Budgeting Help - Ending Living Paycheck to Paycheck

webitha

What is YNAB please

luckofthe_irish

greensalad wrote: »

Plenty of areas to save and you're not that far off being in the black

Thank you Really appreciate you taking the time to go through... will try to answer your queries here! I agree my lifestyle totally overexceeds my salary.. time to knuckle down. No chance of a second job as I work 45+ hours as it is, so I just need to manage what I do get paid better .

Council tax is over 10 months I believe - that is the payment plan the offered me at the time.

I don't pay road tax as my car is new (well a year old) and all tax, servicing, breakdown cover etc. is included in my deal.

Medical is dental cover - I have had braces pretty much all my life so this massively cuts the cost of paying upfront during every appointment.

Car and contents insurance has all been paid upfront so no need to renew until August for car and December for contents.

Gym has already been cancelled as of today, so that £14.99 saving.

I get my hair done by a mobile hairdresser every 2/3 months and she charges £65 so I tried to split that for monthly cost.

Seriously need to cut down on groceries, gifts and entertainment so they are the main areas to work on.

Thank you for highlighting the areas of improvement - very much appreciated. Lots of thinking and planning to do before my move in April!

greensalad

luckofthe_irish wrote: »

TCouncil tax is over 10 months I believe - that is the payment plan the offered me at the time.

You should be able to just call/write/email in and ask for it to be amended to a 12 month plan instead. I am not sure if councils are obligated to do this but I understand that most do.

luckofthe_irish wrote: »

Medical is dental cover - I have had braces pretty much all my life so this massively cuts the cost of paying upfront during every appointment.

OK, I don't think it is too high a value for monthly dental so if it's required it should be OK to stay.

luckofthe_irish wrote: »

Car and contents insurance has all been paid upfront so no need to renew until August for car and December for contents.

But will you be able to afford it up-front again? This is an issue, because if something is paid "up front" you still should be saving for it month-on-month to ensure you have money in that pot come renewal time.

luckofthe_irish wrote: »

Gym has already been cancelled as of today, so that £14.99 saving.

That's good!

luckofthe_irish wrote: »

I get my hair done by a mobile hairdresser every 2/3 months and she charges £65 so I tried to split that for monthly cost.

That is a crazy high price for a mobile hairdresser! In fact, even top-tier salons where I live in expensive Surrey don't charge that much. You should definitely aim to find a cheaper mobile hairdresser.

luckofthe_irish wrote: »

Seriously need to cut down on groceries, gifts and entertainment so they are the main areas to work on.

Consider online shopping. It keeps you out of the chocolate bar aisle/picking up nice looking things on offer. I expect the £1 delivery charge will be recouped easily. Alternatively I've heard wonders about shopping at Aldi for reducing costs. Sadly there isn't one near me.

dimestorediamond

greensalad wrote: »

You should be able to just call/write/email in and ask for it to be amended to a 12 month plan instead. I am not sure if councils are obligated to do this but I understand that most do.



OK, I don't think it is too high a value for monthly dental so if it's required it should be OK to stay.



But will you be able to afford it up-front again? This is an issue, because if something is paid "up front" you still should be saving for it month-on-month to ensure you have money in that pot come renewal time.



That's good!



That is a crazy high price for a mobile hairdresser! In fact, even top-tier salons where I live in expensive Surrey don't charge that much. You should definitely aim to find a cheaper mobile hairdresser.



Consider online shopping. It keeps you out of the chocolate bar aisle/picking up nice looking things on offer. I expect the £1 delivery charge will be recouped easily. Alternatively I've heard wonders about shopping at Aldi for reducing costs. Sadly there isn't one near me.

That is not a crazy price for a mobile hairdresser As a hairdresser, I am around middle of the road in pricing in a not-expensive area and that is around the average for a cut and some sort of colour - mobile or in a salon.

OP, if you are having foils for your hair, see if you can switch to a half head or a t-section on alternate visits - save a few quid. If it's an all over colour, try to stretch a week or two longer, it will knock off one or two trips to get your hair done a year!

Domayne

Watch Ytube tutorials! Seriously, I'm addicted to them!
I just search 'how to budget' 'how I plan my budget' etc and there are a lot of different ways (Zero based budget, Envelope system etc) and you can try a few see what works for you.
There is also great tutorials on YNAB so you can see if you think you would like it.
I decided not to bother with it as it's basically the same thing I can do with an excel spreadsheet but cheaper! I learnt how to make a spreadsheet from a Ytube tutorial too! lol
For my personal spending money that I give myself, I use an app called spending tracker which is like a virtual spending diary and you can add tons of categories for whatever you want/need, so you can see where you fritter money away rather than carrying a notebook everywhere with you!

Candy0107

Hi,

This is how I budget.

I have 3x accounts.....a spending account, a DD account and a bill account.

1. pay goes into dd account
2. i pay any odd pennies to my credit card (it makes budgeting a bit easier.....everything is round pounds)
3. i look at my budget spreadsheet and work out categories...what is dd, what is cash etc
4. the value of the dd's go to my bill account and the 'cash' transactions go into my spending account
5. i only transfer the correct value for each category
6. any excess money gets paid onto my credit card (or savings account if there is no debt)
7. as bills go out of my dd account i mark them off on the spready which is pinned on my wall

I tend to pay cash for most transactions somi can keep track of it.

Some tips i have picked up on my journey:

• give up magazines - yes it is a bit hard at first but read everything online
• same with newspapers
• i love coffee but when i am in a coffee shop i just stick to an americano - usually the cheapest thing on the menu and a bit healthier than a frappamochachino with syrup and whipped cream
• i use posh coffee in my coffee pot in the morning - i wait til tesco have it on offer.....i prefer st*rbucks coffee and tesco sometimes have it at £2.50 per bag so i bulk buy....the coffee works out at about 30p if you take into account you get a free tall latte when you have finished the bag
• i use cash wherever humanly possible.....i used to think that if i spent £x on a magazine and a drink it didn't really matter as i have only handed over my card. if you go shopping with £10 and no card you cannot go over that
• i have dropped down a brand in personal care
• if i was at home on my own, i would have value beauty days - shower gel, shampoo and deodorant used to be 'value'
• try and find something else to do instead of internet shopping.....ask yourself do you actually need it ?

I hope this helps
Candy xx

Fmess

luckoftheirish you can get multiple current accounts with FD. I have three and it makes it so easy to move and allocate money. You just apply online by clicking a button when you are logged in and within 24 hours it's open and available to use.

mummyroysof3

Not sure I can offer much advice but I found one way to stop my shopping online for the sake of it sessions was to use this forum more. I also investigated my libraries online service for ebook and magazines. Get a decent travel cup/mug and take drinks from home, we do this whenever we go out and drinks and snacks for the kids too. Defiantly budget less for food but put something away for the yearly bills, I do this for home and car insurance but didn't do the bt yearly line rental this time. If you can then put the 2 months where no council tax is paid in savings and same if applies to water as you are used to paying it so don't miss it.

swampduck

The OP mentioned that they had a full store cupboard and freezer. May I suggest that you go to your freezer and write down a list of literally everything that you have. Do the same with your store cupboards. Then menu plan with what you have without going shopping.
I've had odd months when the money just wont stretch far enough and by doing this have been amazed by just how much is in the cupboard/freezer.
For example in your freezer you may have 4 chicken fillets, 2 packs mince, 2 Fillets of fish - that is potentially 8 meals basic ingredients. So no shopping really needed for a weeks' worth of evening meals which equates to knocking x amount off your overdraft making it easier to get where you think you should be.
It's just a little thing but it's the difference between going into your overdraft or not or at the very least reducing it.

Swampy

luckofthe_irish

dimestorediamond wrote: »

OP, if you are having foils for your hair, see if you can switch to a half head or a t-section on alternate visits - save a few quid. If it's an all over colour, try to stretch a week or two longer, it will knock off one or two trips to get your hair done a year!

Thank you for this - I usually have some foils for highlights and an all over colour afterwards. I just got my hair dyed darker so the roots issue will be less of a problem, so I can wait a bit longer now each time and cut the amount of times I need to done down!