Oh my god!! Taking back what's mine (aka not spending without thinking from now on!!)

emylou

I posted an SOA a few weeks ago;
My income- £2,100

Total - £2,100
Savings- £7,000

Monthly Outgoings:

Rent - £1,100 (at the moment I pay this to my landlord & it covers my rent and all bills)
Council tax - covered in rent
Gas - covered in rent
Electric - covered in rent
TV License - covered in rent
Landline - covered in rent
Food - £50
Mobile- £30
Car Insurance - £34
Petrol – £60
Road Tax- £10
Maintenance (Servicing, MOT, tyres etc) – £50
Life Insurance - £0
House insurance – covered in rent
Water rates – covered in rent
Gym/swim membership - £0
Going out/takeaways- £100
Haircuts- £8
Presents- £60
Clothes- £20
Medical (prescriptions/eye tests/dentist etc)- £7.20
Holidays (if you take them) £0


Loans/credit cards:
Barclay card £150 minimum payment £14 (aiming to pay it off next payday).


but as I was procrastinating from doing school work I decided to print out my bank statement and highlight different "spends" in different colours- the result- WHAT A SHOCKER!!!!

Between 27th June and today I have spent:
£1,204.88 on rent/bills & direct debits
£184.54 on food!!! :eek:(popping into Tesco "just need milk" nearly every few days resulted in spending the odd £5 to £19 to a full shop £50!?)
£116.20 on Ebay.Amazon/misc spends :eek:
£96.55 on "entertainment"- 6 meals out (2 work related for end of term) and one trip to a driving range, one cinema visit
£61.39 Petrol
A grand total = £1663.56 that's not including cash withdrawals- the majority of which I can't even remember what I then spent the money on
I should also have about £400 "left" but I have about half of that so I am hugely annoyed with myself!

Back to using a spending diary and "paying myself" my savings the day I get paid from now on. Obviously becoming a better meal planner/food shopper goes without saying too.

Does anyone else have any other advice/tips/or even kick up the ars*s going to get me back on track and save my money rather than give it to shops who don't need or deserve it!?
Many thanks in advance an ashamed emylou

DrSqueeze

You've done the hard part - and that's recognising there's something to put right.

Make a spreadsheet for your monthly budgets, with a column or section for each type of spending. Put the budget at the top, then each 'spend' under it, so the 'amount remaining' reduces each time. That will give you an idea of how quickly you're spending, as well as how much. You may well find that you spend the bulk of your food budget in week one and have to keep topping it up.

Make a food 'plan' for the month: number of days x number of meals per day. Then list all the meals you have in the house, this shows you how many more meals you need to buy and will help you work out how much you can spend on each one. Personally, I think £50 is rather optimistic, given the rise in food prices. The last estimate I saw suggested a typical person needs £25-£30 per week (minimum).

Going out / presents / clothes may need to take a bit of a hit until you get the food budget in order. A good incentive might be to set the food budget at, say, £160 - then look for ways to economise when you shop (and use the savings to create a going out / presents / clothes allowance).

Just a few thoughts, might be of some use.

emylou

Thanks for your reply DrSqueeze. I will set that up later- not too good at excel so might just be with pen and paper lol.

I am still amazed at what I have been spending! I am managing to pay my bills etc but was wondering why I wasn't saving as much as I could and this is clearly why! Am not going to let Mr T's get that much of my money again!! :mad: To be fair though I also had a lot of celebrations in July- my sister's 21st, my bf's birthday, Dad's birthday and parents wedding anniversary. But I will go back to what I used to do of having different "pots" and saving into a "presents\" fund throughout the year as I do have a large family.

Thanks again. Am off to the shops with my Mum today- and am going to keep a very tight hold on my purse! I might report back later as it might help me stay on track!

Skint_Catt

How about withdrawing your money for each budget at the beginning of the month and having a separate 'purse' for each one - or at least food & petrol if nothing else? I find using a debit card is the worst possible thing even if it still goes in the spending diary!

I also find Martin's mantra pretty useful - do I need it? can I afford it? Have I checked if it's cheaper elsewhere?

C xx

needingaccountability

Skint_Catt wrote: »

How about withdrawing your money for each budget at the beginning of the month and having a separate 'purse' for each one - or at least food & petrol if nothing else? I find using a debit card is the worst possible thing even if it still goes in the spending diary!

I also find Martin's mantra pretty useful - do I need it? can I afford it? Have I checked if it's cheaper elsewhere?

C xx

That's what I do, my food budget goes in my purse each payday and all food shopping is cash only. Far too easy to spend too much when it's plastic:eek:
Mantra is in my sig

Luvliss

Skint_Catt wrote: »

How about withdrawing your money for each budget at the beginning of the month and having a separate 'purse' for each one - or at least food & petrol if nothing else? I find using a debit card is the worst possible thing even if it still goes in the spending diary!

I also find Martin's mantra pretty useful - do I need it? can I afford it? Have I checked if it's cheaper elsewhere?

C xx

Great advice! Everything is a simple card transaction for me, so the money is in a sense, fake. Also because it takes a while for some transactions to show, you forget debits coming out and think you have more money in the bank. Definitely going to to this, as I've just reduced my food budget for the month by more than half. :eek:

DrSqueeze

emylou wrote: »

Thanks for your reply DrSqueeze. I will set that up later- not too good at excel so might just be with pen and paper lol.

Pen and paper is fine, does the job just as well

I am still amazed at what I have been spending! I am managing to pay my bills etc but was wondering why I wasn't saving as much as I could and this is clearly why!

I remember when I started using a proper 'budget' system, the first month was a real eye opener - all those little extras add up. I decided to have a 'cheap week' in terms of food, as an experiment, to see how little I could spend but still have decent, satisfying meals. Just changing some brands, buying smaller quantities and looking for buy-one-get-one-free made a big difference.

Thanks again. Am off to the shops with my Mum today- and am going to keep a very tight hold on my purse! I might report back later as it might help me stay on track!

My pleasure - and good luck. Once you get into the habit, you'll wonder how you ever managed before :beer:

DrSqueeze

Skint_Catt wrote: »

How about withdrawing your money for each budget at the beginning of the month and having a separate 'purse' for each one - or at least food & petrol if nothing else? I find using a debit card is the worst possible thing even if it still goes in the spending diary!

Excellent advice

emylou

I am definitely going to have a "purse" for each budget- food, petrol, entertainment -and try not to take my debit card out with me daily. Is there still a daily spend thread on here? Because it helped me stay on track having to declare my daily spends to the MSE world! I'm also thinking of starting a diary to try and keep my head organised and keep me on the MSE wagon!
Today I went to the shops with my Mum, I bought a birthday present for my sister's bf reduced to £8 so happy with that, just the card to buy now. I paid for the parking there £1.10 and my Mum treated me to lunch at the Harvester. Just got in from seeing my cousin who has been admitted to hospital I paid for parking there too £2.00 and had bought her some magazines and a puzzle book= £2.70, so not a complete no spend day but alot less than I have recently been spending and obviously I wanted to buy something for my cousin as I feel so helpless.
Thanks again for responses, feeling more optimistic today

emylou

Got paid today so just transferred rent, going to put some in savings and then sort out rest into petrol/food etc then divide misc/entertainment spends by the number of weeks- sound good?

Today should be a fairly low spend- I literally don't have any shoes to wear to a Hen do tomorrow night but before I head to the shops I'm going to see if my cousin has any suitable (she's the same size as me; I wear size 9 so it's quite demoralising buying shoes anyway- not least when I need them immediately)! I am going into school to have a sort out of my classroom, seeing my cousin then babysitting later (not paid as it's a family friend) but hopefully I will be too busy to spend or even think about spending lol!

needingaccountability

Sounds like a very good plan.:)

Hope you get away without the stress of having to buy shoes. Have a good day.