Advice on how to budget please?

yellow218

Hi all

I have been successfully tracking the ins and outs when it comes to our money for about 10 years, but although every year I attempt to budget there appear to be some things that I’m not good at budgeting for.

I appreciate that the aim is to keep within a budget, and for most things we do, but it seems easier to keep within budget for our non-essentials, we are good at saying no to ourselves if it would otherwise mean going over budget.

Going over budget on some esssentials seem to be a frequent occurrence. It doesn’t mean we end up going into debt, but it means we save less than we were expecting. So we end the year a little disappointed in ourselves.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I am obviously not realistic in setting the budget on some things. For example petrol is one thing that every year I underestimate on. We do the same mileage each year, but I obviously underestimate how much the price per litre changed throughout the year.

I’m assuming there are guys and girls out their who have more luck on this? If so how do you do it? Do you have any technique in estimating more accurate costs?

Many thanks.

yellow218

Ps. I would prefer to overestimate the essentials and cut back on non-essentials/ save more.

But just wondering if there are any ‘rules of thumb’ people use to set accurate budgets? Any reliable sources which predict the next years costs?

tempus_fugit

Which essentials are you referring to? Generally monthly bills are fixed or at least known to some extent. Are you budgeting these for the correct amount? Something that does catch people out are irregular expenses such as annual costs for car/ house insurance, MoTs, servicing etc. It's important to budget for these as well as otherwise you get caught out when these expenses come up for payment. Other considerations are thing like food shopping, and planning your meals and doing shopping lists that you stick to rather than buying on impulse.

I don't know if any of these are an issue for you, but they are things to consider. If it's other things, let us know and someone should be able to advise further.