How can i get this right?

notyet

Guys, the time has finally come for me to admit defeat.

I have done the SOA, sorted out a budget, even keeping a spending diary but i still dont seem to be in control of my money.

I know what the average income/outgoings are per month.
I'm doing my grocery shopping online to help keep it to a minimum.
I havent bought clothes since last summer (have instead asked for them as christmas/birthday gifts)
Money gifted to me has paid for haircuts/petrol/treats.

I check my account balance online regularly, but still find myself with little or no funds available.

Can any of you wonderful people tell me any hints/tips to keep me on the right path? On paper, it looks like i should have £50 a month doing nothing, but i seem to be constantly skating towards being overdrawn.

Thanks everyone. x

Tixy

It all sounds like you have a good plan in place and are doing what you can. But if you are 'losing' £50 a month then have you actually done a detailed actual v budget for a month, using your spending diary. Can you work out exactly which areas you are spending more than you budget?
If you can do that then it may be that one area of your budget just isn't realistic and you need to up it.

Another possibility might be to do with items you budget 1/12 of but that you actually spend differently. Its easy to put in a SoA that you spend an average of £20 a month on presents, but if you only do the SoA in November and have nothing saved towards xmas then you are likely to go over budget in the first few months, same with things like car maintenance - if you suddenly need an MOT and service it could throw your figures out

If you have anything in your SoA thats meant to be savings towards annual costs (like car tax) are you actually saving this money each month in a seperatae account?

notyet

Thanks Tixy.
My car maintenance and tax all comes from the budget, as I have set up standing orders to savings to cover these. I found it helped in the beginning, as i was spending what i should have saved.
I'm having issues with bank fees, but tried including those too. Perhaps the 'spending differently' is the logical answer.
It kind of feels like im trying to catch up with myself all the time!