Struggling to budget

Dobbibill

OP - very few people get a SOA correct the first time of doing it.

What it does allow you to do is see everything written down and can then be tweaked where you spend more/less on each category.

'Wants' and 'Needs' are different and you will find your priorities change with time - set up a category for beauty if that's what you like spending on but bargain hunt too for the best deals.

A budget is not about not having things - it's about having things you have budgeted for Allocating every penny a job/category but as you have and will see, sticking to it is the hard part but keep at it, you'll get there.

Katiehound

I'm wondering if budgetting for a week might be easier for you. At least it could mean that you don't have utterly skint weeks.

Take out of your monthly wages all the essential expenditure and the savings and see what amount of money is left, divide that by four and have that in cash (the quarter portion I mean).
That is now all you have to spend for the whole week.......the aim is to have something left in your purse.

and as said before write down every single thing that you buy.

A friend and I had identical living expenses which we could not reduce- which included bed and board. She was paid more than me but she had a car loan to pay off. At the end of the month she never ever had any money and asked for loans from friends and I had money left. It just trickled away, frittered on 'things'- I'll never know how she managed to start to buy a property, but then along came well heeled lawyer as a husband!!
In a way I think you are living a champagne lifestyle on lemonade wages!

Now is the time to look at swapping dearer goods for cheaper, maybe own brand ones. If you are going to get a house you really have to live within your means, there is no option.

Have you any friends who would support you in your money saving quest? One of my friends rarely went shopping with me because I used the 'do you really need it' mantra and she said it was no fun!! I dragged her away you see......

Lots of luck and determination needed, so good luck.

2ilent8cho

If you have an iPhone/Android based phone get an app called MoneyWiz 2 (Cost a couple of pounds but for me its great and worth every penny, i also got it for my iPad and Mac and it Syncs all the data across them), set it up correctly with all your spending categories and track everything for the month in it, no budgeting for first month. You will have to be strict with yourself and log EVERYTHING. It has lots of reports and graphs to give you real time info on where you money is going. Once you know where you are leaking money after 1 month of logging setup budgets with the app and keep to them. You can do envelope budgeting, and the great part of using an app is you don't have to mess with cash for everything, you just tell it which account you spent out of, cash, current account , credit card.

loey93

Thank you everyone I really appreciate all of your honest responses.

I've already made some positive changes. I have paid another £100.00 off my CC and I have cancelled various beauty appointments this month that I had planned (As I don't NEED them I just WANT them)

I have withdrawn the cash that I need for this month and I will be sticking to a weekly budget.

It's going to be difficult for the first few months but it will pay off in the long run!

Katiehound

loey93 wrote: »

I've already made some positive changes. I have paid another £100.00 off my CC and I have cancelled various beauty appointments this month that I had planned (As I don't NEED them I just WANT them)

I have withdrawn the cash that I need for this month and I will be sticking to a weekly budget.

It's going to be difficult for the first few months but it will pay off in the long run!

Congratulations. :T
Yes, it will be very difficult but stick at it. Try to build in a very small budget priced treat now and again otherwise you might get demoralised.

I think that if you were brought up as a child with either very little money or with the save rather than spend ethic then it becomes a way of life... one that is hard to break. Use Martin's mantra which appears on the weekly e-mail.

Onwards and upwards :j

Ciara95x

loey93 wrote: »

Thank you everyone I really appreciate all of your honest responses.

I've already made some positive changes. I have paid another £100.00 off my CC and I have cancelled various beauty appointments this month that I had planned (As I don't NEED them I just WANT them)

I have withdrawn the cash that I need for this month and I will be sticking to a weekly budget.

It's going to be difficult for the first few months but it will pay off in the long run!

Sounds like you have made the first big step. Cancelling my first nail appointment to save that £20 was heart breaking :-( But keep thinking that it won't be long before I have a house which will be worth horrible nails (I hope).
I'm 21, so similar age and my best way to budget is with a simple table/spreadsheet.
Put the dates in one column and then money in/out alongside with a description. So at the top payday with that value, then in upcoming date order list all 'bills' car insurance, rent, bank account fee, phone, fuel, bus fare etc etc. Takes a while going through old statements, but can copy and paste each month.
Then total up 'bills' (necessities) and take off from total in.
What is left is to split between save and spend. I do £200 in help to buy isa as that is about half of what's left. Then spend the rest, at about £50 a week.
At first I used to put fuel in spend not bills, but that was a huge mistake!
Best way to save daily spending is to make lunch to take to work! Had a friend who bought a meal deal every day and worked out at a whole month's wages a year went on sandwiches!

Apologies for such a long post but I know exactly how you feel so hope I have helped, even just a little :-)

elephantrosie

you need a wife to get you save more!

joke

LabRatty

Well done, it sounds like you're making a good start.

loey93

Thanks Ciara95x.. Some good words of advise and from someone at a similar age to me I currently put away £200.00 a month in a HTB ISA but it feels like I am never going to achieve my dream of owning a house hence why I want to sort my finances out and put more away in savings..

Yeah I always make my own lunches for work I can't justify spending like £3.00 a day on meal deals :-O it soon adds up!!

Good luck with your journey too

getmore4less

OK the problem is simple,

you don't budget you just spend till it runs out.

PLAN every spend in advance and track that you keep to your spend.

the SOA should have every penny allocated so the whats left is ZERO.

if you need new categories add them,
split out things that are relatively high and discretionary, like your beauty stuff does not have to be Zero but plan how much of what you earn you want to spend might be you have to save up for some treatments like you do a holiday.

the odd bottle of wine can go in groceries but if you like a bit more separate it out from the food/household

put in those savings,
put in the "I just spend whats left in 2 weeks" money

bargains on clothes are not bargains if you have enough already and can't afford food at the end of the month.


from your first SOA you move towards one that reflect reality with everything allocated to something spend, saving, debt reduction...

IT takes everyone a while to get there as most people don't have clue where they spend their money when they start.



The key to successful budget(plan) is to know where every peeeny goes so you can make value calls and trade offs.

You can only spend each £ once so is a takeaway pizza once a week better value than a manicure once a month etc.

prioritize all discretionary spends against saving/debt reduction.