Is My Budget sensible .

muz3562

TartanSaver wrote: »

£160/mo for food is too much. Go to Aldi. Has your new flat got a freezer? Make large meals (soup, sauces, curries etc) and freeze them in single portion containers. You can buy loads of these online cheaply. Then when you come home at your weird times, you just need to microwave them. It requires a bit of advance planning, but the at the point you come home it takes no effort. If you don't have a freezer, get a cheap one off Gumtree.

Ok thanks for the advice , I will have a freezer in the new place . I just really needed reassuring that it was possible , last time I used to live out when I was at uni I spent about £25 a week on food for myself and I was quite active then going to the gym 4 times a week so I did eat a lot ,
But given that I havent had to do food shopping for myself recently I just need to get back into the habbit .

TartanSaver wrote: »

If you really want to save money, sell the car and commute on the motorbike!

I would love to do this because I much prefer using the motorbike instead of the car . However there are still some periods of the year when it is just downright dangerous to use the bike . Plus the car is handy for random days out and stuff

TartanSaver wrote: »

Rather than saving £150/mo now, look to pay of the interest bearing part of the credit card. The £250 which wasn't a balance transfer will be costing you cash.

Im going to pay off as much of that £250 if not all of it next week when I get paid anyway because ive done a lot of overtime this past pay period .

TartanSaver wrote: »

Similarly, look into the terms of your bike finance, see whar the costs are for early repayment - you're probably better off overpaying.

I will do thanks for the advice

getmore4less wrote: »

A budget is a plan of where the money is going you have car insurance in with a figure for that, savings is not car insurance.

(the budget is the plan of where the money is going not where you have it stored)

Ok thanks for the advice , just out of interest how do I budget with something that I dont really know the price of though like next years insurance ? I paid £980 this year (young driver) and im hoping next year it will fall to less than £800 but I cant gurantee it will .

CLAPTON wrote: »

best to use the budget spreadsheet linked to by getmore4less above


but if you have been living at home cheaply why do you carry a balance on your credit card ?
why do you have bike finance?
anything that is costing you interest pay off asap.

your budget seems to have nothing for
-clothes
-holidays
-birthday and xmas presents
-do you really only spend 80 per month on socialising?
-do you buy lunch at work


try keeping a spending diary : literally write down every single thing you spend on for a month or too and see exactly where the money goes.

The motorbike is on finance because previously I had a job paying less than this one and used to use the motorbike as my sole means of commuting / had to take taxis or use busses depending on shifts in winter .
I will admit the last 8 or 9 months I have been a bit head in the clouds with regards to my finances , I have had that much money coming in and my essential expenses have been that little that I have had to worry very little and managed to spend and save quite a bit . I still have about £2400 in my savings after buying a car and paying a years insurance at £1k outright in november but now things have changed with my living arrangements and I know im going to have to buckle down and be more sensible with my money .

£80 a month socialising , This sounds about right to me . I might go out to the pub once with some friends and have 2 or 3 pints at the most (not a big drinker at all ) so thats £6/7 pounds . I might also go out for dinner at wetherspoons with one of my work mates so thats £15 and I might go out for dinner at a local curry house or something with my gf so thats £30 , I might also get a takeaway chinese in or something for me and the gf £15 which makes a sum total of £67 .

I currently take food to work , unless im on a short shift and I might just buy the odd crisps or chocolate bar from the vending machine

£80 misc is to cover clothes , shoes and b day presents . I get provided with a full uniform at work including boots so I only have to buy clothes for outside of work .

Holidays I take when I feel I have enough saved up so that I can afford to book a holiday and still have enough left in my savings .

Ive tried to overestimate slightly with everything on my budget apart from rent and council tax because some of the other spending items are a bit more flexible and could be a bit more or less depending on certain factors .

grumbler

muz3562 wrote: »

...how do I budget with something that I dont really know the price of though like next years insurance ? I paid £980 this year (young driver) and im hoping next year it will fall to less than £800 but I cant gurantee it will .

You can easily get online quotes now assuming 1 year NCD. Don't forget TCB/Quidco, although they work best for cheapest insurances and fixed cashback amount.
Also, as you don't use the car a lot, a PAYG insurance is worth checking, although I don't have any experience with it.

getmore4less

just out of interest how do I budget with something that I dont really know the price of though like next years insurance ? I paid £980 this year (young driver) and im hoping next year it will fall to less than £800 but I cant gurantee it will .

the important thing with a budget is that it ballance(over time)

income=outgoings+savings.

Somethings you know, some things you guess(inteligently) some things you set yourself.

The issue you get is the cash flow as things don't always happen when you have the money to start with.

For most things you tend to increase(5%) the amounts each year but things like insurance with so many variables you have to think.

lets asume nothing makes it worse so you have a years NCB another years driving a yearolder.

worst case its the same plan for that round down £80pm by Oct you have £560 saved towards the insurance and can do a virtual borrow to pay from cash flow, if £800 your insurance fund is now £240 short back to zero in 3 months. next Oct you have £720 saved.

For all the bills err on the high side untill the data starts to tell you you are too high, far easier to reduce something that is over and realocate those funds, than it is to start looking for cutbacks because you underestimated.

As well as everything for the year probably worth doing a first years cash flow to see where the peaks and troughs are, might be a bill you can move to even it out or give you an idea of the buffer you need to build up.

jimjames

muz3562 wrote: »

Ok thanks for the advice , just out of interest how do I budget with something that I dont really know the price of though like next years insurance ? I paid £980 this year (young driver) and im hoping next year it will fall to less than £800 but I cant gurantee it will .

Budget based on this years amount. If it is less then you have more in your savings, if it's the same then you have the correct amount.

I'd look at selling bike or car. Running both sounds like a luxury that isn't really affordable.

muz3562

jimjames wrote: »

Budget based on this years amount. If it is less then you have more in your savings, if it's the same then you have the correct amount.

I'd look at selling bike or car. Running both sounds like a luxury that isn't really affordable.

That sounds sensible to me , thanks for the advice .

I am looking at selling the bike . It has to be the bike really , as much as I like using it and as cheap as it is to use for commuting 100+mpg and my insurance is due to be reknewed with 3 years NCB , its not suitable all year round This winter I stopped using it apart from the odd few days at the end of Nov and I have only started using it again the middle of feb . and its also not suitable for the little days out or short breaks I sometimes take around the UK .

muz3562

Another thin I forgot to ask earlier is how do I budget for my Extra 13th payday . In addition to this although sunday is not in my working week at work and I get paid extra for them I am guaranteed a number of Sundays every year at work because we have equalisation amongst all of the staff who have opted into working them . This means that over the space of the year I am guranteed at least 11 sundays . this equals to an extra £1400 roughly a year that I can also rely on as income . How do I account for this .

Its not equally spread out . There are some 4 week periods with 2 sundays in them and then they are some 4 week periods with none in .

This is all getting a bit more complicated than I thought it would be . When I lived at uni I lived in uni halls then private halls and they expected rent in line with the student loan calender

TartanSaver

Multiply your 4 weekly income by 13, then divide by 12. Based on the £1538 you mentioned earlier, this amounts to a monthly pay of £1666. I take it that's after tax, as you have assumed you'll be able to use all of it. If you really want to factor in the overtime, you can add it to your annual income: I would not do this. Overtime is generally not contractually guaranteed, and you would not be the first person to find their work has made changes to reduce the costs of overtime. Since you should be able to live within your basic income (your budget is reasonably sensible) it's better to save all the overtime. After you've built up some safety and have a few months of sticking to your budget under your belt, you can always decide to dip into your savings for a nice holiday or something.

muz3562

TartanSaver wrote: »

Multiply your 4 weekly income by 13, then divide by 12. Based on the £1538 you mentioned earlier, this amounts to a monthly pay of £1666. I take it that's after tax, as you have assumed you'll be able to use all of it. If you really want to factor in the overtime, you can add it to your annual income: I would not do this. Overtime is generally not contractually guaranteed, and you would not be the first person to find their work has made changes to reduce the costs of overtime. Since you should be able to live within your basic income (your budget is reasonably sensible) it's better to save all the overtime. After you've built up some safety and have a few months of sticking to your budget under your belt, you can always decide to dip into your savings for a nice holiday or something.

Okay , yes the £1538 4 weekly is after tax and other deductions from my salary , pensions , union , healcare cash plan etc .

As for the overtime. The sundays I mentioned being guaranteed are agreed by a process of collective bargaining and based off the current number of staff they are the bare minimum that any staff member opted into Sundays has to work in order to retain full operations on a Sunday , If I am down to work one of these sundays the only way I can get out of it is if someone else is willing to cover it and then I will not get paid the extra for that sunday . This collective agreement is in place for another 3 years before it is up for renegotiation so I can rely on those 11 sundays for at least the next 3 years . By which time my situation might have changed anyway

getmore4less

You need to think yearly.

For cash flow I would use the 4 weeks pay to cover day to day, use the overtime Sundays to cover the annual expenses and discretionary.

the 13th 4 weeks savings.

try to build up a buffer so when the money comes I does not matter.

savings_my_hobby

muz3562 wrote: »

My Basic Salary
£1538 every 4 weeks .

Expenses -Monthly
Rent £450
Council Tax £60.45
Utilities £100
Water £20
TV License £12.12
Internet £2.50 + £15.75 line rental
Reg Charity Donation £8
Mobile Phone £44
Motorbike Finance £62.34
Motorbike Insurance £54
Fuel for Car £100 - 22 miles a day work= 440 miles 2 tanks of fuel + enough for another full tank for other random journies
Food Shopping £160
Going out / socialising £80 pub/cinema or taking my oh out for dinner
Misc £80 - the odd coffee at work and any other little emergencies
Contents Insurance £9.18 month
Regular savings account £150 -some of this is for MOT/insurance in Nov
Repaying cred card £85 Balance £900 - £650 is interest free balance tranfer for 27 months (25 left)
Saving accnt for Car Tax £25

Getting anything on finance is not a great idea in my opinion.
It would also be cheaper to pay motorbike insurance in one lump, maybe you could set up a bank account for that too?
when using the credit card pay it off immediately, avoid paying interest.
your mobile phone bill seems a little expensive at £528 per year.
Do you not have a savings account just to save money for a rainy day?

Overall though I've seen people waste a lot more for a lot less than you, like everybody else there is room for improvement.