Please help us to be better with money...

[Wobblewatcher]

This is probably going to be quite a confusing post because I'm not exactly sure of the problem myself but we mostly seem to be skint.

DP is a self employed plasterer. Mostly in work, earning about £120 a day. But often being paid late by people.

I work PT and take home about £1000 a month.

Our outgoings are about £1700 a month, on top of that food and petrol. Food about £60 a week not sure about petrol.

We are mostly poor. However we earn quite good money. But how do we even DPs earnings out over month? We always seem to run out and we are being charged every month by our bank. We have tried saving but in the end it just goes. We don't really waste money, sometimes will have odd take away or meal out or buy DD some stuff but maybe we need to say no to all of this...

Finding it hard to adjust to fact that DP doesn't earn the same every month, it's bloody impossible to budget!!

Need to speak to other partners of self employed...

i'm self employed, dp gets paid only when there's money in his company. We have a joint account that all dd's go out of, and we ensure that that account always has enough money in it for the bills. We both have seperate current accounts and business accounts on top. I keep a spreadsheet in excel of all dd's and the date they go out.
1700 a month is a lot for outgoings. Seriously look at where you can reduce them. Shop around for the best utility rates, insurance deals and so on. Do you have debt? Credit cards are a killer, if so, look at getting a balance transfer and pay them off during the interest free period.

We are paying our debts off through a debt company. Our mortgage is 716 a month. Council tax 120 and it goes on, DP has finance on his van for 160...

We know what comes out and when but just never seem to be able to have any left over.

But surely our earnings should cover our outgoings??

Maybe they don't...not sure we can reduce anything though.

It's a PITA but the only way that works for me is to keep track of absolutely all spending. e.g. I realised that DH and I sometimes took out £60 in the space of a week at cash machines and we didn't know what we were spending it on. We started with 2 months of buying nothing except food and petrol and tried to come up with a budget.

I am still not great but I feel more in control now - and I have a spreadsheet - I put down all outgoings and all ad hoc spending on that.

If there is a minimum amount which you can rely on coming in every month, I would be trying to budget around that and save anything over and above it.

Make a spreadsheet or list of where it all goes. Before you can figure out how to stop going over budget you need to know where the money is going, so set it out like this:

a. rent/mortgage £x
b. council tax £x
c. gas, electricity, water, phones, net, tv, insurance £x
d. food £x
e. debt management and stuff bought on credit £x

f. petrol, taxis, public transport £x
g. clothes
h. subscriptions (magazines, games etc)
i. luxuries (takeouts, nights out, gifts, etc)
j. anything else

Then add it all up. If it's more than your average monthly income, you're overspending. If it's less, but you're still short every month, you're spending more money than you think, and you need to start recording every penny you spend for a month or two until you figure out where it's going.

Once you know that, you can decide how to work with it. My DP and I have a joint account that we both automatically have our half of the rent and 'unavoidable' bills (water, electricity, council tax, phone, internet) go into on the day we get paid. That ensures there is always enough money to pay those and we don't end up in arrears. As your partner's income isn't regular, this might be less easy for you, but it's worth considering.

Then everything else - set a budget and stick to it. If you are overspending, try and take a hard look at what you are spending the money on and if any of it can go. Cheaper deals on utilities, insurance etc are always worth investigating. So is canceling something you don't really need - what you do and don't need is specific to you, of course, but I'd suggest tv packages (freeview works fine), 'luxury' foods (ie don't buy pre packaged smoothies, either drink water or make your own from fruit), shopping in 'expensive' supermarkets (when broke I buy most of my shopping in Aldi with topups for stuff they don't have in Morrisons or Tesco), and things like that.

Might it also help to space your bills out over the course of the month, if your partner's income trickles in in bits, rather than at once on payday? Just so they don't all hit at once while you're really broke? I've often found companies are quite willing to change the date on a direct debit if you ask nicely.

Hope you get to the bottom of it, it's awful not knowing what you're doing wrong isn't it:( Been there, done that, so have much sympathy!

if your dp earns £120 per day - how many days in a month is he working?

not being funny but is he is working 22 days per months then that fine but if he is only getting 6-10 days work then there is part of the problem - not that he is lazy but work maybe think on the ground?

i would try keepinmg a spending diary so you know if shopping trips between the big shop are adding up to £100 per week for shopping and not really £60 per week or coffees out or nappies are not being acocunted for etc