Things to include in my monthly budget

Mr_Dangermouse

Starting a new job soon and I'm trying to design a monthly budget, just know I'll have forgotten some things, so this thread is for some suggestions for things to add

So far I have

Rent - including all bills

Food budget - Includes one big food shop at the start of each month, then weekly supermarket trips for milk, bread, fresh fruit and veg etc

Monthly season ticket for commuting

Phone

Gym

Contents insurance on my flat

Spotify subscription

I can basically pay all of these on the 1st of each month (with the exception of ringfencing a small pot of money for fresh food shopping trips)

This leaves a sum of money that can then go towards any shopping trips during the month, nights out, random impulse purchases, meals out, birthday presents and even weekends away/holidays.

Can anyone think of anything else I need to budget for?

PeacefulWaters

Search for "statement of affairs" for a more complete list.

This leaves a sum of money that can then go towards any shopping trips during the month, nights out, random impulse purchases, meals out, birthday presents and even weekends away/holidays.

Saving is a fairly massive omission.

Mr_Dangermouse

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Saving is a fairly massive omission.

Fair point, but then I'm 21 and starting my graduate career so I won't necessarily be binding myself into saving £X every month. It'll just be a case of firing any money leftover the night before payday into a different account. Some months I'll save, others I won't. Half of my take home pay on a very good salary is rent, so I certainly don't want to budget too much for saving.

colsten

You should be planning how much you save each month, not leave it to chance.

You should also be looking into contributing to a pension, even if that sounds a very distant issue right now. Does your employer offer a pension scheme yet? Are you making the best of it? Please do look into it. Your older self will be very angry with you if you haven't made proper provisions in time.

Are you planning to buy a property at some stage? If so, are you saving into an HTB ISA? And if not, why not?

Mr_Dangermouse

colsten wrote: »

You should be planning how much you save each month, not leave it to chance.

You should also be looking into contributing to a pension, even if that sounds a very distant issue right now. Does your employer offer a pension scheme yet? Are you making the best of it? Please do look into it. Your older self will be very angry with you if you haven't made proper provisions in time.

Are you planning to buy a property at some stage? If so, are you saving into an HTB ISA? And if not, why not?

Yeah I'm in an employer pension, although this comes straight out of my pay so I don't need to budget it per se. I never see that money at all.

PeacefulWaters

Mr_Dangermouse wrote: »

Yeah I'm in an employer pension, although this comes straight out of my pay so I don't need to budget it per se. I never see that money at all.

The follow up question is "are you contributing enough yourself to get the maximum possible employer contribution?".

Mr_Dangermouse wrote: »

Fair point, but then I'm 21 and starting my graduate career so I won't necessarily be binding myself into saving £X every month. It'll just be a case of firing any money leftover the night before payday into a different account. Some months I'll save, others I won't. Half of my take home pay on a very good salary is rent, so I certainly don't want to budget too much for saving.

I would recommend you rethink this strategy and make saving a priority cornerstone of your budget.

takman

Mr_Dangermouse wrote: »

Fair point, but then I'm 21 and starting my graduate career so I won't necessarily be binding myself into saving £X every month. It'll just be a case of firing any money leftover the night before payday into a different account. Some months I'll save, others I won't. Half of my take home pay on a very good salary is rent, so I certainly don't want to budget too much for saving.

I very much doubt you will have any money leftover at the end of the month if your going to allocate it all to nights out, meals and weekends away!.

It's always really important to have a few months wages saved up at the very least for emergencies.

So if your on a "very good" salary I would be looking to put £300 a month into a 6% regular saver each month and just leave it there. If you start saving now and allocate that money from when you start your job then you won't miss it!.

bigadaj

takman wrote: »

I very much doubt you will have any money leftover at the end of the month if your going to allocate it all to nights out, meals and weekends away!.

Well it's a form of budgeting, just not a very good one.

Mr_Dangermouse

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

The follow up question is "are you contributing enough yourself to get the maximum possible employer contribution?".

I am, yes.

I thought the idea of budgeting was as follows:

1. Calculate take home salary
2. Remove necessary fixed monthly costs - rent, bills etc
3. Remove other fixed monthly costs - phone, gym, spotify etc
4. Whatever is left can then be used for nights out, shopping trips etc
5. If anything is left from that at the end of the month then move it into a savings pot

bigadaj

Mr_Dangermouse wrote: »

I am, yes.

I thought the idea of budgeting was as follows:

1. Calculate take home salary
2. Remove necessary fixed monthly costs - rent, bills etc
3. Remove other fixed monthly costs - phone, gym, spotify etc
4. Whatever is left can then be used for nights out, shopping trips etc
5. If anything is left from that at the end of the month then move it into a savings pot

Nearly there, just in the wrong order.

Depending how keen you are on saving number 5 needs to be either number 3 or number 4.

takman

Mr_Dangermouse wrote: »

I am, yes.

I thought the idea of budgeting was as follows:

1. Calculate take home salary
2. Remove necessary fixed monthly costs - rent, bills etc
3. Remove other fixed monthly costs - phone, gym, spotify etc
4. Whatever is left can then be used for nights out, shopping trips etc
5. If anything is left from that at the end of the month then move it into a savings pot

Definitely a bad idea! Like bigadaj savings should definitely be a higher priority or you will end up saving nothing at all!.

Without knowing your salary but you say it is "very good" i would look at saving around 30% of it each month before you pay for anything that isn't essential to live. Then also put anything left over at the end of the month into savings as well. But realistically how many people do you know that budget money for fun and have some left over at the end of the month