Budgetting - money left over at end of month?

familyms

Hi there

I'm relatively new here and don't generally post, however I'm so desperate to save and fed up with thinking where has the money gone, I work fulltime and OH is retired and on state pension, so limited monthly income, and have a teenager who is doing A levels and looking for PT work!, however I try to budget though always seem to be spending and OH is a nightmare for going to supermarket and getting reduced stuff for the sake of it! which so annoys me as doesn't get used so waste of money!!:mad:- so here's a thing we have around £1860, a month and bills = £800+ so in theory should have at least a few £100 to save but never seem to! I save money every month to pay car insurance and house insurance in one go! . Once thing I can't do is meal plan, yep sounds bonkers but ... So Any real advice would be greatly appreciated as we want to save for a nice holiday for next year before Teen goes off to Uni. Please be kind to me as don't generally post. Thank you in advance of replies. Xx

elljay

I wonder if you would find it useful to do a SOA and post then people could have a look and see if there are areas where you could cut down? It feels a bit wider than just food shopping, for example are you getting the best deals for your utilities/ insurance etc? Also is your husband able to get a job? If not, then perhaps he could become responsible for meal planning etc if as you say, it isn't your strength and he enjoys shopping for food. Then he can ensure he plans meals around the great deals he gets. Or maybe your son would enjoy meal planning? I know my grandchildren love doing that and it gets posted on the fridge.

I think SOAs usually go on the Debt free wannabe board as people there have loads of experience and can help with both food and grocery shopping as well as everything else.

If you don't want to do that then there's all the advice about keeping tight records, (every time you spend even a penny stick it down on a spreadsheet/notebook whatever works for you), stepping down a brand, using Aldi and Lidl, freezing/using all the yellow stickie stuff he buys etc. Once it's all a bit more organised and you've got good records then the three of you can sit down together and work out a budget which all three of you can then take responsibility for sticking to - not just you, remember there's three of you in this household.

Good luck.

EJ

redfox

we move threads if we think they will get more help elsewhere (please read the forum rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com"]forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL]

familyms

So has this been moved to debt free wannabe? Thank you x

redfox

it has been moved to the Old Style Moneysaving board. There are people on this board who are able to help you with meal planning and budgeting.

GreyQueen

familyms wrote: »

Hi there

I'm relatively new here and don't generally post, however I'm so desperate to save and fed up with thinking where has the money gone, I work fulltime and OH is retired and on state pension, so limited monthly income, and have a teenager who is doing A levels and looking for PT work!, however I try to budget though always seem to be spending and OH is a nightmare for going to supermarket and getting reduced stuff for the sake of it! which so annoys me as doesn't get used so waste of money!!:mad:- so here's a thing we have around £1860, a month and bills = £800+ so in theory should have at least a few £100 to save but never seem to! I save money every month to pay car insurance and house insurance in one go! . Once thing I can't do is meal plan, yep sounds bonkers but ... So Any real advice would be greatly appreciated as we want to save for a nice holiday for next year before Teen goes off to Uni. Please be kind to me as don't generally post. Thank you in advance of replies. Xx

Welcome to Old Style.


I've kept track of every penny I've spent (and earned) since 1997, and I still find myself surprised that what I think I've spent on any given category isn't actually what has happened. This, to me, is a good enough justification for keeping the numbers.


With approx £1 k between bills and income, there ought to be some slack in the budget, although your young adult son will be eating about twice the amount of a grown man.


I'd suggest getting a notebook to lodge household expentitures, with a separate category for food stuffs. These are the ones I use:


Rent, Council Tax, Water, Gas, Electrictity, Landline, Broadband.


My Housekeeping category would be food to be eaten at home, cleaning products, laundry deterent.


I have a separate category for Food Out (self-explanatory, but this is a very very common cause of budget-busting problems) and Food Others (food brought to entertain others/ contributions to parties, office buffets etc).


I have single category for toiletries, but you might want to separate out toiletries for shared household use (eg loo roll) vs toiletries brought for personal consumption only.


I have a category called Homemaking (furnishings, decor items, paint etc) and others for Transport (pushbike expenses and bus fares in my case). Trips and Hols, Gardening, Ents (socialising), Books and Stationery, Complementary Medicine/ treatments, Dentist/ Optician, Mobile Credit, Gifts & Cards. Oh, and I have an expenses line called Chocolate.


Each year, I input these figures into a very simple Excel spreadsheet and can total it in seconds with AutoSum and then average out the weekly spend for each category. If I'm feeling fey, I might even use the data to create a simple pie chart, which is an excellent way of visualising what proportion of your spends go on what categories.


This might all sound a bit difficult and nerdy but I assure you I'm relatively normal and don't go around with a pinched face writing my numbers in a little notebook with a crabbed and miserly hand (wait until I get home for that, lol).


If I'm going somewhere where there's unlikely to be receipts or it'll be difficult to keep track of spends (pubs spring to mind) I take a fixed sum in cash and deduct the spends form that once I'm home, so I know where my money went.


Anyway, sorry for War & Peace. Just to make it clear, where a person spends their money is their business, but I think it's good to know where its going, so you can be the judge of whether you're getting value for your pounds, or could do differently in certain categories to make money available for things which would give you more joy. HTH.

Sayschezza

Trying to save what's left at the eom doesn't work very well. Try deciding on a realistic figure and then put it away as soon as you get paid. Oh can't spend what isn't there.
BTW my OH is the same but we keep out money separate so I don't mind what he spends his money on. I do sometimes have to readjust the meal plan or eat strange things for lunch though.

[Deleted User]

I have a set amount that I have for my monthly food budget, plus a record of all outgoing bills and d/debits due every month.

The rest gets shoved into a savings account and I keep a strict eye on what I spend as I prefer to pay cash unless its for my petrol which is paid for with my C/card then paid from my savings account as soon as I am able to access my laptop.Plus I do try to stay away from shops as much as possible and will only shop when I need around 10-12 things and usually about every 10 days or so

natlie

Hi

I have just done a CAP Money Course and it was amazing I now have 2 bank accounts. a First Direct account that all of my regular bills go out of: tv license, rent, insurances, council tax, utilities etc and I have a cash/savings account from MONZO who are an online account I have pots for savings in the MONZo account things like holiday savings, service for the car, any big annual spends and MONZo had budget pots that you can spilt yourself into groceries, petrol/train/bus, eating out etc it knows to put things like spends at Tesco into the groceries pot but you can check and move them if needed into different pots e.g. petrol at Asda may come up as groceries but you can more to transport.

I give myself a £8 a week cash budget and I only carry that and my MONZO card with me during the week

Before I had my budget I was spending about £400-£700 more than I had incoming per week and managed to accrue large debt as a result

PollyWollyDoodle

I agree that waiting to see what's left at the end of the month never works. Set up a savings account with a standing order for whatever you think you can afford each month, to be transferred as soon as you get paid. You can always transfer some back if you need it, but once it's out of your current account you are less likely to spend it.

FrankieM

I've just started a 'zero £' budget this month, so every bit of money has a category, including savings and I move everything around accordingly.

I've also just started using cash for food, fuel and personal spends cause I found I was creeping extra money on the card when using that.