To ask for a bit of help with my budget?

[NomsQualityStreets]

I am currently trying to make a monthly budget but odd expenses keep slipping through the cracks and I could really use some help.

So what would you say is a good amount to set aside each months for 2 DCs - Purely for things they need or will need like new shoes, coats/hats etc coming up to winter and any odd bits of clothes.
We have tonnes of hand me downs and 2 DSs (3yo and 10mo) so we are not going to need to buy lots of clothes for the next few years or so (not counting school uniforms) but just the odd thing here and there.

What other things apart from food and clothes should I account for them in the budget (playgroups/activities?)? And how much sounds reasonable?

Also any budgeting tips are very welcome!

I have my bills budget which is all my DD's and standing orders (mortgage, council tax etc...) then I have a spreadsheet with my UE (unexpected expenditure) for the month. That allows me to see where I'm spending the odd £20/30 here and there which creeps up.

I now try to, if I can, get UE less than the month before. I do this by asking if I really really need what I was going to buy.

As for kids clothes, I budget £100 each every three months. This doesn't include uniforms, coats or shoes though.

I also budget £50 per weekend for fun activities which sounds a lot but when you factor in petrol and a visit somewhere, it soon goes!

I don’t have any DC yet but was always having unexpected costs which was basically me lying to myself about how much I spend I found it really helpful to get a bit of paper and go through my online banking and making a list per month of everything ‘unxpected’ I brought - I found I was wasting sooo much money on eBay/Amazon justifying it to myself like ‘oh it’s only a fiver etc etc’ all of which added up. If you do that for a few months and see where your money is going (other than essentials like bills and groceries etc) and you can also see roughly how much it is per month. This will help you budget for it better. For example if you find you’re always spending approx £40-£50 extra per month on little bits and bobs, limit yourself to £30 and see if you can stick to it for next month. I like the pp idea of reducing the amount also, maybe every few months knock off £5?

There is more than one way to budget, one is your way which is to try to work out what you think you need to spend, the other is to understand what you have and work out what you have got to spend, if you understand what I mean. If you don't have a lot of money it is better to do it that way, because you need to ensure the essentials like rent, council tax, electricity, food, essential clothes (uniform, underwear and at least one pair of decent shoes) and essential travel expenses ( for instance to work or school) etc. are paid for first and then what you have left is what you can spend on entertainment, treats, hobbies, clubs etc. At times when my children were small I didn't have enough for any more than the essentials, and sometimes not even those, so taking the children out to the beach or the cinema or anything that cost money was out of the question, but we went to the park and the museum and had picnics. They have grown up understanding the value of money and knowing how to budget so I must have got something right!

Depends how much you need to budget. I normally write down essential bills first and then work out what i have left. From that, I designate my non essentials. If I really need to budget then I wouldn't be paying out for things like clothes unless they were actually NEEDED. But as I say, depends how much you need to budget

Thank you for the replies! Some really good suggestions.

We've actually got the major parts of the budget covered (mortgage, DDs, groceries, car insurance etc) we have some left over money each month and are trying to figure out how much to dedicate towards XYZ and how much to put in savings.

E.g. I know DCs won't need new clothes/shoes every month but we are thinking maybe put aside £30 each month into the pot purely for their stuff (I know sometimes shoes etc can be quite expensive) so when we do need to buy something the money is there.
Does £30 sound reasonable considering we already have the majority of the clothes they need for the next couple of years?

We worked out what we had left over (including after savings) and then allocated an amount. We only have one DC atm and we budget £40 per month for everything for him, clothes, toys, craft stuff, and soft play membership. We also have a £100 fun fund which we use for meals/coffee out and day trips. It doesn’t really go very far but that’s all we can afford! And we’re luckier than many!

I split our spending into "essential" (rent/mortgage, council tax etc) "reducible" (essential but I have some control over the amount - food, electricity etc) and "discretionary" (the rest).

I do it on an annual basis, so for things like clothes I work out what everyone will need - eg new winter coat every few years for me (so a fraction of a coat's price each year), two pairs of shoes, etc.

Then I can work out what I need to spend each month, and what I need to save for the occasional bills.