Do you ever have an ordinary month?

[HelgatheHairy]

DH and I are comfortably off in that we can cover all our outgoings and have some left over. We were talking last night about starting to cut back as we have a big long term goal and DH mentioned something about an "ordinary" month meaning a month with no extra outgoings. The more I think about it I think a month with no extra outgoings is actually an extraordinary month.

There's always something extra that crops up, even things that you expect like insurance and then the unexpected like car repairs. If I really think about it I would say there's 5 or less months where we don't have an extra expense. Granted it's more if I include insurance as we pay 5 separate lots of insurance (2 cars, house, dog, farm)

So do you have ordinary months? Any tips?

I save up a monthly amount to cover insurance. I also save an amount each month for car (tax, repairs, servicing, mot etc), an amount for holidays, an amount for Xmas and an amount for home improvements and also an amount for emergencies. It is all in one savings account but I allocate the savings to the different 'pots' and write it down in a book. For example, 50 per month for insurance, 50 per. Month for emergencies etc. car repairs, insurance etc is all covered. It works for me.

No we don't here either! I just opened an easy saver account last week and plan to save each month to try and build a fund for the extras that always occur - birthdays, cards for people, unexpected bills.

You're right, there's no such thing as an ordinary month... It's just not a helpful concept in budgeting terms.what you may find useful is the idea of an average month. So you need to prowl round your house getting ideas of the essential costs that only crop up on longer timescales... 10 years to replace the car; 20 years to replace your fridge; 10 years to repair the flat roof; 5 years to repaint the hall... Estimate the cost of each, and divide it by the length in months of the timescale, and add it into your monthly budget. That money doesn't leave your account every month, but it should be there waiting for when the crisis happens. Whether or not your energy bills/council tax are evenly spread over the year, you should be stashing the money for them as if they were, so you don't get caught short with a winter bill. And don't forget to review the pots regularly (like once a year or so), because the £5k you budgeted for a decent second hand car might look a bit of a joke when the old one actually packs up in 2020!

We save monthly for those kind of expenses.

We have a pot for Christmas, a pot for car expenses including insurance, and a pot for house repairs and maintenance.

Only once you've got those things covered can you assess your genuinely disposable income.

insurance is one of your everyday running costs, and you should have a monthly budget for it. Don't pay monthly because that costs more, but save up.

I'd say most of my months are ordinary...insurances, cartax, etc, I budget for every month and put away til needed...

I like the idea of thinking of an average month rather than an ordinary month.