Finally reaching out for some help...

psychopathbabble

Is it worth having a pot for petrol (I have a separate savings account) and including your veg box in your groceries... that way, your spends genuinely are just spends and not influenced by fuel or food?

kerri_dfw

psychopathbabble wrote: »

Is it worth having a pot for petrol (I have a separate savings account) and including your veg box in your groceries... that way, your spends genuinely are just spends and not influenced by fuel or food?

This is what I'm aiming for, but at the moment I have never really budgeted before and I'm always thinking "ooh I'll just borrow it from this pot" instead of forgetting about it. So I'll go and spend x amount on clothes, but really that'll be out of the car tax fund etc. So the first step, as I see it, is limit myself to an amount to spend each week so I start to forget about whenever payday is and I learn that I only get a weekly allowance.

This amount will eventually get divided up into clothes, food, fun things, etc. But I have no idea what I'm currently spending on those things to be able to say "oh I spend £35 on food each week". It's made more complicated by the fact I second purse, so I buy food with the second purse money in bulk then buy it back off myself. When I get paid each month I do a stocktake and pay the 2nd purse back for anything I've bought from my stock. If I can start to do this on a weekly basis rather than a monthly one, then I'll start to get an idea of my weekly grocery bill too

Petrol is another story though, as some weeks I don't use the car other than for business, but others I'll spend £50 going to Cardiff on a jolly. So it's a bit difficult to work out how much to allocate to that pot. But I think if I keep a track of what I spend weekly on it, I'll start to get an idea of what needs to be put aside for this too

I need to learn how to budget before I am debt free, otherwise I'll have no money leftover at the end of the month, and no savings Baby steps

psychopathbabble

Ah ok, see I just went in at the deep end as I got confused when I had it all in one pot But I do the 'borrowing' too!


My fabric arrived and it's a very mixed bunch indeed. From a sort of lacy type stretchy material, to cotton, to waterproofed material, to stretchy shiny stuff.

kerri_dfw

psychopathbabble wrote: »

Ah ok, see I just went in at the deep end as I got confused when I had it all in one pot But I do the 'borrowing' too!


My fabric arrived and it's a very mixed bunch indeed. From a sort of lacy type stretchy material, to cotton, to waterproofed material, to stretchy shiny stuff.

Oooh fab, what are you going to make with that?

I've just worked out my spends from my Mr T shop yesterday and only £9.08/£42.04 counts as grocery budget, as the rest was bought using the 2nd purse for bulk buys I don't think I go to the SM very often anymore, well unless I'm down at my parents and my sister makes me. The last time I went to one in London for a big shop was for the OH's leaving dinner However, the grocery budget from Mr T can be written off as it was last week this week I start afresh with my £50

psychopathbabble

I have no idea, I'm sure we will find something! I did want to make an apron for someone but the skull and crossbones material I ordered is stretchy which I didn't realise.... what on earth can you make with stretchy materials?!

ZTD

psychopathbabble wrote: »

I have no idea, I'm sure we will find something! I did want to make an apron for someone but the skull and crossbones material I ordered is stretchy which I didn't realise.... what on earth can you make with stretchy materials?!

Pirate themed hotpants?

:rotfl:

kerri_dfw

Aww I love my OH. I've just had it sprung on me that I need to go to Scotland for 2 days before I get paid, it's going to cost me over £300 for the hotel + travel, so he's put £500 into my account to cover me :happyhear:happyhear:happyhear
So, to stop me doing this again I definitely need to get a pot for expenses asap! I can't decide whether I should take the sleeper train or just drive up, I love driving and don't really trust people enough to fall asleep on the train, especially not with a laptop on me.

hadahardyear

heya hows it going. IM following with interest. Your new bed looks soooooo comfy.
hows the sleeping in it.
Im the same with my new budgeting, I have been totally lax and run up my Vanquis, so it now has a £1000 balance.

I have a £950 overdraft i could use to pay it off but then would need to pay £1 a day for that. Man i dont know what to do.

Im in the same boat re the budgeting, I have it set out as below

£100 per week, (this was especially tight as have the holiday to pay for then end of next week, next month should be able to relax a bit)

£50 petrol
£13.90 sons bus fare
£27 food
and £10 gas/elec

I have stuck rigidly to this this month as i needed every penny but next month am going to allow an extra £20 per week, for weekend fun, like cinema blah blah and the rest on the debt,
x

danetastic

Sounds like we are all having difficulty with budgets - probably one of the reasons we're here
Sounds like a good idea to have an expenses pot then you'll know EXACTLY what your using for work . Need to start one myself ( toddles off to find jar - purses don't work here as blooming teenager dog keeps EATING them )

RosaBernicia

Hm I shall watch and learn as expenses are a PITA... we only get stuff back in paycheque and I quite often miss the deadline so can end up putting £100 in a month on a CC, then waiting 7 weeks to get it back. I would resent having to put money aside for it though, ideally what I want to do is keep a CC just for this and pay it off every month when I get the money back. I need to clear one first though :rotfl:

Rosa xx