Help - sticking to budgets and save

Monica18

Hi
Im relatively new at posting on forums , kindly bear with me ? .  I am desperately trying to stick to a budget and always fail miserably! find something online to buy or buy at shops of boredom! - however have had a slight increase in monthly salary (yes I’m very very lucky!)  and now with my salary and husbands state pension get just over £2000 income per month . I manage to save £150/200  however we spend too much on food and our only child at Uni away from home and gets her loans etc.  Need tips on how to stick to budget! I have zero % credit card paying off from setting up for Uni and usual Next account.  Thank you and please be kind 😳

RobM99

"..buy out of boredom..."   Hmmm.

You need (in my view) to differentiate between 'need' and 'want'.    Nothing is a good buy if you never use it!

Roger.Wilco

If you ask 5 people "how to stick to budgets" you will get 11 answers!

There is no one "method" to stick to a budget other than self discipline - some people are better at this than others. At the end of the day the reason why anybody does anything - is either because of a stimulus or emotion. So knowing yourself - and how you react to either a stimulus or emotion is half the battle.

Monica18 said:

... we spend too much on food and our only child at Uni away from home and gets her loans etc.  ...

You have highlighted already - that you have some understanding of where to start looking...   why do you spend too much on food?  What conditions or situations (stimulus & emotions) affect your decisions to "spend too much"?

• Purchasing unplanned items because of ad-hoc grocery shopping?
• Desire to purchase the complete bargain bin because "its on sale"?
• Purchasing double the quantity needed "just in-case"?
  

I look at the process of "sticking to/within" as a three part process:

1. Understanding my personal character faults that lead to why I break my personal discipline or make "bad" decisions.
2. Encouraging personal behaviors that result in successfully sticking to the process and achieving the goal.
   
3. Methods of physically enforcing my personal discipline and "correct" decisions so that if I do stray there is a restraint.
   

To provide examples regarding "sticking to a budget":

1. For some reason - personally I have a strong draw when I purchase items - to want to purchase some "spare"...  if left unchecked - I have been known to purchase double!
2. Therefore, I create a list of what I "need" and add "spare" if required and then purchase from the list and ONLY from the list.  If it is not on the list - it is not purchased.  This is more so for expensive purchases - but also for weekly shopping.
   
3. I have a "weekly" bank account without overdraft for routine weekly spend like groceries, snacks, (day-to-day purchases) where I transfer via standing order an exact same amount every week.  This is the money I have to spend - I use it as a hard limit.  If I'm at the shops and I purchase more than what is left in the account - then it will be rejected at the cashier and I'll have to put something back.

So it takes some soul searching and some "what if" / "how can I" thinking.

Various ideas relating to what information you have provided:

• If you have a supportive husband - every week - you and your husband sit down - and each person has to defend why they "had" to purchase what they did.  This can be a good "nudge" to encourage personal behaviors to successfully stick to a goal.  In a similar way - instead of doing this after the fact - do this at the beginning of the week and each person presents a list of items "needed" in the upcoming week.
• If you have a list - stick to it.
  
• For online shopping - use the "shopping basket" on webshops - add what you wish to purchase to the shopping basket - then leave it a week or more before you purchase.  If you "need" it - you will feel the same when you come back to it later.  If you don't need it - you will feel differently about the item(s).   (I do this myself - for web shops like Amazon - I will put things into the "shopping basket" and wait until the end of the month before pay-day.  That way - I avoid the "want" rather than the "need" - as well as knowing exactly how much money I have available.  I try never to purchase on-line immediately after being paid.)
• As I mentioned above - have different bank accounts for specific purposes.  Use standing orders to transfer a fixed amount into the account every week.  That way you cannot overspend - the system will not allow you!  It may be frustrating at times / sometimes embarrassing - but if you budget £100 a week for food - then that is all you will be able to spend.
  

Good luck.

joedenise

As you want to cut back on your grocery shopping come over to the Old Style Board and join in the Monthly Grocery Challenge.  You decide how much you want to aim for that month and try to stick to it.  Have a read through the first couple of posts and it will explain exactly how it works.  I've managed to cut our monthly spend by about £100 since I first joined a couple of years ago.  I'd still like to cut it further but I just can't seem to get it lower and still maintain healthy eating.

Monica18

@joedenise- thank you for your advise - I’ll have a browse of the thread mentioned and join. Most appreciated 😊

Monica18

@Roger.Wilco thanks for advice - I take onboard the points mentioned 😊thank you 

jonnygee2

Often, the cause of overspending is poor tracking / awareness of spend. It's easy to buy a few things thinking you have the money, if you don't understand exactly how much you need for the rest of the month or what you've already spent.

The first step is to set up a good budgeting system. People use different things for this - excel, pen and paper etc, but You Need  Budget is very popular on these boards for managing this,  

Create budgeting categories that make sense to you - mine are Groceries, Eating Out, Entertainment, Shopping, Transport, Bills. Then I have some small separate savings pots for holidays and other big items I will need (anything bigger than my monthly shopping budget, which is about £75).  Set targets for each category and track all of your spending as it goes out.

Becoming more aware of your outgoings and tracking things is a great first step. At first you may go over all the budgets you set - that's fine, from there you need to figure out if you should make the budget bigger, or cut spending.

Take your time, would be my advice, as you are not in immediate debt. Making small cuts over time creates something a lot more sustainable than going on a 'crash diet' and trying to reduce spending immediately by a huge amount.

Monica18

@jonnygee2 - Thank you 😊- I’ve drafted a budget this evening after changing energy suppliers and saving £50per month so amended Dd to savings account. Transferred bill £s to another account and reminder on phone to transfer back day before bills due out therefore not tempted to spend too much!  😊 Thankyou again 

getmore4less

Do you actually have a proper budget?

That is  a plan with every penny allocated to the thing it needs to do for at least a year ahead(to capture all the one off spends)
Then as said you have to track and adjust so it balances, this starts out needing to be done regularly at least once a week if not more, after while you can drop back to a month and later maybe a few times a year as it gets pretty steady untill you have a new thing to add that needs planning.

I liked to have a list of wants and target prices and prioritised  as adults we can't have everything we want all at once save up for stuff but try to get it cheaper.
It is also OK to buy a want in advance if there is a bargain, eg. know you want a new pair of shoes in the next 6 months as the ones you have are getting on a bit,  start looking don't wait till they become a need and there is nothing cheap.   

If you need something that is not on the plan you put it on the plan, often means you have to find the money from something else you needed or wanted that was on the plan.

it is often down to identifying the priorities, every time an impulse buy gets in your head you have to ask,  what will I be giving up if I buy this.

Another reasons peoples plans fail is they don't allocate enough to the category and are always running out or going over but don't adjust it up and take the money out of another category to keep the plan balanced.

You identified food as a problem area  say that is £300pm you can't just say its now £200pm and hope for the best.

Work out where the £300pm is going and look for what you can do to reduce it, in this example it could be buy 1/3 less or buy everything 1/3 cheaper, not going to happen needs to be a multi approach, what can we not buy what can we get cheaper, be realistic if you can only identify 1/2 the savings start with that new budget at £250. keep thinking about where the next £50 saving will come from.

Cheaper,  bulk buys on the regular stuff, buy loads, only when cheap,  more effective but you can't do on-line is shop when there are RFQS items, often that means freezing or processing into something that will store,  this works best for high cost items like meat and cheese, deli, fruit and veg.

Plan meals around the reduced stuff once you build up stock

Never pay full price for bread there is always discounted  items around.

Best shops for discounts seem to be M&S and Waitrose.

First step on the food budget is track the waste, everything you throw out is something you did not need to buy.

[Deleted User]

My methods for saving instead of spending are simple to me and i've listed them below - i'm very disciplined though, developed it over the years ...... but you might find my thoughts are worth a look/try.....

* How many hours do you have to/had to work to pay for that thing - this puts things into perspective for me.
* Discipline and will power - hard to achieve but very satisfying when you have.
* Never go shopping/browse (online or physically) when you're bored - absolute killer every time because you'll always find something.

enthusiasticsaver

The easiest way to save in my opinion is to remove a certain amount from your  current account and put it into savings as soon as you are paid each month.  Budget your money and separate into bills money, saving for a purpose (like xmas, holiday, car costs etc), spending money and general savings (whether that be for a new house, car or early retirement). Constantly reassess your objectives.  
If you are spending through boredom that is a dangerous mentality to have so look for other ways to distract yourself like exercise, reading a book or focus on a hobby or project.  Remove the online shopping sites from favourites or limit the amount of time you go on them.  I only buy something when I actually need it firstly because I do not want to waste money, secondly because whatever I buy has to be found somewhere to be stored in our home and thirdly because I do not want to get sucked into the mentality of constantly buying unnecessary things and prefer a more minimalistic approach. Usually if I buy something I have to get rid of something else.