Budget advice please!

jennifernil

Good advice in that last reply.

OP, if you have credit card debt that is incurring interest, and are maxing out your O/D every month, you are living well beyond your means and need to make serious cuts.

Until all your debts are cleared I would try not to spend on ANYTHING other than the bare essentials. Then once you are on an even keel you can work out a reasonable budget.

Keep your CCs for any unexpected essential spending (like a car repair), but otherwise do not use them.

For Christmas, you could agree with your relatives and friends that only the under 18s get a present, and even then only the immediate family. Most of us have far more "stuff" than we need anyway!!

Mr_Singleton

grumbler wrote: »

In general, you just don't spend this money.

Love your Sig! :A

firefox1956

jennifernil wrote: »

Good advice in that last reply.

OP, if you have credit card debt that is incurring interest, and are maxing out your O/D every month, you are living well beyond your means and need to make serious cuts.

Until all your debts are cleared I would try not to spend on ANYTHING other than the bare essentials. Then once you are on an even keel you can work out a reasonable budget.

Keep your CCs for any unexpected essential spending (like a car repair), but otherwise do not use them.

For Christmas, you could agree with your relatives and friends that only the under 18s get a present, and even then only the immediate family. Most of us have far more "stuff" than we need anyway!!

If you are in financial difficulty the last thing you want to be doing is buying gifts for people at Christmas......I think the suggestion above is sound advice.
But then I'm a miserable old git !!

flutterbyuk25

If you are able to could you open a new current account, preferable with a bank that allows multiple savings accounts too. Then you can move money to different sections.

For example my wages go into one account, from this all my DD's are taken. I have 2 savings accounts linked to this, one for annual DD's and one for Xmas. I put 1/12th of the amount for annual DD's (car/house insurance, MOT, tyres, one off payments etc) into the one savings and x amount per month into xmas savings.

I then put a set amount into my other current account for daily spending (food, petrol, treats etc). I have 2 other savings accounts linked to this account. Any money leftover on payday in either account is split between these two accounts, one is a rainy day fund and the other is to pay off my CC debts (which are all at 0% so not paying any fees on them.)

Obviously this only works for some people, and you need to keep an eye on the accounts.

good luck

jimjames

macaronicheese wrote: »

The trouble is though Grumbler is my current account is overdrawn to its limit at the end of every month so I fear if i dont put the money aside seperately its not really there, Im just using my overdraft as usual. But then if I put it in savings, Im paying interest on my overdraft.
...

As per credit cards there is no point having money in a savings account while paying interest on an overdraft.

However if you are constantly at your overdraft limit then it seems you are spending consistently more than you are earning and that is the key thing to address.

Hopefully with the tips here and on the debt free board you should be able to control that spending urge!