Realistic Budgets

Pepperoni

When trying to clear your debt and set up an amount to overpay at the beginning of the month - how did you decide on a realistic budget? Is it realistic to put £0 in the clothes pot for example?!

Would anyone care to share their budget?

seanavfc92

Pepperoni wrote: »

When trying to clear your debt and set up an amount to overpay at the beginning of the month - how did you decide on a realistic budget? Is it realistic to put £0 in the clothes pot for example?!

Would anyone care to share their budget?

Do you have children? If you do, you would definitely need to put money away for this area of the budget!

Pablosammy

Pepperoni wrote: »

When trying to clear your debt and set up an amount to overpay at the beginning of the month - how did you decide on a realistic budget? Is it realistic to put £0 in the clothes pot for example?!

Would anyone care to share their budget?

You'll always need clothes, so have a small pot even if you rarely buy any. Look back at your spending, or guess and adjust as the months go by. It doesn't have to be completely accurate to begin with, but make sure you have a bit of a buffer for those inaccuracies.

timbstoke

It's perfectly fine to put £0 in the clothes pot. Don't look at your budget as "This is what I'm allowed to spend on this category forever" - look at it as "This is what I'm spending on this category this month". If you need clothes next month, review your budget for next month, and see where you can trim a little so you can afford them.

Catcherupper14

I think your budget will depend on your income and outgoings, which depend on where and how you live.


Have you tried to do a SOA and post it here for advice? It covers all the major categories of spending.


A spending diary will tell you what you are spending money on - keep it with you and complete it straight away. It's easy to forget the odd raffle ticket or coffee or newspaper (or anything you don't have a receipt for).


As far as clothes are concerned, even when I was struggling for money I found that I occasionally had to buy tights for work. If it is a long-term strategy then clothes will need replacing.

Tryingtomoveout

Hi

It is difficult because on the one hand, clothes aren't usually an urgent requirement (unless you have kids) and we usually have something at the back of the wardrobe, or we can usually hang on for a few months. However, on the other hand, a budget has to be realistic and it is better to put it in the budget than leave it out and then just buy on impulse, as this can start making you feel out of control of your spending.

For me, I don't tend to include clothes or other non essential items in my budget.
Having said that, my current budget is only to see me through the next 5/6 months (until I've cleared my debts). I will probably reassess it in the longterm as it would not be sustainable to ignore things like clothes.

At the moment my budget is quite regimented (I'll share below).

Pay- £1590
Travel - £300
Rent - £100
Food- £100
Minimum Loan repayments: £360
Overpayments for snowballing and clearing Loans: £700
Buffer: £30

I usually stick to it although food is the one I do struggle with the most.

getmore4less

Budget/plan for a full year ahead, not just a month.

Cash flow is the month to month allocation to the full year plan.

eg for clothes work out what you will need an when based on what you have now and when stuff will need replacing.

Do this for everything and make sure it all adds up.

spot3

I'd definitely put something in for clothes, over the course of a year you'll probably need shoes.

concrete_kid

I do my budget month by month. If I'm in need of clothes, I usually buy them over 2-3 months and add this to the budget accordingly. It means something else on the budget then gets less - usually entertainment. I usually do my monthly budget about 3 months in advance.

It's not that difficult to go through the year and work out what crops up in what month and budget for it. Birthdays, dentist, christmas, travelling to see friends/family can all be planned for. Even things in the house breaking, have you ever had a year when something hasn't need replacing? It should be factored in your budget and having an emergency fund will mean you don't stress when it happens (I'm in the process of building one up)


At some point in the year you WILL need clothes, a night out, lunch out so you should budget these in. I budget quite a bit for entertainment because I'm not willing to give it up, so although some people would think it is too much, it's realistic for me. It's means my debt will take longer to pay off but it's personal choice.

I don't usually save for christmas (no kids) however I start Christmas shopping early and spread the cost. I also try and do overtime, in October to pay for the extra socailising that goes on in December.

When I started my budget I never ended up keeping to it. After reading about it on a money blog, I now have a catogary called 'flex' which is 10% of my monthly net income. This covers you if a freind wants to meet for lunch, something small in the house breaks etc. It's made a big difference, and I rarely go over, any left over can go towards debt.

Also I adjust my budget regularly (it's in a spreadsheet) so if something comes up I hadn't expected I go back and adjust the figures, maybe having to cut back on other stuff, or cancal plans I'd made.

I'd be happy to share my budget if you PM me.

Giraffeseeker

I've been using ynab to budget for nearly a year and it takes a while to get right. As I am single I have a pot called "spending money" which could be clothes, socialising, etc. This pot gets whatever is left over - which has been less and less as I have added new categories along the way, like dentist and car repairs (didn't have either in the original budget!). I did have a seperate clothes category at first but I kept stealing from it in order to buy something else or to go out so I just combined it into one. I have a "kids expenses" category separately which includes their clothes (seperate as ExH pays me half of all costs so I like to track it). YNAB is great - give it a go!

enthusiasticsaver

I budget 3 months at a time and usually do budget for things like clothes, haircuts and other personal expenditure. If it is not spent one month it is carried forward to the next month.