Re-prioritise for me I need help to change my budget for next year.

[2006hildy]

Council tax - £121
Boys X 2 - £77.38 anything they have wanted mostly toys
Car - £232.17 inc breakdown, insurance, diesal
Clothes - £46.66 boys and me
Coal - £52.16 we have electric as well
Entertainment - £60.73 annual subscriptions, tv licence, going out
Food - £427.51 inc coffees, takeaways and restaurants
Home - £117 inc window cleaning, cleaning and gardening
Lotto - £14.66
Me - £67.04 inc hair, make-up, weightwatchers, magazines, dental work
Miscellaneous - £142.38 don?t know what goes in here and cashpoint
Pension - £25.55
Dog - £36.27 inc insurance, food, flee and worming treatment, kennel fees
Xmas - £23.77

As always cutting back not cutting out.

This is what I have spent the last 12 months per month nevermind what hubby pays. Please crit it, shoot me down. Re-prioritise for me I need help to change my budget for next year.

Heavens, 2006 you have been very precise with your figures !! Ok , firstly in very bald terms that is approximately £1,500 per month and £18,000 per year. I am assuming that both you and your DH work and run 2 cars and because of that ( and lack of time ) need people in to do your cleaning, window cleaning and gardening . You must be living somewhere lovely to have to spend about £600 on coal to warm your house. But with all you are spending on going out, takeaways and restaurants, are you then compensating by buying your children toys and other things, because you don't have the time to be with them? Sorry to say that and you will probably reply to say that some of the restaurant eating is tied up in business things but you have also factored in weightwatchers.? If you have included dental work in your monthly outgoings, are you having treatments that will finish at some stage ? Personally, if you are wanting to revamp what you will be spending next year, now would seem to be a good time to sit down with your DH and see EXACTLY where both your money is going ( again I am assuming your DH pays the mortgage, school fees, holidays ) whilst all the time, just eating what is in your house until you run out of things, wearing the clothes you have without buying anymore and with your children playing with all the toys you have already bought them , without you going out and buying more.

The three areas I would seriously look at would be what you buys your boys, your expenditure on going out, coffees and take aways, and your magazines etc.

I would cut back on takeaways, coffees, restaurants, cleaning, window cleaning, gardening and makeup and put the money into your pension instead. Or if you're disillusioned with pension funds, as many are, pay it into an equity ISA. Or if you have debts, direct the money towards paying those off.

If you are hard up I would stop paying someone to clean /garden, stop throwing money away on 'Lotto' and Weightwatchers and perhaps review what some of your entertainment budget is spent on.

I'd cut back on window cleaning and gardening - presumably you've averaged your gardening figures over 12 months and you're not having much actually done over the winter?

Magazines - you can read them online.

I wouldn't class 'dental work' under 'you' - essentially which family member it applies to is irrelevant. Unless this was cosmetic, it was a health expense.

Cut the Lotto. Multiply that by 12 and that is a lot of money to waste on a chance in hell.

I'm a huge fan of YNAB as a budgeting tool - have a look at some of the videos to get an idea of whether it could help you. There is other software around that does a similar job. If you have a smartphone it's worth looking out for one that has a smartphone app so you can capture expenditure on the go, particularly cash expenditure.

Hi,
Thank-you for your help so far. This is just the kind of help I need. It gives me something to think about.

This is for four people.
I will have another look at food and entertainment. Not so many eating out and restaurants, shopping at Aldi and Lidl. The tv is just the licence

I will put home, lotto, Me and Miscellaneous categories at the bottom of the priority list.
I will re-vamp my wardrobe - buy and sell on ebay.
The lotto is on direct debit and then I can?t resist when it is Euromillions.
Can?t give up the car because we live in a village but will think things through better.
I will have to control my miscellaneous, home and me better. I?ll have to cut back.
For the miscellaneous it is soo frustrating because I try not to go to the cashpoint. I always end up being caught with no change for carparks ect or end up paying a service charge for using my debit card.

Insurances far too high. The AA have really fleeced me this year selling me everything they can and an extortionate home relay breakdown service charge. Where do you get it for free?

I'll definitely be cutting back I can't believe how much I have spent.
Pension yes that?s where it should be going.
Smart phone budgeting app yes I like it I will be doing that too.

As always cutting back not cutting out.

Lotto on direct debit sounds like a disaster to me (I didn't even know you could do that).

I can understand why you've tried to avoid cash because it's harder to account for, but I would just manage your cash as carefully as your other spending. I have to say I still 'lose' some cash each month where I've got back from lunch and forgotten to enter it into the phone before my next phone call or meeting or crisis in the office - but mostly I can catchup from receipts in my handbag as long as I do it regularly.

Smartphone budget app review here.

Presumably DH is having a similar budget overhaul? We only have a single budget, which can be accessed and updated from both our iPhones but it depends how you separate your finances.

DH is also having a similar budget overhaul. Small steps as it is taking sooo long.

I definitely will be reorganising my lifestyle choices. That?s why I started my spreadsheet and hopefully in 12 months time it will look a whole lot more sensible.

I can see now I was definitely spending on what I like rather than what I should.

You can get rid of your TV licence and just watch iPlayer (not live).

You really don't need the lottery. You should be able to cancel direct debits through your online banking. While you're there, go through your dd list and see what can be cut - people often have subscriptions, donations and memberships going out which they don't need.

Use comparison sites to try to get things like insurances, breakdown cover.

Drop Weightwatchers, there are free online support groups and apps/programs you can use to support you.

How old are your boys? Can you pay them to do gardening/cleaning work/window cleaning? Or get a teenager/student to do it/do it yourself?

Make use of cashback schemes, loyalty cards - things like Boots points/Clubcard can build up a nest egg for Christmas. Also Quidco for online purchases.

Use your car/fuel efficiently - look into home insulation schemes, read up on how to drive fuel-efficiently, try to combine journeys, weigh up the cost of delivery charges/cost of driving.

Look at where you're buying clothes. Your boys will grow out of theirs but you shouldn't need to spend much on yours. Buy secondhand, do a clothes swap with friends, look on ebay and supermarket labels.

You possibly just pop your spreadsheet into Dropbox and access it directly from your phone, then.

A budget is a massive help in just laying things out clearly - and seeing that if you want or need to spend on [x] this month it needs to come out of [y] to make the numbers balance. It helps make your choices more informed. It doesn't mean you have to live on Value beans but you can prioritise better.

It looks as if you've factored in your yearly expenses (car tax, TV licence and the like) which can be easy to overlook and throw your budget for six in the month they crop up. That's good.

Dropbox that's so clever I will try to do it.

I can see now I was definitely spending on what I like rather than what I should.

Sometimes you need people to point out the bleeding obvious. I couldn't see the wood for the trees.

I am having a low spend day now. Will try to do some ebaying.

Always keep change in your car. We do for car parks.

Kids - toys for birthdays etc and not in between.

No lotto

The odd packed lunch for work

Two nights a week have cheap meals for dinner eg jacket tats etc

No magazines.

Being tea/coffee into work.

Check out moneysupermarket or one of the many other comparison websites and you can compare not only all of you insurance but also breakdown cover ect. I used to find if you tell your current insurers that you've found your insurance cheaper they can sometimes match it.

I was subscribed to a magazine and found when I stopped the Direct Debit payment I hardly ever bothered to go out and buy it every week.

Look at the moneysavingexpert website as it has loads of hints and tips on the small ways you can save money.

Remember as well it's important to have some discretionary 'fun money' in the budget - if you pull the purse strings too tightly they will strangle you! Like a crash diet, you might get a short term gain but the likely long term impact on your spending habits is not a good one. So for example, I would rate a magazine over the Lotto as a 'fun spend', because it gives pleasure in and of itself. The Lotto is a bloody pipedream from which you get no immediate satisfaction.

Cheap meals is another good 'un - jackets or a veggie stew type thing.

So here is my plan of action for the next year:
Boys X 2 ? I will try Toy rotation, Pocket money and say no toys only for Birthdays and Xmas , take them to carboot sales.
Car ? go for free breakdown moneysupermarket, insurance by the mileage
Clothes - buy and sell on ebay & super market labels charity shops or car boot sales.
Entertainment ? find free activities
Food ? No going out, coffee and take-aways, do packed lunches and flask of coffee
Home ? cut cleaning, window cleaning, gardening - streamline home.
Lotto - cut
Me ? cut makeup, Weightwatchers (use free weight management sites) Magazines
Miscellaneous ? will categorise by finding where it goes will use Quidco for online purchases
Pension ? Increase budget
budgeting tool on my phone
As always cutting back not cutting out.

Shame if you have to get rid of the cleaner. But I speak as a cleaner and it is gutting to lose your job. Also most people don't want to spend their spare time cleaning instead of doing family stuff or relaxing, so keep the cleaner _- but I am biased ;)

Council tax - £121- obviously you can't change that.

Boys X 2 - £77.38 anything they have wanted mostly toys- why? what's the need? Toys are presents not just because. that is a HUGE amount per month. More than I spend on my dcs for christmas and birthdays combined!

Car - £232.17 inc breakdown, insurance, diesal- shop around, make sure you drive well to save fuel and try to combine fuel with shopping trips etc. Think about when you use the car to avoid multiple trips so for eg shop and pick up from school on the way home rather than 2 separate trips.

Clothes - £46.66 boys and me- that I don't know about, just make sure you take stock at the start of each season and think what is NEEDED. lots can be saved by buying winter coats second hand etc and also buying coats a size too big so it does 2 years.

Coal - £52.16 we have electric as well- I feel your pain, we are solid fuel too!

Entertainment - £60.73 annual subscriptions, tv licence, going out- that's a fair bit really, have friends round for pudding etc instead and limit going out more.

Food - £427.51 inc coffees, takeaways and restaurants- if you are skint then takeaway is a birthday treat and resaurants are rarer than a rare thing.

Home - £117 inc window cleaning, cleaning and gardening per month? per month? bloody hell! do your own gardening, change window cleaning to every other month. I can't get over this one. My windows are £3.50 a month, only other cleaning costs are bin bags and a bit of loo cleaner.

Lotto - £14.66- don't just don't.

Me - £67.04 inc hair, make-up, weightwatchers, magazines, dental work- use local college for hair, cut down magazines/only get what you can afford with tesco vouchers, weightwatchers I'm on the fence- if you think you can manage without then stop it and use free apps to log food intake etc but if it is an important weeklhy escape from teh house for you (especially if you cut down a lot on going out) then perhaps keep it.

Miscellaneous - £142.38 don?t know what goes in here and cashpoint- well you should know. You shouldn't be spending money that you can't account for, especially that much a month.

Pension - £25.55

Dog - £36.27 inc insurance, food, flee and worming treatment, kennel fees

Xmas - £23.77

There's a weightloss section on here.

If you do more gardening that'll help too, it's all exercise.

I don't suppose you can do it every year but I have found that if you press the AA for a really good car insurance price they will also throw in AA cover at a greatly reduced price to do the deal. I'd cut out the lottery and unless Weightwatchers is really working for you try a free app like MyFitnesspal. When there were 4 of us at home ( up to the end of September) I fed 4 of us well and a dog for £90 pw.
We don't clean our windows and they look OK.

You need to find out what is in miscellaneous, as you don't know it's probably things you wouldn't miss much. £140 pm is a lot to have just disappearing without knowing where, but it's amazing how coffee, magazines, popping to McDonalds a small make-up treat can add up.

I also think nearly £80 pm on "whatever they want" is a lot for your DC and ultimately doesn't help them at all. They need to know the value of £80, or they'll end up in the same position as you!!

Indith, I'd love to know where you can get window cleaning for £3.50 per month. (£10 her and considered a bargain by my friends) However, £117 is a lot to spend on what I'd see as luxuries, especially if you're struggling. Why do all these things fall at your door OP? It sounds like DH is also earning, but you pay all the food, fuel, home and child expenses? IMO, you need a joint budget if you are living together.

I think you can save £2,000 a year on boys gifts, eating out, insurance, clothes, heating, lottery, hair/make-up, without too great a lifestyle change.

Food - £427.51 inc coffees, takeaways and restaurants

Make sure you are signed up for two for one deals and ask your takeaway whether they do a loyalty card to get any free meals. Again with your coffees - get the loyalty cards with any of the chains and make sure you use them to get the free coffees and extras.

have the same meals out but cheaper - if you can knock 10% of your spend that is 42 per year

takeaway coffees are a treat, not a regular thing. Massively expensive.

weightwatchers; stop. Eat less, move more. Cheaper/free. Park further away if you can, might be free and you get some exercise.

magazines: treat. Once a month.

clothes for you; only when something wears out or gets too tatty for the purpose. No-one needs more clothes than this once they have the clothes for what they do.

lotto: yes, well....

You've got some great advice on this thread and I'm taking notes!

What I would suggest is that you don't cut out all the fun, relaxing pleasures completely, but budget for them. Allow, say £50/month for a takeaway or meal out. You'll probably get more out of it, too, if it's a treat you look forward to, rather than just a spur-of-the-moment thing...

Oh, and if you limit the eating out/drinking starbucks etc, and start doing the cleaning and gardening yourself, you probably won't need the weightwatchers anymore ;)