Budget Nightmare!

CHlHlRO

Trying to draw up our budget but it’s turning out to be a complete nightmare! The issue is mainly that we go to several different shops for our supplies of food/drink/toiletries etc, so separating out our spending is impossible because we haven’t got receipts! I’m trying to go from our last three months bank statements but a £50-odd spend in Tesco might also include clothing, or Christmas presents. A fiver in Aldi could be hubby grabbing lunch or a bag of nappies, I just don’t know! Obviously if I add it all up it’s going to make our food/household essential spending look far too high, and it’s inaccurate because it includes some “luxury” spending, like lunchtime meal deals, clothing and gifts. Any advice? I need to give figures to our mortgage advisor but I just don’t know where to start! Help, please!

Flobberchops

The only way really is to track your spending across several months, preferably 6 or more, to eliminate seasonal spending like Christmas. To break down supermarket spending into food/clothes/household/luxuries, either go through your receipts with a fine tooth comb one month to be able to make a reasonable estimate, or just make a guesstimate. Safe to assume food will be the majority of your shopping costs. Do they actually require the breakdown to be much more detailed than that?

CHlHlRO

That!!!8217;s the problem!!!8212;we don!!!8217;t have receipts! Should I go back further to eliminate the seasonal spending? Even though I!!!8217;m still only guessing that up to x amount at Tesco was probably hubby grabbing lunch and over that him picking up extra bits like bread, washing powder etc? The sections I can!!!8217;t fill are only labelled !!!8220;housekeeping!!!8221; and !!!8220;other!!!8221;

Robin9

Forget about the past - start now and keep a record of every single £1

tempus_fugit

Are the purchases with cash or with a debit/credit card? If the latter then you can still download statements from your bank. This won't help with the extras bought along with the groceries of course, but you'd at least get an average over a few months from which you could estimate an amount for clothing, luxuries etc. But as Robin says, the best option would be to start keeping a note of all spending on a day-to-day basis as from now.

No_6

IF !!!! you have a old laptop you can run MS Money on IT
enter ALL your spends, ALL your incomes !! and any...any... thing you can !


then you will find out !! if you have any money to spend next week,
next month or YEAR

it's YOUR money look after IT....no one else will

Kim_13

If you are prone to losing receipts going forward and have a smartphone, you might like to download the Receipt Hog app, available on iOS and Android. It offers a small amount of rewards but the main plus for you would be that once the receipt is snapped into the app, it saves a copy and you can go back and see what you've spent.

You can use it to go back to when you started using the app, even if you change phones. You just log in on your new phone and all the history is there.

Mnd

All you can do is best guess for today and then start next time you spend to build up an accurate picture

CHlHlRO

I!!!8217;m keeping receipts. It was doing my box in! I did an estimate after going through the ones we found for the past week. I used to account for every penny back when I was digging myself out of my overdraft; even though I no longer have one, it seems like the right thing to do. Thank you for the suggestions re: apps, I will look into them

No_6

Do receipts ever other day, into yours or a spread sheet.

ARE people so lazy to not look after their money.
Then moan when they in deep s..!

you get what you deserve

datlex

I think things are being over complicated. Pop on Tesco.com and pretend to do a shop as if you had used up everything in your cupboards and needed a total restock. Allow for toiletries, kitchen rolls, loo rolls and nappies. That is your worst case scenario for a grocery shop. Then cross check with other websites where you actually shop to see if you would pay more or less for the items to get a more accurate figure.
Do same with clothes for your family.