Doing a household budget spreadsheet

[LindorDoubleChoc]

How do you do yours?

I'm trying to think of our regular payments that go by dd/so monthly and then the regular costs which we pay annually.

So monthly I've got

Mortgage interest only
Mortgage overpayment
Council tax
Gas and electricity
Water
TV, landline and internet (I think this might include Netflix)
Mobile phone 1
Mobile phones 2 and 3 (go on the same standing order)

Then annually I've got

House insurance contents and buildings
Car insurance
Car MOT
Breakdown recovery

I'm not including food, petrol, clothing or leisure atm because that's all random. We don't have any childcare.

What do you pay out regularly other than these which I might have forgotten about?

TIA.

TV licence
life insurance
ynion fees
sacing for Xmas oresents
saving for birthday parties
new school uniform
extra curricular activites

I went back through my bank statements. And also allocated say £200 a month to groceries for over the year.

birthdays, days out , Christmas, holidays all need money allocated too. Say £100 a month and you may not spend it every month.

Have at the Moneysavingexpert one.

Car tax
Any subscriptions - eg apple/delivery saver/Amazon prime
Loans or credit card repayments

Microsoft money is a great programme for keeping track of your money and you can download it for free now.

Spotify, Netflix subscription, Hello Fresh subscription, pet insurance, Denplan fees, annual professional membership fee for work, gym membership

Car servicing.

I have a spreadsheet with every in and out to my bank account, with blank spaces of £0.00 for unexpected outgoings or one-offs. It means I know exactly what my bank balance should be on any given date. I check nearly everyday so there are no surprises. It’s really good for highlighting how spending today will impact in 8 months snd 4 days time! I have it set with conditional formatting so I can see if I am going to go overdrawn. Each month is copy/paste up to 2026, and I guesstimate pay increases etc . I find this a better system than just listing income bs outgoings and saying I should have £X left each month, because life is never that simple.

Food, petrol, clothing, leisure is not at all random, it's 100% predictable in that you will spend on these things regularly. E.g. I have a weekly 'spends' budget that include groceries and leisure, which I try not to go over. I have a monthly petrol budget, an annual clothes budget. I also have annual budgets for holidays, celebrations and irregular budgets for new household items/repairs etc. these things can be estimates, you can refine those as you get more info, but an estimate is better than nothing!

Second the MSE budgeting section. Very comprehensive list and advice about dealing with different categories of spending. Also signposting to cost cutting etc.

You need to go through your bank statements for the last few months and see what you're spending. Maybe don't include December if you had a lot of Christmas spending. Agree that food, petrol etc are not random and you need to allocate realistic amounts for these. Personally I know I massively underestimate food spend - it's easy to forget the top up shops.

Boiler service
Household maintenance (a pot for replacing white goods and essential repairs. If there’s any money left over at the end of the year it can go on nice to haves like decorating or upgrading furniture).

I’ve used an app called Toshl. I found that helped.

I went back through the last 3 months bank statements and categorised all our spending. Then you don’t miss anything off.

I used spreadsheets but not anymore. There is an app called Snoop, it categorises all my expenses as I use my debit and credit cards, it tracks (and lets me know!) if I am overspending on any particular area. It also reminds me when to switch insurances, tells me about offers and if I access comparison sites through it they send me an extra amazon voucher.

I’ve counted up things like hair podiatry so maybe go 3 times a year and include the annual price monthly.
also an amount per month to save up for gifts that i buy

Dental checkup and hygienist
Garden waste bin renewal (we pay annually)

Monthly :
Rent
Car - tax insurance
House insurance
Pet insurance
Tv license, Netflix, paramount, now tv, prime
Internet
Gas, electric
A few items on Amazon subscribe & save either monthly or 3 monthly

Not included are food, petrol, school lunches & school trips

I have one which has entries under subheadings for everything we have to pay which comes out the joint account - housing (mortgage and council tax) utilities and insurance (life, house, car, fuel, pet, water) tv and broadband (incl streaming and licence) debt (credit card etc) food (budgeted at 600 which I pay monthly by dd to a credit card i then use) etc. horrified to see it's over £4k a month.

I forgot phone contracts, activities for children, and misc - monthly things like subscriptions to apple cloud.
Then I have all annual costs divided by 12 and that goes to a savings pot by dd and the entry is in the monthly payments.

I adore my budget spreadsheet. Put in at least an estimate for your fuel and groceries and adjust if required.