Help needed to set one off budget

blackangeluk

When I first posted my SOA a lot of people asked what I was putting aside for xmas presents, birthday presents and the one offes etc - the answer was a big fat nothing. I thought that I could just buy as and when needed, however an expensive two weeks leading up to kids birthdays, buying new shoes, unexpected vet and dentist bill has made me realise - yes I need to account for the big one offs! Our budget is nearly blown for this month so am slight gutted :mad:

My first thought is that Dh starts new job next month and we will be £500 better off, initially I thought we could put that towards the debt and pay it off quicker. I am now thinking that this provides us with the opportunity to budget for all the extras that pop up and then use the balance left from the £500 to pay the debts off. I now realise that if I do not have a fund to pay the "one offs" I will end up resorting to credit cards in emergency situations.

Soooooooooo, this was my annual list -
Car Insurance - £400 approx
Car Tax - £300 per year (2 cars)
Home Insurance - £400 approx
Car Maintenance - £400 approx
Birthdays - £400
Christmas - £600
Vets - £150
Dentist - £200
Clothes/Shoes for Children - £300
Clothes for me and DH - £200

I am not including holidays at the moment as we have a tent and if we need a break that will be what we will do as I do not forsee us booking a holiday for the next year or so until we have paid the debts off.

My budget is very approximate and I am open to suggestions/polite criticisms as all this is new to me - being the original spend as you earn person :rolleyes:

My hope is that having some money set aside for the above will mean that we need never venture to the damn CC's again and for the first time ever will pay insurance and tax up front

Advice please...............have I missed any out and am I being over the top or not with the figures?

rayday2

I think its probably more important to do your figures monthly then you can see how much you can actually afford to put away realistically.

With regard to your husbands payrise is that actually how much he will come home with? My hubby recently got a £2k pay rise we thought wonderful actually now working out his tax etc and impact on the child tax credit etc we are on paper worse off. Hopefully this should not be the case for you but the after tax figure on a monthly issue you need to be working on.

blackangeluk

Hi, I checked on the tax calculator thingy and it comes up with £485 after tax - as of April we are no longer eligible to child tax credits so unfortunately they don't need to be considered.

Would it be easier do you think to work out how much I am likely to spend on each individual and then calculate it that way?

Kaz2904

I wrote down everyone I had to buy gifts for and then worked out a worse case scenario of £20 per gift. I then added these all together including all my yearly expenses and divided by 12 as we get paid monthly. This gave me my monthly figure to put aside but I wish I'd overpaid it for 3 months first so that I started with a pot as I'm always dipping in!

blackangeluk

Thanks Kaz - think I will work my way through my dairy and list everyone who I buy for - really it is close family and one very close friend and her children. There are also extras like children's friends parties, etc etc

DH is due 2 weeks holiday pay when he leaves so we are going to use that as a starting point, as realistically we should have already put money away to cover part of xmas and MOT which is up in October -

back to the drawing board....

misspoppy

Hi just one observation, is your house insurance really £400 pa you need to shop around

blackangeluk

Hi Miss Poppy

Our house insurance with Halifax is £42 a month, I did a lot of quotes about 5 months ago and found nothing cheaper so not looked around since. It is up for renewal in October so I will start having a look around again.

dianadors

I write list in my diary of all birthdays and christmas pressies that need buying throughout the year, then buy as many as possible in the Sales. I find this better than putting the money away each month as the shopping is already done when it gets to Christmas etc.

chunky79

I know what you mean i thought exactly the same. Doh! What i did last xmas the day after boxing day i took a bit out of budget and used spare vouchers that i had left over and went to boots with a list of all the present i buy in the year for birthday presents. I spent a total of £120 had £240 worth of gifts all at the same price i would normally spend but better gifts iyswim. i then went to wilkinson and spent a further £50 and bought some kiddy gifts for my nieces all half price. So although i spoent out initially i have spent nothing on birthdays this year and will have no adult gifts to buy at xmas either. I also went to card warehouse and bought all the cards at half price with 3 kids at school and a large family we send over 200 cards so instead of spending £30 on cards i spent about £10.

What i am saying if you can budget a little between now and xmas you can sort out pressies for nest year or most of it and next xmas!

blackangeluk

chunky79 wrote: »

I know what you mean i thought exactly the same. Doh! What i did last xmas the day after boxing day i took a bit out of budget and used spare vouchers that i had left over and went to boots with a list of all the present i buy in the year for birthday presents. I spent a total of £120 had £240 worth of gifts all at the same price i would normally spend but better gifts iyswim. i then went to wilkinson and spent a further £50 and bought some kiddy gifts for my nieces all half price. So although i spoent out initially i have spent nothing on birthdays this year and will have no adult gifts to buy at xmas either. I also went to card warehouse and bought all the cards at half price with 3 kids at school and a large family we send over 200 cards so instead of spending £30 on cards i spent about £10.

What i am saying if you can budget a little between now and xmas you can sort out pressies for nest year or most of it and next xmas!

That sounds like a really good idea, I just need to get myself into gear to get some money put away.

I have discovered 20p cards at our local market which are just as nice as £2.99 ones and TBH they only get thrown away - is the card warehouse a regional thing?

If I can put enough away to see me through xmas this year I will definately follow your lead on this one See I'm getting there...................the light bulb is still flickering

dianadors

No need to wait until Christmas - The summer sales are just about to start! I'm hot footing it to La Senza after work - thier sale is currently on with 5 pair of knickers for £5 - usually £5 per pair!! They box them up nicely for you too!! also, on their website they have PJ's reduced from £20 to £2!!! Ive also stashed away some great bargains from The Book People. I got a great boxed set of cookery books for £4.99 containing about 10 books - all should have been at least £5.99 each. Also - if you are really canny, you can blag lots of freebies from the freeby thread that make absolutley great (and free) gifts. So far this year, I have obtained for free - (From Nescafe - lifted from the labels of coffee in our canteen) A bath robe, slippers, towel and 3 jars of beauty products, Pantene hair care set(5 full size products) Various Dove products, (Fairy washing up liquid) manicure set - its gorgeous! Books, Mens and Ladies Razors, Beach bag, 2x lip gloss, £25 free cosmetics and loads more!!!