Has everyone done a budget 'MOT'?

username901

Thought I'd do myself an SOA out of interest - partly because I've not long opened a s&s ISA and want to see how much of my £20k allowance I can use before April, plus I've never done one before but after reading debt free wannabe threads and helping out others cut down their budgets over the years I'd thought I'd try and practice what I preach. Chose oct-nov so the December extravgence doesn't skew the figures. I have no debt, other than 0% car finance and my next year's self assessment. Electricity high as we have underfloor heating all through downstairs and I like to feel like a Russian dancing bear in the morning. There's 5 of us too, with wife being at home with the little one. So nothing out of the ordinary apart from one thing...

I knew we spent a lot on food, ocado online shops, pub lunches at work, monthly trip to local farmers market, I treat the coop over the road as my larder but even I was shocked at my monthly spend - over £1200 exc takeaways! New year's resolution, cut down on pub lunches (or use my company card :beer:) and less waitrose wild albino tiger pate.

Anyone else done an SOA just for the heck of it and found they'd underestimated their spending?

surreysaver

I'm lucky enough not to need to do a SOA, but I do feel I'm relatively clever with money - 0% purchase credit cards, got all the regular savers, buy stuff in the supermarket wgen it's on special offer that I will use. But it would be interesting

EssexExile

£1200 a month? That's my company pension gone then, thank heavens I get the state pension too!

Willing2Learn

username901 wrote: »

Anyone else done an SOA just for the heck of it and found they'd underestimated their spending?

When I did my SOA MOT, I discovered I was spending £150/month on lattes in coffee shops AND (even worse) I was spending a further £125/month on cigarettes.

I used the insight to cut down on my visits to coffee shops, AND I gave up smoking on the 14th August last year. Just went cold turkey. No vaping or nicotine replacement therapy. I have been smoke-free for 5 months now...

MovingForwards

Each year I prepare my spreadsheet, it details my monthly take-home pay.

Within the spreadsheet I list my monthly rent, bills, phone, car, food (covers clothes and going out), H2B ISA and savings I transfer on payday, I have spaces for eBay purchases and credit card spends, with a total at the bottom and under that shows how much is left in my main current account.

Means I know what I've got, when it gets paid and as each item comes out my account I zero that figure and update my current account balance. A few days towards payday I move another chunk of money (whatever is left from my food budget) to my savings.

I also have a savings spreadsheet and create a new tab each year so I can compare how much I have saved from one year to the next.

It works for me as I've previously been in debt and I've lived by a strict budget since I ditched my ex and moved, I won't ever be in the place I was before.

jonnygee2

We do it every year in January or so. We crawl through the years spending and set budgets for the year etc. It's partly a redundant exercise because we also track spending through the year, but it always throws up some stuff. Generally I'd say these days I estimate right overall but find I need to move some things around.

At the same time of year I go for eye tests, do my annual health check, go to the dentists etc :-D