Not sure what to do

Bublin1

Nevermind.......deleted.

shinner

You sure you don't want advice very helpful people on this board.

Bublin1

Hi shinner amd thank you.
I read over what I had originally typed and realised I wasn't quite sure what I wanted advice on! I was rambling.

Ive since thought about it and now realise I just want a bit of advice re budgeting the money I have allocated for Spending, excluding groceries. I guess an idea how much people allocate to clothing, fun money, gifts per week.
I have £85 a week for me and my 4 yr old dd but have just realised I need to break this down into categories, that way I can save up for our wants and needs and not find myself short every month.

The categories I have decided on per week
£5 gifts
£20 clothing
£10 toys
£10 cosmetics (I intend to save towards some premium products instead of buying on a whim)
£40 fun money

Now, I also need to re-start paying extra on my debt, so thought if there is anything left at the end of the month in my fun envelope I would put that towards debt. For the past six months I been 'afraid' to pay extra on my debt. Im a single mum and suddenly became conscious of not having any Emergency savings.
I have now built up £1500 in my EF.

My debt is a loan of around £6000 at 6.5% apr. I pay £180 a month with around 2 years left.

thecassman86

Hi Bublin1 (wave)

I can see that you've been a long-term user on the forums so i might not be giving you any advice you don't already know... But, if you fill out an up-to-date SOA (http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php) then people might be able to help you cut down spending in places which will allow you that bit extra money for the premium products you mentioned and, more importantly, to get that debt down!

Bublin1

Hi the cassmann86.
I don't really need to do an SOA. You see the £85 a week is what Ive allocated for spending in the categories I previously have stated.
Just wanted to know if what I have allocated is too generous or not enough. If too generous then I'll allocate to debt.

ikesmummy

I think it depends on if you are happy with how long it will take repay the debt with the £85 a week spending money. I want to pay off my debt as quickly as possible so have been quite tight with our "spending money".

We are a family of 2 adults and 2 children and our "spending money" for the month is

£30 - present fund
£30 - clothes (happy to buy the bare minimum and hopefully mainly second hand whilst paying off the debt) not bought anything yet this year so will build up.
£40 - daytime activity fund
£40 - evenings out fund

My boys get spoilt at Christmas and birthdays so don't have a toy money pot but am putting some money aside each month towards holiday money (going for a week away on one of the cheap holiday deals in May )

Think everyone's priorities and therefore the way we all portion out the spending money we are comfortable and happy with is going to be a bit different and the most important thing is setting budgets which help us towards our goals and that are realistic. You can always adjust if needs be

Bublin1

Thanks ikesmummy.
I see your clothing budget is much less then mine. With clothes, my dd has this obsessesion with very girly dresses. They are popular on ebay so even 2nd hand they go for quite a bit. She only has 1 dress left and its a bit small.

Christmas is already budgeted for so my gift category is for birthday presents for her and gifting others.

She gets lots at Christmas but is always begging because of the adverts on tv!

I like he idea of having a day activity fund, I was going to lump that in with my fun money.

FinanciallyUnsavvy

Hi Bublin, thanks for posting.

I think your £85 a week is a LOT of money, personally. Considering you've managed to save £1500 in your Emergency Fund, I'm guessing you're in a fairly good financial position, minus the loan. But if you can manage to cut back on your "fun" money just for the short term, you'll be able to see a massive reduction in your debt and get it gone much sooner.

Looking at it over a month (based on 4-weeks to a month)..

£20 gifts - this is fairly reasonable, I'd leave this in place

£80 clothing - per month this is a lot! Cut back and at least half this. If your DD loves dresses, explain the need to budget to her. One new dress for £40 every 2 months seems reasonable. Nobody needs new clothes every month. I doubt I spend £80 in a year!

£40 toys - I don't think you should have a separate fund for this on top of "fun" money. Obviously you and your DD have got used to a certain standard, and like new things - but kids certainly don't need new toys every week. Perhaps one £10-£15 item every month/every 2 weeks, but again this should come out of fun money?

£40 cosmetics - to me this is a lot of money since I don't really use much in the way of make-up/beauty creams, but I understand how people rely on particular more expensive brands, so if its justified in use then OK.

£240 fun money - this is a LOT of money! I spend less than £240 a month on EVERYTHING, including groceries for 2 people. I think you can cut at least £100 off this and still have plenty of money to do fun things. As suggested above maybe you could further divide this into separate categories - I have a general "entertainment" fund, so any 'nice' purchase I want to make (maybe the odd blu-ray, that kind of thing) comes out of there, but also have an "eating out" category, so me and OH can have a meal or two out every month.

Everyone's different, and we all adjust to different levels of "luxury" so to speak, but if busting the debt is your priority you can certainly shave off around £200 a month here and still have more than enough to treat yourselves.

getmore4less

At that age they are growing so quick you don't want a lot of anything unless you can recycle it,

if buying off ebay keep stuff good and resell as soon as it is outgrown.
(keep the packaging you get stuff in)
Charity shops looking for good stuff that goes for more on ebay.


Mate up with parents with kids that are just that bit bigger than yours.

Bublin1

Thanks for the suggestions.
Ive made some changes which gives me a £120 over payment to throw at the debt every month.

I can now see that my catagories did seem a little extravagant.