I have no idea how to get by on my budget

kmb500

Hi. I moved out from my parents 2 months ago and I am already really struggling. This time last month I had £650 in my account. I now have £60.

This month I have tried hard to spend as little as possible. I thought I had been doing well and then I looked at my bank account today and just feel helpless.

Other than buying a nice t-shirt at the start of the month, I haven't bought anything extravagant. I have only been to the pub twice this month. I have used my car as little as possible. etc.

My income is £1400 and I am fortunate to get some support from my family at £600. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND how i can have spent £2500. I have read through my bank statement and even though I recognise all the transactions, I can't get my head around how it can be so much. Like I haven't done anything this month, I've deliberately tried to be as economical as I can this month.

My essential bills:

Rent £700

Electricity £70

Water £18

Internet £23

Car fuel ~£150

Food: £100

Credit cards £70

Mobile £40

I don't have the money to pay my first council tax instalment next week which is £150, and soon got to buy £250+ worth of heating oil because we are almost out of oil.

I don't know where to start how the FCK do I reduce my expenditure by £600 and thats simply to not go broke, let alone buying anything nice in my life or saving any money.

Any help would be massively appreciated. thanks

grumbler

Well, what sort of help do you expect to get? You have to start with refreshing your basic maths skills.

650
1400
600

_____

2650

-700
-70
-18
-23
-150
-100
-70

____

1519

If you really have only £60 left, you can't account for £1460 - more than your entire salary! If you spend cash and don't remember on what, even this can be seen in your statement as ATM withdrawals.

silverwhistle

As Grumbler has pointed out the money has been spent on something, so what are those non-essential bills?! People will need a little more detail to be able to help.

Did you pay any annual bills? Car insurance, TV licence, club or professional subs etc.?  What mileage are you doing as that's a substantial fuel bill?

It doesn't help you, but I didn't have a car for some years after leaving university as I couldn't afford it with my other commitments. You may need to cut something substantial like that but first you really need to account for what you are spending it all on. When I went to uni and had to budget for myself for the first time I noted down every penny I spent, down to a packet of Polos or 2p bits for the phone box (yep, that long ago!).

daveyjp

For a considered answer you probably need to be honest with yourself about what you have spent on.  As you say its all in your account statement so nothing is hidden.

For a start.

£100 a month on all food? £3 a day. Doesn't sound much, unless you are into batch cooking.
What about other essential shopping items?
Car insurance?
You have also stated you haven't paid Council Tax, but its not on your essential bills.  It has to be,
And 'going to the pub twice' isn't free.  Even a couple of pints is now £8-£10.

silverwhistle

daveyjp said:

And 'going to the pub twice' isn't free.  Even a couple of pints is now £8-£10.

True, so go to a 'spoons, that's a £3+ saving for starters. :-)  Needs must, and all that..

kmb500

silverwhistle said:

As Grumbler has pointed out the money has been spent on something, so what are those non-essential bills?! People will need a little more detail to be able to help.

Did you pay any annual bills? Car insurance, TV licence, club or professional subs etc.?  What mileage are you doing as that's a substantial fuel bill?

It doesn't help you, but I didn't have a car for some years after leaving university as I couldn't afford it with my other commitments. You may need to cut something substantial like that but first you really need to account for what you are spending it all on. When I went to uni and had to budget for myself for the first time I noted down every penny I spent, down to a packet of Polos or 2p bits for the phone box (yep, that long ago!).

daveyjp said:

For a considered answer you probably need to be honest with yourself about what you have spent on.  As you say its all in your account statement so nothing is hidden.

For a start.

£100 a month on all food? £3 a day. Doesn't sound much, unless you are into batch cooking.
What about other essential shopping items?
Car insurance?
You have also stated you haven't paid Council Tax, but its not on your essential bills.  It has to be,
And 'going to the pub twice' isn't free.  Even a couple of pints is now £8-£10.

You are right that £150 council tax and my £38/month car insurance are in my essential bills as well.

Car mileage is about 1000 miles or so a month, I get through two 35litre tanks each month. My commute is 20 miles each way. My car gets about 70mpg and no road tax and no real other running costs.

I don't spend much on "essential" food. Maybe £3/day is a little optimistic but I honestly spend very little because I don't eat very much. As for other shopping items, I guess I should start keeping track of how frequently I buy toilet roll, razors etc.

This weekend I will go through my whole statement from last month and categorise every payment and figure out where all my money is going.

Rob5342

It doesn't sound like you are keeping track of your account, you should be checking it at least daily, ideally more. I check mine every time I spend anything, with banking apps it takes little longer than checking the time,

I find it usful to split the money when I get paid so there is enough to cover all the bills with an amount set aside for each week, and then bring the weekly amount out each week for spending. You can do that with seperate bills and spending accounts, or banks like Monzo and Starling let you split the account into pots. That way you know all the bills are covered, and you just have to check the app to see how much you have left each week.

theoretica

kmb500 said:

This weekend I will go through my whole statement from last month and categorise every payment and figure out where all my money is going.

A good start!  Then keep your tracking up to date as you go.

RG2015

Yes, check your bank statement at the weekend, but start recording your expenditure now.

Record cash spent in a notebook, either an app or pen and paper, as you spend it. At the end of the day add daily non cash payments from your banking app.

You may find it easier not using cash at all if possible.

Do this for at least a month and you will know you monthly spend exactly.

Daliah

Checking where your money went is definitely a good idea, as it is part of managing your budget.

But you are checking the stable door after the horse has bolted.

You also need to set a budget before you spend any money. Each of your spends must be budgeted for at the start of a month, or whenever your payday is. What isn’t budgeted for cannot / must not be spent. For example, if you have budgeted for £20 in the pub, you can’t spend £25 in the pub. If you do, you have overspent by £5, which might mean a debt of £5. Worse still if you spend £20 in the pub and never budgeted for it to start with. This might be a £20 debt.

Do this kind of overspending with petrol, food, clothes, haircuts, incidentals, it can snowball into hundreds and thousands of debt. 

MovingForwards

There's an income and expenditure form on the debt free board, start by filling that in as you'll see lots of areas covered where money goes.

Get a spreadsheet or notebook going and log every priority bill (rent, council tax, water, oil, electric).

Next log must have bills (phone, internet, car insurance, car repairs / MOT, petrol, food, medical etc).

Offset the above two against your income / money from family.

What's left immediately split in half.

One half goes into savings when you get paid and start building up an emergency fund.

The other half is is your fun money and that has to cover pub, clothes, hair / beauty, takeaways / cigarettes/vaping etc.

Below is the 2021 version of my budgeting spreadsheet. Each December I set up a new one for the year, tweaking it as I change jobs and have a higher / lower salary, get a payrise, take on / pay off something eg my car.

Savings I treat as another bill to pay and those are broken down further so I have a pot of money to cover car / home insurance, car repairs / service and MOT and can pay everything in full when it pops up. As I don't like having instalments for lots of things (a) it costs more and (b ) if I lost my job I'm not having to fund too many things each month and I know I've got my car covered for however many months are left of the policy, same with home insurance.