Could you advise me on my budget challenge?

[minesapintofwine]

We got ourselves into a right mess over previous years and are currently paying our debts back through a dmp. I'm a pretty frugal person these days having learnt the hard way and spend very little on frivolities or treats. Honestly I'm quite mean with my money now! Anyway I decided to sit down and do a proper budget tonight as with incomings into our account from 4 sources over 7 occasions monthly it all gets a bit confusing (especially for me!) and I need to make things easier really know exactly where I am with my cash. So, this is what I've come up with-let me know your thoughts! Family of 4 2 adults, 2 dc's both aged 2 (still in nappies) and a dog.

Incomings total monthly-£2068

Outgoings:

dmp-443
tv licence-12.12
pet insurance 9.16
sky (including tv, broadband and phone) just under 100-(this is absolutely we can DEFINATELY save money on this I will be sorting this out asap)
home ins-29.52 (possibly can find cheaper but house leasehold?)
my car ins-29.58
Council tax-76
water -29.65 (would a water meter be cheaper?)
dh car ins-46.36 (yes we have 2 cars not really looking into getting rid of one atm but have found cheaper ins than this (due the end of Jan)
Gas/electric-56 (am underpaying atm as massively overcharged last year will increase but will be looking around for best deal)
opticians (contacts/glasses etc)-20.50 (would love to bring this down not sure how it's done?)
Mortgage-256.63

total -1108.52.

After this I will add in £20 p.m for mine and dh's mobiles (new sims) and £50 to savings. Total outgoings then-1180

My dh gets paid weekly so I was thinking each week draw out in cash £222. Set aside £100 for all meals, nappies, toiletries, inc top up shops. I will start shopping in Aldi again and meal plan inc freezing extra quantities (saving me more the week after) so this may be overestimated but anything left will go into savings. Also set aside £50 petrol for me and dh (again may be an overestimate).

That would leave £36 each we can have to do whatever we want with (haven't done that for a few years!). Piss up the wall or save towards a night out with mates (dh will do former I'll do latter, and I'll prob get the dc's a few things out of it too.

Does this sound reasonable or is there anything I have missed? Or am I selling myself short? Like I said I am really really frugal (these days) and make a lot of 'extra' by selling on Ebay, dedication to answering surveys (I probably make a few hundred annually) so that helps too.

I am so sorry for the format of my essay budget as I know it must make it harder to read (back to school also I think)

I think you're right to work on a 4 week month not a 5, yes most are 5 but a few will be 4 week month so better to overestimate and have spare than under estimate and be short.

I have a bills account, food shopping account, Christmas acc, annual bills account (like mot, car costs as well as insurance etc) and move money into the different pots each pay time. I am no good with money in my purse as go through it like water, so this helps me.

I think you're right to work on a 4 week month not a 5, yes most are 5 but a few will be 4 week month so better to overestimate and have spare than under estimate and be short.

I have a bills account, food shopping account, Christmas acc, annual bills account (like mot, car costs as well as insurance etc) and move money into the different pots each pay time. I am no good with money in my purse as go through it like water, so this helps me.

Also in your budget you say £222 will be taken out eachweek, so I just wanted to ask does all your money get paid weekly? Is some paid 4 weekly? Fortnightly? As this will impact on the amount you can withdraw each week.

Also are your bills spread out through the month, or are they beginning or end of the month heavy? I'm not asking these questions to put awkward, as I can see you are working very hard to change your situation and setting a budget but these are the things which can make an otherwise good budget not work.

I am on a monthly pay and dh on a weekly pay. There are 2 other payments during a month (4 weekly payments not monthly really hard to keep on top of it all!) from benefits.

Most of our bills are at the start but some, including the mortgage are in the middle. I am going to move these to the beginning so all payments go out and just need to build up next months pay. So this months income pays for next months bills iykwim? Do you think that's sensible or better not to?

Oh yes I did realise it would have to be 220! But that's fine

If you are getting 4 weekly payments then you get 13 payments a year. With my child benefit I budget for getting 1 payment per month and then in the month I get 2 payments I see the second as a lovely little bonus. Last year I got child benefit twice in August which meant I had some spare cash for summer holiday treats.

I may not have explained what I meant about your weekly budget very clearly earlier. If you take out and spend £222 per week then by 28th of each month you'll have no money left and 2/3 days to get through. If you only withdraw £205 then on 29th you'll still have £68 so on the 1st of the next month you'll only need to withdraw £137 to get you through the rest of that week and come the 29th you'll have £136 left for those last few days and you'll need £69 out of the following month. It'll will be tricky at first but if you write it all down then soon you'll have exactly £205 per week instead of always running out of money at the very end of the month.

The 222 would come from dh's weekly pay every Friday so there will always be 222 available on a Friday (well actually its 270 odd but need to leave some in bank for the next months outgoings). Does that make any sense? I dont think I made an error but will double check with your workings also tomorrow evening just in case.

Oh and definately agree there will be lots of extra unbudgeted for things like extra week in the month, extra c/b, sales, little lottery wins (ha ha). All surplus and to save and spend a little of. Like bonuses (those non council tax months too will be nice!)

Actually I THINK I know what you mean I will have another look over it

Just to be certain (confused). My pay and the benefits cover majority of outgoings (have done this for 11 years so no issue for me and dh). A part of dh's wage needs to be kept back every week as long as there are 4 Fridays in the month there will be enough at the end. The other budget (cash) is weekly-Friday-Friday. I think we would gain with the extra weeks as there would be surplus left in the billing account after our weekly cash withdrawal. Have I got this wrong? Please tell me if so minor panic!

ok I know what I did I've verbal diarrea now. I undervalued our I comings as dh pay weekly not monthly so sometimes he gets an extra week sometimes an extra half a week etc. So instead of doing the correct thing (x 52 and divide by 12) I just tooknit as him being paid 4 times a month. Actually, I did do that on purpose gave us a lower budget to work with to not rely on the often, but not regular excess (that's where I save from)

Your Sky is shocking! You need to ring them up and say you've found a cheaper deal elsewhere, what can you offer me? We done this a couple of months ago and got Sky movies cut off as we don't really use it and it's down to around £60 a month. Still a lot! But cheaper than what it was. They also gave us 3 months free broadband. Haggle haggle haggle! HotUKDeals also do some pretty good vouchers and codes for money off. Do you have a pound stretcher or home bargains near you? They do really cheap branded cleaning products. Tesco quite often has half price shower gels etc so I always stock up. Andddddd on the bottom of tesco receipts they have a link where you can leave feedback about your shop. I do this sometimes to get 25 extra points. They send a little book of 12 coupons out every so often with money off

If you get paid monthly and are able to, I would use all your wages to cover dd bills and have the dds to come out a couple of days after your pay day. If you need a top up from other funds to cover all dd /bills I would give a week after your payday for your bills to come out as then you know both yours and your husbands wage will have been paid and know bills can be covered rather than relying on the awkward 4 weekly benefit payment.

I think it is a good idea to get a month ahead of yourselfas you have suggested, if you don't move dds around like your mortgage.

And as said before deffo do a 4 week month to base your budget not a 5 week. Though if his weekly money is payin for grocery, petrol and weekly essentials and not bills it doesn't matter how many weeks in a month there is.

Or a move simpler way of covering your bills, would be say your wage is 800, total monthly bills are 1000 so you are 200 short a month from your wages. I would do a weekly standing order of the 50 pounds from dh wages and then use the benefit money towards grocery, petrol etc.

If when you did your budget you did 4 x dh's weekly wage equals monthly income, which you said you did then you'll be fine.

bella your second post is closer to what I had planned to do but instead of standing order Im drawing the remainder out in cash. Basically because I do tend to lose track with debit cards (its the little things that do it...). If I can see physical evidence so to speak I'll know that once its gone its gone. Also me and dh have one joint account that all money goes in and out of inc bills and one savings account that is also joint (dts have seperate saving account. I have used seperate billing and 'spending' accounts before but closed the spending one when I started the dmp.

Action I've taken so far is I've budgeted for the next 2 weeks and ensured there will be enough money in to start this new plan on 1st Feb. There will be. Have looked at the outgoings we can reduce and will be arranging this over next few days. Just been and priced nappies in also and was totally amazed! Hope they dont leak . Oh and also bought tampons for my unexpected period (much much tmi sorry!) in there more than £2 cheaper than 'the leading brand' (congratulates self).

Whilst its TRUE I've always been a tampon and nappy snob, when it comes to getting the cheapest and best value deals I've had plenty of practice so will keep my eye out for the frugal tips on this topic.

Thanks to everyone for their advice I wil report back to you all how Im getting on at the end of Feb if you are still interested by then. In the meantime if you think there's ANYTHING else I can do Id love to know.

Glad your all sorted. It definitely is the little things on debit card that muck people up.

Also not budgeting but make sure you have internet banking, banking app on phone and sign up for text alerts with your bank. So if there ever is a miscalculation, early bills taken out etc you get a free text to tell you to put money in, so you can try and avoidannoying charges.