How do you Mums budget?

Joy_Burke

Simple as taking out what is intended for the savings on the monthly income and just spending what is left.

sp9567

Glad to see you have come up with a budget and are identifying where your money goes. If I could give advice based on your spending.

$50 for beer is still a bit much but that is for you and your husband to justify.

You should not need Netflix and I would suggest other forms of entertainment such as reading books, watching TV shows as they are on television. Your internet costs also seems a bit high.

A recommendation I would make is that you could take out a lump some of cash at the beginning of the month (say, £100) and this could be the split pocket money between you and your partner. What you would do then is to not take any money out for the rest of the month. This will make you only spend the money if you really need to. If you have any money leftover then roll it forward to the next month and top up so you may have £134 for the next month. If you somehow are able to have more than £100 left at the end of the month then do not withdraw at the beginning of the following month.

This may sound like a strict discipline but I have been using this to avoid going to the ATM 2-3 times a week to take out small sums of money that will only last me a couple of days and also making sure I try to use what cash I have on my person wisely and only where required (So no "I fancied a trip to the coffee shop", "Let's go to the cinema" etc.).