Average Spending Per Week?

Hi all - Another thought...how much would you say is 'average' for a typical person to spend on miscellaneous items per week? I know I am being broad but I generally mean for those of you who are non-smokers? get a cup a joe in the morning? magazine? gun? water? croissant at the bakery? more like how much pin money do you spend a week? Just wanted to know if 150GBP fpr one person is enough for spontaneous expenditures within a month period?

Gun?  Did you mean gum?! 

Without cigs or alcohol, and with two pets - one dog and one cat - and with a part-time toddler, we spend, on average, £120 / week. So I would guess £50 for a single person, but it really depends, since we cook all of our meals at home, we would spend less than someone who gets frequent takeaways, and that figure includes petrol, which would be higher than someone who drives further to work. We only drive a mile each way to work twice a day.

Not counting everything else that I spend money on (kids) let me think.

I spend 14.50 a week on the bus.
I get lunch free at work
I spend about £3.00 every Sunday at Starbucks.
I buy the Saturday Guardian every week - about £2.00
I usually spend about a fiver in charity shops
I buy TimeOut on Wednesdays 2.99
I probably spend about a tenner in Boots(including phone credit).

So, that's nearly £40 without even considering the occasional drink.  

Gun?  Did you mean gum?! 

Without cigs or alcohol, and with two pets - one dog and one cat - and with a part-time toddler, we spend, on average, £120 / week.

Is that grocery money or pin money?

Is that grocery money or pin money?

What's pin money?  It's groceries, household goods and stuff (cleaning products, bin liners, foil, etc.), petrol, and pocket money. Let's not talk about the wine! 

What's pin money?  It's groceries, household goods and stuff (cleaning products, bin liners, foil, etc.), petrol, and pocket money. Let's not talk about the wine! 

I thought the OP meant daily stuff - not groceries.  Like gum, the newspaper, etc.

The term pin money comes from the time when women were given a personal spending allowance by their husbands. This would not have been for household stuff, but for personal items like clothes, hair things, etc. It was often a set amount per week or month determined in the marriage settlement. Nowadays it refers to just pocket money that you would use for random things like getting a newspaper, a sarnie, a coffee, a book, that sort of thing.

Yes, I read lots of 19th century novels

Oh, to actually answer the question, some weeks I don't spend a penny, others I'll spend £20-30 quid on yarn or clothes or something. If you're not including clothes shopping (or you're not a big shopper), I'd say £150 per person per month is well more than enough for the sorts of bits and bobs you're talking about.

For miscellaneous items (ie, not including travel expenses & groceries/toiletries- those get their own line items on the budget), I personally spend about £30/week.  This includes things like lunches at work, any random magazines I buy that week, starbucks or similar and the occasional takeaway.  My husband spends a similar amount.  

Most of that is probably lunches at work, tbh- I could probably at least halve that amount if I brought my lunches from home.

I thought the OP meant daily stuff - not groceries.  Like gum, the newspaper, etc.

Oh. I just re-read that and see I completely misreplied. Hmmm. It's been a long day!

The term pin money comes from the time when women were given a personal spending allowance by their husbands. This would not have been for household stuff, but for personal items like clothes, hair things, etc. It was often a set amount per week or month determined in the marriage settlement. Nowadays it refers to just pocket money that you would use for random things like getting a newspaper, a sarnie, a coffee, a book, that sort of thing.

Yes, I read lots of 19th century novels

Oh, to actually answer the question, some weeks I don't spend a penny, others I'll spend £20-30 quid on yarn or clothes or something. If you're not including clothes shopping (or you're not a big shopper), I'd say £150 per person per month is well more than enough for the sorts of bits and bobs you're talking about.

OK, now we are talking! We eat all of our lunches at home, but aside from the wine and cigs we buy each week at our local shop, I would say about £20 of extra stuff goes in there - like magazines, sweets, pastries, etc. and that's for both of us.

Hi all - Another thought...how much would you say is 'average' for a typical person to spend on miscellaneous items per week? I know I am being broad but I generally mean for those of you who are non-smokers? get a cup a joe in the morning? magazine? gun? water? croissant at the bakery? more like how much pin money do you spend a week? Just wanted to know if 150GBP fpr one person is enough for spontaneous expenditures within a month period?

Is that a Freudian slip? You've commuted in London before then? LOL

I think it would probably depend on what your personal spending habits are, where you go t shop, how many magazines you read,  how big of a sweet tooth you have, how often you plan on having lunch out, what exactly you plan on your pocket money covering, etc.  Tim and I were just figuring out our expenses, and he realized he spends £40/mo on magazines (loads of train/model train/engineering mags!), whereas I only spend £10 (Doctor Who and the occasional women's interest magazine).

A cup of coffee and a pastry could run £8 or more, or be as little as £3 or less, it just depends on where you plan on stopping.  Even a bottle of water can vary - you can get a bottle for less than £1, but you can also get bigger bottle sand fancy brands for as much as £5.  Of course, you can save yourself even more if you pack a water bottle and pack a flask of coffee. The flasks we bought were less than £5 each at Tesco and they keep tea hot for well over 12 hours.  The same goes for sweets, crisps, and other snacks. You can pick up at 5-pack of chocolate bars sometimes for as little as £1 (when they're on special offer), or you can spend 60p here and there each time you want a chocolate bar.

There are 4.2 weeks in a month on average. If you break down your £150, you're giving yourself about £35/wk. Many of us probably could live on £35/wk pocket money, but the question is, can you? My suggestion would be to budget yourself a little more at the beginning and keep track of what you spend each week.  You're still in the US, right?  I realize that prices for things will fluctuate, and some things will be more expensive in the UK, but £35 is about $58. I'd take $58 out in cash and see if it can last for a week.

Also remember that London is generally more expensive than the rest of the UK.

Thanks all for your wonderful replies. No Freudian slip, lol, just a typo, haha! DrSuperL99 was exactly on point with the info I was looking for. I think I ready too many novels set in the 18th century, lol...pin money is such an antiquated term

I think I have a good understanding now though of what we're looking at. I alot about $50 a week in the US now for incidentals...and no groceries are not included...I've allotted 300GBP for groceries a month for 2 adults and toddler. I think I'm going to be more worried about DH spending all his money on cigs and having nothing leftover for random drinks, lunch, etc...maybe I can get him to quit when we move over...hmmm...thanks!

He may want to. From what I understand, cigarettes are more expensive in the UK. I don't have any experience, but I know people who smoke, and they thought it was outstanding that you could get a pack of cigarettes in the US for less than $5.

Yeah, a pack of 20 fags costs nearly £6. That's why a lot of people here smoke rollies, because packs of tobacco and rolling papers are cheaper!

We have a contact in Virginia who gets DH cartons of Marlboro...I think 10 packs of 20 for $30...so a bit cheaper considering he'll pay $5.75 for a pack at the gas station...hmm...I wonder how much VAT we would pay on getting cartons from VA sent to us in London?