Need to make a mock-up of a budget

My British husband is nervous about moving back, and worried we won’t be able to afford to live there.  Even though we have a much higher than average income here in the US, we will definitely be taking a pay cut when we move over.  I will most likely be keeping my job (I work remotely anyway, and for a friend) so long as the legalities can be dealt with, and if not I plan to get a job there.  But even so, I feel certain we can live comfortably on just his (lower, but still good) income.

I’d love it if anyone has any links, or even just a personal budget I can examine? Bonus if you have kids (3; mine will be 13, 12, and 7 next summer when we move).  I am in charge of money, and although I have done some basic figuring and I think we will be fine, he is nervous.  I’d like to create a mock-up of a realistic budget.  I can do research and adjust amounts for our area, but I just don’t know what the line items should be?  And are somethings yearly or quarterly and some monthly?

If anyone is able to help me get started, I’d really appreciate it.
I plan to have half of what we need for a deposit on a house when we move (after moving expenses, deposits, and maybe getting a car), then we will save and build our credit for a year and then buy, so we’ll be renting at first.  Another thing I should say is we still have our British accounts and have kept money in them the whole time he has lived here, so I think that will help some with credit etc.

Monthly unless stated otherwise

Mortgage
Council tax
Gas
Electric
Water
Tv
Broadband
Tv license
Mobile phone for everyone 11+
Home insurance

Vehicle servicing annually
Mot annually
Tires
Road tax (6 months or annually)
Fuel
Car insurance
Roadside assistance

Childcare
Car seat (can’t use US one in UK)
Birthday party gifts
Individual child birthday budgets
Christmas per child budget
Babysitting
School trips
Children’s shoe/clothing
School uniforms
After school clubs
Any sports/activities per child

Groceries
Restaurants

Travel budget - five return flights to USA each year at a minimum
Days out

Prescriptions
Dental
Money for private appointments/tests

Shoes/clothing
Entertainment
Gifts
Haircuts
Home improvements
Parking (have to pay most anywhere)
Public transport (will likely use a lot if only one car)


Subscription services (Netflix, Amazon prime, etc)
Pets?  Budget vet services and food
Cleaner?
Date nights?
Gym?

When buying, you’ll have surveys, solicitors, and stamp duty, plus your deposit.  And then normal moving costs for making rental whole, moving your things, etc.

Thank you KFDancer!

Absolutely no pressure to respond, to any of these questions, but if you have any answers to my clarifying questions I’d love to read them. 


Council tax- everyone pays, even if renting?
Tv - like cable? Can we live without? We have and will keep like a million streaming services
Tv license - this is monthly? I thought it was yearly. But I don’t know.
Mobile phone for everyone 11+ (Ugh so much money lol)
Home insurance - if renting is renters insurance a standard requirement?

Car insurance - do you insure the car, or each person?  My niece had some drama about getting insurance and for some reason this is stuck in my head.  Husband doesn’t know.

Car seat (can’t use US one in UK)- I have def. brought them from home before.  She’ll be 7 and is huge, do you happen to know the age/size requirements. Asking because I think our simple booster she uses now will likely be fine for the (maybe) year she still needs it.

(School trips
Children’s shoe/clothing—plan to mostly buy these on trips home/order them
School uniforms - do you have to order from a specific company or is it different for different schools? For example, if I wanted to order the same exact thing made of softer or more natural materials (cotton instead of synthetics, maybe something less itchy for my sensitive kid), would that be allowed?  Husband also doesn’t know the answer to this and guarantee kin folks wouldn’t have even asked.
After school clubs
Any sports/activities per child) - Just generally in this group, are these things super expensive—I’ll research, but just asking.

Dental - Dental is not included with NHS?

Public transport (will likely use a lot if only one car) - Will mostly be utilized by teens.  Student passes/discounts?

 Can help with a few:

Council tax
- yes, everyone pays, even if renting, unless they qualify for an exemption (for example, full-time students don’t have to pay council tax): https://www.gov.uk/council-tax/who-has-to-pay

Tv
- it’s up to you if you want to get cable. Freeview has a lot of channels anyway and there are plenty of streaming services, so you may not want to pay extra for TV packages (having said that, broadband and cable TV bundles in the UK are usually much cheaper than in the US)

Tv license
 - TV licence can either be paid annually (£159) or by monthly direct debit. I pay monthly, which is £13.37/month.

Mobile phone for everyone 11+
- as with broadband/TV, mobile contracts are generally much cheaper in the UK than the US (according to Google the average single phone plan in the US is $114/month compared with about $59/month in the UK).

I have a SIM-only contract which is £13/month for unlimited calls, unlimited texts and 12GB data.

Home insurance
- not sure if it’s a requirement, but I would definitely recommend getting renter’s insurance

Car insurance
- You normally have one main named driver who is the policy holder and then you can add additional drivers to the policy, which may either lower or your increase the price, depending on UK driving experience... for example, adding my parents to my car insurance policy lowered the cost when I was younger because they were considered ‘safer’ drivers

Dental
- Dental work is subsidised on the NHS, but it is not free. There are 3 different payment bands for NHS treatments, ranging from £23 to £282 depending on what treatment you need: https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/dentists/dental-costs/how-much-will-i-pay-for-nhs-dental-treatment/

Usually dentists take both NHS and private patients and they charge different fees for the different treatments. There are often long waiting lists (1-2 years) to register with a dentist as an NHS patient, so often people take out private insurance and register as a private patient instead.

I recently tried to register as an NHS patient in my current city as I had been unregistered from my childhood dentist (due to leaving it too long between appointments) and I couldn’t find a single dentist in the city that was taking NHS patients at that time. I got put onto an NHS waiting list for one but they said it could be a wait of 18 months to be seen... so I ended up paying for a private check-up instead (luckily for only £30 as they had a discount offer due to Covid)


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Where there is an option to pay annually vs monthly, the annual option is often (but not always) cheaper so it's a good idea to run the numbers each time.

I pay house insurance, car insurance and road tax annually because it's cheaper. Where there's no difference, for the smaller bills I usually pay all at once just to get it out of the way but for council tax I pay monthly as it's expensive!

Periodically, for your utilities and annually for your insurances, do a check to see if you should switch to a different provider as companies tend to penalise good customers by putting up their prices and hoping you'll stick with them because you can't be bothered to change.

I pay house insurance, car insurance and road tax annually because it's cheaper.

I do car insurance and road tax annually, but my house insurance comes out monthly along with all my other mortgage-related insurance payments.

Where there's no difference, for the smaller bills I usually pay all at once just to get it out of the way but for council tax I pay monthly as it's expensive!

I think the majority of people pay council tax monthly - that’s the default on my annual statement and I don’t think there’s any difference in overall cost for paying monthly vs. annually.

You also only pay council tax 10 months a year (no council tax payment in Feb or March), unless you arrange to split it into 12 monthly payments instead... at least that’s how it’s done in England, not sure if Scotland is different.


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Our grocery budget is £140 to £180 a week and that's with only 2 kids.  My wife and I both eat all lunches at home so that makes it a bit higher.   It went through the roof during and after covid. 

Resteraunts are £50 for a family of four in a not fancy place.  A decant pub will be £70.
£70 to fill up your car with petrol.  Can't believe I used to do that 2 or three times a week.  Now it's once a month.
You don't need cable, freeview and the Iplayer are plenty, especially with Netflix thrown in.

I would buy used unlocked iphones from ebay for all your kids and then get pay monthly sims from Giffgaff for £12 each.  I tell my kids they get £10 a month phone credit after I give them the first phone and pay for the sim.  If they lose the phone, or just want to upgrade, they can figure out how much money I will pay.  They usually pitch in a bit themselves to get a better one.  This eliminates me having to pay repeatedly for lost or broken phones. 

People have most covered.  Car seat until 12 (booster). Technically a US one won’t be covered on UK insurance.  We do the same thing where we use our one illegally when travelling but for a permanent move, I’d spend £150 for a good proper UK one.  Drop in the ocean and all.

School uniform “marked” clothing will be through someone specific with each school.  I’ll look up some prices.  Do NOT think that uniforms will save you money.  Far from it!  There are sensory uniforms but the branded bits won’t be.

Renters insurance will likely be required by your lease, but personally I wouldn’t choose to NOT have it.  Have you experienced the joys of renting here?  Mould, mould, mould.  Also, don’t rent anywhere you haven’t smelled!

Activities….  No idea what the costs are in the USA.  £100ish per 30 minute thing once a week.  3 terms per year. Most things are still virtual, though some are back in person.

For my primary daughter, we have enough uniform to not have to do wash each day.  Lesser fortune families will often only have one or two kits for each child.  One PE kit is fine.  Precovid they left the PE kit at school and it only came home at half term.  Oh the kids all change together.  You get used to it. 

Primary school uniform:
Must buy through schools place at our school. Prices depend on size and only listed for must buy through school

Primary Normal kit:
Jumper £12 - £15
Shirt (button up at our school)  Hopefully your kids only want long or short sleeves and not a range
Tie
Trousers or shorts or skirt or pinafore dress
Tights, kneehighs, or socks
Black shoes
School bag - £6

PE kit: - this is where it gets silly
Shirt £6–£9
Jumper £12-£15
Hat - £6
PE bag - £6
Shorts or jogging bottoms
Plimsolls or trainers. Not all schools allow trainers
Swimsuit (specific year, Y5 and Y6 at mine)

Local secondary school in the same catalogue
Blazer £35
Tie £6
Jumper £15
Then bottoms as above

It gets CRAZY with sports
Track top £21
Track bottom £22
Polo £15
Rugby top £21
Multi sport shorts £14

Mark’s and Spencer do a well spoken about sensory range for basics.

https://www.marksandspencer.com/l/kids/easy-dressing

I do council tax annually as, historically, I could save up for the bill by depositing the maximum amount each month into a Monthly Saver (Lloyd's) account and earn some interest on it after a year of saving, then pay the lump sum council tax when it's due, and start saving for the next year's bill with a new Monthly Saver.  I don't get much interest now, but I still do it this way because it's a nice way to save up a pot of "fun money" each year (now that my visas are all behind me and I'm allowed fun money again!).

I do council tax annually as, historically, I could save up for the bill by depositing the maximum amount each month into a Monthly Saver (Lloyd's) account and earn some interest on it after a year of saving, then pay the lump sum council tax when it's due, and start saving for the next year's bill with a new Monthly Saver.  I don't get much interest now, but I still do it this way because it's a nice way to save up a pot of "fun money" each year (now that my visas are all behind me and I'm allowed fun money again!).

That's a very clever way of doing it! 

Our council tax is bordering on extortionate at this point.  And we have to pay for garden waste separately which is soooooo extortionate. And they don’t collect glass for recycling….   I don’t think real estate taxes are any better in the US though.  Death and taxes, only guarantees in life!

And we have to pay for garden waste separately which is soooooo extortionate.

I think that's outrageous! I mean, what are we paying council tax for, if not to have our bins emptied?

For my primary daughter, we have enough uniform to not have to do wash each day.  Lesser fortune families will often only have one or two kits for each child.  One PE kit is fine.  Precovid they left the PE kit at school and it only came home at half term.  Oh the kids all change together.  You get used to it. 

Primary school uniform:
Must buy through schools place at our school. Prices depend on size and only listed for must buy through school

Primary Normal kit:
Jumper £12 - £15
Shirt (button up at our school)  Hopefully your kids only want long or short sleeves and not a range
Tie
Trousers or shorts or skirt or pinafore dress
Tights, kneehighs, or socks
Black shoes
School bag - £6

PE kit: - this is where it gets silly
Shirt £6–£9
Jumper £12-£15
Hat - £6
PE bag - £6
Shorts or jogging bottoms
Plimsolls or trainers. Not all schools allow trainers
Swimsuit (specific year, Y5 and Y6 at mine)

Local secondary school in the same catalogue
Blazer £35
Tie £6
Jumper £15
Then bottoms as above

It gets CRAZY with sports
Track top £21
Track bottom £22
Polo £15
Rugby top £21
Multi sport shorts £14

Mark’s and Spencer do a well spoken about sensory range for basics.

https://www.marksandspencer.com/l/kids/easy-dressing

Thank you!  That is actually cheaper than I expected.  I won't be doing two.  Probably at least 3-4 uniforms per kid. I will lose my mind if I have to wash every day.  Right now, I have enough that we only wash once every two weeks (big long wash day).

Thank you everyone for all of your help! 

This is a great start to help me get all the numbers plugged in.  We know where we want to live (Malvern), and my  in-laws are in Birmingham and Coventry, so we can have them scout out town for us before we come.  We are also coming for a visit/reconnaissance over the Xmas holidays, at which point I'm going to engage an estate agent to start working on finding us an appropriate rental, and also talk to the secondary school at least.

If anyone has a lead on how much a house cleaner will cost, that would also be helpful.  Due to allergies, I have help come once a week in addition to cleaning myself in between.  I am willing to give up just about anything to keep having a cleaner, but I think we'll be able to afford it anyway.