Need help with managing my money!

ledge97

So, all the flat Bill's (including rent and groceries) have been split as my partner and I use a shared account for the Bill's.

The Samsung watch and total fishing (finance for fishing kit) both end this year and is on interest free finance. The note 9 is part of my phone bill as it was slightly cheaper with a sim only contract. At the time it was more of a compulsive buy as was the Samsung watch, as I had a perfectly good working phone.

The van finance is over 5 years, as this brought the installments down and the interest rates stayed the same. The idea for the overpayments is so that its payed of in 3 years time, I don't have to pay the 2 years of interest and there is no fee for doing so. So the total of the HP is over 5 years. Also I'm planning on putting down a lump sum of my tax rebate each year to help pay for it.

The reason my van insurance is so high is because I bought my van before my insurance ended on my previous vehicle, so that I could keep my no claims for that year. This will end in april so should drop quite a bit.

Last year I had £1400 in my easy saver and £1200 in my help to buy. I used my easy saver on my finance deposit due to my previous vehicle breaking down, and with the time off over Christmas meant, regrettably having to dip into my help to buy. I say regrettably as I know I will lose the interest contribution. So now I have £600 left in my ISA.

The reason my partners income and expenses isn't on was because I didn't want to confuse things, as I wanted to get an understanding of my financial situation. We also have no children at the moment.

Thanks for the advice keep it coming, Ive definetly learnt already to keep putting money a side, ultimately for me its seing where my money is going and finding a way to keep hold of my savings. Thanks for all the advice and comments, definetly starting to put things in to perspective !

ledge97

I forgot to mention that I just buy clothes as and when, it's not something I Include with my outgoings every month.

eskbanker

Cory_Liddell wrote: »

I forgot to mention that I just buy clothes as and when, it's not something I Include with my outgoings every month.

This is exactly the sort of reason why people struggle with budgeting! Just because you don't buy clothes every month, that doesn't mean you shouldn't budget for them - just work out an approximate annual spend and divide by 12, or any similar method that recognises that sometimes some of your money is being spent under that heading. Same for every category....

jonnygee2

I forgot to mention that I just buy clothes as and when, it's not something I Include with my outgoings every month.

This is probably partly where you are going wrong. If you have a budget, and then you have different spending outside of that budget, you will always find yourself overspending some or even all months.

Your budget should really include everything you spend. So if you spend £60 a year on clothes, budget £5 per month for them. If you don't sped anything that month, save it up for the month you do. Same with holidays etc. Then you have an overview of your real total spending.

Willing2Learn

Ditto to the two posts above...You need to budget on a monthly basis for ALL your expenses. So you need to put something aside every month for things like clothing, entertainment, presents, van maintenance etc.

YorkshireBoy

Cory_Liddell wrote: »

...with the time off over Christmas meant, regrettably having to dip into my help to buy. I say regrettably as I know I will lose the interest contribution. So now I have £600 left in my ISA.

Plan for this occurring again by always having a 0% on purchases credit card in your wallet!

ledge97

Okay thanks for the advice!

elsien

And an emergency fund. You have nothing in there at all for the unexpected expenses - boiler breaking down, or whatever else unforeseen you would otherwise whack on the credit card.
That then stops you from using your longer term savings every time you get an unexpected expense.

Willing2Learn

Yup, for some reason I never noticed the lack of an Emergency Fund (EF).

@Cory Liddell
An Emergency Fund is an absolutely essential component of all successful monthly budgets. You need to be putting something aside every month toward it.

ledge97

@YorkshireBoy I've been looking in to these spending cards, a couple of questions. How does it work ? Can I make multiple purchase on the card ? Does the length of the 0% stay the same if I dont use the card for a while ?

Thanks