Advice need re: new way of budgeting

immoral_angeluk

Trying to rework my way of budgeting as previously I'd always work out a daily budget and go by that but I always seemed to be messing it up somehow so am looking for a better way of doing it.. Here's the way we currently do it..

Dh's wages + My mat pay (soon to end hence time for new budget)
= a

bills (direct debts) + food + petrol = b

a-b = c

c / number of days in month = daily budget
daily budget x 7 = weekly budget

We haven't been putting any money away for car tax or MOT which I need to start doing as every spare penny has been going on debts. We keep a spending diary which we right everything on and compared to the daily weekly/budgets and save anything left over.

My maternity leave ends next month and we'll be totally reliant on dh's wages and tax credits (which up to know we've been putting straight into a savings account to pay debt off as well as the child benefit.).

Here's an example of an idea instead but am open to any suggestions or help as I've never been good at maths!!

Dh wages min £850 a month
tc approx £400 a month
cb £120.80
= £1370.80

Bills Approx £821
Food £180
Car tax/MOT £40
DH work lunches and petrol budget £130 (?)
= £1171

£1370.80 - £1171 = £199.80 to go towards into a savings account as an emergency/paying off debt fund.


What does everyone think... any suggestions of a better way of doing it or anything?

Swishter

I've just started my budget and this is pretty much what i've done. The idea being that the extra money is going right at the beginning rather than being eaten into in error. Its still there for emergencies and whats there plus any savings/extra cash can be thrown at the debt next payday.

immoral_angeluk

The other problem I have is tc are paid weekly instead of at the start of the month so will this effect it???

Snaggles

I think it's a good idea to move 'spare' money into a separate account too - even if you end up needing to use it, at least you can keep an eye on how much you are using more easily.

Giving Steve responsibility for his own budget might be a good idea too - we do this, and I know the worst that can happen is that hubby runs out of money before the end of the month - so he has a bit of responsibility but can't do any real damage to our finances (I know that sounds patronising to him, but if you asked him, he would agree he isn't good with money and would rather I kept control of our main budget).

13katrina

Have you used Martin's budget spreadsheet? Until I found Money Saving Expert, I had never budgeted - I started with this spreadsheet and it's great. You can put in a weekly, monthly or yearly figure and it will work out the monthly for you - this is great when trying to figure out how much you need to save for something - e.g. my car tax, car insurance, mot, christmas, opticians app, dental app etc are all yearly expenses - the spreadsheet tells me what I need to save monthly for each thing - just add them all up and transfer to a savings account and then withdraw as necessary - just keep a note of what you've withdrawn for.

Also, I think you can use your tax credits being paid weekly to your advantage. Knowing you have money paid in weekly will allow you to set a weekly household budget which can be withdrawn each week, without it affecting you main household bills which can come out of husbands wages.

immoral_angeluk

13katrina wrote: »

Have you used Martin's budget spreadsheet? Until I found Money Saving Expert, I had never budgeted - I started with this spreadsheet and it's great. You can put in a weekly, monthly or yearly figure and it will work out the monthly for you - this is great when trying to figure out how much you need to save for something - e.g. my car tax, car insurance, mot, christmas, opticians app, dental app etc are all yearly expenses - the spreadsheet tells me what I need to save monthly for each thing - just add them all up and transfer to a savings account and then withdraw as necessary - just keep a note of what you've withdrawn for.

Also, I think you can use your tax credits being paid weekly to your advantage. Knowing you have money paid in weekly will allow you to set a weekly household budget which can be withdrawn each week, without it affecting you main household bills which can come out of husbands wages.

So do you think it'd be better to take what's left out of Dh's wages and then work out a weekly budget with the rest?

Snaggles

Having weekly credits but monthly bills is a bit of a headache, but if you can build up a little bit of surplus cash, this will help smooth things over if you miscalculate at any point. You check your budget so often that I think you would know well in advance if you are running into problems.

moonlightpjs

As far as I know (somebody please correct me if I'm wrong) but you can ask to have your tax credits paid monthly if this will help at all

Snaggles

You can only have them paid weekly or 4-weekly I think, which might be easier, or might complicate things more.

lynsayjane

hey IA, I'm not exactly the worlds best at budgetting....in fact I'm pure crap! but one thing I did notice is that there is nothing for unbudgeted spends, ie the stuff that appears in the weekly challenge/daily spends threads. magazines, sweets for the kids...and you! It may not be something you do frequently but perhaps a small allowance (£5-10 a week) would mean it's not a problem if you do spend, but also you can save what you don't spend in a jar to make lump payments on your cards. just cause you've budgetted it doesn't mean you have to spend it!

presume things like toiletries etc is included in your food budget?

immoral_angeluk

Have done Martin's budget thing but it just tells me that we're in the green. Don't get me wrong that's brill but it's very rare we spend money on haircuts, etc as wepile every spare money that we'd usually spend on those kinds of things onto debt!