Advice on how to budget please...

[Grotty]

I've always been terrible with money. We always seem to be just scraping by each month, sometimes properly struggling, and have never managed to save anything. But I don't think our earnings are any less than the average of people we know. It is blatantly obvious that I'm a spender, but I'm determined to turn this around. I'm after structure and boundaries to help manage finances with a family.

Does anyone have any tools/tips/advice on how they succeed or try to succeed with this?

[SuzieK]

I find a spreadsheet with in-comings and outgoings that you complete each month keeps you more aware of what money you have left to spend.

Once I know what's left for the month I then break the amount down to a weekly amount so I know what I can spend.

We don't always stick to it but it keeps our spending under control most of the time.

I also put into the monthly budget an amount to go into a savings account and transfer it online the day I/my hubby gets paid.

Hope it helps...

S

[espelli]

We have started to try some of the strategies from here http://www.youneedabudget.com it has got some really good ideas. Haven't bought the apps or anything else yet (finally trying to be sensible about spending money on things we might not use!) but I am tempted!

[midivydale]

Firstly, You need to get an idea of what you are spending your money on. Get a small notebook a d write down every.single.thing that you buy. Lattes, babywipes, chewing gum.

Do this for a month, then you will have a clear picture of where your money goes. I was v surprised to find that I spend nearly ?900 a year on lattes...

Once you have a clear picture of your spending it will become rather obvious where you can make changes and save if that is your goal. The next step would be budgeting and there are great resources for this online. Moneysupermarket is a good one.

Always make a habit of checking your statements weekly to make sure nothing is a miss.

The next steps would be looking at returns on your savings but I would focus on your outgoings first.

It is empowering to be in control of it all in the end- worth the effort.

Abit like going to the dentist. You feel very good once done:)

Good luck!!

[womanofdulwich]

NEVER go into a cafe and buy a drink or food.

Carry tap water around in a plastic bottle.

Have friends to your house for coffee or meet at theirs.

Never buy any magazines or papers.

You might find this makes a difference.

( I don't recommend it for more than 3 months).

[ClareC]

Never pop to Sainsburys local...... Needing a litre of milk always seems to mean spending ?40 ;)

Local corner shops may be more expensive but at least you buy what you went in for and nothing else!

Also never food shop when hungry!

[Grotty]

Thats all very good advice thankyou! I'm notorious for the excess unnecessary spending at shops when all you went for was something small.

what about bank accounts? we have a current account each and a joint account for bills - but the problem is most of my wages go on our kids childcare costs, so i'm always dipping into the joint account, which means we're always playing catch up. I know some people just have 2 joint accounts and no current accounts - one account for bills and the other for everything else.

Any thoughts?

[midivydale]

How about after you have done your budget you withdraw cash to cover expenses for the month. It is amazing how much more you think about parting with money rather than a card. For instance, if you have done a food shopping list and it comes to ?24, bring the ?24 in cash only. This means that you cant spend more than the money that you have taken out with you.

We have a food jar and a baby jar where we put money at the beginning of each month. This prevents dipping into savings/other accounts.

We had to take stock when I was on maternity leave as we were down to one income only and had to make some major changes in order to finance me being at home. Now when I am back at work it is the same story really as just like you childcare eats up alot of my monthly salary.

"Finances" can be such an overwhelming subject that is often helpful to break it down. So log your spending habits, look over your utility bills, budget, just see them all as small steps and do one at the time.

We have a current account each and a joint account for bills and this works well for us. I find it easier to manage if all direct debits came out from the one account.

[Ole]

1. Make a list of all unavoidable expenses (mortgage, bills, petrol, etc)

2. Deduct these from monthly income. Divide the leftover income into categories (savings, food, treats, clothing, children't stuff etc depending on your lifestyle) and decide how much you are going to allocate to each category, and stick to it!!

2. Make a weekly menu and stick to it (and the budget you have given yourself)

3. Do online shopping for said weekly menu

4. Check your bank balance once a week to make sure you are keeping to your budget!

I read a book titled 'Orchids on a budget' (or something like that) and although it is set in the 40s I think, the advice is very useful. The percentages it gives as an indication of how much you should be spending (for example it says that 30% of income should be on rent, 10% on bills, 20 on food etc) is outdated since at the moment cost of living has spiralled out of control so the percentages are all wrong but it does give good tips on how to manage your finances and make room for extra treats (when I worked our budget I found that our biggest expense is actually the utilities bill which you have little control over even after shopping around for the best deals - crazy!!)

[monniemae]

Can you not make the childcare costs part of the monthly joint outgoings? So that instead of coming out of your account - meaning you then need to dip into joint account - it happens the other way around?

Just as much a joint outgoing as mortgage etc I would have thought x

[bornagain]

Turn down your thermostat by a degree or two Over the year we saved over ?200 last year!

[LondonMix]

First figure out where all your money is going. Credit cards are actually helpful regarding tracking expenditure in this way if you can avoid the temptation to over spend!

Once you know what you spend your money on, see what you are able or willing to change. Figuring out what you can sacrifice will be the hardest part as you'll feel you deserve / need everything.

[HOMum]

Would love advice on what kind of meals I could cook weekly on a budget of roughly ?60 p/w for a couple and a 2 year old (she eats what we eat)

We shop daily (ish) as whenever we shop weekly we tend to spend too much and/or have a lot of wastage that we cant afford.

[Ole]

I find things like casseroles and pies cheap to make (bulk out with veg and service with rice or pasta), a big batch of spag bol can be spread over a couple of days. Fish pie is also quite cheap (offsetting high cost of fish by using cheaper types of fish and smoked fish is cheaper than fresh fish?). Anything that you can make a big batch of and use over a couple of days or freeze to use another day is good value I think (and saves time!).

[JDR]

Martins money tips have several bits about budgeting. I think most folk suffer when there are childcare costs. We've made several downgrades over the past few months/ years.

No fresh flowers ( though hydrangeas bought at Columbia road that you dry and keep and last 6 months and Orchids that last months allowed instead). Aldi/ lidl great for fresh food. I split shopping so an Asda monthly home delivery for brand and store cupboard stuff then cheap supermarket to fill in with odd trip to nicer places. Make your own lunch, if you have children then buy multipack sweets for treats instead of corner shop, ice creams only once per term. Mine have ice cream weekly but at home with cones. Also, if you are a spender do try what was mentioned earlier of writing down everything you spend. Then tot it up, we all think we treat ourselves occasionally but normally it's more frequent! Personally, my mother in law now gets asked for magazine subscriptions for Christmas as well... There are many ways and they don't necessarily stop you doing nice stuff but probably less often and more careful planning

[Fuschia]

jayd5 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Would love advice on what kind of meals I could

> cook weekly on a budget of roughly ?60 p/w for a

> couple and a 2 year old (she eats what we eat)

>

> We shop daily (ish) as whenever we shop weekly we

> tend to spend too much and/or have a lot of

> wastage that we cant afford.

Meal planning and stick to it

That will allow you to shop less frequently

So make a spag Bol sauce for Monday and make enough to have the extra the next day on baked potatoes

Include lunches, snacks in your plan

Buy fruit and veg from a market or shop that sells by the bowl

Get a second hand breadmaker and make your own bread

Home made soup and bread is very cheap

Take a flask of tea or coffee out with you and your own snacks

Downgrade where you can to value brands - many are as good as more pricey ones

Make good use of your freezer - I used to open a packet of feta for salad or to top and omelette, the rest usually hit wasted. Then I realised it could be frozen and grated directly onto omelette another day

Bread is a good candidate for freezing

Have one or two meals a week that are really cheap - dried spaghetti with jarred pesto and peas or baked potatoes with baked beans

[Fuschia]

Tinned value fruit or frozen fruit (tesco do two frozen summer fruit mixes, the one in a bag is significantly cheaper, it's gorgeous sweetened slightly with yoghurt, porridge or ice cream

Tinned peaches or mandarins in juice are cheap and cheerful for pudding and no waste as sometimes happens with fresh fruit

[womanofdulwich]

A great family meal is smoked mackeral risotto.

Make usual risotto and at the end flake in a packet of smoked mackeral- the ones that are less than ?2 a pack- vacuum packed and a few handfuls of frozen veg. This costs less than ?5 for a family of 4 inc 2 teenagers. You can double it up and freeze it too.

[jonbateson]

When it comes to food shopping, we do weekly meal plans and then buy what we need for the meals, sounds simple but it saves a lot of time and money and we hardly waste any food. We also have a slow cooker (?12 currently in sainsb) and do a pot full so there is always a meal for the freezer.

[Pickle]

I'm also a fan of weekly meal planning - I never have any waste as even fruit and vegetables are worked out exactly for the week. On the rare occasion I buy too much of something I make a batch of vege soup with a handful of red lentils in it and freeze it for the kids.

I batch buy meat (have recently bought 2kg of lamb and beef mince from Guy who advertises on the forum and buys from Smithfields, lovely quality and good value). I buy packs of frozen king prawns to use in fish pies, heaps cheaper than fresh ones, and you'd never know they were frozen.

My Mum has always withdrawn cash every week and has a super organised system of little tins - milk money, newspapers, food, petrol etc. I don't think I could do that, but she says it really does make her stick to her budget.

[HOMum]

Very very helpful - I have set up a meal plan and a budget for next week, planning to buy all the food on sunday (or as much as possible) and see how we go, thank you for all the tips.

P.s. I am sorry Grotty if I have taken away from you orginial post in anyway

[GinaG3]

I rotate 3 weekly meals plans, and only buy whats needed. I bake sweet things for the week when anyone fancys a bit of cake or biscuits. This really helps a lot! Knowing what your cooking, have to buy, avoiding spends.

We get paid fornightly. I have a budget on the computer that gets updated when there is ANY shift in funds. The fortnightly pay is divided into 2 weeks, our shopping spends are budgetted strictly with a ?70 budget for 2 adults and a 4 year old, this includes all toiletries, laundry stuff, sometimes the odd miscellaneous like pack of glasses or new bowl or mug, maybe some candles. I never break this budget and usually come in under, the cost of meals tends to come to ?35 then I buy toilet roll, kitchen roll, cleaning products, fruit and enough milk to last the week to avoid going to the shop (also to avoid more unnecessary spends).

Our bills are at the top of the budget with dates they need paying, we then set aside the money in the approiate week to make sure the money is available and isnt spent on anything else. If we are lucky to have any money left over we may have a takeaway, get things that are needed like clothes (although that is generally bought from money from christmas - for adults anyway)

I always look out for deals. I get cashback on my purchases through sites like topcashback or quidco (now available on grocery shopping too). I purchase everthing online and watch my bank account like a hawk. I know of every penny. I try not to do activities that cost me money, if they do is minimal or very rarely. There is plenty of free stuff to do with children in London. You dont need to go to coffee shops for coffee, you can make a perfectly great cup at home if you invest in the right tools and coffee. Invite friends round, try to avoid meeting in places that will cost money. If you do only take ?5 so you cant spend anymore.

Its all within your control, I go crazy with spending on occasion, but I know I'm getting a great deal when I'm doing it ;-)

[Grotty]

This is all amazing advice. Thank you. I get paid next week so plan to completely overhaul our finance system this weekend and start afresh next week. I'm hoping to be able to save a little, pay off credit cards a little and stick to a sensible budget. I agree with the meal planning thing and online shopping. I definitely get tempted to overspend if I'm pottering around a supermarket and end up with too much of one thing that gets wasted and not enough of something else so we have to do another shop to top up. But i'm generally sensible with cooking large amounts so we eat the same thing 2 days running. I think my random spending is the biggest problem (unnecessary clothes, books, going out, kids stuff) so going to go back over past statements to get the truth about where all our money goes. I'm not looking forward to it, but as you say midivydale, as daunting as it is, i'll probably feel better for it afterwards. I like the idea of having hard cash on a fortnightly or monthly basis, at least initially so I can physically see how much money I have and can't spend more than. Thanks again for the advice. We are hoping to move next year but I know our credit rating has slipped massively over the last few years. Thats not going to change quickly, but hopefully if we can manage to meet all payments over the next 12 months and show evidence of paying off debt and saving a little, if we need to borrow any more for a bigger house, the mortgage companies will be a little bit more sympathetic. Sigh. So much to do, so little time, but i'm well up for the challenge!

[Ole]

Also join the local library, the refurbished peckham library is fantastic, not just for novels but book on how to manage your finances, cookery books on easy cheap meals, etc etc. I love browsing the shelves and for me being able to spend an hour browsing the library without a child pulling at me is a treat.

[midivydale]

I feel really inspired by this thread too! I know I can def improve with waste of food. My mother in law an stretch her pennies better than anyone I know. She always bulk buys things like toothpaste, kitchenroll etc.

She is amazing.

Good luck Grotty and try not to dwell on what you have done in the past. Focus on moving forward and dont beat yourself up over old decisions.

Order a copy of your credit reports online (experian and equifax) your rating may not be as bad as you think.