Frugal Living 2011 - the preparation stage

chika

Ok I'm in for next year - this thread and everyone taking part helped me so much in 2010 that I think its essential to do next year.

Here is my budget

Rent - £3900
Electricity - £600 (its the only fuel here)
Ctax - £600
Home phone - £72
Internet - £90
Water - £200
TV Licence - £72

Groceries £2500
Toiletries £ 300 (including makeup and eyebrow threading)
Clothes & Shoes £600
Gifts £250
Travel & Socialising - £1500
Hobbies - £200 (I've recently taken up knitting and it isn't cheap!)

Total All in = £10284!

I have an income of £21500 although after all the deductions I only come out with about £15000. This should go up slightly next September. So with the budget as it stands I should be able to save a fair bit of cash.

That is if things stay as they are now.....

I currently rent a flay with a mate from Uni. Her bf lives in a much nicer flat about a mile away and I estimate in the past month she has stayed here about 3 times. Which is lovely in a way but difficult as I am having to pay all the electricity (we have a prepayment meter) alone. The flat looks nice, on first impressions but isn't in the best area, only has electricity as a fuel and a slightly negligent landlord. :cool: All of that is making me lean towards moving out and into a houseshare. Been looking around and I could get one that includes all bills for the same price as I am paying in rent here. Decisions decisions!

Has anyone moved from their own place to a shared house?

Kiwisaver_2

summertea wrote: »

I am terrible for over thinking last years budget was too complicated and i got confused as to where spending should go. e.g. i have a budget for food but also one for entertainment if i eat out say a sandwich i don't know where to put the expenditure. I want to simplify to encourage me to record more regularly and not end up doing it all at the end of the year (like this year) but if i make it too simple i won't be able to see where i should be cutting back.

I think only you will know how to deal with this, if grabbing sandwiches or lunches on the fly is a potential leak of money from your budget I would put it somewhere where it's going to hurt if you are likely to be tempted to slack off. :rotfl: I have issues with lunches: I forget to make them or I make them and when I do make them, I often forget to take them!!

My biggest problem being I go to bed late and get up at the very last minute possible to get myself to work on time!!

This past year I decided any unscheduled lunches would have to come out of my own personal spends fund, rather than the household grocery budget and this has worked wonders to get my A into G. I have even set my alarm a whole four minutes earlier in the morning!!! I have driven home to retrieve a forgotten lunch rather than have to pay for it again out of my pocket money. :T Despite this, its still not beyond my cunning ways to go the supermarket to buy lunch 'items' at lunchtime so that I can put them on the grocery bill. At the end of the day I'm guilty of 'cheating' my own system to justify spends, but I'm only kidding myself.

I think it's as much about the thought process, as the boundaries, incentives or barriers that you put in place for yourself to keep you on the straight and narrow. I find if I set money aside for something I will undoubtedly spend it on that item. If I allowed myself a lunch budget, then yes I would happily spend all of it. If I had a takeaway budget and an afternoon snack budget I would spend all of that too. I work on the principle of 'pocket money' or some call it an 'everything else' category that includes all the other nice to have things rather than necessities. My 'everything else' is mostly personal spends stuff for me: social, entertainment, books, magazines, clothing, coffee with friends, bits and bobs for the house, pressies and cards or literally anything else within budget that tempts me. In my eyes it's a scarce resource and very precious to me; therefore I would far rather have this money available to buy a new pair of shoes than 'waste' it on sandwiches.

blondemuppet

Hello all,

Can I join for 2011 please? I started 2010 full of good intentions and fell off the wagon shortly after but I'm determined to do better this year. Just reading the posts written so far has filled me with enthusiasm and ideas. I'm off to work out budgets etc.

cw18

Welcome aboard

seriouslyfrugal

Hi

snowing here in hamshire - thinking of everyone else in this situation

stay warm - love and hugs

knitwit67

Hi, I would like to join please.

DH is not frugal so my budget is for my spending. He is the higher earner and pays the DD's and I pay for food and run the house. It's teamwork that works for us. I started a business last year but it is dead at the moment, so I have a parttime job and will try again with the hypnotherapy next year.

I have no savings so that is what I am aiming for. I will work out a budget and return

hollysmum22

yep snowing where i am as well seriouslyfrugal where abouts are u we got about 2in

huston_kw

Okay, really need to do this and get organised.

Start last year but oh lost job, we moved start eating junk as we were decorating all day - stop accounting for our spends ect - which resulted in spending all our savings on the house but we do have stuff to show for it!

I need to look into this so have to set a side a day with OH to work it out!

Kelly

Look forward to getting to know you all!

redglass_2

Hello, it all seems to have gone very quiet. Is everyone snowed in, or is something wrong with the thread, or with my PC?

[edited] Oh! It's all appeared! I don't know what I did....

seriouslyfrugal

Hi

i'm near southampton and i reckon we have had a couple of inches although it has stopped now and the sun has come out and it's started to thaw already - it really quite bizzare


stay warm and safe