The Great Big Budget Challenge 2016

lexbubbles

Alright. Hear me out. There are a few threads for specific challenges - the crazy clothes challenge, the grocery challenge, no buying books etc etc. Each of those challenges has its own rules and aims which is totally fab (also I'm in the clothing challenge so come say hi)

But how about this? You set yearly spend targets for multiple categories and keep track of them all here. No specific rules for the various categories - whatever works for you. Just set a target spend and see if you stick to it.

The idea is to take control of your budget as a whole and be accountable for it - and stop buying stuff you don't need.

I created a sample spreadsheet here if people want to nab it to keep track: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Fr27eUSsYgDIEhid8sx8FJx7lCgEjdUdOZh_9_SbJYc/edit?usp=sharing

You should be able to just copy-paste into your own document and set up as many sheets as you need!

I'm going to do 4 categories on mine:
Clothing: £240
Toiletries/cosmetics: £180
Books: £600
Videogames: £120

Of course you could also do work lunches, groceries, coffee, travel, all of those spa weekends you got accidentally addicted to... anything you want to get a handle on.

If everyone totally hates this idea then just let the thread die :rotfl: :rotfl:

Who's with me?

lexbubbles

Challengers!

01. Lexbubbles || Clothing £20 | Toiletries £15 | Games £10 | Books £50 | Tea £40 ||
02. Tjh1412 || Food £120 | Everything else £50 ||
03. Counting Stars || Food £100 | Eat out £20 | Gifts £17 | Travel £8 | Clothing £8 ||

lexbubbles

Well, I might be doing this alone but damned if I ain't gonna do it anyway.

I added another section to my personal budget for "tea" because I'm a big tea aficionado and like buying lots of different blends from various places and if I let it go unchecked I'll spend all my money on it :rotfl:

Also including hot chocolate in my 'tea' budget because I also like hunting down nice new flavoured chocolates. I just really like warm drinks, you guys.

Getting two new chocolates from Whittards (raspberry ripple white choc, and creme brûlee white choc - £6 each)
In my Tosco shop at the end of the month, I'm replacing my empty box of Tosco Apple&Cinnamon tea (naturally caffeine-free, and a must for anyone fond of apple/cinnamon as a flavour combo - fantastically warming).

Also getting a tub of "Drink me skinny chai latte" powder to see how it compares to actual masala chai, some Tosco honey & chamomile, and Pukka "womankind" (cranberry, rose and vanilla) to try. So 1 replacement and 3 new blends this month.

Going to hold off on buying any more and combining the rest of this month's budget with Feb - going to see a friend/my ex-flatmate down in London and pop along to the Covent Garden Tea Shop to browse their loose leaf blends. I've had a look online and there's a few I'm interested in.

As far as my cosmetics/toiletries budget goes... I was after a lipstick by illamasqua called "vampette" which is in itself RRP £19.50. It's sold out everywhere (more or less) but found out it was also released as part of a £45 "dead vintage in a box" set at Selfridges. There was one on eBay which I won for £24 inch p&p so I'm pretty happy about that.

However I also need to replace my shampoo/conditioner in my Tesco shop arriving end of this month (£9) so am over the "monthly" budget - had I not seen that eBay auction I'd have hunted down the lippie at a later date - but will try and spend less next month to make that up.

Cosmetics
Month £24 / 15 (oops!)
Year £24 / 180

Tea/choc
Month £19.14 / 40
Year £19.14 / 480

datlex

OP If you like Whittards are you signed up to their emails to get tea cheaper. Also have you checked if they are on cash back sites?

lexbubbles

datlex wrote: »

OP If you like Whittards are you signed up to their emails to get tea cheaper. Also have you checked if they are on cash back sites?

Done and done for ages, my friend.

Tjh1412

Only just seen this sorry,count me in please

lexbubbles

Tjh1412 wrote: »

Only just seen this sorry,count me in please

Aye aye! Welcome aboard! I'll update the challenger post with your name. What budgetary restraints are you setting yourself this year?

Tjh1412

I'm going for only spending £50 a month after bills and food are taken care of on everything.
Total spend so far this month is 12.99 which was for a book I needed for my college course,should have been £45 though so I'm happy with the saving there

lexbubbles

Tjh1412 wrote: »

12.99 which was for a book I needed for my college course,should have been £45 though so I'm happy with the saving there

:beer: nice! I'm waiting on some Amazon vouchers before I get any more uni books to add to my library, so as to limit my spend.

Edit: having to add £2.99 to my tea/choc spend for this month having realised I'm almost out of Peanut Hottie. Anything I get from Tesco gets absorbed into my grocery spend anyway so isn't extra money spent (I allocate £100 of my funds a month to a large tesco shop, although it's normally less than that) but I'm counting it up to see how bad it gets :rotfl:

£22.13 / 40 this month (10.13 of that absorbed by grocery spend)

counting_stars

I like this challenge, count me in.
My categories are based on an aim to spend less then last year.

Last year I moved into my first purchased flat. I let myself spend freely as a pat on the back for saving so hard. This resulted in £8356 of spending. Seperate to this I managed to pay 1k off my mortgage in an overpayment. However, I only managed to pay back 1.5k of my 10k debt to family. Leaving me 8.5k to repay in four years. I also ended up with a very small emergency fund.

This year I intend to pay 2.5k of my debt, overpay my mortgage by 1k again and end the year with 2k savings.
This leaves me (without overtime) with £7,100 for the year, which I would also like to stretch to revamp the flat a bit.

I have listed my spending from last year and any set plans for new budgets in those categories.

- £1299 Misc, which included buying for the house half a sofa, a hoover, microwave and fridge freezer. Adopting my cat. Hair. Prescriptions. Fitness. No set goal yet. Although this category will include diy for the house.
- £1309/109pm Food/household shopping. New goal £100pm. This isn't a massive change as I enjoy my fresh food. It does save £109 from last year.
- £768/ 64pm Eating out/coffees/emergency lunches. New goal £240 / £20pm for the year. I am already struggling with this.
- £536/ 45pm Gifts. New goal £200. I am doing hampers for birthday and christmas this year. I have bought/ kept last year tins for cookies, bottles for bath salts, teacups for candles, a kit for toffee apples. I intend to paint flower pots and put homegrown herbs in and make jams and chutney and they were a hit this year.
- £1124 Travel (a large amount being train travel for my last job and a year bus ticket for my new job which expires in September.) I have put £100. I am hoping to buy a bike for travel after September when my bus pass ends and the £100 will be for if it rains or trips pn the train to visit family over the year.
- £546/ £45pm Stuff for me - probably small bits for the home, nail varnish, books etc. No budget set yet.
- £549/ £45.75pm Clothes. £100 for the year. £20 of this is vouchers I have and I hope to sell some items to make up the rest.
- £1130/ £94pm Holidays. No budget set yet.
- £695 /£58pm Garden and Allotment. My biggest hobby now I am in my new property. No budget set yet.
- £400 / £33pm Entertainment. No budget set yet.

£1840 budgetted for so far, saving £2446 from last year if successful. Really looking forward to seeing how I do. I might check in monthly with updates, or sooner if I figure out the rest of my category budgets.

lexbubbles

Wow! Looks like you've got everything well on the way to "under control" there, Stars!

I've added you to the challenger list with the monthly spends you've allocated so far.