Adventures within my budget

clippy_girl · 30 March 2019 at 9:49AM

Hi all :hello:

I have been on these boards for years and have cleared a large amount of debt from uni, holidays, overspending etc... :j

However I am still useless at budgeting

I am definitely a make more rather than cut back type of gal so even when I am frittering some of the 'more' away I still cleared my debts.

I did airbnb where I was making around £700 per month. The debt I had in my last diary was as a result of a new kitchen, boiler and shower and I should have been using my airbnb money to pay it off. Whilst I did pay some off, I mainly used the money to pay for lots of holidays!

After a few years I got really sick of doing airbnb and it was quite exhausting constantly cleaning, changing the bedding, washing, making small talk etc... So I decided to stop in Oct last year. I remortgaged in December and added £11,000 onto the mortgage which was the balance of the home improvements on my cards. Whilst I was waiting to remortage I used the airbnb money for other home things and put away £1000 in premium bonds for emergencies.

So now I don't have my extra income I need to stop overspending and stick to my budget. I haven't tracked it before but I don't think I stick to entertainment and food as I normally run out by the end of the month. I also need to ensure I start saving a bit, either as savings or overpaying the mortgage.

I have done a budget in the next post and I am going to keep this diary to try and keep me on track :A

As an added complication I am currently debating whether to move to new Zealand or not :rotfl: Whilst this will largely depend on a job offer with suitable salary, I need to try and decide if I definitely want to go. I will then have to consider lots more but for the mean time I need to ensure I think carefully before buying stuff I don't need!

clippy_girl · 30 March 2019 at 9:59AM

So in the house it is me (early 30's female) and my cat

30 Water
12.83 Tv licence
22.5 Internet
55 Gas & elec
31 Mobile phone
75 Council tax
508.3 Mortgage
120 Groceries
25 House stuff savings
11.67 Home ins
5.42 Boiler service
15.66 Pet insurance
10 Vet plan
15 Cat food
17.24 Car servicing
20 Car insurance
25 Car maintenance
5 Car tax and parking permits
40 Petrol
1.75 Dentist
15 Contact lenses
0.79 icloud storage
50 Massage & wax
200 Entertainment
300 Holidays
6 Holiday insurance
100 Clothes & beauty & hair cut
50 Gym
5 Kitty with friends
100 Presents
13.33 Amazon prime & music

My take home pay is currently £1965 (due to rise in April around £35) so I should currently have around £80 'spare' at the end of the month (which I never do)

I am going to cancel the TV Licence as I've just cancelled sky as I only watch netflix (not my account so no cost :A)

Water should hopefully reduce when the annual bill comes in June now theres only me and no guest showers or washing

Mobile will be reduced in June to giffgaff

The stuff that I don't pay monthly is saved for the annual bills (insurances etc) and I do have these saved in separate accounts.

Holiday account is -£383 at present (borrowed from car fund) but this will mostly be repaid in April and the remainder in May.

jwil · 31 March 2019 at 9:51AM

I know it's only a small amount, but do you need icloud storage when you get unlimited free photo storage with amazon prime?

Good luck with it though

a_silver_lining · 31 March 2019 at 11:07AM

Hiya

I too am an early 30's female homeowner with cat who is thinking of moving abroad. Albeit to Ireland, not exotic NZ, and with another early 30's female being resident and joint cat mum (as well as the reason we are thinking Ireland, her being Irish.)

My thoughts were that you don't state building insurance? Or is that lumped in with contents?

Also, for me at least I think your food shop is a bit low. If you're buying bottles of wine, or organic, or having friends over to feed it's probably higher. I eat pretty organic, which is pricey, but home cooked, which is cheaper and we probably spend 150-200pm each. Though this includes cat food, cleaning bits and toiletries.

Is eating out included in entertainment? Back before we started cutting down we were spending 80-150pm each on takeaways, eating out, coffees out, snacks or emergency lunches at work. It's where we overspent without budgeting for it. Took me recording every spend to even realise it was an issue! I thought we spent twenty pounds each a month!

This was the hardest, but most worthwhile area for us to cut back on as we lost loads of weight! As in I seriously went from 11 to 10 stone this winter by cutting this out and replacing it with home cooked food. And saved about 600 each. Still have junk food at home though

I found inviting people over for food rather then going out was easy. Taking refillable metal bottles for water, snacks, lunch with us easy when on a day out. Coffees and lunch at work were a killer, as were takeaways as they were emotional eating. I brought in coffee sachets I liked and meal planned to tackle this.

Also thought your petrol spend was tiny. Do you feel you need a car or could you replace this with public transport? This would save all the costs with having a car.

Wont knock the holidays, clothes or massage. Feeling good in yourself is so important. We are looking to move to buy a forever home in order to then free up money for this area of our lives. I can't wait to travel again

Will query the 100pm gifts. I was the same spend wise, and still find myself almost spending this amount. I'm trying to rethink gifts into smaller, more meaningful prezzies, or 'experiences' or eating out, which would otherwise have been in my eating out budget.

Enough waffle from me, good luck!

clippy_girl · 5 April 2019 at 9:39AM

jwil wrote: »

I know it's only a small amount, but do you need icloud storage when you get unlimited free photo storage with amazon prime?

Good luck with it though

Thanks I didn't know they did that, will check it out

clippy_girl · 5 April 2019 at 9:49AM

Thanks for your post silver lining, exciting times for us both

My home insurance covers both building and contents.

I'm monitoring the food bill but I think it's roughly (hopefully) around that mark. I don't buy alcohol for home as I drink gin which I get for presents :money: I also batch cook from scratch and freeze in portions so meals are reasonably cheap. What I'm spending lots on at the moment are treats like mini eggs :drool::drool::drool:

My entertainment budget pretty much goes 100% on eating and drinking out

Both of these are factors in me not loosing weight lol :rotfl: need to try and curb them in a bit! I generally don't ever get takeaways or buy many coffees on the go but I do buy sweets, crisps, more mini eggs etc at work

I probably could get away without my car now but I've got used to it! I can't get public transport to work and would take nearly an hour to walk so I still drive. I use the car for days out and visiting people as i can't really get trains anywhere other than London where I am. I do walk most other places as I'm only about 15 mins from the city centre and it's safe to walk home later at night so I don't need many taxis or at parks etc

I've just raised the present budget as was running out but I agree it's pretty high :eek:

clippy_girl · 5 April 2019 at 9:58AM

So what I have I been up to this week? Whilst I haven't spent loads I have wasted most of it!

Last weekend I visited family and dad took us out for a meal. I paid £5 towards the tip as had cash. I filled the car up with petrol using the petrol budget and gave £10 left. If I put the £10 in it will hopefully see me through til payday. Then I spent £15 in morrisons on fruit and stuff for lunches. And £25 in the pub on pizza and gin.

During the week I've mainly bought sweets, chocolate and crisps

I had to spend £5 to park at work on Tuesday as I don't get free parking everyday

yesterday we went out for team breakfast so £4 spent and then bought lunch as was too lazy to make my salad

So all in all I have wasted money this week :mad:

I'm working from home today and as I do flexitime I do shorter hours at home. So I'll be off to lidl at lunchtime to do a big shop as I'm off on Monday so want to get the freezer stocked with batch cooking. I also want to pick up a couple of cheap plants for the garden as well as I also aim to do that over the weekend. Then I'm going out for cocktails and pizza after work. The entertainment budget is still looking on track for the month

jwil · 6 April 2019 at 8:35AM

Have a good weekend x

Scott-Weiland · 6 April 2019 at 2:31PM

My only advice would be do a tiny bit more shopping around re these on say a price comparison site via top cashback. Even if you got knock a quid or two off each and get yourself some cashback in the process it would be brill, i switched broadband recently and was 60quid richer 3 months later.

30 Water
12.83 Tv licence
22.5 Internet
55 Gas & elec
31 Mobile phone
75 Council tax
508.3 Mortgage
120 Groceries
25 House stuff savings
11.67 Home ins
5.42 Boiler service
15.66 Pet insurance
10 Vet plan
15 Cat food
17.24 Car servicing
20 Car insurance
25 Car maintenance
5 Car tax and parking permits
40 Petrol
1.75 Dentist
15 Contact lenses
0.79 icloud storage
50 Massage & wax
200 Entertainment
300 Holidays
6 Holiday insurance
100 Clothes & beauty & hair cut
50 Gym
5 Kitty with friends
100 Presents
13.33 Amazon prime & music

And i agree with whats being said re entertainment see if you could cut it by maybe a quarter. Are you do anything else too boost up i think it was that 80 you said you had left???

Have a read of this

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/make-money/

clippy_girl · 7 April 2019 at 2:06PM

Thanks for the suggestions Scott! The insurances aren't due until later in the year but I will check the deals again then. Gas and electric is cheapest I can find at the moment. I am due a refund of £133 from previous supplier which I need to chase again.

The holiday insurance has just ran out and the trip I have planned is to Spain the summer to stay with family. I'm hoping to go to Australia next jan so won't have much need until then. Im going to buy a cheap single trip policy for Spain for less than £5 and can save the £5 a month (the £60 is saved for the annual policy so I'll keep it there but stop adding to it).

Entertainment I think I will try and cut by 10% from next month and see how I go. Reluctant to cut it more until I know what I'm actually spending.

I went out on Friday for cocktails after work but didn't end up getting dinner out. I should have though as drank rather a lot before having toast for dinner at 11:30pm :eek: was fine yesterday until the evening when I came down with a migraine so stayed in instead of going out. I think I spent around £40 on Friday which is a lot and way more than I've spent on drinks in ages.

I'm out next weekend but still have around £40 left so hopefully be on track.

I'm not sure what has happened with tracking food spends as I think I lumped some together and now I can't remember where I'm up to. I think I would have been on track but I recently signed up to Gousto and had the first box, thought I cancelled it and just realised I only paused one box so I have one arriving this week which I can't cancel

I have now cancelled it. Was £25 for 4 meals which I can do a lot cheaper (only two portions per meal). But don't think I will have much spends for food until payday on 18th.

I need to remember to track my spends on the app immediately or I'll have to start using my cc to buy stuff and transfers it. First direct debit card takes around 3-4 days to show transactions whereas the halifax very takes 10 mins!

I'm just home from the gym and had lunch (free eggs from lovely colleague

) and now I need to do some housework which I don't want to! :cool:

Pip_Boy_111 · 7 April 2019 at 3:44PM

Hi.

Are you any good with excel? I created a spreadsheet for all our expenses and income. A few hours tinkering and inputting formulas and the a few adjustments here and there and i now have a work of art :rotfl:
Seriously though, i can now see what is due and when and how much we have left over after EVERYTHING. I do this 3 months in advance. It sounds like a faff, but once it's all set up (and assuming the formulas are right) it's just a case of inputting the figures with a nice cup of coffee in hand

(prepare to be shocked how much salary is "wasted" each month at the beginning).
Failing that some people have success using an app like YNAB or the like (I couldn't get on with that so preferred to create my own spreadsheet).
However you go about it GOOD LUCK:j

Adventures within my budget

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