Budgeting..

Kataratarina

i have a real problem budgeting and within 2 weeks of gettin paid im skint.

my wages are 1000 pm without overtime and my dd are:

car loan: 125 (for next 3 years)
loan for moving house:100 (next 2 years)
phone bill:25-30
tv licence:26
car insurance-28
cable-21
rent- 275

total:608

i pay the bills ie cable, licence and my oh pays for electric but at the beginning of the month i put in 10 ( we use about 10 a week in electric)

diesel- i buy my own and he buys his own, my sis gives my 30 a mth for running her into work and my aunt gives me 3 a day. so this usually covers my diesel!

food: oh usually buys throughout the month and i usually do the 1st weeks shop.

for the 2 of us we spend around 40 a week ( we dont eat the same stuff, i eat chilli, pasta and things but he doesnt)

so say i'm left with around 300 for myself? but i just cant budget 100 a week!
i havent bought clothes in a few mths cause im trying to lose weight.

i need real help

apologies for the lack of pound sign (its broke)

Rustvaar

£125 - Car Loan
£100 - House Move Loan
£30 - Phone Bill
£26 - TV License
£28 - Car Insurance
£21 - Cable
£275 - Rent

£605 out per month
£1000 in per month

£395 remaining.

£10 per month for electric? (Am I reading your statement right, please correct me if I'm wrong!)
£160 per month on Groceries? (Again, confirm this could you, please )

So this would leave you £225 as money just kicking about for the remaining month if I'm doing my numbers right

Straight out, £25 should go into a regular savings account each month. This way you've got £50 per week to spend on "You", which is a nice even figure.

Space your fun out, say two weeks of fun and two weeks of saving? Place £100 into another Instant Access Savings Account and try to break down the first week of fun into a £50 budget. What do you like to do with your free time, do you like to stay in, do you like to go out? If you like going out, could you "suffer" staying in and spend less having fun that way?

That way you can have;

Week 1 = Fun with £50, try to break down the costs, drinking, eating out, going shopping, whatever!

Week 2 = TRY to have some fun at home or some 'free fun' at least! If you can't manage it then dip into the IASA (Shame on you, however!)

Week 3 = You should have been looking forward to this week because it's your expensive fun week! Spending the £50 should be a treat now! Spend it wisely!

Week 4 = Repeat the step for Week 2.

It might seem stupid but its' a good way to budget, you'll be saving a little bit of money to the side for any MASSIVE FUN! later on in the year.

I think if you've got your food costs covered you can do a lot with £50.00 per week for fun. I know a lot of people could drink that in a night without too much difficult but why not have people over for dinner.

Hope I'm not falling wide of the target with my reply and I hope if it's not useful to you then it's maybe at least useful to SOMEONE!

Kataratarina

i would put in 10 when i get paid and my oh puts in and around 10 a week after that, yea 160 is quite high but i've tried and i just cant do it!!!!

that plan sounds good plus saving! i really am goig to try!!

thank u
x

Rustvaar

Glad it helped. For me I find it very easy to save because once the money is in the savings account it can't come back out! Throw money to a savings account and you soon learn to cope with £100 for a month's worth of fun and games (Which is usually more than enough! Everyone needs a break )

CLAPTON

I would suggest you do a proper budget that also includes not only the weekly/monthly spends but also the yearly/oneoffs that are so easy to forget... like car tax/RAC, servicing and repairs, cloths, xmas costs and presents, holidays/going away and also socialising , lunches/coffees at work or whatever... try this
http://www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html
also remember you need to actually save the money for the annual /one offs so the money is there when you want it.

try keeping a spending diary... write down absolutely everything you spend for a month... you'll be surprised I'm sure.

getmore4less

Budgeting is having a plan that matches income to outgoings(includes savings) and ballances over the long term.

As has been said this needs to be a plan that covers at least a years spends but should have provision for longer term stuff as well.

The SOA forms are a good start for mapping out where you plan to spend your money. The problem then becomes matching this with reality and that means tracking everything. A simple spending diary on paper works OK for a start.

This will show where you overspend to your plan, if you cannot reduce the spends on one thing then something else has to give.

Your basic problem is you spend too much on the regular DD and/or are spending too much in the first 1/2 of the month.

If you cannot cutback on the daily stuff then the regular ones have to be reduced, start with TV packages and mobiles, then look at all the DD to make sure they are all needed or can they be reduced.

IT is very important that there is provision for the bills that don't happen monthly since if these are not saved for then you get problems with cash flow

Cable and phone look high(£51) we are with VM and pay £25pm max for BB,phone,TV. TV licence will drop to £12 once you have 6months paid.

Kataratarina

thanks guys

my phone contract is up with 02 in july which i intend on cancelling, yes my tv licence will reduce (yayyyy forgot about that)

my vm is 21 pm (phone cable and internet)
the 30 phone was from 02