To ask for your budget tips

[Gooseygoosey12345]

I mean, IABU really because I'm an adult and I should know how to budget, and I do bargain hunt. But it's one week til payday and I'm skint! I've paid the bills and we have plenty of food but that's it. We have a pretty good income so how is it that come the end of the month we're always brassic!!

I am quite bad with general 'spending' money. One way is to move away from cards and withdraw a set amount each week and make it last. It has worked for a few friends as you physically see what you have left rather than tapping your card and it taking a day or two to come out of your account.

The MSE has a very good spreadsheet for helping you to think about all your expenses over the year (everything from school uniform to three cinema visits a year) and building those costs into your budget planning.

DH and I recently adjusted to a smaller income and its been very useful in helping us calculate our "spending" money after everything else has been accounted for.

Thank you both. I'm going to try both of these. I may use a bank account to put "savings" into as well. It might make me want to leave it alone if I can see it building up

My DD just started a job and was shocked when we pointed out she'd need to put a few hundred away every month to run her car and pay for a holiday and Christmas etc. It all added up to more than she was expecting.

For me it's relatively-ish simple. You need a round figure of all incomings. Minus bills and essentials. Certainly make a food budget which you stick to religiously as I noticed some weeks I'd spend £50 other weeks closer to £200 and I couldn't explain the discrepancy as it wasn't as though I was eating remarkably different foods but that might have been the vodka that particular week

Basically create categories. e.g. 'leisure' money, bills, food. And going forward try to build a buffer, not necessarily savings in the strict sense though that would be ideal but a pot in which maybe some weeks you put in £2, and the next £20. Do not touch that money until absolutely necessary. It'll take some time to build up so don't feel pressured if some weeks you can literally only 'buffer' £2.

Having a menu plan also helps with food budgeting. All the usuals... make lunch at home if you work, get a thermostat... £3 coffees from Costa eventually add up!

And once I started withdrawing the cash money I was a lot more mindful of my spending. Contactless is the ruining of us!!

I sit down at the beginning of the month after mortgage / bill shave been paid and do a few sums -

• Weekly food shop (always about the same price)
• Toiletries, necessities etc
• Give myself a few quid a day for a coffee or a treat (don't always spend this)
• Any planned social events - figure out how much that will cost
• A contingency for unplanned fun things
• Another contingency for non fun things

Then I sit on the rest and put anything I have left at the end of the month I put away

Thank you!
I have a budget, I think I need to revisit it as somethings gone wrong. I think sitting down with bank statements will help rather than just guessing at the rough amount of what I spend on things. I definitely like the idea of having cash instead of card, maybe even having envelopes for each budget item as well, I'm less likely to touch it and it's not just there if I'm out and about like a card is. I'm going to spend my evening sorting it all out. I've just received an email from the Martin Lewis energy saving team saying that I could save almost £300 a year on my energy bill so I'm definitely going to be switching that too! I need an intervention from that man I think

I work out how much money I have to spend per week and transfer it weekly into my Monzo account. I then pay for everything with my Monzo card, which debits instantly from the app when you use it to pay. Monzo app will also tell you how much you spend on different categories. It has made it much easier to keep within my budget.

You need to start by doing 2 things.

1. Maximise your income.
2. Reduce your expenditure.

Starting with the income.
Are you getting all the benefits that you are entitled to?
Are you owed a tax rebate?
Is your tax code correct?
Can you make money selling stuff?

Next the expenditure.
Get the best deals on everything from mortgage to utilities.
Are you paying subscriptions for things that you no longer use ?
Save for the things that come up once a year like Christmas or MOT.

Hi OP how are you with spreadsheets? If you pm me, I will be happy to design a simple spreadsheet tailored to your finances/lifestyle