What am I doing wrong on this salary?!

[Llkkg]

I earn enough money, around 3100 after student loans. My mortgage is 950 and council tax 180. I have some credit card payments of around 120 but that’s it. I will need to get a car soon though as that’s around 350 a month.

For some reason I constantly run out of money and I don’t know where it goes. I don’t buy clothes often or anything like that. I know I have enough money and I feel shit that I can’t seem to keep on top of it. I don’t feel like I spend a lot but I’m obviously going wrong somewhere?!

I use an app called Banktivity but I’m sure there are others. I log what I spend using categories I’ve chosen and see where my money goes. You will probably be really surprised.

It's possible that a lot of it is going on 'easy' food - if you're buying coffee in the morning and afternoon, lunch from a midrange place like Pret and the occasional snack or posh soft drink each day at work, that could easily be £10 + £7.50 + £5 = £22.50 a day, £112.50 a week and £450 to £562.50 a month. Add in a takeaway once a week and that's £607.50 on a five week month. And you haven't had anything to eat or drink in the evenings for 20 days for that amount. Or anything at the weekends.

Cutting out two coffees or one and the extra snacks/drinks (I'm saying £5 each because that's pretty much the price of a Starbucks' latte before you add cookies or cake and not including any breakfasts) saves £200 - £300 straight away.

Changing from a Pret salad to doing the same with things made at home - such as boiled egg, smoked salmon, spinach and some dressing - will halve the cost of lunch, too.

With respect OP, you’re going to get a better idea of where your money is going by looking at your bank statement than by coming on here and asking a load of strangers.

Don't you save anything? Why borrow money to buy a car?
You must have a lot of cash left after essential outgoings you should try to put at least £450 a month away. Then you will soon have enough to actually buy a car instead of more borrowing.

For some reason I constantly run out of money and I don’t know where it goes. I don’t buy clothes often or anything like that. I know I have enough money and I feel shit that I can’t seem to keep on top of it. I don’t feel like I spend a lot but I’m obviously going wrong somewhere?!

You know you have enough coming in, you need to change your I don't feel to I know where my money goes.

Easiest thing in the world to fix because it is just numbers, facts. Start recording all incomings and outgoings. Get an excel spreadsheet going for a couple of months. If you want a heads start look back last couple of months bank statements/credit cards too.

£350 a month seemed shocking to me initially until I thought about my own car (no finance)
my insurance is around £55 a month, £21 a month car tax, I’m £80 for a full tank of petrol which I easily fill up 2-3 times a month, not taking into account putting money away for MOT and services I guess it’s not that crazy!

The fact that you mention a takeaway 'here and there ' @ £15 a go probably means it's quite a regular thing. Take aways are expensive in the UK and if you get coffee as well it soon adds up.

Write down everything as pp's have suggested.

Barclays Bank app categorises spending which is helpful.

Have you got a single persons discount on your council tax? You get 25% off.

You just need to budget.

Before you start make a list of what you need to buy

I break mine into
-shared bills, (£260)
-food and household, (£200)
-personal bills (car phone union) 230
-Personal monthly spending £330 (clothes beauty gifts entertainment pet garden home travel eating out take away alcohol)
-Annual one off spending (xmas birthdays /decorating /weekend breaks /garden furniture /new phone/ car service/ fuel wood / car insurance/ Amazon prime) £430
-Holidays £200
-savings and investments (instead of mortgsge) £400

I used to be like you and flipped it around and now have decent savings nice cars and multiple holidays and went part time and bring home 2k a month.

How come you just have a mortgage and council tax?

no mention of water bill £20
elrctric bill £50
gas bill £50
house insurance £10
content insurance £10
phone contract/sim £20
netflix/sky £10
food shopping £200

thays approximately £370 just as an estimate
sdd that to £180 and £900. That’s a total of around £1450
add in a couple of take always a month and a few drinks out and you’d be looking at £1750

I can only share what we do -

1. Hefty childcare goes out at source - we don’t see it.
2. pensions go out at source - we don’t see it.
3. Mortgage is overpaid by £x hundred - we don’t see it as it goes out 2nd of the month.
4. We are saving aggressively - for an upsize in a few years - £y hundred odd disappears into that account - we don’t see it as it leaves on 1st of the month.
5. Finally £Z hundred goes out to an easy access saver for “when life happens” - we also don’t see it.
6. All bills and monthly groceries estimate moves into a Starling joint account - where the bills get paid from a “space” so we don’t see it and are left with a monthly food budget and THIS is what we see.
7. We “pay ourselves” a small amount into personal starling accounts by standing order on 1st of month - this is our personal money for the month - and THIS is what we see.

so then - Number 6 and 7 is effectively all we “see”. A small family food budget for the month and a personal pot we’ve paid ourselves for the month.

inside those - we -

1. Do groceries on 1st 8th 15th and 22nd of the month and a small top up on 29th.
2. only do groceries in person between 4-5 pm at a massive supermarket where yellow stickers are the basis for the trolley followed by frozen and own brand
3. Thursdays and Sundays are eat marked for “fakeaways” where we do burgers steak pizza from Supermarket as meal for 2.
4. This joint account has a round up times 2 set up for a space called “home fun” which has bought us all sorts from BBQ to instant pot to whatever we wait patiently for.
5. anything bought including insurance and travel is bought via topcashback and the cash back stored for Christmas
6. Personal spend account in starling has a round up times 2 set up into a space called “fun”, where money accumulates for “fun” - eyeliners, clothes off vinted I don’t need but just want etc
7. no clothes or shoes for kids or us are bought new - all off eBay or vinted
8. Days out, restaurant meals and tickets for anything are either done with Clubcard vouchers, or free, or at least via topcashback.

it’s become a habit. A routine.

and watching the savings and investments grow in leaps + watching the overpayments eat away the mortgage in clumps + the routinised and even fun nature of our spends is really satisfying.

How can you have been clever enough to go to University yet not know how to work out what you are spending?

When I used to earn a decent salary, I had a standing order going to my savings account out the day after pay day. I didnt miss the money as I adjusted my monthly spending. I saved over £4k annually just by doing this.

Actually OP your thread sounds remarkably similar to this thread posted not long ago. Was this you? Either way the same advice applies I guess as the situations are remarkably similar…

Little things add up thats the reality! Even £ 5.00 for a coffee , each work day equates to £100 pm! Ditto takeaways and "little " shops .I plan each month and try to pay by DD so I dont get any nasty shocks.A small flask of coffee,and some sandwiches from home will save masses.Also often nicer too! If going out with friends maybe have an evening at home? If out see if you can get deals for the Cinema or Restaurants .Clothes I often buy on EBay as they have good deals on Monsoon which I love (Or other brands as well of course) If not often have a percentage off in shops as well (esp ATM).Have a good sit down go over all spending and write down all spends (even little ones )

What is your job?

to reduce costs on car, look at cars with low VED you can get petrol cars at around £20 for the year instead of £20 per minth

good mpg will be useful, as then your fuel prices will be cheaper

look at the insurance category for the car as this will make a Hugh difference to your premiums

i pay £250 a year insurance, £20 per year on VED and it’s doing 56mpg on a trip at 65mph and 35 round town £600 for around 400miles mixed driving per month + £1000 cost per year so far as purchased second hand 3 year old car outright

I'd get one of the cards that tells you what you've spent on and see how it goes. I suspect it's a mix of bits and bobs and the big costs that come annually and shouldn't be a surprise but somehow always are. The good news is we were in a similar situation of wondering where our money all went so sat down and budgeted those and now it's much easier to plan. That's things like holidays, card payments, Christmas, etc.

Easily done. Cost of living is so bloody high now. You can spend £10 and literally have got nothing.

It's not complicated.
Think of the categories of things you spend money on.
You will know your bills.
Food - divide into supermarket shopping and takeaways
Think of other categories

Most things are done via card nowadays - so use your statements to assign each transaction to a category.

That will show you some patterns.

I earn far less than you - and I can tell you exactly where my money goes.

I have 3 sources of income so have 3 lists of what is paid from each one.
Universal credit
Child benefit
OHs wages
There's never anything left, we struggle every month for food.
Once the payments have left the bank I tick them off so I know I haven't missed any. The lists are stuck to the door of a kitchen cupboard. Take a close look at your bank statements and see where its going...

You’re doing fine OP. I’m guessing that you’re worried about savings/rainy day going forward. You probably fall into the category of people who get no govt financial help if anything goes wrong.

You are paying your mortgage and I assume you have insurance. That’s a good start, so breathe.

Work may pay more as you gain more experience down the line. If you have children presumably you’ll have a partner to contribute.

Rather than counting every penny, look at making good long term decisions eg about your job, more qualifications or job-related travel if needed. Save sensibly and keep a sharp eye on your outgoings but also love your life and enjoy it!

Cant you simply sit and go through your last few bank statements? You'll literally see where your money is going then. If you're worried about it I don't understand why you haven't done this already?