Income/Outcome - what do you think

redrabbit29

Hey Guys,

I'm 22, live with my girlfriend and work full time in IT. I have no real debts, but I am currently -1200 in my bank. I've been like this for a long time now. I get paid, then at the end of the month I'm back at around -1000. I have a graduate account so it's interest free, but I still want to be back up in the black.

I made a list of my outgoings. Just wondering what you think of the figures? Monthly by the way.

Income : 1095
Spare: 326.17

Rent : 375
Car Insurance: 53
House Insurance: 10
TV Licence : 13
Phone : 5.83
Gym : 34
Council Tax : 83
Food : 75
Petrol : 120
Total Out 768.83

So I have about £326 a month free. I also have a season ticket for my local football club which costs about £600 a season. As well as this I have an away season ticket too which costs about £800 a season - not including train travel costs - probably about £500 a season.

Anyway, next year I will only have my home season ticket as I really want to get out of the red.

I know my circumstances are not as bad as others on the forum, so I hope you don't mind me asking for advice. It's just I don't like being minus, and I've been like this for a long time now.

Any comments are welcomed.

Thanks.

lynzpower

your best bet is to start a spending diary, and see where this 326 actually goes.

What you COULD do is ask your bank to withdraw your OD at 100 pcm on payday, ir more if you think you can manage it?

redrabbit29

lynzpower wrote:

your best bet is to start a spending diary, and see where this 326 actually goes.

What you COULD do is ask your bank to withdraw your OD at 100 pcm on payday, ir more if you think you can manage it?

Well, I do keep a spending diary.

A lot of it went on beer, as when I went to football I would spend a lot on that. However, I have stopped drinking now at football, and stopped going out. So that should save loads of money.

DO you think that £350 is enough spare each month? Do people normally have more or less than this?

whatatwit

Do I take it that by 'spare' you mean pocket money?

If you are going to get a season ticket next season, then you should put this into your budget.
Your budget also does not show any vehicle expenses, this is probably why you are overdrawn as when an amount becomes due, you have to take it out of that month's wages. (just like me)
When payday appears, if you were to move all of your allocated money into a different account and then use that to pay for petrol and standing orders etc, you would have a true monthly balance.
And if whatever you spent was going into the overdraft, then it may well put you off spending.

tyllwyd

I think you are not being quite realistic with yourself. You don't have £350 spare in your pocket - you are currently spending £600 + £800 + £500 on football, which is about £160 per month. So that has cut your cash down to £190.

Do you have a mobile? If so, you probably spend at least £10 per month on that.

You haven't put in anything for car tax/MOT/repairs - you might easily spend £400 per year on that which is another £30 per month.

So that takes the money in your pocket down to £150. So if you are spending more than £40 per week on clothes, socialising etc, you are overspending.

What I am trying to say is that if you are trying to bring down your debts, you need to be realistic about what your actual expenditure is.

pollyanna24

It's hard to say what is enough to have spare each month. Some people are just happy that they have enough to pay their bills each month.

Do you split joint bills like rent and council tax with your girlfriend or do you pay it all?

What me and my bf do (I'm 25, he's 26) is we pool all our money together and give ourselves £400 each from our wages, so I guess this is our "spare" money to do what we want with. I find this is plenty for me as I don't have to pay for anything out of it besides clothes, hair, beer etc.

We still save £300 a month out of our pooled money for joint savings (or if there is something big to buy) and once our debts are gone which are also paid out of the pooled money, we will have even more spare to put into our joint savings.

I think the key is being strict with yourself. I've just been given a raise and soon my student loan will be paid off, but I don't anticipate that we will up our "pocket money" for now, just ploughing more into the joint account, so it's there if we need it.

Maybe give yourself £200 a month (be strict with yourself) and use the other £126 or so to go towards lessening your overdraft.

Idiophreak

presumably, if it's a graduate account, the interest free portion will be due to shrink soon?

if so, you could use that as your guide. ie, if it reduces to £500 in 5 months, £100/month saved in the OD will ensure you don't pay interest.

ktb

My spending diary has been my saviour! I cant recommend doing one enough. According to my SOA I should have over £200 left over as 'pocket money' each month.. yet i've been living at the limit of my overdraft for years. Now I know where every single penny of my money goes (and I mean penny!) I dont have any extra to throw at my overdraft & debt just yet but I will have really soon... which without the spending diary I wouldnt have been able to do.

I could never understand where my money went as it's not even like I was spending it on going out lots or buying clothes or DVD's or other 'stuff' but I just never realised quite how much you haemorrhage money by buying lunch at work every day and the odd coffee here and there and by running a car.

If you do one you might find you are regularly spending on things you hadnt even thought of, that you can then incorporate into your monthly budget to give you a far more honest picture of your financial situation.

I think if you are planning on getting a season ticket put it into your budget by dividing the cost over 12 months - will give you a better idea of how much you should be allocating to it each month.

Good luck!

CLAPTON

try working out a real budget , that is one that not only includes the 'obvious' monthly spending petrol, food, gym but also all the annual and one off spends like car tax, servicing, football related costs, clothes, holidays, weekends away, xmas/presents or whatelse you spend .. with these work out the annual spend and divide by 12 and add a line to you monthly budget. each month you need to actually save this month in a savings a/c so you have the money when you need it.
it also will show you that you are probably spending more than you earn.

once you have done that you will be able to see what you can reduce

use a combination of a spending diary to see where everyday money goes (do you really only spend 70 on food...no takeaways / lunches etc?)
and try out martins Budget planner
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/budgetcalculator.phtml

redrabbit29

Hello everyone,

You're right. It's not all my expenses. I was calculating the money that I HAVE to spend, i.e. rent and bills.

I also wasn't sure about what to do for one off costs, like a season ticket. This is just a one off payment of £600. Same for my car. MOT once a year but again, I find it hard to put that in a budget.

Does anyone here use two accounts? One to put money in for all your bills, and the other to store your *spare* money?

The figures account for half paid by me and half by my GF. So for example, rent is 750, but is shown as half, council tax is 170pound, but shown as half....

Thanks for the tips guys.

CLAPTON

open a saving a/c for the annual and one off costs so that you get used to saving each month for these costs.
depending upon which bank you are using you might find they have a good online saver that makes it easy to move money into.
but first work out that overall budget so you know how much to save each month...and alos if you have a car or anyway really add a little bit for emergencies fund (major car breakdown, friend getting married in Italy or whatever say save an extra 50 per month until you have a fund of 500)