20 not every month though
Hair colour - £10 every month

 

[mkm1083]

I wish I could cover all my bills on my income.

Wages:
$2,500 after taxes

Expenses:
Rent - $512
Daycare - $1,300
Gas (Petrol) - $500
Food - $400 (already more than what I make)
Car Payment - $285
Car Insurance - $90
Renter's Insurance - $25
Student Loans - $135 (plus more in deferment)
Utilities - $80 (thank god my heat is included in my housing payment)
Phone - $35
Total - $3,362

Difference = $862 and not a damn thing I can do about it. Believe me I have tried everything I can think of.

 

[kanga]

I'm the same, I can easily burn £1k a month and get nothing for it. Possible suspects - the cats, baby clothes, coffee/cake with friends, diesel in car, homewares that I don't really need. I've tried drawing out cash every week and just spending that but it never works. Money is like water these days, it just trickles away!

 

[mummyclo]

Same! Our income is £1750 ish depending on OH's overtime.
Outgoings:
Rent: £600
Council Tax: £25
Water: £20
Elec, Gas: £55
Sky & Broadband: £60
Insurance Car and Home: £52
OHs Loan: £100
Food: £200
Stuff ive prob forgotten: £90
Total £1200!!
I should have £500 left......

 

[Camila]

Will somebody please let me know what the symbol is in front of the money figures that you are all using? Is that a symbol for the UK, like we have for the dollar sign here? How does this convert to US dollars?

 

[aimee-lou]

Income -
My Wages - About £600
OH's Student Income - About £1000
WTC - £230
CB - £80
TOTAL - £1910


Outgoings -
Rent - £475
CTax - £85
Elec - £60
Water - £30
Travel (Hubby's bike fuel and ins) - £100
Insurances - £30
Telephone and Internet - £50
Food and meals - £250
Travel - £20
Clothes etc - £100 per month on average
Holidays and Christmas savings - £100 per month on average
Childminders - £230 per month average
Total - About £1530

We have about £100 per week going spare overall but we're still playing catch up and have to replace all the furniture in the house AND the car in the near future!