Two of us, no kids, no pets, 4 bedroom house, one ’04 vaxhall Astra 1.7CDTI, 13 and 20 mile commutes.
Fixed about £1300 on:
Professional Fees
Council Tax
TV Licence
Mortgage + cover
Home Insurance
Mobiles
Lovefilm
Monitored Alarm
Gas/Elec
Phone/Broadband
Plus We take monthly fuel, transport and food shopping from a £600 a month budget.
£100 a month goes into a car fund, which gets used to pay servicing/repairs/MOT/insurance/VED and a surplus for the next car we need to buy.
£400 a month goes into a ‘wants’ account which gets used for anything we don’t need to buy right now. From a meal out, to decorating, to holidays.
£350 a month to an emergency fund, which is almost at its target, at which point it will switch to overpaying the mortgage.
We both keep £500 each pocket money to spend on whatever we want.
We’ve been doing our own version of the 50/30/20 budget for the last couple of years. It really works for us, really lets you see where you stand, without having to watch every penny/transaction.
http://money.msn.com/how-to-budget/how-much-should-you-spend-on-weston.aspx