best tip for sticking to a budget please(sorry long)

TRYINGTOSWIM

I have had a proper LBM this weekend,not a dull flickering 40watt effort like in january but a full beam 100 watt bulb opening my eyes to tackling this situation.
Our debt is no way massive, £600 on capitol one card with a £500 limit:mad: and £260 on a catalogue,payments up to date. Although these figures seem paltry and once upon a time when I had thousands of debt I would have thought someone lucky to only have such a small debt.
But my fear is,that after opening my eyes and doing the budget brain if we carry on then each month we will be slipping further down the slippery slope until it becomes a major problem.

I have done an extensive budget for us to stick to, which being sensible we can stick to but small wasteful spending will have to stop. We have a low income so there isnt major spending sprees anyway,but its the small little things that all add up such as ice cream van for the kids, a take away instead of cooking the food that is in the freezer.

I have included in the budget savings for xmas,birthdays, car repairs,car tax and other bills.
I have moved all direct debits to a seperate account where the required amount will be paid in each week and not touched.
I have set up savings accounts online,piggy bank things, to put the months petrol allowance etc into.

My stumbling block will be that my OH gets paid weekly, child tax credit and child benefit are paid 4 weekly. and in the past its been so easy to eg borrow £20 from one account to tide us over the next few days.

I know I need to be far more disciplined but would appreciate any tips on how you mange to stick to a budget.
Apologies for the rambling post but I know I need to get this sorted as I swore I would never have debt again and could kick myself.

many thanks

TRYINGTOSWIM

no suggestions then?
apologies if this thread may have come across as smug to some, us having a small amount of debt as opposed to thousands,however with a low income it is a worry.

I was just after any basic tips for managing to stick to the budget before it becomes thousands.

glimmerofhope

Hiya
Probably just a bit quiet at the moment on the board
I keep a spending diary and know every penny in/out. I get paid every 2 weeks so have to be very disciplined when it comes to money
I also plan all our meals and shopping so know what we spend
As a though alot of places are doing dine in meal deals such as M&S and the large supermarkets maybe these could be planned into the meals instead of take-out, as for the ice-creams how about having cones and blocks in the freezer and maybe sprinkles and sauce so they can decorate their own.

DragonflyCandy

First of all well done for getting out of debt the first time, at least you know you can do it if you put your mind to it!

with regards to the budget what me and my hubby do is work out on payday how much we have available to spend then break it down into 4 for each week (usually it works out about £70 - £100 per week) then at the start of every week we go to the cash machine withdraw the amount, then when we get home the bank card goes into a drawer not to be touched till the next monday!
this money has to cover petrol and food and we quite like the challenge of trying to make it last the week!
other than that my big tip is to write a meal planner look in ur freezer and cupboards and write down meals for the whole week that way when you go shopping you only need basic essentails

hope this helps and good luck with ur debt free mission :j

lemonpopsicle

Why not put your SOA up? There are lots of lovely peeps on here who might be able to give advice.:)

skyvicky123

Hi, just wanted to say that working in cash is the best way. I break it down and put in envelopes for all the weekly expenses, petrol, food, entertainment etc. I still over-spend but in my mind once the cash is gone, it's gone so although i do have access to more I tend not to dip in unless there is no other option.

Hope that helps!

lambda

Hi

I'm sorry for butting in. I am trying to pay off a credit card, so I set up a separate "budget" account where I pay 350 pounds into each month. I then only carry the budget debit card around and buy everything (groceries, petrol, incidental items) from the budget account. Once it's all gone it's tough - this leaves me with money in my main account to pay off the debt.

However, I must admit that when it come to a week or so before payday I find that we can really struggle to make the remaining cash last. So I think I will give the withdrawing cash and putting it into envelopes a try myself as that seems like a really nice way to make sure we are spending the right amount each week: it should mean that we won't be left struggling on the last week of the month!

Thanks!

skyvicky123

Hi Lambda - works for me and I can shift things about to afford certain things if necessary (knowing that i will have to cut back in other areas);)

lambda

So, literally, you withdraw x amount each week, and stash it into the appropriate envelopes, and keep them safe somewhere? I guess when you go shopping you need to make sure you have got the cash/right envelope with you...

Sounds like a good idea though, and I'm going to try it for myself in April.

ElmerFudd

Ooh I like the envelope idea. One thing I have found helps me a lot is the daily spending diary. It keeps me in check too. I may try the envelope idea though

TRYINGTOSWIM

many thanks
I like the envelope idea,
one problem with having the money sat in a saving account online is that it can be so easy to borrow from it:mad:
I'm not sure if the same temptation would be there with cash sat in an envelope though. I was in the post office today and they do a budget card, sort of like the old saving stamps you could buy for car tax etc.Its free and you simply load the amount you would need to put away onto this card .
I got one and have put this weeks car tax, and bt bill money onto it.

this way once its paid the money is gone and I cant dib into it.


also the debit card in the drawer not the purse is a good one..thanks