Ask me anything about zero-based budgeting and our monthly budget

[Statsquestion1]

I love budgeting. I have always done it. Been meaning to post here for a while.
I do a based budget, so everything is accounted for. I have posted on many “money matters” topics but thought it might be different to post an AMA.
I am currently revising the budget as I do it every 6 months or so.
as it currently stands its

Me 3100
DP4100
CB 280
Total 7480

Housing
Mortgage: 1900.
Insurances(life, house): 150
Property tax: 50
Total Housing: 2100
Utilities
Electricity 150
Waste collection: 25
Broadband & TV: 70
Mobile phones x3: 60
Total Utilities: 305
Food & Groceries
Groceries & household food: 500
Dining out / takeaways: 200
Total Food: 700
Transportation
Fuel: 150
Car insurance & tax: 150
Maintenance & NCT: 100
Public transport / Parking: 20
Total Transport: 420
Education & Kids
School books, uniforms, fees: 50
Activities, sports, clubs: 55
Pocket money/treats: 60
Total Kids & Education: 165
Entertainment & Lifestyle
Family outings, hobbies, gifts: 250
Subscriptions: 20
Miscellaneous expenses (haircuts etc): 60
Personal spends:250x 2 = 500
Clothing: 200
Total Entertainment: 1030
Savings & Miscellaneous
Emergency fund / Savings: 2,000
Holidays (monthly allocation): 500
DC Savings: 150x 2= 300
Total Savings & Misc.: 2800
TOTAL MONTHLY SPENDING: 7,480

We started when I was on mat leave. No we didn’t always earn this well at all. I started by using cash pockets and after about 2 years once I had the system well and truly sorted I moved back to banking gradually. I still do little bits in cash (like pocket money etc)

Exactly what I was thinking!
£7k a month is a huge monthly income

Anything leftover gets put into saving pots. I just pick one an chuck it in there

A budget where you have 2000 left over every month isn’t really a budget, because it doesn’t matter. If you overspend on anything it doesn’t matter because there is slack in the system.
Try creating a budget where if you need to buy something you have to cut somewhere else, or you have to choose between a prom dress for one child or new shoes for another. Where there isn’t anything left over to build up savings for a rainy day. Then I’ll be interested in your ‘tips’.

Yes I have been there, don’t worry. And I don’t pull from savings for general day to day. Once it’s gone it gone. I still to this day will have to prioritise spending.
prom dress
eould be something expected though so I would start popping money aside for that a good few months beforehand if possible.
i also do overtime if i need to cover extra bits.

I don’t have a question but I just find it interesting how we all have such different approaches to money.
With our income some goes towards bills, some towards various savings and the rest is just to spend on what we want. We split the rest so we have equal amounts to put in our personal accounts and that’s it - your way just seems like a lot of work tbh, organising and planning, but our way works fine for us and your way works fine for you so happy days all round.
Not picking your method apart, I think we are just too lazy to change up our ways. Plus it’s an enormous advantage and privilege to have enough money to not be tracking every pound/penny and I appreciate it and embrace it by enjoying it all and just not really thinking about it I suppose.

How do other people in your household feel about your intense control over finances?

I have a husband who is similarly proud of his financial management but when it means you can’t blow £100 on a well priced rug because it hasn’t been accounted for… hmm

Yeah absolutely, everyone works things differently and that’s the great thing about it. There’s no one size fits all approach tbh. We are paid into a joint and we remove savings, personal spends from there. We have joint account, 2 personal and 4 savings (1 for the kids, 2 personal and 1 joint). Holiday savings goes into a revolut account.

We have our own personal accounts and savings. We buy what we like from those,
last month he spend 500 on a new speaker. It had nothing to do with me at all.

What do you spend your personal spends on? What about Christmas, health, dentist, medicines, decorating, home furnishings, gardening

200 die everyone’s clothes?

how much savings do you have

Do you seperate out the spending categories into virtual “pots” on an app? Or cash envelopes? Or track by recording all transactions?

Do you honestly not feel it's insensitive to boast about how rich you are and pretend it's budgeting advice?

How do you manage for variable expenses?

We went to level pay for utilities but the way it was calculated was ridiculous and the companies ended up holding a surplus which could have been working for us instead of them.

Also I couldn’t predict insurance costs in advance. Even the grocery shopping keeps creeping up.

It’s not budgeting to just write down what you spend on everything a month. What you are doing is keeping accounts.

What do you do if you go over budget on one category? I don't find I can be that precise about some categories so always need to leave a bit of contingency.

Petrol is a good example.

Do you have to pay for water in Ireland? My water bill is £80pcm. What about heating? Are you entirely electric or do you have oil/ gas?

I hadn’t heard of property tax before but I’d much prefer that to our ridiculous £300pcm council tax bill! It just seems so much cheaper in Ireland.

my oh takes 10k a month home but I wouldn’t post on here my ‘budgeting tips’ as I know that there is plenty spare every month - like this OP.
I’m not at all impressed. She has money, saves it, and can pay her bills.

I asked Chatgpt to help me do up something similar because I had too much month at the end of the money. Everything had a budget. Started last September. I did go back to Chatgpt after a month to tweak it.
I wrote all my spending down in a copy and totalled each budget as I went along. For the first time in ages I was able to have a bit left over most months - when I say bit I mean it. February was a hard month- just a lot happened and I went over budget.
I found February so tough I didn't track March and managed ok
It was useful obviously but it's mentally draining when you are trying to keep an eye on budgets and see where you can save if new glasses are needed unexpectedly for example. It takes commitment to stick to it: and it's not always easy to find that. In a strange way I began to view spending as almost "wrong": like I was judging myself for spending? It's a bit like a diet: yes, you get results but it can be mentally tiring.
I'm going to take a break from it and see how I get on.

I think like anything, it’s easy to become obsessive and you need to strike a balance between living and having some joy in your life and being sensible. I was in a lot of debt in my 20s and now feel guilty spending money on certain things (though I will spend on others). I’m better at managing my finances though and saying no to myself compared to my diet where I have no self control 😂

Maybe Child Benefit?

Probably Property Tax, so not UK.

I would like to ask what you both do for a living to have such comfortable incomes?... I agree with a PP , budgeting would be much easier with such a hugs joint income.

My second question is - are you sure you should be entitled to CB?

Agree this is really tone deaf. If you have 2k left over every month you don’t really have to budget do you?

You must be a non UK resident? No one here only pays £50 a month in i property tax, no such luck.

I do find this interesting, as we earn similar, actually iust slightly more (in the UK - and yes, we’re still entitled to child benefit as we both earn over £60k but not after pensions!) and I’m also the budgeter. I do it slightly less for our joint money but more strictly with my personal money. We don’t have as high of a mortgage but we are still paying nursery fees so our fixed outgoings are similar.

However in the spirit of AMA, my first question is - did you know that the totals of your categories add up to £7,520 ie more than your income? It’s a minor thing, but it presumably means you’re either underspending enough not to notice a £40 budget shortfall (if so, can you identify in which category?), or you’re spending more than you’ve accounted for and are having to manage that each month.

Second question is how do you physically manage the pots? (I see someone above saying these threads can become a selling tool for YNAB - I hope not as it is absolutely not necessary to pay for a budgeting app in order to do a zero based budget!) I use Monzo savings pots for all categories so my money accrues at least a tiny bit of interest while it’s in the pot. We do all our spending on a free airmiles-earning credit card and pay it off as we go.

Third question is, you said when you have surplus at the end of the month, you just pick a savings pot and chuck it in there. How do you pick? Do you invest at all to manage the effect of inflation on what must be significant cash savings?