Not in control?

notyet

Hi all.
Ive been following the posts on here for a while now, and believe me, have tried every bit of advice given. Some worked, some didnt, but am very glad to say that last year we cleared a personal loan and car finance. On paper (or SOA online) this should have freed up £335 a month.:T

I say 'should' as it doesnt appear to be making much difference. Between my partner and I, we receive money every 2 weeks, but seem to have occasional weeks where we struggle. For example, now the Direct Debits have left the account, we have £55 balance available today (21st) and no more due to be paid in until 5th March. I still have one Direct Debit of £34 to pay.:think::think:

Does anyone have any tips for useful budgeting? I have gone over my SOA recently, and will be doing so again asap. But right now, I feel that i have lost control of my income.

Triggles

The best thing is to keep a spending diary. That's really the simplest way of seeing exactly where all your money is going. We have found that when this is happening to us, the most frequent cause is overspending on little things here and there that you haven't budgeted for or overspending on groceries (you know, popping in for milk and bread and leaving with half the supermarket!).

166million

I know what you mean - something always swallows up the excess. For me - I am in tight control of my budget but have sent over £70 out of budget this month. Not that I didn't have the money, I just feel it could have been put to better use. I suppose as Triggles says, the first step is knowing where it goes! Mine is cigarettes unfotunately, which I have been refusing to allocate for...but I think I need to!

mrsb83_2

Spending diary and make sure that your DD are properly spread throughout the month.

My DH is paid monthly and I'm paid weekly so I often have weeks where the balance is low, but I know when my DDs go out so I'm never worried about going over.

DominicJ_2

But right now, I feel that i have lost control of my income.

Nar, you've lost control of your spending, not your income.

heartbreak_star

Not helpful, DominicJ.

Sometimes it is hard to work out where it goes. Maybe you have a stressful week and you smoke 20-40 more cigarettes during it. That's about...£15? of you money gone. (I have never smoked so just taking a guess).

For me, it was having an odd bottle of wine that quickly added up to £25 a month!! The little things add up.

Hope you get sorted

HBS x

notyet

Thanks everyone. Im not a smoker, but wonder if i have slipped in the odd 3kg choccy bar here and there! (my kryptonite) Plus losing free meals at work must have made a dent. I dont think i've allowed for that, or the increases in fuel costs now im doing extra driving.
I'll be setting up a spending diary asap!!

jessbrown100

We're struggling with this at the minute so know how you feel. I receive my student bursary monthly and my hubby gets paid weekly, even without Hubby doing overtime which he does regularly, we should easily get through the month with £200 + to put away in savings but this never happens!. We've recently cancelled all the dd that we were able to as we had started to get bank charges for 'forgotten' ones (so we'll pay with debit card) and we're keeping a strict spending diary in an effort to get organised. We're also doing the weekly shop together as we're less likely to 'go mad' if we're there to keep a rein on each other. I just can't get my head around budgeting for weekly and monthly amounts coming in so good luck with sorting your budget out.

Jess x

bouncydog1

May I suggest you set up a spreadsheet for the whole month with the dates in the first column on the left. 2nd column description, 3rd column income, 4th outgoings and 5th running total.

First line opening balance.

Then add in on the due dates all through the month income and expenses that you know about. So your wages will go in every two weeks and your direct debits/SOM's in on the due dates.

That should then enable you to see exactly where you have an issue with too many outgoings against your income before you allow for living expenses.

It may be that you then have to adjust a couple of the DDM/SOM dates to balance the month out.

If you are really good at this, you can then set up a workbook for the whole year, linking the final figure on the February sheet to the opening figure on the March etc.

Once you get the bug, you can then set up for the whole year to enable you to budget for all of your expenses including those that fall annually e.g. car insurance.

You can also see what a reasonable figure is for your weekly spending and keep a spending diary as suggested. Once you see it all in black and white you will really want to keep a handle on it!

DominicJ_2

jessbrown100 wrote: »

We're also doing the weekly shop together as we're less likely to 'go mad' if we're there to keep a rein on each other.

We found online shopping worked best, but whatever works

jessbrown100

DominicJ wrote: »

We found online shopping worked best, but whatever works

Well, we did do Mr A online shopping for a while, however we're giving our local L*DL a whirl at the minute to see if that drops the grocery budget and sadly they don't deliver. Think I need to get back into the Old Style board and doing the grocery challenge as inspiration