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.

sorrento, thanks for that. I am curious about IVA. In that scenario I quoted, in addition to the mortgage, they also have big unsecured credit card loans.

Having googled this quickly, IVA is an alternative to bankruptcy. The main advantage to an IVA over a bankruptcy is that the borrower gets to keep some of their assets (especially home) and avoids the stigma of a bankruptcy. But it is more expensive to set up: a lot of companies out there specialise in IVAs - I get the feeling they are of the same ilk as those in debt consolidation or personal injury. An IVA also requires 75% of creditors to agree before it goes ahead. At the end of 5 years, all remaining debt is written off, although I suspect that if too much writing off is proposed in the IVA, the creditors have no incentive to agree and will push for a bankruptcy instead. Also, if there is equity in the house, one of the terms could be that the borrower has to release all the equity first. Also, the borrower has to demonstrate that he/she has some form of income to make at least partial payment - otherwise no creditor is going to agree to it.

I am at IVA. Had never heard of it before. Really I wonder why I bother trying to stay out of debt, sometimes.

Blue shoes that's all spot on.
Night Night, you wouldn't want out of control debt, I wish I'd not saved as much and had some though, purely because of inflation and the fact that DH is now unemployed and we'll get no help at all because we have savings where as the moron's down the road from us have had foreign holidays every year, posh clothes, just loads of expensive tat and are now getting their mortgage paid for them
I always thought debt was very bad, but it seems this government can't get enough of it.

Hecate can i have a copy too please?

[email protected]

DH things that I worry about money too much (I do, we don't have very much) but I too have a spreadsheet and though it tells me that we are paying our bills and can just about afford a food budget of £40 a week, and there is no money left over, I don't panic e.g. when the car tax is due because I know that it is part of the budget. He doesn't understand that while, yes our budget is depressing, I'm not worrying when I know our bills are being paid.

I am also having to teach him that yes it is nice to get the posh jam and only Heinz ketchup but if we get them we will have to use less, he can't have jam everyday, nor can he drink OJ every day as we can't afford it. Mostly I have no problem buying budget food, but there are somethings where it's not worth buying the budget version, so we will just have to ration them. I don't thing he has thought about that before. He is very much 'stick your head in the sand, if we can't pay our bills there isn't much we can do about it so why worry' person. I tell him that there is something we can do about it, sell stuff, get rid of a car (we have two, though they are bangers and one was given to us), but it's better to know in advance. This is how I moved in with him with £0 in my account, having done an MSc and worked part time, I had no savings but no debts and no credit cards. And he was £10k in debt. Of course it's not 'my' debt apparently, he is dealing with it. Yep, by spending half his income on paying them off while I put all mine in the joint account. Not much I can do about it now, but suffice to say we are not getting into any more debt, we are paying it off slowly. And when we argue I find it hard not to say 'I know you think I stress over money but which one of us is in more debt? Who's system works?' but bless him, every last penny he had he would spend on me or DD. It's hard as I make more money than him too and it really bothers him that he can't provide, but is finally in a job that he loves after years in a shit company so what can we do? As long as I have my spreadsheet we'll be fine...

On that topic actually does anyone have a spreadsheet that they have used to figure out how much they would earn depending on how many hours, taking away tax, NI etc. to see whether it is worth doing e.g 4 extra hours a week? Someone sent me one at work, but it was pre-tax change and I can't remove it from work to my home computer and can't think when to start. Basically is was set up so I put in my annual income and pension percentage, and it would tell me my net income for 37 hours, 36, 35 etc.

I'm teaching my DC the importance of living within your means and planning for the rainy day scenario. For example when they recieve money for b'days and xmas they are allowed to spend 1/2 of it and the other 1/2 goes into the bank. I've always hated being in debt and the worry that brings. However the bloody government is so hypocritical after encouraging us to spend madly for 10 years by deregulating the banks so they could lend to us irresponsibly, it then blames us for being irresponsible and being hoiked up to the eyeballs in debt. Now all their fiscal stimulus is to get us to spend madly again, penalising savers by dropping interest rates so that they so low you might as well stash it under the bed. All the independent financial advisers say that if you've benefitted from trackers mortages any money you've saved should be used to pay off outstanding debts as there's no telling how bad the jobs situation is going to get.
I also want to get home economics ie: teaching children cookery skills & nutrition back as a compulsory subject. I did the O level back in the 80's and its the one subject I've use everyday of my life . We were taught not only cookery skills but how to plan meals to take in each family members needs, how to budget for the week's shop, using up leftovers and how to ensure the meals were nutritionally balanced. Rather than all these gimmicky initiatives the government puts out they should build satellite kitchen classrooms which schools in the area could share and children should be having weekly cookery classes run by properly trained teachers from reception onwards. I look forward to the day my 11 year old can cook me a delicous, nutritious and budgeted 3 course meal!

Try this tax calculator Bumperslucious

(byt the way, have you always spelled like that? I was so sure it was Bumperlicious?)

I've just signed up to the moneysaving expert grocery saving challenge to compensate for a reduction in earnings this year.

I've cut January's food bill this year by over £100 (compared to last years monthly spend) and I reckon I can get it down another £30 or £40 for Feb. I'm also now wasting less food by planning meals more effectively, which is better for the planet and stops me feeling horribly decadent and wasteful!

I actually find budgetting really good fun...infinitely more interesting than worrying about debt!

Thanks trillian, I used to be Bumperlicious but am trying to vary my name a bit to make me less searchable. I actually use that tax caluclator a lot, I wanted to make my own though where I vary the hours. I could still use that to work it out though I suppose.

We have no need to budget, but run a tight one, and therefore have a great life, although not always short term luxurious.

(wink)

Hi i've been off work ill for a while now and had to adjust from a good wage down to ssp. It is difficult but i have used the internet to look at supermarket deals and plan my meals and shopping trips around them. I am spending alot less than I was when I am at work due to preparing menus.

if anyone has a good excel spreadsheet for budgets i'd appreciate seeing it.

so far i'm panicking as this week I've not go much to spare, it's madness as it's more than I used to have pre working - but i've got lazy about eating habits (ie using the sandwich lady in work) so i'll have to be stricter with myself again to save all that i'm hoping to for the next house I move into.

our food etc has gone up I will admitt it (even thou DS isn't in nappies anymore) but this has been mostly as we've been eating at home more.

I think they should teach money matters in school - budgeting, and also basically get away from the throw away society that we've become.

(sorry if i'm repeating anyone there)