Shall we get started?

Thistlewhistle

Hi Polly,

I love a brand new diary - best of luck with your goals.

I've just done a year budget and have started logging all my spends - it's amazing how they all add up. It's meant I can really get stuck into some great saving - which is lucky as I have to find £3,000 for a tax bill in July!!:eek:

Looking forward to following your progress!

Tx

Polly_Wolly_Doodle

Ouch to the tax bill Thistle, maybe that's one advantage to being an employee, it just disappears every month without fail!

Hi Nellis and Cath, please let me know if I've missed anything:

Direct from bank - monthly:
Mortgage
Council tax
Gas/electricity
TV licence
BT - this is quarterly
Plusnet
Secured loan

Monthly - cash or debit card:
Food
Costco
Petrol
Diesel
Rail fare
Dog food
Swimming lessons for boys
Books, DVDs, cheap days out, etc
School - breakfast club
- lunch
- after school club
Savings - trying to have £200 that if not used can be saved, depends on parties etc that the children are invited to but so far so good.

Now the tricky bit - annual predictable ( to some extent):
Holiday club
Professional subscriptions for DH and I
Car servicing x 2
Road tax x 2
Mot x 2
Car insurance x 2
House insurance
Dentist
Optician
Clothes
School uniform & sports kit
Shoes
Birthdays
Christmas
Cost of visiting parents / in laws

I think that list alone is around the £10k mark:eek:

Then we should:rotfl: be saving for the roof / chimney stacks / house in general
Car replacement x 2
White goods replacement
Decorating etc
Emergency
Children's future costs, or do you think if we keep budgeting for school lunches after they've left home that will equate to a car / uni / wedding / house deposit fund:D

Need a [STRIKE]stiff drink now[/STRIKE] cup of tea.

nellis10

Hi Polly...here's a couple you might consider:

Hairdresser
Roadside Assistance
Boiler Servicing
Prescriptions
Window Cleaner
School Trips

Once I get things under control, I'm going to put my Child Benefit into DS Child Trust Fund and let that accumulate (mind you should have been doing that all along, so I am 10 years late to get started!:eek:)

Polly_Wolly_Doodle

Thanks Nelly, you're right, more to be added:(
ATM everyone is happy with my haircuts, they're too young to care but I do get mine cut occasionally :rotfl:
In Scotland we get our prescriptions for free, so that's one thing less but you are right about school trips, AA for the cars and boiler servicing, although it was new in Nov and I'm in no rush to spend on it!
Also forgot vet costs, although again he's never been:eek:

nellis10

Polly_Wolly_Doodle wrote: »

Thanks Nelly, you're right, more to be added:(
ATM everyone is happy with my haircuts, they're too young to care but I do get mine cut occasionally :rotfl:
In Scotland we get our prescriptions for free, so that's one thing less but you are right about school trips, AA for the cars and boiler servicing, although it was new in Nov and I'm in no rush to spend on it!
Also forgot vet costs, although again he's never been:eek:

Yep we get Free prescriptions in NI too.
I'm sure there will be a raft of items I have forgotten to add too...I start a yearly budget column in my spreadsheet and started to add all the things I could think of.

Then I divided the total by twelve so I could see waht I would need to save every month...OMG...I kept adding and the monthly total got higher and higher and higher!! How do we budget all these things!!! :rotfl::eek:

Thistlewhistle

Hi Polly,

You need to have Hobbies in there too. I discovered this when I set up my spending spreadsheet. If you don't put aside some money for you to do something you enjoy, you go bonkers! I discovered that too!!:rotfl::rotfl:

Doesn't have to be a lot - I ring church bells for a hobby and put £30 a month aside for paying tower donations, peal fees and a drink in the pub afterwards. Keeps me sane!!

Thistle:D

Ps you think the £3,000 tax bill was bad......last January's was £5,000:eek:

nellis10

Thistlewhistle wrote: »

Hi Polly,

You need to have Hobbies in there too. I discovered this when I set up my spending spreadsheet. If you don't put aside some money for you to do something you enjoy, you go bonkers! I discovered that too!!

Absolutely right TW!! I have a little £4.99 subscription to an online games site...I like to play Time Management Games when I have a few spare minutes in the evenings, just to relax and do some puzzles. Plus I have an allotment that I have just started which I am hoping will become both a hobby and source of food by next year - not expecting great things this year...lol

Thistlewhistle

Me again.......

For things like car servicing, car insurance, car tax, house repairs, income tax etc, I use my S@ntander 123 account but have a spreadsheet which partitions the money into the different categories. In my budget it just comes under "general savings" but I split it across these categories.

For instance, I know my car insurance is around £60 a month (I know - extortionate!) and my car tax is £10 a month, so I save the £70 but split on my spreadsheet. That way the money is always there (theoretically!).

I use zero budgeting so any money left over at the end of the month gets saved into that account but then I split it on my spreadsheet. That way, I know how much I have available in each category and can "borrow from myself" if I need to. If I have extra money, it gets saved as emergency fund to top up the other accounts if an unexpected bill comes in.

I keep a spending diary down to the last penny.
I've only been doing this for a month but it's thrown up some serious areas of improvement. Do I really drink that much Coke Zero?:eek:

It's hard work keeping it up, but it's really saving me £££

Good luck Polly!

T:D

Thistlewhistle

nellis10 wrote: »

Absolutely right TW!! I have a little £4.99 subscription to an online games site...I like to play Time Management Games when I have a few spare minutes in the evenings, just to relax and do some puzzles. Plus I have an allotment that I have just started which I am hoping will become both a hobby and source of food by next year - not expecting great things this year...lol

It's really important isn't it, Nellis!
I think the best "spend" I do in the month is my £9.99 Sp0tify subscription - it gives me unlimited music, I use it ALL THE TIME and if somebody tried to make me give it up, I would have to hurt them real bad!!!:rotfl::rotfl:

Thistle's are pretty but the can cause you much pain so hands off the Sp0tify!!!:rotfl:

Polly_Wolly_Doodle

Morning, off work today as youngest's school is closed today and tomorrow. He's trying to show me his Harry Potter drawings atm.

Thanks for the comments Nelly & Thistle, totally valid.

I agree about not knowing where to stop with the budgeting Nelly, but it was not budgeting, thinking plastic cards gave me free money:p and assuming as i had a professional qualification and the world owed me a living, that got me into this mess in the first place! So defo need to do and STICK to a budget.

Again i need to stay focussed so that the house and secured loan get paid then we should have that money in the future to spend on the nice things.