2015, my year for proper grown up budgetting

kathrynha

I have decided that it is about time I started to deal with our household budget properly.

I was brought up with my mum writing down absolutely everything spent, and everything having a set budget. Holidays and presents all had a set budget, and their own pages in 'the book' and everything was recorded. Back then my parents needed to do that, but she still does it today, and is super organised.

I have done dismally in the past with money, especially in my student years, but have never been organised enough to do it properly. Have occasionally tried but gave up within days.

I am now 37 with a husband, daughter and mortgage and think it is time to start again with it.
We are lucky that the only debt we have is our mortgage and my deferred student loan, and our household income is enough for us to be comfortable. I am however aware that the future needs saving for, and I'd like rid of the mortgage by 45 (due to be paid off 2 months before my 50th birthday)

In theory by the time we have paid mortgage, utilities, car cost, council tax, food etc we should have about £1000 left at the end of the month, but we don't.
Obviously there are holidays, clothes, birthdays, Christmas, treats, etc coming out of that money, but not £1000 per month worth.

We are managing to spend money and not remember what on, and if we can't remember, it can't really be essential spending or even that worthwhile.

By budgetting properly, I am hoping to be able to account for all our money, and therefore be able to transfer some in to savings.
I have downloaded an excel budget template and set the headings to suit us, and we will see how it goes.

I am hoping by having a thread declaring my intentions publically that it will motivate me to keep going. I hope each month to be able to update the thread with the amounts transferred to savings, and weekly any un-accountable money spent, which will hopefully be a diminishing amount.

Feel free to give me any budgetting tips.
Feel free to nag me if I don't update the thread.
Feel free to join me on this thread if you are going to budget in 2015 too.

Kendall80

Sounds like the "Save 12k in 2015" thread on the savings board would be right up your street.

Catcherupper14

and the grocery challenge on the Old Style board.

kathrynha

Just started with the grocery challenge this month. Not the best month to start, but the first month is a bit of a getting to know how much you actually spend month, so it means in January I can really get in to it.

12K in 2015 will be too much, but I will check it out. 5-6K in a year could be acheivable I hope. Will check out that thread though.
6K per year for 5 years would clear our mortgage.

I was a lurker on this forum for so long, but people on this site have really inspired me to be more careful with money, and I'm actually quite excited about saving

cydney65

You don't need to save 12K on the 2015 thread. We all choose our target, mine is £5000, and if we need to adjust it during the year it's perfectly doable. Come and join us!

enthusiasticsaver

Well done on making a resolution to start budgeting. I have always loosely budgeted in the past for everyday monthly spending but my downfall was always holidays, weekends away and Christmas so last year I resolved to keep a tighter rein on that - don't ask how that is going LOL. Why not use spending tracker ( I get it on my iphone and ipad) and you either get it for free (with ads) or pay £1.99 I think to get it without ads. There is also something called YNAB, but I think there is a charge for that and a budget on the MSE site which puts it all in black and white. Or just use an excel spreadsheet. Nothing concentrates the mind on what you are spending more than seeing the amounts written down! Good luck.

enthusiasticsaver

If it is ok with you I would like to join you just to see if I can keep to my budget for a whole year including for Holidays and Christmas. I have signed up for the £12k in 2015 too, I am older than you and now our mortgage is gone I am focused on saving for early retirement in 2018.

PeacefulWaters

Opening a regular saver account now, maturing just before next Christmas, might be an idea to help segregate the Xmas 2015 food and pressies spend.

kathrynha

cydney65 wrote: »

You don't need to save 12K on the 2015 thread. We all choose our target, mine is £5000, and if we need to adjust it during the year it's perfectly doable. Come and join us!

Going to check it out after this reply

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

If it is ok with you I would like to join you just to see if I can keep to my budget for a whole year including for Holidays and Christmas. I have signed up for the £12k in 2015 too, I am older than you and now our mortgage is gone I am focused on saving for early retirement in 2018.

You are welcome to join me. More the better, and hopefully we can encourage each other to keep going.
I'm torn between putting everything towards mortgage, or splitting savings between mortgage and retirement.

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Opening a regular saver account now, maturing just before next Christmas, might be an idea to help segregate the Xmas 2015 food and pressies spend.

Doing the £365 in 365 days for Christmas 2015, but putting in extra each day. Should cover Christmas with extra to carry over in to the new year.

colsten

kathrynha wrote: »

Doing the £365 in 365 days for Christmas 2015, but putting in extra each day.

What is the AER of that?

FireWyrm

So, what method are you going to use for budgeting? I can recommend https://www.youneedabudget.com. You can try out the software for 34 days. I've been on it for a year and some people much longer. Almost everyone reports good results. I've leveraged us from -£1500 OD every month to +£6000 in a year. YNAB would seem to fit your requirements and is an updated zero budget method which is probably what your mum used combined with penny pots for different purposes.