SOA, sorry if it's confusing.

redmel1621

Right here I go, I posted last night and had some lovely replies, thank you....

SOA as promised, this will be written sort of how my budget book is, i'm sure you will all have some ideas how i can change it.

Income.
Weekly - £144
Fortnightly - £175
Fortnightly - £220
Monthly - £120

Outgoings. (Monthly)
Rent - £600
C/tax - £14
Water - £46....They wanted £54 but talked them down a bit(metered)
Gas - £20.....this will have to increase as it is no way enough to cover winter
Electric - £50.....wavers a bit between £40/£50
Car ins - £54
Phone - £25
Sky and Internet - £27
British Gas (debt) - £20.......£158 outstanding

Outgoings. (weekly)
Food - £60-£70......trying to reduce
Deisel - £10
British Gas (debt) - £5.......£48 outstanding
C/tax (debt) - £5......£360 outstanding
catalogue - £15.......£500 outstanding
Karate - £12......this is our family 'thing', please don't judge this too harshly as we don't drink or smoke.
Credit card £5.......£250 outsanding

Additional to pay off....but no arrangement yet
Family member who bought our sofas - £750
Overdraft - 250
Overdraft - £500

additional bills to add but can't see how I can afford them
Pet ins - £12pm
Contents ins - £20pm(ish)
Car tax - 15pm

as you can see i do not manage to budget for clothes etc at all.......

The way i seem to work it is that my weekly money goes in one account which I use for all the weekly payouts. The fortnightly and monthly money goes into another account which has all the main DDs.

Any advice how i could simplify this and be able to afford it all greatly appreciated....winning lottery numbers would be ok too:p

Mel x

joeblack066

redmel1621 wrote: »

Right here I go, I posted last night and had some lovely replies, thank you....

SOA as promised, this will be written sort of how my budget book is, i'm sure you will all have some ideas how i can change it.

Income.
Weekly - £144
Fortnightly - £175
Fortnightly - £220
Monthly - £120 If my maths is right this equates to £1599 pcm

Outgoings. (Monthly)
Rent - £600
C/tax - £14
Water - £46....They wanted £54 but talked them down a bit(metered)
Gas - £20.....this will have to increase as it is no way enough to cover winter
Electric - £50.....wavers a bit between £40/£50
Car ins - £54
Phone - £25
Sky and Internet - £27
British Gas (debt) - £20.......£158 outstanding This equals £856 pcm

Outgoings. (weekly)
Food - £60-£70......trying to reduce
Deisel - £10
British Gas (debt) - £5.......£48 outstanding
C/tax (debt) - £5......£360 outstanding
catalogue - £15.......£500 outstanding
Karate - £12......this is our family 'thing', please don't judge this too harshly as we don't drink or smoke.
Credit card £5.......£250 outsanding This equals £485 pcm

Additional to pay off....but no arrangement yet
Family member who bought our sofas - £750
Overdraft - 250
Overdraft - £500

additional bills to add but can't see how I can afford them
Pet ins - £12pm
Contents ins - £20pm(ish)
Car tax - 15pm

as you can see i do not manage to budget for clothes etc at all.......

The way i seem to work it is that my weekly money goes in one account which I use for all the weekly payouts. The fortnightly and monthly money goes into another account which has all the main DDs.

Any advice how i could simplify this and be able to afford it all greatly appreciated....winning lottery numbers would be ok too:p

Mel x

Therefore it appears that you have
Income £1599 pcm
Outgoing £1341 pcm

and should have a surplus of £258 pcm.

(Can someone check my maths pls!?)

I suggest that you start to keep a thorough spending diary to see where the surplus is dissappearing to. Hope this helps!! Joe.

In_Search_Of_Me

In terms of making things easier can I suggest you have 2 current accounts. I have 2 x first direct current accounts - 1 with my monthly money in & the other with all the ddm/so money in, with the money transferred from payday each month. That way I know the bills are paid and whats left in my account is mine & for cc's...makes life much easier to manage! Mine also are 250 interest free o/d...hope that helps...

CRANKY40

I've checked your maths Joe, it's spot on.

Contents insurance shouldn't be £20 per month. I have 5 bedrooms (no it's not lovely, it's a "project"), and mine was only £9.40 a month. It would have been less if I'd opted for a higher voluntary excess.

redmel1621

wow joeblack066, why the hell can't i get it to that....
Looking at it now, you have added it all up pcm, I tend to leave the montlhy ammount in one which i worked out to 910 covers bills with a bit aside for cat flea treatments, mot, emergencies....
and weekly covers bills with 22 left, this usually get used up on school trips, raffles, work collections, extra deisel if needed and bits n bobs for uni....

I think a spending diary might be one option but i am just so busy to actually remember to do it let aone find time to write it out.

I think maybe i need to re-do budget book using the pcm way of doing it. How would i do this in practice though, when i get paid in so many different ways..... I do have two accounts, well three but forgot about other one (i owe £36 on it)

Mel x

Larumbelle

Hi Mel

I know you say you don't have time for a spending diary but I think it is as important as a budget. Obviously money is getting frittered away and you need to find out where it's going. On paper your SOA is not by any means bad, so if you have a problem the priority MUST be finding out where that money is going. I know it's easier said than done, but having been there I can also tell you that it's easier done than thought about. After 2 or 3 days it becomes second nature, you don't need a 'diary' as such, just a note here or there. It takes maybe 10 seconds to jot down at the time you part with the cash... you can do it in the time it takes to ring up a trasaction! Then half an hour reflecting on all the notes or posting them on here is all it takes.

And I promise you, a spending diary is the kind of thing that makes a real impact on your life... for the better!

floss2

redmel1621 wrote: »

Income.
Weekly - £144
Fortnightly - £175
Fortnightly - £220
Monthly - £120

Outgoings. (Monthly)
Rent - £600
C/tax - £14
Water - £46....They wanted £54 but talked them down a bit(metered)
Gas - £20.....this will have to increase as it is no way enough to cover winter
Electric - £50.....wavers a bit between £40/£50
Car ins - £54
Phone - £25
Sky and Internet - £27
British Gas (debt) - £20.......£158 outstanding why do you have Gas debts being paid monthly AND weekly?

Outgoings. (weekly)
Food - £60-£70......trying to reduce look at Old Style board & menu plan
Deisel - £10
British Gas (debt) - £5.......£48 outstanding
C/tax (debt) - £5......£360 outstanding
catalogue - £15.......£500 outstanding
Karate - £12......this is our family 'thing', please don't judge this too harshly as we don't drink or smoke.
Credit card £5.......£250 outsanding

Additional to pay off....but no arrangement yet
Family member who bought our sofas - £750
Overdraft - 250
Overdraft - £500

additional bills to add but can't see how I can afford them
Pet ins - £12pm
Contents ins - £20pm(ish)
Car tax - 15pm

Ok, you don't have any money in the budget for car MOT / repairs / servicing.

What is the breakdown of your income - is it wages, child benefit, tax creedits?

squirrel_pigeon

How many people is the budget for? It's ok saying that you will try and reduce £60 a week food if it's for 2 people (although it's still an acceptable amount under the BBA rules) but if it's for 4 people then you may want to try and look at another area.

brummiebabe

redmel1621 wrote: »

Income.
Weekly - £144
Fortnightly - £175 = £379 pcm (£175 x 26 payments = £4550 / 12 = £379)
Fortnightly - £220 = £476 pcm (£220 x 26 payments = £5720 / 12 = £476)
Monthly - £120

I would separate this into 2 accounts - 1 for weekly spends/bills & 1 for monthly bills/spends.

Outgoings. (Monthly) This could all be covered by your fortnightly & monthly payments - have these paid into 1 account.
Rent - £600
C/tax - £14
Water - £46....They wanted £54 but talked them down a bit(metered)
Gas - £20.....this will have to increase as it is no way enough to cover winter
Electric - £50.....wavers a bit between £40/£50
Car ins - £54
Phone - £25
Sky and Internet - £27
British Gas (debt) - £20.......£158 outstanding
Pet insurance - £12
Contents insurance - £20 (remember to go through Quidco & get cashback;) )
Car Tax - £15

Monthly Income - £975
Monthly outgoings - £903 - this leaves £72 - use for extra on electric payments, debts etc....


Outgoings. (weekly) Use your weekly income of £144 in your 2nd account for this!!
Food - £60-£70......trying to reduce
Deisel - £10
British Gas (debt) - £5.......£48 outstanding
C/tax (debt) - £5......£360 outstanding
catalogue - £15.......£500 outstanding
Karate - £12......this is our family 'thing', please don't judge this too harshly as we don't drink or smoke.
Credit card £5.......£250 outsanding

Weekly income - £144
Weekly outgoings - (even without reducing food spending) - £122 - leaving £22 left over - you could allocate this to some of your outstanding debts


Additional to pay off....but no arrangement yet
Family member who bought our sofas - £750
Overdraft - 250
Overdraft - £500

additional bills to add but can't see how I can afford them - you can, I've put them under your monthly bills;)
Pet ins - £12pm
Contents ins - £20pm(ish)
Car tax - 15pm

as you can see i do not manage to budget for clothes etc at all.......

The way i seem to work it is that my weekly money goes in one account which I use for all the weekly payouts. The fortnightly and monthly money goes into another account which has all the main DDs - I see you are doing what I've suggested already - wish I'd checked the whole post 1st:rotfl: - however, if it's not working like it should do on paper then you need to look where else your money is going! It may well be lots of little things that you haven't thought about & that you need to include! A spending diary would help show you this - I know it's time consuming (I've really struggled to remember aswell!!) but on paper this budget is do-able:T - you just need to work out where it's going wrong!

Hi redmel

Hope you find the above helpful.

Some things to thinks about - christmas, birthdays, clothes, school trips, haircuts, dentist bills etc etc - you haven't included anything for these but I bet you spend the money throughout the year (I know I do!!) To get a true picture I think you need to work out what you spend on these (or need to spend on these for the next year) - that way you'll truly know where you stand! It may be scary to do but will give you the full picture to work from. Best of luck & keep posting!!!!!

joeblack066

Hi, just wondered how things are going for you?