to ask how you budget - need to stop spending extra money!

[cjt110]

We have a relatively good income of approx 33k between us. Our outgoings are quite low (Our biggest outgoing is approx £357 for nursery fees and the next is our mortgage which is only £250 a month). We seem to spend a fortune on foodstuffs.

We have spent £100 in the last 2 weeks alone (£70ish on a shop and £30ish on bits and fresh stuff).

We have just had our tax credits reassessed and we are lucky enough that our income has increased approx 3k from last year and as such our tax credits have been reduced and we get £93 less a month.

This got me to thinking about budgetting. There are 3 of us - me, dh and ds (21m). DS has a milk allergy so we have to buy soya milk and yoghurts and some free from items to ensure his diet is catered for. Otherwise we just look for foodstuff that just doesn't contain milk. He is still in nappies - we get Asda nappies 120 for £10.

We just seem to be spending lots here and there and it's all adding up.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

What NanoSecond says about meal planning and cooking sounds helpful then OP if you just want to reign in spending.

Nothing is more expensive than going shopping when you are tired and hungry because you have just come home from a long day and nothing you want is in your fridge or cupboards.

A friend of mine loves her slow cooker too for that reason. (sorry if someone already suggested this) She comes home and something lovely is waiting for her and her husband. They just maybe quickly add vegetables.

There was another post about three weeks ago from a poster who was on a very tight budget. There were so many answers. I wonder if anyone else on this thread remembers what it was called? If so that might have helpful hints for cjt110 too.

You've already taken an important step by acknowledging that you are spending more than you want to and don't really know where it is going. Its relatively easy to get things under control if you are prepared to be methodical for a bit until you get into a routine. (Its the people who stick their head in the sand who often get into real money troubles).

One important thing to budget for is Fun Stuff. You aren't trying to be a miser but just to control your money. You need to be able to go out for the day or have a meal out once in a while so put some money aside for that otherwise you will probably start to resent any budget you have and rebel against it.

Money saving expert cheap energy club:
www.moneysavingexpert.com/cheapenergyclub

Budget planner:
www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/Budget-planning

Ooh, definitely agree with Chaz's advice - budget for fun stuff. Then when you want to spend it on something you enjoy, it stops you feeling guilty that you 'should' be saving it. As far as your budget is concerned, it has already been spent! And it will help to keep your relationship with your budget a positive one.

Ohhhh I'm excited to do all this tonight WHAT A GEEK !

I do a big spreadsheet for our spending, the same layout every month. So in one column income (get an accurate number from your bank account), dp's salary and child benefit are it for us but I include a third for if we do say, sell some stuff on ebay. Then another column for fixed monthly outgoings so rent, council tax, insurance, loan repayment, Internet, utilities, water, sky, insurance etc -everything that we pay every month. The a third for everything else, this includes: asda, aldi, corner shop, butcher (the main places we buy food), cafes, take aways, pub, clothes, kids, entertainment, buses, taxis, big one off spends (so the dryer went here), birthdays, pre school bills....everything really, plus "misc" for anything I can't easily categorise. I have it set up so I can see a running total of expenditure and income -expenditure, ie what we have left . It just helps to see where the money all goes.

I dont know if anyone else does this but i keep all my shop receipts and use them to do my spending diary each evening. I try to also only use my debit card rather than cash as its easier to trace the spending if i have lost a receipt or forgot to get one. Obviously cash is unavoidable for somethings (kids clubs/pocket money etc) so i just try and lift the correct amount out from the bank machine and i have a tick list of what cash i expect to pay out over the week. I just tick it off as i pay it. Anything left in cash stays in the envelope and rolls over for next week because there will be weeks where there is more to pay out.

i am not good at maths so please check

but the OP gets 1300 x 12 = 15,600 OP's income free and clear p.a.

OPs DH gets approximately 1200 x 12 = 14,400 before tax and NI
Of that he should have a personal allowance of £11,000
14,400 - 11,000 = 3,400 taxable income.
3400 - 20% (680) = 2,720
2,700 + 11,000 = 13,700
13700 less NI ( would that be about 500?) = 13200 OP's DH's income roughly, free and clear p.a.

Total: 28,800 free p.a.
2,400 p.m.

Then after the mortgage and childcare you might have 1,793

We try to put as much as possible into savings per month. So the bills we have aren't really reducible, other than the shopping.

So the bills we have aren't really reducible
What I was wondering about was something like gas?
We went on to a different tariff after looking on the Money Saving Expert and that was going to save £350 per year.
I am going to look onto changing telephone and broadband next for us to see if any savings could be made there.,

Kind Nope, we only have electric as we live in an apartment x

cjt110
You still might find you could save on your electricity by switching providers.

It wouldn't matter you don't use gas. You would need to know which company is providing your electricity.
www.moneysavingexpert.com/utilities/you-switch-gas-electricity

Then if you use a landline for telephone, and if you have broadband or TV perhaps you would be able to make a saving by switching something there.

Landlines can also be cheaper if you pay the whole annual line rental upfront rather than monthly.

We spent £247 in the last month on food shopping. 2 x £70 shops and the rest was bits and bats. Have food planned and done a shop including items that wont always need buying like teabags and got a contingency of £20 for bread etc and got it down to £150 for a month! Thanks for all your suggestions x

Just me , DH and DD and we spend £40 a week on food in aldi but that doesn't include toiletries and washing stuff.

Have a look on the credit crunch threads for ideas on reducing your outgoings.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/credit_crunch

Thanks for the link HighData. Will take a look.

break it all down into dividers, envelopes.

weekend spending in one, petrol another, food another

you can see exactly what you have. if you have petrol left over, put it into bonus jar. if you have food left over, same.

you can tweak as you go , but the only way is to break every single penny down.

what do you have left after bills, how much do you need at the weekend for going out - divide it all up.

I have said we need to budget in say £20 a month for one meal out or a takeaway. We have also said we're cutting back on Booze and instead of 4 bottles a week between us, we're just having 2.

Have budgetted £150 a month based on our meal plan to shop twice a week. That "shop" included items like teabags and coffee etc which would obviously not need to be bought fortnightly.

Twice a month not a week*

As the weather gets better hold a car boot sale one weekend. Have a clear out and whatever profit you make put towards treats like nights out or savings.

I bought a money box that you need to open with a can opener from poundland for a £1. I am saving £2 coins in it for a holiday abroad next summer. My friend saved £800 over a year by just putting in £2 coins.

Sign up to top cash back and do all your online shopping through them to receive cash back. You can switch utility providers through them and get quite big cash back which you can save for treats.