Advice on Budgeting

JS28

Hi All,

I need help in budgeting my outgoings. I find myself spending more than what I am supposed to. I do save £500-600/month but I see myself using my credit card each month because I do not have enough left in my current account. I do clear my debt each month which affects my savings sometimes.

I am also not sure where the rest of my money goes apart from the rent.

I would appreciate your input

Thanks

Tixy

If you don't know where your money goes then you might want to keep a spending diary for a couple of months where you write down everything you spend. You could do this manually, on a spreadsheet or there are a lot of free apps.


Once you have done this you will be in a better position to set a budget that you can stick to and you feel is reasonable, and see how much you should have left over to put in to savings each month.

Twiglet21

My initial thought was that if you are saving £500 a month you may wish to consider saving a little less. If you struggle to maintain finances a good idea is to ensure that you obtain a receipt for everything you buy and keep the receipts in a pot at home. Then when you log into your online banking you can work out exactly what has gone out and what is yet to go out which will give you an exact figure to the penny. You can then throw away each receipt as it leaves your bank account. This has been very successful and worked very well for us. If you're not already trying to be a little more savvy and look around for better deals four example with your gas and electricity television mobile phone and so on

sweetilemon

I wouldn't be too hard on yourself as £500pm saving is a lot! What about filling in and posting a SOA, this can open your eyes. Also, writing down spends can help, I just get fed up and give up on it though...really should get back to it! It makes you think before frittering money away and is a good reference when you need to look back on the month.

beanielou

Agree that a SOA & a spending diary are good ideas.
You saving for anything special?

jodles16

Hello! An SOA and spending diary could be really useful to make you a little more conscious of your spending. Perhaps also save a little less while your working out where it goes? I would also recommend reading different threads on here, theres great ones about earning money and saving money. There are also threads about ways to help decrease shopping costs and challenges!

Good luck

Jodles :j