do bugets really work

postingalwaysposting

yes budgets do work... but please give yourself time, the first one you do will not be right/the best. I have seemed to mastered it a few months ago after about 6months trying (and then some months its very tight) i see what you mean about the car tax the way i do it (well simaler as i have no car) is i have a few pots for yearly things ie birthdays/dentist/presriptions/xmas... then if i have to i can borrow from one of the pots to get whats needed (ie if my dentst is £10 more than i will take it from my xmas pot (for example) and then make it up at a later date) i know it defeats the object (and i must admit i hardly do it) but its just something to fall back on (obviously this wont work if you only have one pot) hth

Rgc_3

Hi
I prepare yearly budgets as part of my job and i follow a few small rules

budget items have to be SMART

specific(what exactly does that figure include as no point in saying car for example when car breaks down into fuel,tax insurance etc

Measurable(Until a history is created a budget must be reviwed and measured

Attainable(no point in budgeting £2.00 a week on electricity if you know you cant take it under a tenner

Relevent(why is it in your budget is it needed

Time(have you built in cut off points (maybe a credit card only gets paid for another 3 months etc

Other things i think of is contingency planning(where can i take from in an emergency and if i need to take how will i pay back into that budget section...plus an emergency fund for repairs etc

A Budget needs to be constantly reviewed for it to mean anything....so if £10.00 petrol is nt enough(or too much then assess where you can take it from to fill the gap(still keeping within overall budget but if that cant be done then income needs increased


Im sure there are lots of thoughts on budgets so maybe a thread is a good idea rather than hi jacking....sorry earwig:p but its sort of in line with your question

Rgc_3

ps:beer:
yes budgets really do work if they are realistic:j

good luck

Storm

I'm just at the end of my first month of real budgetting, and it was tough! I ended up with 13.80 on Thursday evening to last until tomorrow morning when my salary hits the bank! It was a very tough weekend, but it really made me look at what was absolutely neccessary for me to buy in the supermarket, and I even had enough to go out last night for 1 beer!

I do put £100 a month into a completely separate account that covers all my car things like tax/mot/insurance etc, and I am lucky in that I got my lightbulb just after the insurance & mot had gone through (tax isn't due until Feb) so I know there will be enough there to cover things.

To be honest though, the only way for me to cope this month was to deal solely in cash - made me think much more about spending it when I could see my wallet emptying out!

earwig

thanks everyone i dont mind anyone hi jacking the thing is when i do a buget i always feel poor as every penny is taken but when i dont do one i seem to have mone why do i feel like this with money

lynzpower

well the thing is hun, that there is ALWAYS something somewhere to cut back on.

If you can reduce any of those areas that you have had struggles with, once and for all, be it your food budget or smokes or anything like that, it will give you "spare" money, which you could hide off in a seperate account for "silly spends"

Could you do another SOA to see if we can help again? Or you can pm me if you like BUT EMPTY YOUR INBOX woman! been trying to PM you back

earwig

ok this is a typical month for me
income
wages 1800
ctc 193
cb 116
total 2109

outgoings

rent 600
councill tax 118 will go up to 140
gas 80
electric 35
debt 80 under dmp
house ins 7
car in 23
aol 15
sky 28
food 320
pet 100
catoulouge 30
water 40
tv 10
bt 15
phone line 11
den 59 payment plan

total 1571

see when i just do this i have spare money but as soon as i add car tax birthdays hair ect it just drips away sorry if this isnt making sence

earwig

if someone wants to work out a workable buget for me i will give it a good go
some information there is two adults and two kids age 7 and 2 we are bothsmokers at 30 per week and our home is rented so no repair bills and from december i have to star paying inlaws back 50 per month for the 600 i had to borrow as oh had two weeks of sick unpaid

climbgirl

what's the pet that's costing you £100 a month?!

tyllwyd

What does 'pet £100' mean? Is that food, or saving for vets bills or what?



Edited to say --- Snap! Sorry posted at the same time as climbgirl above