Changing how I Budget

Peterxxxxxx

The table and chart shows the total cost for a four year period.

To everyone have an enjoyable New Year celebrations.

Peterxxxxxx

These are the categories I’ve been talking about. 

Look at the list I feel embarrassed.
There are items I would trim.

theoretica

Peterxxxxxx said:

These are the categories I’ve been talking about. 

Look at the list I feel embarrassed.
There are items I would trim.

If I were filling that in I would have quite a few categories with sums for both essential and wants - eg food, clothing, furniture.

Your budget is notable as the first I have noticed that has a separate category for ink!

Zanderman

theoretica said:

Peterxxxxxx said:

These are the categories I’ve been talking about. 

Look at the list I feel embarrassed.
There are items I would trim.

If I were filling that in I would have quite a few categories with sums for both essential and wants - eg food, clothing, furniture.

Your budget is notable as the first I have noticed that has a separate category for ink!

Presumably for an HP inkjet printer. Which, in budget terms, is probably a real rip-off.  As are ink-jet printers in general in my view - almost designed to fail every couple of years..

Peterxxxxx - if that is printer ink maybe you should consider getting a laser printer to help your budget. Cartridges can seem expensive but last for yonks, and never dry out like ink-jets as they're dry by default. Cloned cartridges can be very cheap too. Very cost effective, esp if you don't need colour.

Peterxxxxxx

These are the spending categories and amounts for November 2022. The category printer has paper and ink as subcategories.
I would combine education into entertainment as one category. 

This is as fare as my thinking goes at the moment.

Peterxxxxxx

Martin Lewis has set up the Academy of Money. The deals with purchasing decisions.
Is there a board that is related to this subject? 

Peterxxxxxx

Zinderman

Thank you for you said about buying a printer.

“Peterxxxxx - if that is printer ink maybe you should consider getting a laser printer to help your budget. Cartridges can seem expensive but last for yonks, and never dry out like ink-jets as they're dry by default. Cloned cartridges can be very cheap too. Very cost effective, esp if you don't need colour.”

I have started Martin Lewis’s Academy of Money program. Buying a new printer would be a perfect application of the buying process in the program. 

Is there a board that covers the Academy program? 

Peterxxxxxx

This is my revised version of my spending categories. 

Any comments?
🙂🙏

theoretica

Nothing for saving towards occasional spending?  Eg buying a new printer, holidays, your computer won't last forever...

wmb194

Peterxxxxxx said:

This is my revised version of my spending categories. 

Any comments?
🙂🙏

"Credit card" doesn't make any sense to me: you use them to buy groceries, entertainment, clothing, etc. so it shouldn't be a budget category in and of itself i.e. it's an account rather than a category of expense.

Or is it actually a loan repayment? If so, is it cheap? Could it be refinanced to make it cheaper?