Queries about budgeting

First, the question: Would this be considered an acceptable budget? I've taken as much into account as I can possibly think of, and been somewhat generous with some of the figures - meaning if it looks okay here, it definitely will be in actual practice.

The budget
Note: House is located in Barnsley town center, South Yorkshire, and is a 2 bedroom terrace.
Tide makes per month: £1046.40
Tide makes per month after the government are done robbing him: £925.27

House stuffs (per month):

Rent: £395
Council tax: £70 (it's slightly less than this but landlord wasn't sure what exactly and needs to confirm with wife who actually knows)
Electric: £60
Gas: £60
Water: £20
Total for House stuffs: £605

Other essentials:

Food and toiletries: £80
Bus: £80
Total: £160

Extras:

Phones: Me: £5, the lady: £15 (I work for T-Mobile and get a £5 a month phone for myself plus a halfprice line for my lady. I put her on a Flext 30 for T-Mobile, so she'll pay half of that. When the time comes I'll probably put her on a 20)
TV Licence: £11.62 (is £139.50 per year for colour TV)
Virgin Broadband, TV, and Phone: £30
Total: £61.62


Total spent: £826.62

Total leftover after deduction: 98.65 per month / £24.66 a week approx.

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I'd really appreciate some kind of input from the experts here. I'm pretty confident right now that this is sufficient, but it doesn't hurt to ask, right?

Thanks in advance,
Tide

Upadte: A bit more info:
I'm UK, my fianceé is US. We're applying for the Spousal Visa June/July time after we get married at the end of May.
That's basically what this budget is about, to prove that we can live together on my wage.

My job also includes offers of overtime on a regular basis.

Thought I'd better add that.

Food AND toiletries for only £80 a month? You've got to teach me how to shop!

Its really cutting it a bit close isn't it? On that budget, you two will basically never be able to leave the house to do anything but pay bills.

Food AND toiletries for only £80 a month? You've got to teach me how to shop!

Its really cutting it a bit close isn't it? On that budget, you two will basically never be able to leave the house to do anything but pay bills.

I thought the same. DH and I usually spend about £150 per month on food & toiletries and we shop for bargains at morrisons....

Well, that's my budget for just myself so far, paying for us both. Once she gets a job, then we'd have some more leeway.

Also, some of those essentials don't NEED to be there. I can shave off the TV license if needed, I won't be watching it - it's just something for her when she gets here, which we can look into later.

Plus if we don't want cable, I can scrap the Virgin broadband, TV and phone and pay £15 a month for just the broadband and phone.

You'll need to show how you'll be supporting yourselves until she has a job, so you do need to be realistic with your budget.  Unless you'll be eating Ramen noodles three times a day, there's not way you can feed yourselves on £80/month.

Unless you'll be eating Ramen noodles three times a day, there's not way you can feed yourselves on £80/month.

I've been following these boards for a while but I know I haven't posted much and I don't mean to be disagreeable straight off the bat but....

It is absolutely untrue that you can't feed two people for less than £80/month. My husband and I feed ourselves quite healthily for £50/month. A daily diet is something as follows: Oats for breakfast (cost: 50p per week), yogurt and cereal for lunch (cost £4 per week), homemade pizza with some frozen vegetables for dinner (cost £3.50 per week), with banana/apples/crisps/biscuits for snacks throughout the day (cost £2 per week). So that's a total of £10 per week. If we feel like having some meat we'll replace the pizza with frozen burgers and frozen sausages and a cheap bag of pasta and have that for dinner that week.

Sorry to hijack, but I just wanted to make the point that £80 per month for food for two people is quite reasonable if you make your meals instead of eating out. I find it frustrating when people say "[the ECO will say] you can't live off that" when you can and are and managing just fine!

Joeli

You're certainly not the norm then (and I would question your food budget if I were an ECO ).

I'm not saying it's impossible to feed yourselves on such a limited budget, but it will attract the ECO's attention if the budget is otherwise tight, which this one seems to be.  If the OP and his partner plan to live as vegetarians and eat nothing more than value-priced pizza dough, fruit, vegetables, oatmeal, and yogurt, more power to them.

There are several threads discussing grocery costs (not including eating out) and it looks as though the average is about £50 per week for two people. 

Here's a recent thread about budget concerns:

http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=42011.msg585546#msg585546

If people are using their budget to 'paint a picture' for the ECO, it's a waste of time.  In the split-second he decides that you are painting a picture, he'll discard it and start looking at something else.

There is a ceiling on the number of minutes that an ECO can spend on an application.

The thing is, the ECO is probably going to compare your food budget to the 'average UK' expenditure on food and may well base his/her conclusion on that. Now, the average weekly amount spent on food and toiletries for 2 people is £60... making the average UK monthly cost £240.

When the ECO looks at the budget figure of £80 and compares it to the average of £240, he/she may decide that this isn't enough and could refuse the visa - it's not so much about what you personally can afford to live on, but what the ECO believes is a reasonable figure. He/she isn't going to want to risk granting the visa if it looks like you may need to rely on public funds in the future - therefore going against the rules of the visa.

There won't be any picture painting involved whatsoever. The extra stuff can be dropped from the budget if needed, like the TV Licence, as well as the full Virgin package. I could probably make do with just the internet to be honest.

THANK YOU, JRK007. I'm glad someone else knows how to food budget.

Overall those figures, as I said, are being generous. The reality will likely work out considerably(ish) cheaper.

I've been following these boards for a while but I know I haven't posted much and I don't mean to be disagreeable straight off the bat but....

It is absolutely untrue that you can't feed two people for less than £80/month. My husband and I feed ourselves quite healthily for £50/month. A daily diet is something as follows: Oats for breakfast (cost: 50p per week), yogurt and cereal for lunch (cost £4 per week), homemade pizza with some frozen vegetables for dinner (cost £3.50 per week), with banana/apples/crisps/biscuits for snacks throughout the day (cost £2 per week). So that's a total of £10 per week. If we feel like having some meat we'll replace the pizza with frozen burgers and frozen sausages and a cheap bag of pasta and have that for dinner that week.

Sorry to hijack, but I just wanted to make the point that £80 per month for food for two people is quite reasonable if you make your meals instead of eating out. I find it frustrating when people say "[the ECO will say] you can't live off that" when you can and are and managing just fine!

Joeli

How in the world do you get enough bananas, apples crisps and biscuits for two people for just £2 per week? I don't care how thrifty one can be, there is no way thats an accurate figure.

I asked if this was a reasonable budget for two people applying for a visa. So far, that question has yet to be answered. Can we PLEASE stay somewhat on topic here?
Also, Garry, what's that about picture painting? Could you clarify what you meant about that please?  

I asked if this was a reasonable budget for two people applying for a visa. So far, that question has yet to be answered.

Nearly everyone who's posted a reply (including me, now) has said that £80 a month for food and toiletries does not look reasonable.  Sounds pretty on-topic to me....

To me it looks more like people are having a little debate about that one point and completely ignoring the rest, that's all. Don't get me wrong, I know that food is part of the budget, but that's not all. Nobody has even said "oh hey the rest looks okay though!" or anything like that.

Hell, if you want me to add another £20 onto food, no problem! Just give me a bit more input than picking on that one point. Does anything else look a bit off?