Please help me with my budgetting

welshsarah1

Not sure if this is the right place to post,


Im really bad with my money, I have 2 kids and 1 due in august and hoping that someone can help me with my finances. I know this is really cheeky but my OH wont sit down and go through it with me and I get stressed. Just looking at tips to help me save and want to try building a bit of savings, Can you help?xx

Here is my incoming s

Pay 1070 a month
housing allowance 110 every 4 weeks
Tax Credits 522 every 4 weeks
Child benefit 134 every 4 weeks

Outgoings
Rent 450 a month
Council tax 107 a month
gas and electric 180 a month (its been freezing this winter)
Sky 30 (we have broadband, tv and phone) monthly
car insurance 34 monthly
Daughters dinner money 45 every 4 weeks
Sons playgroup 60 every 4 weeks
Petrol 120 every 4 weeks
Mobile contract 25 every month (contract until march)
tv licence 12 a month
netflix and love film 16 a month
water 30 a month

I also have 700 on BNPL (ending end of april 2014, from very (Bought baby stuff but this is only debt we do have)

Just need help with saving some money back for car tax, and maintenance and saving to pay off the BNPL. Thank you so much xxx

beanielou

Not got time at the mo to look at your SOA as it is but just wanted to say hello & welcome to MSE.
Sure someone will be along to help soon.
Keep posting!

hampsterpoo

Im no expert so I'll leave that to others.

BUT you have sky ,netflix and love film ? Do you really need that amount of access to films ? How often do you use them , really use them not the odd thing here and there.

You need to do a full SOA to really work out your budget and where the moneys going.
when can you change insurances ?
can you change gas & leccy suppliers?

Do you keep a spend diary ?

paulineb_2

welshsarah1 wrote: »

Not sure if this is the right place to post,


Im really bad with my money, I have 2 kids and 1 due in august and hoping that someone can help me with my finances. I know this is really cheeky but my OH wont sit down and go through it with me and I get stressed. Just looking at tips to help me save and want to try building a bit of savings, Can you help?xx

Here is my incoming s

Pay 1070 a month
housing allowance 110 every 4 weeks
Tax Credits 522 every 4 weeks
Child benefit 134 every 4 weeks

Outgoings
Rent 450 a month
Council tax 107 a month
gas and electric 180 a month (its been freezing this winter)
Sky 30 (we have broadband, tv and phone) monthly
car insurance 34 monthly
Daughters dinner money 45 every 4 weeks
Sons playgroup 60 every 4 weeks
Petrol 120 every 4 weeks
Mobile contract 25 every month (contract until march)
tv licence 12 a month
netflix and love film 16 a month
water 30 a month

I also have 700 on BNPL (ending end of april 2014, from very (Bought baby stuff but this is only debt we do have)

Just need help with saving some money back for car tax, and maintenance and saving to pay off the BNPL. Thank you so much xxx

Gas and electric, try and cut down or get onto a cheaper tariff. I know you have to be warm, but personally I got a massive shock when I got my winter bill and Im not a high user. I use gas only when I really need to (I have gas heating), Ive managed to reduce my bills for gas and elec to about £50 a month, maybe a bit less.

I agree, cut down on netfix and love film, if you want to save, the extras have to go.

School dinners, you could probably give her a packed lunch cheaper.

Your outgoings dont seem that much from what you have listed, I assume theres also a figure for food and other extras.

Thats something that you could get help cutting down on if you needed to.

Tixy

Hi sarah

Are you looking for ideas on places you could make savings? or on suggestions for coming up with a workable system for managing your money?

If you convert all the 4weekly costs to a monthly equivalent you have £1899 income per month and £1128 showing in the above outgoings, but obviously haven't listed groceries and other outgoings.
It might be useful to try completing the statement of affairs calculator and trying to include all your outgoings, so inlcuding spending for things like groceries / clothes etc, but then also including amounts for the things you don't pay out every month (so put in 1/12 of the annual cost for things like car tax / insurance etc to give you a better picture.

A lot of people find it useful to have a seperate bank account to save in to each monthly for those annual type costs, to keep it apart from your main funds and ensure you have sufficient once the car tax or whatever becomes due.

Statement of affairs calculator here - http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

Hudson1984

do your 4 weekly outgoings come out when the 4 weekly income comes in i.e you pay playgroup when you get tax credit payments?

with this in mind your monthly income against outgoings leaves £186 per month
and your 4 weekly income against outgoings leave £541

so £541 * 13 (13 4 weekly periods to a year) = £7033.
£7033 / 12 (giving a monthly amount) = £586.08 per month

Meaning you have round about £772 left over after costs. Really it depends what you feel living costs are as to what you can save i.e if your grocery bill is £772 then there is nothing left over and you need to look at reducing bills but if you only spend £300 a month at the shops then you certainly could be putting something aside.

Personnally I use the two account approach, all bills and income come into one account and my spending money goes into another. If I spend all my spending money it's tough - taught me to budget much better

welshsarah1

hampsterpoo wrote: »

Im no expert so I'll leave that to others.

BUT you have sky ,netflix and love film ? Do you really need that amount of access to films ? How often do you use them , really use them not the odd thing here and there.

You need to do a full SOA to really work out your budget and where the moneys going.
when can you change insurances ?
can you change gas & leccy suppliers?

Do you keep a spend diary ?

Hi, its my partner who wants love film and netflix he uses them for himself and the kids, (I want to get rid of them). We use love film a lot and rent the latest movies rather than buy them, netflix hardly ever. Sky loads, but not for me for the kids channels, disney and netflix. And I agree, We dont! What is SOA? Can change insurance next Jan and gas and electric I changed over from british gas to fixed price April 2014 Scottish power. No dont keep a spend diary.

welshsarah1

paulineb wrote: »

Gas and electric, try and cut down or get onto a cheaper tariff. I know you have to be warm, but personally I got a massive shock when I got my winter bill and Im not a high user. I use gas only when I really need to (I have gas heating), Ive managed to reduce my bills for gas and elec to about £50 a month, maybe a bit less.

I agree, cut down on netfix and love film, if you want to save, the extras have to go.

School dinners, you could probably give her a packed lunch cheaper.

Your outgoings dont seem that much from what you have listed, I assume theres also a figure for food and other extras.

Thats something that you could get help cutting down on if you needed to.

Iv been putting the kids in fleecy sleep suits, and only been using the heating when its really cold, and the kids have had a bath or are unwell, I keep my hot water on constant through. Yes agree with love film and netflix. My little girl cant have school dinners until September when she starts year one. (But she doesnt like bread, and rather keep that going than feed her sausage rolls or pasties each day ) Yes what I spend on food varies by if its a school holiday or if partner is home or working, (sometimes he works 7 days in a row, other times hes home for 5 days). We shop in Asda, Aldi, and home bargains and genually spend around 70-100 a week on food and toiletries and clothes (I Know can try and cut this down).

welshsarah1

Tixy wrote: »

Hi sarah

Are you looking for ideas on places you could make savings? or on suggestions for coming up with a workable system for managing your money?

If you convert all the 4weekly costs to a monthly equivalent you have £1899 income per month and £1128 showing in the above outgoings, but obviously haven't listed groceries and other outgoings.
It might be useful to try completing the statement of affairs calculator and trying to include all your outgoings, so inlcuding spending for things like groceries / clothes etc, but then also including amounts for the things you don't pay out every month (so put in 1/12 of the annual cost for things like car tax / insurance etc to give you a better picture.

A lot of people find it useful to have a seperate bank account to save in to each monthly for those annual type costs, to keep it apart from your main funds and ensure you have sufficient once the car tax or whatever becomes due.



Thank you so much for the calculator will have a look at it now. We do have a savings account but at the moment we only have £15 in it, Im looking for a workable way of managing my money, (I go a bit crazy with the kids and at birthdays, christmas's I tend to overspend but want to be able to save some money back so I will be able to have a little pot so if something pops up like washing machine breaks down we dont have to worry about where the money is coming from!)x

welshsarah1

Hudson1984 wrote: »

do your 4 weekly outgoings come out when the 4 weekly income comes in i.e you pay playgroup when you get tax credit payments?

with this in mind your monthly income against outgoings leaves £186 per month
and your 4 weekly income against outgoings leave £541

so £541 * 13 (13 4 weekly periods to a year) = £7033.
£7033 / 12 (giving a monthly amount) = £586.08 per month

Meaning you have round about £772 left over after costs. Really it depends what you feel living costs are as to what you can save i.e if your grocery bill is £772 then there is nothing left over and you need to look at reducing bills but if you only spend £300 a month at the shops then you certainly could be putting something aside.

Personnally I use the two account approach, all bills and income come into one account and my spending money goes into another. If I spend all my spending money it's tough - taught me to budget much better

we are paid on 28th of the month (1070) and rent is due the same day, sky a few days later, and I normally pay my daughters dinner money for the month and sons playgroup, however things like petrol, and the other Direct Debits come out randomly throughout the month. Scottish Power for example comes out on 14th of the month and car insurance on the 20th

Hudson1984

I, personally would start there - bare in mind this is a personal view and may not be suitable for you!

I find it much easier to budget when all bills come out on pay day or 1st of the month. I then know that everything is paid and any money left is mine to do what I want with be it spend on fuel, put in savings or whatever - nothing worse than not knowing where you are at any given point in the month.

again, personally I found that knowing what is coming out and when made it much easier to decide what to reduce and where savings can be made.