Learning to budget to make future adventures happen

enthusiasticsaver

I think I would pull out the stops to get that overdraft and the two credit cards charging 17.5% paid off even if it means using savings. The alternative is balance transferring and as the debt is creeping up due to the house move and you only having one income I would be wary of that going higher. Are the savings earmarked?

Clothing is quite high but I guess that is to cover kids shoes too? Surely the fees on that overdraft will be more than £10 per month?

When do you expect to start seeing an incom3 from your business and will you have start up costs?

crunch_time

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

I think I would pull out the stops to get that overdraft and the two credit cards charging 17.5% paid off even if it means using savings. The alternative is balance transferring and as the debt is creeping up due to the house move and you only having one income I would be wary of that going higher. Are the savings earmarked?

Clothing is quite high but I guess that is to cover kids shoes too? Surely the fees on that overdraft will be more than £10 per month?

When do you expect to start seeing an incom3 from your business and will you have start up costs?

A lot of what is on the 17.5% credit cards will come off soon. E.g. some of the £460 car bill, some clothes that I ordered online on my credit card and returned. You are right about the clothes - it doe include shoes for the children as well as trainers for a running husband. My children seem to be growing like the clappers at the moment and I have had a spree for the summer whilst I have seen stuff. I've found over the years £100 does cover it but I buy when I see and need and then pay off with the £100 at the moment so there is some new stuff on the credit cards which will go over the next two months. Husband will merge his credit cards together onto a 0% but cant at the moment due to the overdraft - need to give it a few months.

Savings arent earmarked for anything other than emergencies.

start up costs for my business are already on my credit cards - course fees, new laptop, software etc.

crunch_time

Morning diary

I!!!8217;ve decided to try and post on here more often and make time for it. It has helped me loads in the past so it can help me through this period of change.

So husband is off to the city this morning to withdraw £340 from his ISA to pay off some of the £460 car bill.

He!!!8217;s taking the kids so I can do some work. I will also go through my SOA this weekend and make a list of everything we need to do to turn this tanker around.

Right off to make another coffee and put a load on!

Crunchy x

crunch_time

I have been going through our outgoings to see what we can do to reduce them and have the following thoughts.

- Both car insurances are up for renewal these next two months and both husband and I will have lost 3 points each from 3 years ago so hopefully they will go down a little. Will ring up existing providers first.

- Fuel - At the moment we are paying for fuel in arrears as it was stressful budgeting too little and ending up with more on our credit cards. I'm super honest on my spreadsheet and always pay off last months fuel before anything else even if it is over my £150 a month budget. At the moment we fill my car up twice and the husbands once. This should reduce as husband is working away less now and we don't really use his car that much. Also my DD was doing friday mornings at nursery but i have cancelled it from after Easter. The nursery is 20 mins drive away so by the time I get back from dropping her off after her brother, i have about 2 hours and then it takes an hour out of my day to pick her up. Im going to go to the local playgroup instead so we both can spend time together and make friends in the village.

- haircuts - I budget £50 a month but I think in reality it is more than this. - must look at this properly.

- Oil - we have half a tank of oil right now which should see us through a fair bit. I'm going to put the £80 a month i save towards something else for 2 months to cut us some slack and then start saving up for the winter months.

- my 0% credit card min payment is actually £90 so I have reduced it to that to cut us a tiny bit more slack.

I've adjusted a few things on the spreadsheet already and they has boosted our budget and gives us about £200 to decide what to do with.

crunch_time

My credit card wasn't actually as bad as I thought. I said in the SOA it was £1562 but it was actually £1388 once I had looked at my statement.

I'm waiting for refunds for £128 and £87 and then will pay off £340 of the car repairs once that clears so it is more like

£833

£228 is from my spring/summer clothes spree which will be paid off over the next 2-3 months.

So much better than I thought.

Next thing to do is make a list of everything that is coming up over the rest of the year and then budget for it.

Crunchy x

crunch_time

crunch_time wrote: »

Afternoon all

After spending a few days wondering how to juggle all our future outgoings, I've just spent an hour or so going through my budget with a fine tooth comb. I've done a % category budget that looks like this:

Housing - 30%
Savings - 8%
Holidays, childcare and swimming lessons - 12%
Utilities - £14%
Food - £10%
Transport (car payment, fuel and maintenance and car replacement fund) - £15%
Entertianment - 3%
Christmas & Birthdays - 2.5%
Clothes - 2.5%
Stuff (furniture, things we need to buy) - 3%

I'm very happy with it. Some categories like housing leave us with wriggle room to allow us to pay off the impending moving costs.

I'm very much hoping it will keep us on the straight and narrow and make us realistic about our money and where it is going.

Right, enough of this now. Must get on and pack up ebay parcels.

Crunch x

I’ve just remember this post from last year and feel I need to adjust this for our current budget so I’m quoting it here to work on later!!

Seasidegal58

The percentage calculations look a very good idea crunchy. It will be interesting to see how the new schedule looks against last year!

crunch_time

So this is what the % look like now and what we will go forward with...

Mortgage £1136 33%
Utilities £663 19%
Food £450 13% - includes pet food and toiletries +
Car £350 10%
Fuel £150 4%
Entertainment £185 5% - this has gone up by £85 +
Clothes £100 3%
Stuff £200 6% - This is the min credit card payments
Health £100 3%- Haircuts, chiro, dentist etc
Swimming lessons £50 2%
Nursery fees £45 1% - won't be this every month

When I start earning, after tax, ni and pension i will start paying for the following:

- Savings
- Holidays - including paying off those on our 0%
- Christmas and birthdays
- Course fees - currently on credit card.
- HMRC bill - unless husband gets a good payrise (due in July) then he can start paying this off.

This is a fab way of organising our money. Any excess from these categories will go towards debt and our savings fund is our emergency fund for the time being.

I have paid the £340 off the car repairs bill. Still waiting for a refund from next and I need to post off the other one tomorrow.

We have also earmarked a couple of things in the shed to sell so I will get onto that too.

It's nice to be getting back into the loop.

Crunchy xx

crunch_time

Morning diary!

Husband is away for work for the next two days so it!!!8217;s just me and the kiddies. I used to freak out a bit about this but I feel so much better about it now. We are having a lazy morning and then going on an !!!8216;adventure!!!8217; this afternoon.

My course is training me to be a social media manager and I!!!8217;m running my own grassroots campaign which involves getting out and about and exploring the local area. I love it very much. So this afternoon we are going to a new town to explore and take photos.

I rang up about my car insurance yesterday and they have in fact raised it by two pounds. I went on a comparison website to see if I could get it cheaper and I can!!!8217;t so today I shall ring up and find out why it!!!8217;s more.

I also need to post the jeans back to give me back some money on my credit card.

The new % above will start from next month. I like it as it feels I have lots of money! And I have faith it is going to work out as I know now what we can afford.

And where the wriggle room is.

Have a lovely day!
Crunchy w

Seasidegal58

Wonderful to feel that you have lots of money! Good luck with the new regime!