How much do you have left over at the end of the month?

Popstess

Hiya, after my first post at the weekend my head is spinning trying to work out all my finances and debt and Apr etc etc. One thing that's on my mind is after all the bills and necessary spends e.g. Food shopping and school stuff how much is normal/average to have left over at the end of the month?
I'd like to be able to put any left overs towards paying off debt but it's amazing how quickly money seems to disappear on silly little things, a birthday card, a collection for someone leaving at work, that kind of thing. Do you account for absolutely everything? And put it in your budget? I don't know how much to count for things such as birthdays?
Anyway is love to hear from you and get your opinion

sugarcube84

Short answer is yes you should try and account for everything. I set aside £20/month for bdays, which includes school bdays for my ds and £25/month for xmas this goes into an account which I dip into as required. It's also the account I use for setting aside money allocated for car tax/insurance/maintenance, clothing, pet insurance and medical/dentist fees. I have a separate one for the emergency fund.


Things like work collections I would try and take out of groceries or presents depending on the amount to put in.

rolls99

There isn't really any "average" with surplus income because people's circumstances aren't identical.


What you need to be getting idea of is what your surplus is at the end of each month.


You do need to budget right down to the penny because it's no good allocating £X for say food shopping but spending a part of it on something else.


To begin with however you need to start from the bigger picture.


Total Income, minus all of your monthly bills - this means everything from TV licence to car maintenance, as well as "Priority" bills like Council tax, mortgage etc.


Once you have those "totals" you then need to refine it, adding in expenditure for the likes of groceries and so on and so forth - it's important you list everything - drilling right down to "£X per month for Christmas" and so on - a simple example could be, if you wished to spend £120 per annum on Christmas then you budget £10 per month for that (and only that). Obviously that's just a figure out of thin air but you must first and foremost know what money you have left after servicing all bills and debts - and after that you know the amount you have.

rogue999

Hiya - I use YNAB (you need a budget) so everything for the year is on the budget, but as a rough guide after my household bills/groceries/bus fares etc i put £20 towards birthdays, £20 Xmas, £20 kids clothes, £10 my clothes, £50 to holidays/day trips, £20 for random spending money for myself (usually a drink with friends, cinema, bit of makeup etc). I also pay about £100 on top of my minimum credit card payments.
After that everything is allocated for the month so no leftovers, anything not spent is carried over to the next month.

Popstess

sugarcube84 wrote: »

Short answer is yes you should try and account for everything. I set aside £20/month for bdays, which includes school bdays for my ds and £25/month for xmas this goes into an account which I dip into as required. It's also the account I use for setting aside money allocated for car tax/insurance/maintenance, clothing, pet insurance and medical/dentist fees. I have a separate one for the emergency fund.


Things like work collections I would try and take out of groceries or presents depending on the amount to put in.

Thank you that is helpful, I think that's where I have been going wrong I need to be accounting for these small payments as where do I think they are going to come from if I don't budget for them.

Popstess

rolls99 wrote: »

There isn't really any "average" with surplus income because people's circumstances aren't identical.


What you need to be getting idea of is what your surplus is at the end of each month.


You do need to budget right down to the penny because it's no good allocating £X for say food shopping but spending a part of it on something else.


To begin with however you need to start from the bigger picture.


Total Income, minus all of your monthly bills - this means everything from TV licence to car maintenance, as well as "Priority" bills like Council tax, mortgage etc.


Once you have those "totals" you then need to refine it, adding in expenditure for the likes of groceries and so on and so forth - it's important you list everything - drilling right down to "£X per month for Christmas" and so on - a simple example could be, if you wished to spend £120 per annum on Christmas then you budget £10 per month for that (and only that). Obviously that's just a figure out of thin air but you must first and foremost know what money you have left after servicing all bills and debts - and after that you know the amount you have.

Ah yes that's true I guess I just wanted an idea of what other people had left over at the end of the month to see if I was on the right track or if it was manageable so to speak but I understand everyone's circumstances are unique to them.

Popstess

rogue999 wrote: »

Hiya - I use YNAB (you need a budget) so everything for the year is on the budget, but as a rough guide after my household bills/groceries/bus fares etc i put £20 towards birthdays, £20 Xmas, £20 kids clothes, £10 my clothes, £50 to holidays/day trips, £20 for random spending money for myself (usually a drink with friends, cinema, bit of makeup etc). I also pay about £100 on top of my minimum credit card payments.
After that everything is allocated for the month so no leftovers, anything not spent is carried over to the next month.

Thank you that's helpful I really had no idea how much I should be setting aside for thse kinds of things that gives me a good idea

zenshi

I'm self employed so my 'spare' varies monthly

To combat the erraticness, i first put away (in a tin) £x for my annual yearly bills ie car ins, car tax, etc etc. I totted up these bills and divided bY 12. It's worked fab for me so far
Next is my DDs into my main account
after that's done, comes my food shop and petrol. Any after that currently is split between debts and building an emergency fund

In the early days before I got a second job, sometimes my food allowance was only £30 for the month :eek: whenever I'm in town late now, I check the big supermarkets and see if I can fill freezer with yellow sticker stuff. This really helps and means I can actually eat very well now :T

Popstess

zenshi wrote: »

I'm self employed so my 'spare' varies monthly

To combat the erraticness, i first put away (in a tin) £x for my annual yearly bills ie car ins, car tax, etc etc. I totted up these bills and divided bY 12. It's worked fab for me so far
Next is my DDs into my main account
after that's done, comes my food shop and petrol. Any after that currently is split between debts and building an emergency fund

In the early days before I got a second job, sometimes my food allowance was only £30 for the month :eek: whenever I'm in town late now, I check the big supermarkets and see if I can fill freezer with yellow sticker stuff. This really helps and means I can actually eat very well now :T

Wow £30 for the month is amazing!!!!

zenshi

Popstess wrote: »

Wow £30 for the month is amazing!!!!

It's surprising how many beans, jacket potatoes and bread that can buy! Not a great diet but sometimes beggars can't be choosers

Popstess

zenshi wrote: »

It's surprising how many beans, jacket potatoes and bread that can buy! Not a great diet but sometimes beggars can't be choosers

I think you done amazing to manage that. I'm just getting my head around noting down every penny. I'm going to start a spending diary