How do people stick to their budget?

firesidemaid

my tuppence worth....

firstly, i have written down all our monthly spends (d/debits etc). Then i have also added up the annual spends eg. insurances, water bill etc and divided them by 12 - that amount also gets added to the monthly list.

each time we get paid i take off that amount (I do what another poster said and slide off an odd £4/5 into the savings pot), an amount for the food budget and petrol budget and what is left is the slush/emergency fund. If there is some left at the end of the month then it becomes savings. We also have a small pocket money amount each week for the unnecessaries.

we write down everything we spend from the food, petrol and slush funds - rounding everything UP to the next pound. This is one on a daily-ish basis (in specific pad) so we know how much is left.

I love baking, but as you say, value biccys are slightly cheaper - altho h/m are nice and can be almost as cheap. I also bake if we have stuff to use up, eg. bananas in a cake.

There IS a lot to be saved on food. There are some amazing threads on the OS board re. recipes/plans. Menu planning (and batch cooking) is the way to go.

Some meals are cheaper (but still nutritious) than others, and it is about having a set of meals that you like and can cook quickly - or because you have batch cooked and saved portions in the freezer. Also, knowing the cost of everything (and therefore only buying when cheap) and having a recipe handy (good food site is great for that) when you see something reduced massively.

Finally, every time you go to spend, think of martin's mantra - 'do i need it? can i afford it? can i find it cheaper anywhere else?

Dpmoff

I have started to take out money in cash for the week, I note down any expenditures in my big calendar, have a set amount for food shopping, then take out the approx amount for each week.

I also had the schools photos this week but I paid for that in cash straight away, I never charge on my card as it gives a false sense of reality. With money Im a lot more disciplined, once it's gone it's gone for the week, so if I have to unexpectedly spend on something, I try and cut back on the grocery shop for the week to ensure I don't withdraw any more money out.

firesidemaid

i only look at our bank account every couple of weeks, as we only use the written down / notebook as our guide as it is the most up-to-date and accurate.

as we see the money going down, it makes you think more about spending it (and what you have spent it on as it is a spending diary to some extent also).

Betty_Crumble

I try to deal with my money only once on or day after payday, by making sure everything is where it needs to be.

Childcare transfered into empty account and cheque wrote.

All direct debit money into dd acc.

Bills paid online regardless of due date then its done and dusted.

Cash needed for the month (paid 4 weekly so a little easier to work out tbh) is worked out into the amount of which denomination I need and i go in to the bank and take it out like that, then it goes into envelopes and i never need to spend anything to break a note,

so say last month;
4 x £20 = £20 pw petrol
4 x £20 & 4 x £10 = £30 pw food
1 x £20 & 1 x £10 = £30 heating (district)
1 x £10 & 1 x £5 = £15 talktime
4 x £5 & 4 x £2 & 4 x £1= 4 x £8 pw babysitter
£277

£20 x 9
£10 x 6
£5 x 5
£2 x 4
£1 x 4
£277

seems like a pain but i only have to do it once and because i put it into allocated envelopes I dont touch it as i know itll have a knock on effect.

hope you sort something that works for you

pqrdef

Well a budget can't work if you spend all the money you've budgeted on the usual things, and then you've got extra unexpected expenses.

But it's not a management problem, it's an overspending problem.

Every possible expense you can think of needs to be taken into account in the budget. If you don't know how much, guess. Then at least you'll know whether you're going over or under what you've allowed for. If you leave something out, you're effectively guessing 0.

Sort your expenses by category, not just by week. Knowing when you had a bad week isn't very helpful. You need to know where you're spending more than you're allowing for.

And if you can't avoid going over target in some category or something truly unexpected comes up, then there's no alternative, you have to find something to cut back on. No use just carrying it forward to next week and hoping next week will somehow be cheaper.