Making a petrol budget

mattyw_2

Hi Everyone

After 7 years of train commuting I am set to start a new job. Excited, but means I will be driving to/from work (no train/bus routes).

Previously it has been easy to budget. I have two accounts, one for all of my bills/dds and one for my spending+ petrol+ food shopping. I get paid monthy into one and a standing order moves the bill money out into the other. What I am left with is discretional spending. I am sure many people do the same thing.

With my monthy train fare this was just another direct debit at the start of the month. Easy to budget. But now I will be driving to work (around 40 miles per day, longer once we move post xmas) I am going to find it harder to 'separate' my monthly petrol money, especially with fluctuating prices and my weekend use.

I was thinking of a 0% credit card to use for my fuel only, paying this off each month. Can anyone think of a better way? Other than buying a seperate car to commute in......:rotfl:

ColdIron

What about a Santander 123 credit card?

3% cashback on petrol (plus other spending), costs £2 pcm, though free for the first year, but the cashback could cover this
You can see what you are spending in advance and could set it up to pay back in full as a Direct Debit to one of your bank accounts

Tryingagainandagain

Is there a reason why you want to separate personal car use from work travel? Do you restrict your personal travel if you are approaching your monthly budget limit?

Could you simply have a "travel costs" budget which encompasses fuel, tax, insurance, maintenance, repairs etc?

You could run a spreadsheet to track spending on individual categories and ensure that you are not, say, eating into the repairs budget by too much leisure driving.

This is what I am trying to do at the moment as I have general social travel and substantial travel costs for a training course.
I will ultimately transfer the "course costs" to a "business costs" record so although the money itself lives in one pot, the accounting is kept separate as far as I can manage it.

mattyw_2

Hi Coldiron

Thanks for the quick reply! Good idea I was just looking at that on the site! Not sure if I will spend enough (at least initially) to get the cashback to cover the fee. I could add Mrs W as a card holder for her petrol as well and see if we can make it work

Hooloovoo

mattyw wrote: »

I was thinking of a 0% credit card to use for my fuel only, paying this off each month.

All credit cards are effectively 0% if you pay them off in full each month. No need to use anything special.

A cashback credit card would seem ideal for your purposes.

mattyw_2

I do have a part of the monthly budget for 'car costs' which is tax, insurance, MOT and estimated maintainance all divided by 12. Has worked really well for the last 5 years (no unexpected hiccups) and have had the money ready for insurance etc to pay as a one off.

The only reason I'd like to seperate my travel costs out is purely pedantic . I dont like to have to think too hard at the end of the month 'I need to remember to save some for that' etc. I budget quite tightly so I really appreciate seeing the cash in my account at the end of the month being there for spending! Just going to be strange moving from a very firm 'fixed travel cost' (even though it was excessive) to a more fluid cost month to month depending on if we go somewhere at weekends.

I think the card option is looking good. Thanks for everyones replies.

StuC75

If you have spreadsheets, then just setup a monthly sheet for Opening Mileage \ Closing Mileage, Number of Work Days & Work day Round trip mileage so will easily strip out Work Miles & Social Travel Mileage - Pull in the petrol cost for that month and can easily show Work & personal split ..

mesmorgan

I'm actually looking for a similar solution but without a credit card as I am not able to take any form of credit due to 'circumstances'. What I would like is a card I can load cash onto and use that, like a pay-as-you-go fuel card.

I'm ok with the spreadsheets and can budget ok, but my wife works in the community and spends hundreds a month on petrol, so add that to the fact that she hates tracking spreadsheets I need to find a way to make it easier for both of us.

Any ideas?

Would there be any drawbacks to us opening a second joint current account (on top of our existing joint direct debit account) and using that as our fuel/groceries account perhaps?

Thanks everyone!

mattyw_2

My wife has to claim her milage back also (community nurse). Does make it tricky to keep track of.

Our system is indvividual bank accounts (2 each) for individual bills/spending inc travel and the joint account for the house bills.

I buy the food. Hows that for romantic.

LeeLoo_2

I just take out cash at the beginning of the month.

mattyw_2

Leeloo- Sometimes the most simple ideas are the best. :T