to be shocked at how few people know how to budget?

[Coldtits]

I see it all the time, both online and in real life - people who don't use their common sense to save their pounds. Or who have so little faith in their own judgement and abilities that they live entirely on prepackaged, pre weighed, precooked food.

I watched one of my friends buy some ready chopped chicken breast and a jar or tomato pasta sauce. Now, I KNOW she's on a budget, and I mentioned that it would be just as nice to get some thighs aand chop them, and use a tin of tomatoes and some garlic and salt and pepper, and would probably cost much less than the nearly £6 she was intending to spend.

"Oh no," she said. "You know I can't cook."

This was not a time saving exercise. We've known each other since childhood (before I get accused of not knowing the situation) and she was cooking dinner for herself and her boyfriend - day off, no kids.

I know she's not thick! I don't get it.

harley, just write a list of things you spent this month.
then subtract your total income, and hope that the answer isnt negative.

I regularly have the same conversation over and over with my friend about bills, where she will say 'oh we got charged for a dd bouncing' or similar, and then I will say how I write all my dd's in my diary every month so I know excatly what goes out when and she always says 'oh you are so good'

No, not good, just can't sleep if I don't know whats what with my money.

I have £90 to last the week. I'd appreciate some help budgeting (say's scrooged hopefully) The £90 is for food, £30 to get ds to school and back so £60, spending as little as possible for just ds and I. I normally spend £50 a week but need to reduce this.

Or subtract the spending from teh income, even. bloody hell what chance has ds

nighbynight you had me a bit baffled there

I don't budget, but I do know how to cook - the two aren't mutually inclusive....

Making your own spaghetti bolognese is not actually cheaper than a jar of ragu, as someone posted on here. Which is why people on a low income might buy a jar instead of getting all the ingredients for their own one. However, I would arge that it always tastes better if homemade( unless the person cooking is incredibly crap at cooking, in which case, I'd rather they bought a readymade M & S meal if they were cooking for me).

Also, am I alone in really finding it annoying when people go on about how they "owe nothing or can budget really well" et etc etc.

I grew up with a kind of underlying awareness that there was not exactly a huge amount of spare cash in the family BUT my parent knew how to still enjoy having SOME pleasures in life for all concerned.

Please do not criticise someone for buying ONE MEASLY magazaine.

Not so long ago I found myself in a local shop, realising that I just did not have enough cash in my purse for food for that evening's meal for me and my family AND a newspaper. I did not have enough cash for vegetables and the rest of a meal. I bought a can of something.I did not get a paper. ( the Internet was not an everyday thing then, before some bright spark says you could have looked at online papers..)Poverty = lack of choices.
since then. I then realised that for women, giving up employment for the sake of raising their children is not a choice:you need enough money to do it. I am ANGRY when I hear of people acting as if women who work are greedy and selfish. Life is tough and if you are at rock bottom, I think most women would always choose food over a magazine.
Do not judge too harshly.

Budgets. I hate the concept.

I know what I have money wise. I know when it is not enough. Thing is, you can know, then ignore the fact, but some people cannot ignore the fact- they are genuinely broke, desperate and no amount of budgeting will create money for them to survive.

LOL at soothing spreadsheets

And there's hardly any protein content - about a dessertspoonful of chicken in a curry for two.

Even (especially) M&S make me feel sick.

And I'm still trying to lose the 2 stone I put on from living on ready meals while our kitchen/ extension was being built.

And (ranting) my PILs now proudly serve frozen roast spuds, parsnips and Yorkshire Pudding! They're genuinely thrilled to have discovered them.

I love budgeting and am generally pretty good at it. And I'm sorry but it makes a huge difference and is a fantastic concept.

I can make my limited benefits income stretch a lot further than a lot of people I know who are on the same "income" as me and have the same, or less children.

There's a world of difference between being broke and not budgeting and being broke and budgeting...........

This drives me round the bend too! My sisters are always moaning about having no money and then going off to see friends for the weekend and spending £100 on travel and the same on meals out...
For those who want to know how to budget, (cos I think I'm good at it, though I dont' do spreadsheets, just a notebook), here's my basic budgeting guide!
You need two lists of what you spend (use last three months bank/credit card statements as a guide and take the average, or just use last months spending to be simpler if it is reasonably representative). First list: fixed costs, in other words things you have no control over (or not easily) - eg, mortgage or rent, gas, elec, water, council tax, phone line rental/monthly contract, house insurance, life insurance, childcare fees, any loan repayments or HP agreements and so on. Ie pretty much anything that gets taken out of the bank each month by a big company!
Second list - other things you choose to spend your money on (eg, food, toiletries, clothes, an allowance each month for a holiday, presents, meals out or drinks wiht friends, cash you take out of the cashpoint and then spend and so on).
Then a separate line for income - from work/benefits/child benefit/whatever.
If list 1+list 2 add up to less than income, you're fine and can relax. actually, set up a direct debit from your bank account to a savings account for a rainy day with the difference. And you might want to cut some of the spending even if you can afford it, if it looks too much when its written down.
If more, you need to either decrease spending (you don't actually need a mobile phone...etc), or increase income.
Even if you can't do anything about either, at least you will now know by how much your financial situation is deteriorating each month, and what the size of the problem is means you can be realistic about ways to help sort it out.

Ive got myself baffled too harley! and now Ive got to help ds with his german homework, better close mn altogether and open the dictionary...

I detest ready meals. they are just full of salt and you feel hungry an hour after.

re budgeting, in 2009, it never ceases to amaze me that married couples have separate bank accounts. ffs, you have joint bills, joint expenses etc but not a joint account. several colleagues are like "his salary is ours and mine is my own". budgeting should be a joint thing.

I have spreadsheets - they sooth me - I visit them everyday just to check everything is OK
I cook from scratch & menu plan - it saves money, pleases OFSTED, means whoever is free can cook whatever is expected - but on Saturday we all have a treat or what we chose or cereal
I budget - I also have loads of debt

I do all that hernione, I'm just not good at sticking to it.

you know what - I'm bloody glad that DH and I had separate accounts - do you know why - we managed (somehow) to not be financially asssociated on our credit files. He's left with the debts (and has taken them on as his responsibility, and I've walked away with only a couple of very small managable ones).

Perfectly possible to have sepate accounts and still have a joint budget. If you sit down and work out who gets what into their account, and who is going to pay for what.

And actually there are some companies where you can only have one named account holder.

Solanum, I feel suitably humbled for rabbiting about my kitchen extension.
I actually don't budget, mainly because there wasn't much when I was growing up, nor at times in the early years of our marriage.

I wouldn't criticise anyone for buying a jar of ragu instead of raw ingredients - I just feel pathetically superior to those who can't be bothered to cook - or refuse to from a misguided sense of feminism.

Don't all these spreadsheets just tell you that you dont have enough money, whereas if you keep your head in the sand you just might be surprised

and actuall if you meal plan then spag bol does work out cheaper as you can use "surplus" ingredients for other meals.

i dont think ive ever looked at a bank statement

Sorry Reality - that's a Napoletana sauce not Spag Bol.
You need to add at least 500g of minced beef, twice that for our family, at least £3.00, Parmesan optional.

I did a lentil spag bol today.

It was surprisingly good.

I have peppers in mine though. And carrots and celery. And if there's any in the house, red wine.

Loads left over, have frozen it. It couldn't have cost more than £1 and will feed a family of 3 for 2 meals. Very low fat too.

thought we were just talking about the basic sauce??? IN which case Ragu or basic sauce made from scratch you're still going to have to buy the mince,