I commented on this article under "money moustache, " ☺
I think the sums were quite generous, for eg they budgeted $80 a week for extra-curricular activities for the 2 children family. That's $4,160 pa. We send our kids to the fancy pants Sydney Conservatory for music lessons, 2k pa which is less than half the budget they had down. Museum membership is 80 a year so I have no idea what fancy extra curriculars they are doing to spend twice as much as we do. There were other areas they could cut back on, utilities and other household expenses were high and they assume families need a room for each child. We budget around the same, except we include a trip to Europe in that amount and I don't consider our budget bare bones. So much free stuff for families these days, they've seen numerous concerts for free, free bike riding lessons in the park, free museum open days. Big w has big sales for school supplies and y he kids get a birthday invite to some fun activity every second weekend. Bought their bikes and scooters from Gumtree and will sell them back when they outgrow them. Our gas and electricity are 300 a quarter and that's using an old fridge that isn't energy efficient.
I will say, aussies have it good, two minimum wage earners can easily support a family on their budget. I wouldn't say the same for someone in the UK.