help to budget?

wishIwasricher

Hi I don't know if anyone could share an opinion. I need to make savings due to change in husbands income (2000ish drop). I have done a lot of thinking, but cant figure where to save the last few hundred

I really dont want to give up the caravan (have given up any ideas about going abroad)

. and its hard to stop supporting the kids (1 at uni, 1 learning to drive).

I think I spend too much on food, but I meal plan, shop at aldi, never throw food away, dont drink so not sure where I go wrong (does include toiletries, pet food, household cleaners etc.)

If you can see where I am wasting money I would be grateful to hear

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thanks 😊

Brie

Welcome!

I normally hang out on the debtfree wannabe board where budgeting is also a thing to do. So I'm used to reading the statement of accounts that we promote there rather than what you have provided. I must admit yours is a bit hard to read - some of that is my own bad eyesight admittedly as I can't see through the colours!!

But here's a couple of thoughts….

TV licence - do you need one? Many people don't. It's only required if you watch live TV or any BBC channel including those on iPlayer. You have Netflix and possibly other streaming services available so maybe it's not essential.

Amazon Prime - ok it's only £9 a month. But this makes spending on Amazon much easier. Do you want it to be easy? Better to be organised and only spend on essentials and group your purchases to eliminate the fees.

I can't see what you might be paying on direct debits. Are there a number of credit cards? Are you paying the off in full every month?

Emergency fund - maybe put it on hold for a few months while you get things organised? And are there really 3 emergency funds? Totaling £280 a month?

Essential spends and celebrations - £1122 a month? for what? Or have I misunderstood things completely?

Hope that isn't too hard on a early response!! I do want to help!!!

elsien

you might want to take you and your husband’s name off that document?

£800 on food seems a lot. If you’re not sure where it’s going have you tried keeping a spending diary. It tends to be the little things you don’t think about which ends up costing ridiculous amounts of money, comparatively speaking.

What is the other shopping - you’ve said where you get it from but not what you are actually buying?

what is plans and insurance when you already have insurance in a different section?

You’ve got car insurance in there but nothing for maintenance or servicing or MOT as far as I can see?

That budget might be understandable to you, but it’s very difficult for anyone else to follow which is going make it harder for anyone to make any valuable contribution?

I would suggest heading over to debt freewannabe and using the SOA template linked to on there.

ETA - you don’t need to be in debt to use that part of the forum. It can be quite good for anyone who needs to get their spending down a little bit..

wishIwasricher

hi, thanks to both of you for your comments - I did wonder how easy it would be to read/understand so I will have a look that the template on debt free wannabe. Will definitely think about ditching tv licence too as very rarely watch anything BBC

I am actually saving all groceries receipts this month to try and see where it goes - so I may be a bit clearer after that.

shopping is all the money that dissapears each month on everything else - school books/trips, replacement tools/printer paper/doormats bedsheets, garden plants - literally anything we need, or think we need or I get hoodwinked into by a teenager

ah yes, the plans and insurance header is the non essential insurance type things (the others house/car etc are at the top under fixed finances). eg pet insurance (which is essential really) denplan (covers check ups at dentist as cant get an nhs one locally) - its things I could stop - and I take your point about amazon being too easy.. thats worth a thought.

happy to say just cleared a credit card, and a personal load so now there is only one under tempory fixed expenses (has another 4 years left though and its 296 a month!) have looked and dont seem to be able to save by switching (used checker on this site). all the other direct debits are on the right hand side under fixed finances etc…

in terms of emergency funds, I try and put away 150 pounds, dont seem to manage - thats for all health related costs, vet bills, replacing broken things (washing machine etc) and is also to cover car breakdowns/replacement in theory

I realise I have been confusing - with the big colourful sections is just a different way of pulling together the information above rather then more spending. so no, I am definately not spending over 1000 on celebrations, thats celebrations/food/shopping/groceries and transport combined - I see how it didn't make sense, sorry.

thanks again :)

wishIwasricher

and yes, your right I should have deleted out names, I will look to fix that!!

elsien

Bottom line though, if you can’t cut the essential spends but need to spend less then some of the extras have to go. However much you might want to keep them. So if you want to keep caravan and can’t find other maybe some of the other leisure things have to go instead?

gwynlas

Is there any chance of you getting an income from the caravan?

sausage_time

Hi @wishIwasricher,

There was way too much personal information on that screenshot (names, utility providers, etc). I have deleted the image for now - apologies for the drastic action, hope you understand! See the forum rules in my signature link.

Can you repost and make anonymous? My income, partner's income, gas/electric. insurance, etc.

jimjames

ditching tv licence too as very rarely watch anything BBC

That's a common misconception, it's not related to watching BBC although it's used for funding the BBC. Any TV you watch live needs a TV licence regardless of channel

https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one

saajan_12

Link here to complete the SOA, which is a format posters are used to looking at and ensures you don't miss anything.

Also

@Brie:

TV licence - do you need one? Many people don't. It's only required if you watch live TV or any BBC channel including those on iPlayer. You have Netflix and possibly other streaming services available so maybe it's not essential.

@wishIwasricher:

Will definitely think about ditching tv licence too as very rarely watch anything BBC

The suggestion here was if you don't watch broadcast tv at all including Sky, ITV, etc etc not just BBC. The BBC applies to onlline iplayer watching.

Eg if you solely watch Netflix, Prime, Disney, etc then perhaps you could drop the licence as well as the tv package on home entertainment. Alternatively go the other way and stick to those, dropping the streaming.

maman

Just a quick question, are you buying food for 3 people? Wasn't sure whether one daughter is away during term time? 🤔