What do you spend?

[Pyrrhic]

Just wondering what the average spend was per week when on your own, on things like groceries, bills, etc with just you and 1 child as I'm going through my finances just now and seeing what sort of house I can afford.

Thanks girls

 

[expecting09]

My average month:

23 - water
11 - tv licence
20 - phone and broadband
50 - electric
150-200 - food/nappys/milk
40 - loan repayment
15 - mobile
then extras of about 50 a month for luxuries/clothes for kacie etc

I'm sure theres more but I can't think right now lol

 

[purpledahlia]

I dont have bills to pay but i spend on average

20 on overdraft payments
40 on phone
60 on petrol for mums car/carwash
60-80 on food
50 maybe on formula
40 on toiletries for me and Ava

anything left i put into savings, luckily mum wont take rent from me just now, but that'd be covered by HB if i was in a flat anyways. so only extra id have would be electricity and gas.

 

[Pyrrhic]

Thanks for that girls, couple things on there I hadn't factored in so that's been really helpful

 

[purpledahlia]

i knwo in englad you have water to account for too, theres ways of living cheaply tho. just budgeting

 

[Pyrrhic]

Yeah am in the Highlands so don't pay for water

Hopefully I will find a house soon! Am looking at two rural cottages on Monday. Country living is pretty cheap, and have worked out I will have about £800 but that's for bills, phone, internet, tv license, food, everything really except rent.

Thanksfully you're money goes far here for rent and I can get a 3 bedroom detached house for about 500-600 per month

 

[purpledahlia]

will you be getting HB for the rent and council tax? worth calling the council to chek their limit of HB awarded, its usually by bands in areas.

Also, join orange. Get your interent free with a contract phone, contract can be like £20 a month and then u only need the BT phone line.

If you can, i think its better to just pay the tv liscence a one off sum, instead of having it come out each month. its one less thing to think about each month!

 

[Pyrrhic]

I'm on orange atm with my iPhone. Have phoned about HB and am entitled to £550 a month rent as well as council tax. I will definitely need a land line though, as mobile reception in the Highlands is very patchy!

That's a good idea about the TV license, thanks hun

 

[sweetlullaby]

Sorry to butt in lol whats the orange thing with free internet? Im with orange atm on contract phone lol

I dont pay bills as such atm as Im still at home just pay some housekeeping,phone bill, food etc but will keep an eye on this for moving out as well agree that budgeting etc can help a lot!

 

[nievesmama]

My monthly outgoings are approx.

£31.50 water
£80 Gas and Elec
£11 TV
£50 landline, Broadband and Vision TV
£20 Mobile ( mine and my daughters)
£150 catalogue, credit card repayments
£360 food, toiletries, nappies etc
£42 Nursery
£6.50 Window Cleaner

 

[Pyrrhic]

How does this sound girls? (sky + broadband may be a no-go as we don't get it in all areas)

£100 gas & electric
£120- food
£60- nappies/toiletries
£45- mobile phone
£60- credit card repayments
£50- broadband & landline
£30- Sky TV
£50 -travel/bus fares

which takes me to £515...have I forgotten anything?

 

[purpledahlia]

My mind is not working, i work weekly.

How much is it a month you get?

Tbh id go without sky, get a freesat/freeview box for free built into a tv or get a £30 box. you get all the decent channels. sky is a luxuary and id go without untill your settled to see if its actually finaincially possible.

 

[purpledahlia]

you can get a cheaper phone line than £50 and once you have that you can get your internet broadband free from orange.

 

[Pyrrhic]

Yeah I was thinking freeview as I'm looking at moving at the minute and getting a sky box will probably be more hassle than it's worth!

I'll be getting about £800 a month but that's not including rent and council tax, which I'm keeping separate for now.

I'm just trying to figure out what kind of house I can afford

 

[Pyrrhic]

you can get a cheaper phone line than £50 and once you have that you can get your internet broadband free from orange.

Thanks, I will shop around and have no idea how much these things cost as I've not been on my own in 5 years That orange deal sounds good though!

 

[purpledahlia]

my mum has it, litterally they just add it to your contract bill and terms. so when you pay your phone its for your internet too. just go in say u have a orange contract and are moving so want to get the free internet too. just need a landline!

freeview boxes are much cheaper and one off. prob even get one on here!

 

[expecting09]

I agree, sky isn't something you 'need' straight away, would be best to find somewhere get sorted then if you have enough left over go for it then. I think you've got everything on that list

 

[Pyrrhic]

Yeah I just tried to make my list contain everything, and bump up the costs a little so it's a 'worst case scenario', so I should expect it to be less than that

 

[dom85]

It sounds fine hun, but you could get the Sky, Internet and phone cheaper.

I did go with Sky but I only pay the minimum for the TV package (£18 I think) as I live somewhere where you get next to no signal even with Freeview. I get my phone with them as well because the place I have is new so BT wanted to charge me £125 to 'install' the phone line (which is horrendus that they charge this much when all they have to do is flick a switch), Sky dont charge you to set up the phone line so I saved money that way and also get free broadband with them, pay £11 for my landline rental and have there free option on the Sky phone thing where you get free evening and weekend calls.

Have you thought about a child trust fund as well? I put £20 a month into Brady's so he's got something when he's older. And it's also good to budget some savings every month for things when they're older, like a highchair, stairgate, new clothes, I do it for toys as well as Brady was born in October so there's a big gap between Xmas and his birthday.

 

[DizzyMoo]

Weekly with my 2 boys i pay :

£8-leccy
£7/£10-gas depending on how cold it is
£5- tv license
£7-water
£30-£35 food/nappies/pop, varies for extras you might not buy wkly like "ladies things" bog roll or washing up stuff & cleaning stuff.

I also pay the following which are extras :
£10 a MONTH towards internet & virgin tele (mum pays £26)
£20 a MONTH pet foods (2 cats & fish )
£54 a MONTH budgeting loan repayments (sometimes extra £13.50 if 5 wk month)
£10 a MONTH mobile credit

2-3 times a week i will pay for josh to stop extra 2 hours at nursery which includes his tea. This is £7 per stay.

I don't have a car, window cleaner, i don't pay for baby milk as i get it on prescription, We also get £6.10 a week in healthy start vouchers which we buy fruit with .

Hope this helps a little x