10 years to go .... maybe, with a fair wind

Grogged

Sounds all planned out, shame about those pesky extras...

It's car month for us - MOT and insurance 😟
Going to see if Martin's advice on renewal timing works (20 days  beforehand I think). 
At least Feb and March being no council tax months help. 
ATB G.

tinah

Sounds like your doing great Lauraebrad. I only had a small mortgage to start with but seeing those big numbers come down every month was fantastic. Only got just under £1400.00 to go now and I've taken the foot off the accelerator and putting more into savings now. I've still got 9 years to go from a 14 year mortgage to still got plenty of time to pay it off. Just waiting now for the revised monthly payments.    

Lauraebrad

So had a super cheap week last week after high spends over half term.  Including my regular overpayment as part of monthly mortgage direct debit - so far this year up to £615 overpaid which I'm pretty chuffed with, although that does include a couple of hefty overpayments in Feb and March when there's no Council Tax or Water payment.
Trying out zero based budgeting this month and already realised how much I missed off thinking about (new baby gifts, world book day and Beavers outings I'm looking at you!!).  So definitely need to think more about my categories next month.
Looking forward to next month's payslip to see if we get any kind of pay rise in the next financial year.  However small I shall try and add that on to my regular OP's.
In the meantime, looking forward to an afternoon shopping on a budget in my local fruit and veg shop, unwrapped shop and butchers ..... 

bricoleur

Lauraebrad said:

Trying out zero based budgeting this month and already realised how much I missed off thinking about (new baby gifts, world book day and Beavers outings I'm looking at you!!).  So definitely need to think more about my categories next month.

Cheers from another single parent - just slightly older, with a slightly older child, and with a higher mortgage (London-based). I'll be following  

May I ask what is zero based budgeting? I'm planning to improve my budgeting spreadsheet which only includes bills and regular expenses, and looking for ideas. Thanks. 

regularsaver

Enjoying reading your diary! Giving me inspiration for my own. I too would like to ask what zero based budgeting is please

Lauraebrad

bricoleur said:

May I ask what is zero based budgeting? I'm planning to improve my budgeting spreadsheet which only includes bills and regular expenses, and looking for ideas. Thanks. 

Hi
I am absolutely no expert on zero based budgeting!  So apologies to anyone out there who knows more and spots errors in my description!  The basic principle is that every £ has a job, and therefore there is money for everything necessary ...... 
Usually (when not zero basing) I just have incomes and outgoings (i.e direct debits for utilities etc) showing on my spreadsheet - and then £xx left over that gets spent on everything else.  What that means though is that extra savings tend to get pushed off the end and only made if there's any pennies left at the end of the month.
With a zero based budget every £ is allocated, so once I'd shown my income and fixed expenses, I then allocated a budget to all other categories I expected to spend.  I then had to shift some around a little (i.e. decide where to make savings ) to make it work.  Example below.  I expect there are many many people would could explain it better than this!!

March income: 1675.10
March direct debits (inc everything from Mortgage, Water, Broadband, to National Trust!!!): 993.72
That leftover £681.38 for everything else.  So I allocated as follows.  If I need to / want to overspend in a category I would therefore need to remove it from another category.  That would be a decision making process, rather than just spending on the fly like normal!
Food = 170
Diesel = 60
Public transport / parking = 30
Eating out = 100 (weekend away so much larger than normal!)
Small boy = 30
Gifts = 50 (incl mothers day etc)
Misc = 20 (i.e. window cleaner)
Entertainment = 20
Holiday fund = 100
Dentist = 25
Extra mortgage overpayment = 75
Hopefully that adds up and helps someone.  I decided on the amounts partly based on what I usually spend (i.e on food - as I do expense tracking) and partly looking at my diary (ie. spotting the weekend away food costs).

beanielou

I had not heard of zero based budgeting. 
Interesting 

coldcazzie

Zero based budgeting is what I want to do, except I didn't realise there was a name for it! Every penny has a job, and the jobs are flexible each month but there isn't "spare" money each month because spare would suggest it doesn't have a job. I much prefer this as a way of budgeting because I find "spare" money has a way of just kinda vanishing....

South_coast

This is how I've run my finances for years - I only knew there was a name for it recently! It also works with the "pay yourself first" mentality, ie income minus fixed expenses, then decide how much you want to OP/save etc, THEN divvy it up into your other areas. If you want to spend more out of one pot than you've got in it, then you need to take it from somewhere else, as you can't spend more than you've earned so it forces you to prioritise

savingholmes

I try to give every £1 a job too - but am still moving more money from my savings pots than planned to make it through. Generally trend is a lot better though - as I decide how much I want to repay at the start of the month rather than the end.