*sigh* this may take a while

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Debsnewbudget said:

Would it help to think of your 6 months £20k fund in terms of days?
so every £111 you save is a days worth.  Is that a reframe that would work for you?

Thanks... yeah, something like that. 
I've seen charts you can colour in and I saw a grid the other day that had 52 boxes each with random amounts, idea being you picked a box and saved that amount per week and it added up to £1k a year.  But we'd have to adjust amounts as would need to save it quicker!
It's more the length of time it will take us to save it which is daunting, it won't be a quick job and it will be hard to stay motivated

ohdearhowdidthathappen

mark55man said:

good luck - ensuring the kids have enough if they do decide to go to Uni will become more important to you (and the DC) as it gets closer.  Could you hypothetically allocate some money to that so at least its there if you do choose you want to support it at that time.  I think we may have had this convo before, but still believe it!!

Yes, true.  Maybe something we have to revisit once we get to that point in our finances.  Will be a while off I think!

Luckily DD1 didn't go to uni and DS1 has no inclination, he wants to get an apprenticeship too.... DD2 is in year 9, so a few years off 

savingholmes

I think setting the EF target in increments is helping me. I set an initial £3k target which would cover 1-1.5 months. Next target is £6k that could cover essentials for 3 months. Looking at it in £3k increments makes it seem more doable.

Hope you find something that works for you 

lucielle

It looks like you’ve made a good start and identified areas that need looking at. You can tweak it as you go along. 

L

Moneywhizz

Working to realistic budget is the best way of getting on top of your finances. As long as you have identified all of your spending, it should be relatively easy to stick to it. If other things come up that start to eat into the extra £500 then you should make another pot for them. Have you allowed a reasonable amount of spending money for both of you? Having some money that you can spend as you wish also goes a long way to help you stick to a budget. Good luck with it, will check in and see how it is going. 

crunchy_time

ohdearhowdidthathappen said:

We've identified our weakest spots and are setting up pots to address these:

- Children pot - £450 a month.  This will cover clothes, shoes, hair cuts, pocket money, swimming lessons, buss passes etc
- Entertainment - £150.  This will need us to be very disciplined!  
- Presents - £100.  This is Birthdays, Easter, Mothers/Fathers Day (for our parents/step parents)
- Christmas - £125
- Holidays - £400

We usually use DHs bonus for Christmas and holidays and we'll have to in March'23 as we don't have pots at the mo.  But for his '24 bonus, we'd like his bonus to be 'spare' money so that it can be put towards whatever BS we're on.

These pots seem generous, but they reflect what we've been spending.  Obviously, we'll aim to come in under these figures and redirect money to the BS

If we stick to our new budget/pots, we should have £500 'spare' a month.  I'm going to leave the first month in our current account and then start transferring excess to whichever BS we're on.

I'm sure there are flaws in this new plan that will come to light!  But this is the most honest and thorough budget we've ever done, so fingers crossed!

I'm going to try and do at least a weekly check in here to keep me accountable  

Love this plan! Can’t wait to see your progress! You smashed through it last time so no doubt you will do it this time xx

EssexHebridean

Good progress on the plan there - and definitely the right thing to include car finance in debts! 

A couple of suggestions if I may - and I know the first is a bit "off piste" for the method you're following, but....assuming your mortgage product allows it, take the decision now to simply round up your monthly payment to a level a little above the contractual. You'll need to inform them that the extra is to be taken off the capita, not the term. Even just £10 a month will start making a difference from the moment you begin to pay it - and a little more than that will still barely be noticed. It will surreptitiously improve your LTV ahead of the point where you need to get a new deal, and will reduce the interest you pay down the line as well. Even a small amount here really is win/win if it can be done.  Also, when you've cleared the PP debt - assuming I am right and this is PayPal credit - just stop using it, close the account. They "sell" it to people on the basis that the interest free period is a good deal, but realistically, a better deal is to save the money for the thing you'd buy first in an interest-paying account - and that route doesn't come with the risk of incurring more debt, either! 

Great idea to budget what you've been spending for the various areas and then work on trying to cut it back - often more sensible where finances allow for it than trying to cut back by reducing the budget, then going over anyway. 

DancingInTheRain

Hey just catching up on the last few posts. Well done on taking time to identify areas of weakness and setting goals accordingly, it's good to have a plan to aim for and hopefully will help you feel more in control. Good luck with it! X

ohdearhowdidthathappen

savingholmes said:

I think setting the EF target in increments is helping me. I set an initial £3k target which would cover 1-1.5 months. Next target is £6k that could cover essentials for 3 months. Looking at it in £3k increments makes it seem more doable.

Hope you find something that works for you 

Thanks SH.  Yes, that might help it seem less chunky!

ohdearhowdidthathappen

Moneywhizz said:

Working to realistic budget is the best way of getting on top of your finances. As long as you have identified all of your spending, it should be relatively easy to stick to it. If other things come up that start to eat into the extra £500 then you should make another pot for them. Have you allowed a reasonable amount of spending money for both of you? Having some money that you can spend as you wish also goes a long way to help you stick to a budget. Good luck with it, will check in and see how it is going. 

We're hoping the £500 'spare' will help us identify anything we've overlooked.
We have £200 each a month to spend on what we want, but we have to do our clothes out of that and any entertainment that is just for us... so if I go out for dinner with friends, it would come out of my personal spends for example