Blinded by the LBM...!

banwa

Beencounting wrote: »

So, here is the update on spends so far:


Budget Actual Balance
Food 435.00 61.22 373.78
Travel 355.00 296.34 58.66
Misc Spends 300.00 120.00 180.00
Clothes 30.00 47.99 -17.99

Food and Misc Spends are doing ok, clothes are overspent, but I already knew about this. Travel is the worrying one. We've bought our monthly train tickets, so getting to work isn't going to be a problem, but the £59 that's left is less than the cost of a tank of fuel. We have nearly a full tank at the moment, so that should last us over a week, then one more fill up and we'll be over budget. The reason is because we've filled DDs car up before she headed back to Uni, and also because we tend to do more driving when we're on leave. Will need to watch this one.

ETA - sorry that table looks totally carp :mad:, I've tried to edit it, but on the preview it's ok... *confused*...hope you can make sense of it.

It makes sense. What are the misc spends on? How do you work out your budget?

Beencounting

banwa wrote: »

It makes sense. What are the misc spends on? How do you work out your budget?

Misc spends are for kids pocket money (£5 x 2), OHs pocket money (£20, which also covers weekly subs for his and DS' club), pocket money for me (unspecified ) and any other bits that crop up. It's also meant to cover entertainment, so, for example if we want to go to the cinema, we'd need to cover it from this money. TBH, it doesn't stretch very far between 4 of us (and sometimes 5 of us if I give extra to DD1 when she's home).

For the budget I have a spreadsheet which lists expected income, which is pretty much the same every month and all direct debits and standing orders (I pay as much as possible this way). This includes payments to the CCs as well as mortgage, utilities, phones, dinner money etc etc. After all that's allowed for, I then divide what's left between my 4 cash areas (food, travel, clothes and misc spends) plus allow an amount for savings.

(The savings account is used to cover non-monthly spends like car tax, insurance, MOT, birthdays, etc and also includes the emergency fund. Sometimes this account gets wiped clean, other times I just dip into it. At the mo it's at a low £70 and will help towards car MOT and/or insurance.)

With the 4 cash areas, I just use my judgement (guess ) to work out what we can get by on each month. Realistically these budgets aren't sufficient, but I accept this won't be forever so keep plodding along. As the CC min pmts come down each month, I allow for a bit extra in our budget, especially to try to increase the amount I transfer to DD1 at Uni, as I'm worried she will run out of money. We've yet to reach a level of debt repayment that is "comfortable" (used *very* loosely) within the scope of our income (ie, if I had no debt at all, I would still find it very difficult to save this amount of money, iyswim). My aim is to reach this mythical "comfortable" level and then stick with it.

Any additional income I get (mostly from Av0n, but also ebay, amazon, surveys) is used to help cover over spends and make extra payments on the target card.

Sorry, that's a really long post and probably very boring too .

Been

Beencounting

DD2 has just sent me a text to let me know that she's overspent on her mobile, I don't know the amount, but she's offered me £75 of her pay :mad::eek:. Will deal with this when I see her later.

Also, when thinking about our expected month end balance (potentially £285 over overdraft), I realised we MOT'd the car last week, which cost £62. This was meant to come out of the savings account, so the transfer of £65 that I was due to make I can now 'cancel' and leave in the current account. So, new projected balance is now only (:o) £220 over overdraft limit

Beencounting

Mealplan for next week now done, so need to update my pre-booked Asd4 order.

I did the price guarantee thingy earlier and got a voucher for £3.04, so that will cover my delivery charge

hillside777

Sorry to hear about the overspend on DD2's mobile. I assume she's has a sim only or contract phone.

Come the summer my DD will be off to university, assuming she is offered a place somewhere. We are hoping she can go to one which she can commute to, even by bus as we can't afford to pay her accommodation. Our money is tight, especially when we need to clear the debt. She can get a loan but I think this leaves about £100 a month short at least.

Have a good day tomorrow.

banwa

Beencounting wrote: »

Sorry, that's a really long post and probably very boring too .

Been

No not all boring. Sounds like we do a similar thing really apart from I don't have a savings account.

I need to have a look at this price guarantee thing, I don't really understand how it works.

What does DD2 have to say then?:eek:

Beencounting

banwa wrote: »

What does DD2 have to say then?:eek:

She's spent about £80 in total, which is £55 over the amount I agreed to pay when we took out the contract. So, that's £55 which will be coming out of the pay she had set aside for spending during January. It still leaves her with about £40. I wasn't particularly annoyed about it, tbh, as she will pay the difference. It's her choice what she spends her money on, but I guess this just seems like a waste. I think it's a case of lesson learned though .

Beencounting

Argh, this feels like a long, slow month already . Money is feeling tight, which I guess is true for lots of people in January and it feels like there are limited opportunities to make extra £££s.

If I'm honest though, this isn't true. I'm just not making enough effort to get out there and make the cash! So, I need to stop the pity-party and get on with it. I've already put aside some stuff for eb4y which OH can load up. Our turbolister thingy isn't working properly at the moment so I need to look at that as a priority so it doesn't hold up the listings.

I also need to make sure I deal with any surveys as and when they come in (small fry, but needed nonetheless).

And then I need to get back into my Av0n routine. The dark nights are a real put-off for getting out there dropping and collecting my books, but I must not use this as an excuse .

I also want to have a read of the make £xxxx in January thread for some more ideas.

debtfreewannabe321

i bet your DD will be more careful from now on with her mobile if she knows she has to pay it herself

I'm feeling the same this month, we're out of money already and it's not even half way through :eek: !

caeler

January is always a nightmare. I have so far managed to avoid all january sales and pretty much all shops about from necessary food shopping! So far I think I'm still in budget but it is stressful!