Is £250 (4 weekly) month enough to live on for one person = £62.50 a week.

kimwp

williewonder said:

@kimwp - the save bit is the money I'm saving per month into my accounts, the £300 in my personal accounts and the £522.50 I'm saving in my appointee account.

Ah, ok. You've talked about needing to budget, it will be slightly different from usual due to appointee account, but if you lay it out here, people may be able to offer advice on what is realistic. Suggest you start with the following;

Total income £1250 paid four-weekly
Of which £610 paid to you to cover:
Food and eating out...£250

Entertainment...?
Mobile....£60
Savings...£300
Presents...?
Haircuts...?
Travel....£0 (free bus pass)
Other?

Of which £640 managed in appointee account, to cover:
Utilities, gas/electric/water - £110 a month
Does this include internet and TV licence?

Standing order for spotify - £7.50 a month

Costs to run appointee account - £50 a month

Savings - £522.50 a month in their accounts
Clothing and shoes......?
Other?
Holiday?

Is there a cost of rent for the social housing (including cleaning products)....?

williewonder

Total income - £1300 - 4/weekly.
Of which £610 paid to me to cover
Food and eating out...£237.01
Entertainment - Odeon limitless. £12.99
Mobile - £60
Savings in personal account - £300
Presents - £0
haircut - £10 (every 3 months)
Travel - free bus pass

Paid by my appointee
Utilities, gas/electric/water/virgin TV/internet/TV licence - £110 a month (its cheap because split 4 ways)
Spotify - £7.50
Costs to run appointeeship - £50

savings £522.50 a month in their accounts.

I live in supported housing with 3 other people with disabilities and I don't pay social care costs or a contribution towards my rent. The cleaning products are included in the rent.

One of the reasons I want to keep to a strict budget is that I've been wasting so much money on unnecessary crap. I've been drinking a lot and wouldn't think anything off it to blow £150 out drinking and a meal with my housemate who's never got any money. I'd ask my appointee to reimburse me the money which he always does. I want to be able to use the money I've saved for holidays with my staff.

kimwp

Looks good; a few points:
- it's complicated because your income is four weekly but some of your outgoings are monthly. I have no experience of managing money like this, hopefully someone else will advise 
- (minor point) - you'd put haircuts (and anything else) as the average spend for that period to make it easier to do sums on. 
- £440 for utilities for a house of four is nowhere near cheap, but it may be reasonable given your living circumstances. (Worth looking into though)

If you are saving for a holiday, have you totalled the costs and worked out how much you need to save for it? From my experience, just trying to cut back on something is difficult without a reason. If you know how much you need to save, it gives you a quantifiable reason not to overspend.

I'd also advise splitting out your groceries and eating out.

EssexHebridean

I’d personally agree with Kim about splitting the grocery budget and eating out - a specific budgeted amount to cover “entertainment “ so in your case the Odeon pass too means you can keep an eye on that side of things and know when it starts to feel excessive. 

Do you get good value from the cinema pass? And do you buy drinks/snacks when there because if so that needs factoring in to the budget too. 

Presents - really nothing? No token gifts for people who help you with care, or your housemates even? 

I also agree on that utilities cost being far from cheap - I’ve just done a quick off the cuff add-up and we pay just under £200 for the items you’ve listed P/M - that’s two of us in a 2 bed flat. It may well be that your (combined) circumstances mean that you are paying more for heating and water than we are, but do make sure whoever sorts out things like the TV and internet is getting you all a decent deal, not just letting it run to a default which will cost a fortune. They do have a duty of care to the four of you to ensure they do the best for your money. 

Emmia

EssexHebridean said:

williewonder said:

My phone is on contact till next September. The £60 a month includes insurance. When my contact runs out I'll get another £60 a month contact for 3 years. iPhone 14 pro is likely.

I buy clothes from Jacamo. I send my appointee the bill and he sends me the money to cover the costs but I'm hoping to keep the clothes I've already got for awhile. I'm hoping to just stick to my budget of £250 4/weekly month.

Will the phone actually need replacing? That’s a lot of money for a phone contract - if you were to instead shift onto a SIM only deal for a year when your contract finishes, you could potentially save £50 a month of even more to have a lump sum ready for a replacement phone subsequently when needed, which would then enable you to add to it and get a far more competitive deal without being tied to another long contract. My iPhoneSE cheerfully lasted over 4 years - it had a battery change in the middle but that was mostly because it was one of the phones affected by iOS updates destroying the battery life. My current 12 mini has had no perceptible drop in battery life yet at all, so that issue seems to be solved, hopefully! 

You can definitely get some savings by not replacing the current phone with a new contract, and going sim only for the contract.

My work iPhone is nearly 5 years old, and is working completely fine.

My personal Samsung S8 was purchased sim free a little over 4 years ago, and I spend £20 a month (not the cheapest tariff i could probably do) on my sim only contract - no issues with battery life yet, so I'd expect to not need to replace it for at least another year.