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

What we weighed up was the risk of the following.
Pay off 120 on the mortgage…. And keep the payments at 1900. That would make our mortgage at a value of just over 210k.
Then if we lose our jobs (and this a bigger risk to take into account as we work for the same company.) we have no income and we still have a mortgage of 1900 to pay, and little to no cash savings. So based on that alone no I don’t think it’s worth paying off the mortgage with the cash that we have. what we will do is once our fixed term is up again we will have more saved and we will pay off a chunk then. We overpay as it is by 300 based on what we owe and our interest rate. We aim to have it paid off within the next 10 years.

So you are only separating fun money? How do you ensure you stay on budget then? Food in particular often fluctuates for us eg sometimes we go to the butcher and fill the freezer then aren't back there for months. You are very unusual to not have a credit card. We clear ours every month but it's how we pay for virtually everything apart from DD for utilities etc. I still don't see how your budget helps you on a practical level with spending unless you are calculating every time you spend.

So our pay goes into our joint account
2k is transferred into joint savings
500 is transferred into holiday fund
500 is transferred into our personal accounts
I take out the pocket money in cash

for food shopping I just know that I spend 100ish per shop…I keep the receipts anyway so I add it up. I do all my shopping on a Saturday morning I don’t go to the butcher. I meal plan. I do a stock take before I go shopping. It usually works out at about 90 to 100. Sometimes. It can be 110. But it even comes out.

I share tasks equally with my husband so we both need to access the money which is where the joint credit card comes in handy. We live rurally so he does a weekly online grocery shop and I use Amazon a lot for toiletries and cleaning stuff as needed. We don't have debt and have enough income to meet our needs but have never saved regularly beyond a pot for birthdays, Christmas and holidays so it gets spent every year. I sometimes wonder if we could save more but I can't see how your budgeting system would help us. Whenever we try to save a set amount of money something happens like a misted double glazing unit or tyre puncture and then it goes! We seem to just get by ok as long as we don't have a large personal spend. Neither of us is particularly into gadgets or have expensive hobbies so it's not a problem.

Your budget seems to rely more on your cash spend and having a surplus (as well as the equivalent of pots) and beyond something like a few pots I don't think that is a particularly common scenario for a lot of average income households these days. I'm well aware of my privelege and that many struggle much more than either you or I on low incomes. Beyond a sensible level awareness of income and outgoings I'm just not seeing anything earth shattering in what you do that helps either the comfortable/average or low income household.

Do things like your own hair and beauty expenses come out of fun money or one of the family categories? Likewise meals out with friends but not involving your family. These are the sorts of things I get tangled up with!

My haircuts come out of my personal spends. Kids haircuts out of joint.
I don’t have any other beauty treatments.
if I have a meal out with friends that comes out of my personal spending. We have an allocated 200 towards dinners out and takeaway as a family.

I do have to agree with a few PP who have said your 0 based budget is very reliant on having quite a large surplus to allow for any fluctuations. Our income (in £) is around £5k joint and it's very tight towards the end of the month, there's no way we could put a few k into savings, or have 500 each for just fun money each month.

I guess our biggest differences are wraparound care at £150 a month, Council tax at £220 a month and our kids activities (swimming lessons and martial arts) comes in at £200 a month, the swim lessons for each are over £40 each so your kids activities do seem very low in comparison. We are lucky to allocate £150 each to personal spends, which is quickly eaten up by a hair cut and colour or a dinner and drinks out with friends once or twice in a month.

We allocate 250 each towards personal.
yeah we are finished with swimming lessons now that ended a year or so ago. That was €72 every 7 weeks. So increased the kids activities by 45 per month.
I think we have a large surplus because I slightly overestimate all of my categories. And then that build up the surplus. Also, I don’t spend everything in the category every month.
So I assigned 200 for clothing each month some months we don’t spend any of that at all.