Unusual budgeting "problem"?

[DiamondLine]

I'm looking at the possibility of moving to PT work as I approach retirement.

With DC now gone and a modest lifestyle I don't need much (and I have a decent job).

Currently I seem to have £600-900 "left over" at the end of every month. I have an opportunity for a promotion that would also mean fewer days, so the pay cut for going PT would only be c. £200 pm. Sounds like a no brainer?

However, because I'm a cautious sort I've done a budget taking into account all my regular and one off annual expenses including an allowance for holidays, Christmas etc and that tells me I'm currently spending everything I earn.

So what am I doing wrong? I've obviously over estimated somewhere, but I've cut everything to the minimum as far as I can see.

If you have money left over, you would be building savings.

So you need to worry out of ypu have any unnoticed frivolous spending... coffees out, clothes because you want them, subscriptions you don't use... that you could cut out.

Could it be you've counted something monthly as weekly? Put in a yearly payment as monthly? Or over estimated housekeeping?

if you are genuinely putting a few hundred into savings each month that is not allocated for holidays christmas etc then you are not spending the allowed sum every month, maybe you are budgetting £500 for food but only spending £420 same with fuel for car, heating for house car maintenace spending less on clothes and make up

if at the end of month your balance is between 600-900 ( that is your float) it is not a different 600 each month just that your account on average is £600 in the black so if you have £600 on payday and by next payday you still have £600 you have spent everything you earned that month

that said it is better to over estimate spending than under estimating
are you counting anything twice

the only way to double check this is either zero balance budgetting when you take income for month and assign every pound to a pot

So you’re saving you should have £600-900 but you don’t

and you can’t account for it?

How old are your children?

You were the menopausal women who was seriously considering flying to Australia for no strings attached sex!!!!

Clearly you’re not that frugal with money 😂

No, she's saying the opposite I think. According to the budget she shouldn't have anything left over but in fact she has £600-900 which she's putting into savings. Is that right OP?

If so I would have thought the most likely reason could be that in the last few months you haven't spent anything on annual/quarterly expenses e.g. Christmas, holidays, car MOT/service, quarterly water bill etc. It could well be that if you get one or two big expenses in a row you'll need to dip into savings (I keep separate accounts for things like this and actual long term savings for this reason). That, or you've overestimated your expenses somewhere in your budget.

I have a similar situation. I concluded I had over estimated Every Single Line of my budget, rounding to the nearest £10-£50 depending on the expenses each money. It added up to several hundred a month all in all.

Yes, I am putting £600-900 into savings each month, but my budget days I should have nothing left.

Yes, I think part of my cautious nature makes me do this, but I've been back through it recognising that and it hasn't made a lot of difference.

😆 My basic living expenses are very low. I could manage on very little, but you can't take it with you!

Did you meet him for a drink?!

What's the timespan for your budget and what's the timespan for your savings? If your budget is yearly and you've got £7k - £10k saved up from that year then your budget must be wrong.

when i add up the annual expenses and put aside a twelth a month, I include the obvious like car, house insurance MOT and car service birthdays christmas and holidays but also a clothing allowance some for house and car maintenance a set sum towards replacement items if they break like a new washing machine if i'm unlucky maybe just a kettle if it's a good year
but my withdrawals from this "sinking fund" are not equally spaced through the year the vast majority is required between november and january as my house insurance MOT & car tax and 85% of family birthdays fall in a 15 week period

Would also depend on how old my children are and their situation

Tomorrow!

Don’t mention you were considering flying over to have no string sex with him after one message exchange in 30 years!!!

@DiamondLine

How was the drink??

Well, this thread took an unexpected turn.

I didn't really have much interest in the budgeting conundrum. Am far more interested in the turn of events!

Run through your bank statement for the last month and compare it to your budget.

Is it that you haven't spent the money that some of the lines in the budget are for?

Eg if you're saving £200 pm for holidays, but you haven't had a holiday since last year, you should have a few month's worth of £200s in your savings account?

Repeat for Christmas, car costs and other lines and that could account for the money you're saving?

I think @BarbaraofSeville is right.