Basic Budgeting & Life Advice

datlex

To re-iterate what has been said:  Have more than one bank account. (I would say as a minimum 3 - spends, saving, bills).  In addition try to get one month ahead in the funds allocated to bills.  I find excel is best for budgeting as you can tweak it for your own circumstances.

MovingForwards

@TurnItAround
When I split with my ex, after being with him for over 20 years, there was no way I was moving back to the childhood home, so I relocated and started over. I was 44 when I got the keys to my own place. 

Last Christmas was the best one I've ever had.

I couldn't afford to buy where I was renting or near where I work, but I've great commute links (car, train and bus). My money went a lot further because of looking in a different county, I wrote a list of wants, be nice to have and not bothered about when looking for my home.

It's 'only' a 2 bed flat I purchased, but it's mine and I've a private garden not shared. I've been here over 10 months and it looks so different to the sales advert. 

My priority when starting over was buying a home, that kept my focus. Now I'm overpaying my mortgage, saving and paying into a SIPP. I set a target each month as that keeps my focus.

Don't worry about your age, my sibling is nearly 51, never moved out the family home and has only recently started saving to buy somewhere.

Eco_Miser

TurnItAround said:

 I have £6k left of that loan now and it costs me £150 a month.

Why not pay that £6k back?

TurnItAround said:

My biggest problems now are food, I spend too much on food because I get lazy to cook sometimes and it costs me a whole week of ordering food because if I don't cook on weekend there's little to no chance I'll do it on weekday as I work.

You don't actually have to have a cooked meal every day. There's lots of nice prepared salads on the supermarket shelves, and preparing your own is pretty easy, and even cheaper. Even if you want cooked, supermarket ready meal, bung it in the microwave, at a time of your choosing, not the delivery service's, and cheaper.

TurnItAround

datlex said:

To re-iterate what has been said:  Have more than one bank account. (I would say as a minimum 3 - spends, saving, bills).  In addition try to get one month ahead in the funds allocated to bills.  I find excel is best for budgeting as you can tweak it for your own circumstances.

Why three accounts though what is the use? Can't I just have the money I need for bills/outgoings go through my debit and then have another for savings. I think I'd get so confused with 3, I've already shown myself I can't follow simple disciplines/rules of life. Unless there is some inherent benefit of having three accounts

MovingForwards said:

@TurnItAround
When I split with my ex, after being with him for over 20 years, there was no way I was moving back to the childhood home, so I relocated and started over. I was 44 when I got the keys to my own place. 

Last Christmas was the best one I've ever had.

I couldn't afford to buy where I was renting or near where I work, but I've great commute links (car, train and bus). My money went a lot further because of looking in a different county, I wrote a list of wants, be nice to have and not bothered about when looking for my home.

It's 'only' a 2 bed flat I purchased, but it's mine and I've a private garden not shared. I've been here over 10 months and it looks so different to the sales advert. 

My priority when starting over was buying a home, that kept my focus. Now I'm overpaying my mortgage, saving and paying into a SIPP. I set a target each month as that keeps my focus.

Don't worry about your age, my sibling is nearly 51, never moved out the family home and has only recently started saving to buy somewhere.

Wow 44! Congratulations. I think my mentality is kind of wrong, I feel like by my age of 30 everything should be in place already, I actually didn't even think I can buy a house because it was never something that was told to me. All I ever heard growing up from parents was "it's hard out there, it's really hard" so I just completely chalked off the possibility of even buying a house until I got older and saw people my age all doing it. I'd be well happy with a 2 bed flat, just somewhere that's my own space is all I want....living with family is hell. 

Also what is the crack with buying? I don't want to do some shared ownership schemes I want my own total place. I don't think my credit score is good as I had a lot of payday loans, missed payments but now I only have my one Natwest loan and nothing else and if I pay that off in one chunk will it help me to buy a house? For example how much would the mortgage be on a 400k place? Just an estimate?

Eco_Miser said:

TurnItAround said:

 I have £6k left of that loan now and it costs me £150 a month.

Why not pay that £6k back?

TurnItAround said:

My biggest problems now are food, I spend too much on food because I get lazy to cook sometimes and it costs me a whole week of ordering food because if I don't cook on weekend there's little to no chance I'll do it on weekday as I work.

You don't actually have to have a cooked meal every day. There's lots of nice prepared salads on the supermarket shelves, and preparing your own is pretty easy, and even cheaper. Even if you want cooked, supermarket ready meal, bung it in the microwave, at a time of your choosing, not the delivery service's, and cheaper.

Possibly but I'm into weight lifting and strength training quite a bit, not like bodybuilder or anything but I do like to workout and one of my goals is to get bigger so I think the cooked path is the way for me as I need to eat quite a bit idk if it's my height or metabolism but I need to eat

Oh and I haven't paid the 6k back because I'm careless

Naomim

I also have 3 accounts. 1st is where my salary is paid and all my bills come out, 2nd is a Monzo account I transfer over my monthly spending allowance and savings for future expenses into virtual pots, like car maintenance, clothing, eating out etc so it's all budgeted for and a 3rd for savings - my emergency fund for if something big like my boiler breaks down. 

Until I started my debt free journey I only had one, but by splitting it and proper budgeting it's made a huge difference over the past 18 months and my debt is reducing and I'm not using any credit.

Eco_Miser

TurnItAround said:

datlex said:

To re-iterate what has been said:  Have more than one bank account. (I would say as a minimum 3 - spends, saving, bills).  In addition try to get one month ahead in the funds allocated to bills.  I find excel is best for budgeting as you can tweak it for your own circumstances.

Why three accounts though what is the use? Can't I just have the money I need for bills/outgoings go through my debit and then have another for savings. I think I'd get so confused with 3, I've already shown myself I can't follow simple disciplines/rules of life. Unless there is some inherent benefit of having three accounts

Two current accounts and a savings account. This protects against having no access to money if your only bank has an IT meltdown (TSB 3 years ago) or decides to block or close your account (see numerous threads on the Budgeting & Bank Accounts board on this subject), and enables you to separate bill paying and automated saving by direct debits or standing orders from your personal spendings.

TurnItAround said:

I think my mentality is kind of wrong, I feel like by my age of 30 everything should be in place already,

To have everything in place, you have to put it in place.

TurnItAround said:

I actually didn't even think I can buy a house because it was never something that was told to me. All I ever heard growing up from parents was "it's hard out there, it's really hard" so I just completely chalked off the possibility of even buying a house until I got older and saw people my age all doing it. I'd be well happy with a 2 bed flat, just somewhere that's my own space is all I want....living with family is hell. 

Also what is the crack with buying? I don't want to do some shared ownership schemes I want my own total place.

Shared Ownership is you owning a quarter/half/three quarters of your home (and paying mortgage on it) and a Housing Association owning the rest, which you pay rent on. It makes it more affordable, and you can up your share when you can afford it. It's still just you as the sole occupier.

TurnItAround said:

Eco_Miser said:

TurnItAround said:

 I have £6k left of that loan now and it costs me £150 a month.

Why not pay that £6k back?

TurnItAround said:

My biggest problems now are food, I spend too much on food because I get lazy to cook sometimes and it costs me a whole week of ordering food because if I don't cook on weekend there's little to no chance I'll do it on weekday as I work.

You don't actually have to have a cooked meal every day. There's lots of nice prepared salads on the supermarket shelves, and preparing your own is pretty easy, and even cheaper. Even if you want cooked, supermarket ready meal, bung it in the microwave, at a time of your choosing, not the delivery service's, and cheaper.

Possibly but I'm into weight lifting and strength training quite a bit, not like bodybuilder or anything but I do like to workout and one of my goals is to get bigger so I think the cooked path is the way for me as I need to eat quite a bit idk if it's my height or metabolism but I need to eat

Oh and I haven't paid the 6k back because I'm careless

Well get it paid back now.

Buying meals from a supermarket is still probably better, heath-wise and wealth-wise than ordering takeaways.

[Deleted User]

TurnItAround said:

Deleted User said:

Open up another current account and use that for your spending budget each month.
Also, can you pay off your loan quicker assuming it's not interest free?

Why a current account and not a savings? It's not an interest free loan and yes I could probably pay it off within 2-3 months if I REALLY wanted to...hell I could have paid it off last year but my spending has been terrible. 

Why pay interest if you don't have to?

Most savings accounts don't pay much and can't usually be used for Direct Debits- they call it Piggybanking.

MovingForwards

I had a dreadful credit history by the time I started over. Late and missed payments, defaults, had a CCJ, prior usage of PDLs and was in a debt management plan with my ex. I split off my debts from his and left him to deal with his, dealt with my own and got them cleared while saving for a mortgage deposit.

Best thing I did was speak with a really good mortgage broker and update him every 3 months whenever there was another debt cleared, or I did my divorce etc so he could look and see if it was viable for me to get a mortgage. Eventually I was in a position to get one, viewed a property I really liked and that's where I now live.

It's generally 4.5x annual income what can be borrowed for a mortgage. So you would need the rest of the money saved to make it up to £400k.

Maybe have a good read of the mortgage board and house buying board to see how everything works.