somewhere between £2500 and £3000 depending on what you classify as a fixed cost

About £2300 inc. mortgage and all utilities, phones etc. Another £500/month for the cars, and we set a rough budget of around £1500 a month for living, food, petrol blah blah sometimes go over, sometimes can be way under. The rest goes into savings or for holidays/whatever. We could reign it in a lot if we needed to, but thankfully we both do OK wage wise and have (relatively)secure jobs.

Averaged over the last 13 years, our total outgoings has exactly equalled our total income :)/:(

I really have no idea.

Just working this out. I reckon about £1200 a month including £320 a month childcare but no mortgage. Shamefully I never work it out to the last few pounds since we’re financially in a good place at the moment. Just check the money left over at the end of the month. Which is the important number if you are lucky enough to have it.

Mine are £1173.77 including childcare at £440 a month and a mortgage of £230 a month so * hopefully* in two years time they will be £503 a month.

I really have no idea.

snap

Just whacked £75 off my monthly outgoings. Between O2 broadband and the full Sky package I was paying £107 a month.

Switched to BT Vision with Infinity broadband and got that down to £32.50 a month including ESPN.

So long Mr Murdoch!

£1379 from my income (OH earns approx £100pm) which covers pretty much everything every month, might actually be able to start saving some money this year.

for me and my wife 2500 a month, inc. all food car, bills, life insurance, mortgage, childcare etc etc.

If I’m honest it’s really getting me down at the moment. How can we save anything when our outgoings are that large, it’s **** ridiculous.

working hard for a promotion at the moment, if that comes this year, as it should, things will be easier, but not by much. looking to really cut spending these coming months…

If I’m honest it’s really getting me down at the moment. How can we save anything when our outgoings are that large, it’s **** ridiculous.

Cut your outgoings?

From the 50/30/20 budget plan:

You may think it’s your income, rather than your expenses, that’s the problem. That could be true, and if you can boost your income, go for it. But people can balance their budgets and save money on virtually any income.

Have a look at it (50/30/20 budget), it makes loads of sense to me, cut your essential outgoungs (needs) to 50% of your income, keep your “wants” to 30%, and pay off debt/save the remaining 20%.

Also the 60% solution. Same idea but slicing up slightly differently

Feenster – I got that 50/30/20 plan when you linked it up – printed it out, and will sit down with the wifey over the weekend, and go through it (I know how to show a lady a good time…).
Seems a good target to stick to in order to ‘realise’ available cash.

Good work sir!

DrP

DrP. Nice one 🙂 – hope it works for you – really works for us. We’ve found that we can keep really good control of our money without having to go watch every penny. It comes close to running itself once you get to grips with it.

Takes a bit of thought to get it up and running, and a slight change in mind set, and maybe even some tough decisions if you really want to stick to 50/30/20, but I promise it’s worth it.

It did take a bit of selling to the Mrs initially – she hates budgetting and all that kind of things, but she likes it now.

A bottle of wine usually helps when we sit down to talk about money.

Genuinely, let me know how you get on with it.

Cheers Feenster I’ll take a look at that, but cutting needs to 50% when mortgage and childcare are £1000 a month will be tricky, but we need to do something…

don’t really know, as Mrs Freeagent does most of it but here goes – all are PCM

Mortgage £1150
Childcare – varies but something like £800
Water £90 (don’t ever move to a house with a water meter)
Gas/Electric £75
Mobile phone (2 @£15 PCM) £30
Dancing lessons/Rainbows/swimming for daughter £70ish
Virgin Media – £41
Insurance – don’t know
Council tax – think its about £150
Car – have company car but costs me >£370 for lease/tax

I know exactly what it is, but writing it down never does anything other than depress me.

We are slaves to ourselves 🙂

Currently at my parent for a few months while I buy a house, not even discussed money yet so it will be X amount?

Other than that i have very little

No Accomodation to pay for as mentioned so none of the add ons
Free work Phone
Car paid for
Car insurance paid upfront (would be £95 pcm)
currently riding to work

So the cost of lunch everyday?

everything else is a luxury, seems strange actually.

It did take a bit of selling to the Mrs initially – she hates budgetting and all that kind of things, but she likes it now.

Fully understood, and in the same boat!!

It seemed to produce fits of giggles when I explained “this is serious” – she kept asking me to say it again and again, but I don’t think she was looking for me to drive home the content of the statement, more to laugh at my face when I say it….

DrP 😕

Cheers Feenster I’ll take a look at that, but cutting needs to 50% when mortgage and childcare are £1000 a month will be tricky, but we need to do something…

I’m sure it will be. Some pertinent bits from the article:

You may be discouraged by how far you are from the ideal. But running the numbers can help you understand why your money isn’t working for you. If basic overhead consumes so much of your paycheck, it’s no wonder you have trouble saving, paying off debt and living the rest of your life.

and:

Remember that the 50/30/20 plan is a goal to work toward, not something you’ll necessarily achieve overnight. And if you’re already in financial crisis — you’re unemployed, for example, or suffering through a disability — true balance may have to wait until the crisis has passed.

Good luck

I just read that. The more I read, the more I like. and doing a few sums, we won’t be that far off, if we lose a few ‘essentials’

about £850-900 to ‘run my life’
thankfully i usually have more than double that left over. amazed at how many people sail close to wind but would never give up the sky/gym/love film/bigger car than their salary payments

One benefit we are getting from it is an objective answer to “can we afford it”?

E.g if we’re thinking of a sky package on a twelve month contract, it becomes a “Need”, so the question is “do we have space in the 50% part?”

A holiday in Iceland? Is there money in the wants account?

A new kitchen? If we remortgage/take a loan, is there space in the 50% for the repayments.

When we bought our first house, we ran the numbers based on needs = 50%, and out came how much we could afford.

Can’t recommend it enough.

It did take a bit of selling to the Mrs initially – she hates budgetting and all that kind of things, but she likes it now.

Part of the reason she likes it now is that we never have to sit down with receipts and statements any more.

Should also mention, that we run a few different joint accounts to support this. Basically a Billing account (direct debits/standing orders only), a needs cash account (fuel, transport and food mainly), a wants cash account (anything we don’t need to buy now), a car fund account, and a savings account, plus our own personal accounts for our pocket money.

£1073.17

That doesn’t include childcare though. That’s about £900 a month 🙁

~£733.172

seems we are running on a 64/18/18

I’ve had to work this out in the last few weeks and it was around £2000.00 but in that I’ve included food, clothes, children’s tutors/clubs/sports and so on. Biggest expense is the mortgage which is just ahead of food.

I’ve been able to cut around £200PM just by switching supermarkets, negotiating better deals with utility suppliers and reworking my insurances/pensions.

I am a proper miser , and wont include food as its not a fixed cost, Its massively variable , so roughly £350. In decending cost order.-
Pension Payments
Council tax
House and car insurance
Electricity
Gas
Communications
Water
TV licence

Flat paid for , Car paid for. Monthly food approx £200, Monthly fuel £250.

I’ve been following the 80:10:10 rule:

80% goes on Workshop
10% on essential living costs
10% also goes on the Workshop 😉

Around £1100, but that includes Sky and pension payments. £900 without.

Don’t run a car either.

london living makes it too embarrassing to post up 😳

EDIT: but I still have pretty good disposable income each month. 🙂

I know exactly what ours is including food, MOT and variable kids stuff, it’s £2490
On top of that is monthly pensions and savings contributions