Don't know where to start...

getmore4less

rozmister wrote: »

It's not quite the same as day to day budgeting which comes with a lot more unexpected costs and is harder to forecast. Also I can remove anything I want to reach my bottom line whereas in reality I have to make certain payments out of my personal budget each month whether I want to/can afford to or not.

It is possible to plan for these,

You should only get an unexpected cost once because you put it in the plan if it is not there.

It might be an estimate but something is better than nothing.

Over time the plan become more and more accurate as less and less becomes unexpected as you have something in the budget to cover it.

The key is a budget/plan means everything is planned and affordable there is no need to cut the essentials out as they are all covered.

getmore4less

Here is the link to the recommended SOA to use

http://www.stoozing.com/calculator/soa.php

rozmister

-taff wrote: »

Like I said the old style board will help with a food planner, or the blog of 'A girl called Jack'.

The bills are electric/gas which we're locked into (not my choice), water & sewerage, council tax. We need to sort our broadband so I will shop around for that.

My silver account is £10 per month which is the cheapest amount I can find for my phone insurance and it comes with travel insurance & handbag insurance as well. When I've looked at phone insurance it's been £12 per month + because I've got an iPhone 5. Even my phone company quoted £12 per month & with a higher excess than my bank.

The dentist & my birthday party is just this month but I didn't realise I wasn't meant to put one off expenses in my budget? I know I'm meant to save towards them each month but I didn't start budgeting until now so I haven't. They're annual so I won't have to pay them again for a year.

I have to move house in August so I needy savings to pay for that, if I reduce my overdraft with them I'll have no deposit, agency fees or moving money. I was going to keep them in my overdraft account though so it's sitting further away from the end of my overdraft because the bank man suggested that?

I've been lurking in old style for a bit now watching threads so I'll try and use the tips I've picked up.

rozmister

getmore4less wrote: »

The tracking will help, often just having to record things stops the spending, but you need a plan for the year

Without it you will continue to go month to month not really knowing what's what.

Do a forward plan for the financial year up to March 2015.

OK you won't need clothes for three month but how much do you plan to spend between now and end of march, do this for everything and make sure it all adds up to how much is coming in.

When you have a plan that balance for the year you can then review the cash flow to make sure that the money lasts to the end of the month.

I'll put together a plan for the year tonight. I don't forward plan that much so its a bit of a scary prospect!

The last unexpected cost we had was a large gas bill but I've taken over managing our bills and set up direct debits to try and prevent this in the future.

getmore4less

rozmister wrote: »

I'll put together a plan for the year tonight. I don't forward plan that much so its a bit of a scary prospect!

The last unexpected cost we had was a large gas bill but I've taken over managing our bills and set up direct debits to try and prevent this in the future.

I suspect that the root cause of the problem is the lack of planning so you just run out of money.

No car is good as that is one money pit and has high risk of the planned allowance not being enough, with public you can plan much more acurately. but have to take account of the odd extra from the normal routine.

A monthly local travel pass can give a lot of flexability but say you go visit friends a few times a year thats extra that need to be planned for as the month you travel you will be short if you don't put some aside from previous months.

The food is another example you can get by for now from stores but need to have a regular amount set aside it will be lower than the amount would be if you did not have stores but there will be things you need so have some money set aside so you don't use it elsewhere on something discretionary.

eg. if you use about £100 worth a month that will be the long term amount to allocate, but you could start with say £50 for 3 months and then £75 for the next 3 then up to £100, cycle through your stores have some fresh stuff and have some money aside for freezer refills of yellow sticker stuff.

You can get more or better quality for the same money I picked up 4kg of beef on sat for £4.50kg now have a stock of steaks and mini joints to last 2-3 months, next time I spot a deal and there is a bit of space more cheap meat.

Try to do the full 12 months that catches most things and don't worry about getting it right first time no one does, just remeber to jot things down as you remeberthem and update the plan on a regular basis, also see how it looks against the spending diary,

I think someone mentioned going back through last years statement it might trigger things like birthdays or other things you forgot.

another good thing about doing a year is you see how much you spend on things relative to each other, much easier than comparing weekly/monthly yearly.

duchy

If you have -masses of clothes- what about selling the ones you no longer wear plus any other bits and bobs lying around- either a car boot sale or through a local facebook selling page. Maybe you could aim at covering a specific expense like the dentist or your birthday party or whatever ......or make it the first down payment towards your moving fund.

-taff

rozmister wrote: »

My silver account is £10 per month which is the cheapest amount I can find for my phone insurance and it comes with travel insurance & handbag insurance as well. When I've looked at phone insurance it's been £12 per month + because I've got an iPhone 5. Even my phone company quoted £12 per month & with a higher excess than my bank.

Sorry, when I read £30 I thought that was the charge for the account.
I would also try to get a cheaper phone/phone contract. A phone is a phone unless you need it for work apps. £32 is a lot of money each month, it adds up to £384 a year. To outright buy a moto g phone on a £10 PAYG sim would cost £240 for example.

The National Trust, is that a one-off membership or a donation? If it's a donation, can you reduce it?

getmore4less

Sell the phone and get a cheaper one drop the tariff ASAP and go PAYG best value seems to be 3 123 if you can get a signal.

rozmister

I don't have a home phone so I use my phone for everything including emergencies so I didn't want to go PAYG because if it runs out at a crucial
time I'd be in a pickle. I'm tied in with EE until August but I thought I might shop around at the end of my contract instead of staying with them like I normally do.

The National Trust is annual membership. I bought it as a commitment to having some (local England) based adventures because I'm helping my sister with her new baby for my summer holidays this year instead of going on a holiday holiday.

I've now found out from the bank my loan was declined because I have defaults on my credit report. I've found out what they are and someone stole my identity for catalogues! So I'm trying to sort that out as well now!