help me budget.

[zobey]

Due to me not working through choice since Nov, I pick up my 1st wage check from my new job tomorrow. I'm not very good at budgets and all that. My outgoings are; 60 parking, 120 fuel, 150 catalogue(final payment) 130 credit card and I owe my mum 140 (paying back over 2 months) hubby pays all the other bills and dd doesn't go to payed child care. Picked up 1000 this month. Please help me budget for food each week and enjoyable activities with the family.

If you don't already, check your cupboards, freezer etc. Write a food plan and then shop for this with a list.
Think of free things to do with family, parks museum's etc. Depending on ages, Home baking. Have a home cinema night with homemade pizza film popcorn etc.
Make sure take snacks with you on trips out or you'll end up splurging cash.

Zobey - come and join us on the monthly threads on Credit Crunch board - the February one is ongoing so you could introduce yourself there but a March one will start tomorrow.

This is just what works for me from a grocery budget point of view.

• Set yourself a budget (entirely tailored to you and your family, don't listen to what other people say you should be spending)
• Sit down and write yourself a 4 week meal plan (go through the freezer and see what you can use up)
• write yourself a shopping list for everything that you will need (and then go through your cupboards and freezer coz you might already have some stuff in and cross off anything you don't need to buy). Also have categories for Kitchen & Laundry / Bathroom / personal hygiene / drinks / Packed lunches and any other categories you may have that I don't like pets.
• Go shopping (or shop online) - do not deviate from list!. Whilst shopping, try and step down a brand. I buy a 750g box of Bran Flakes which are just as acceptable as the more expensive Kellogs box.

At the end of the month you will hopefully be under-budget so have some money left and then you can decide what to do with this. I roll mine into the next month's budget but you could put it aside for family trips / days out, so if you are £50 under budget you might want to put £30 aside for a family day out, and then save £20 towards Christmas.

I've tried big monthly shops with smaller top up shops but they don't work for me.

Track your spending every day, you'll be surprised how much it all adds up and you forget that you have spent it and are baffled to where the money goes.

Set up a spreadsheet and update it daily. Put all your fixed spends that will be going out, take out your grocery & petrol budget (and anything else you have to spend like bus fares, kids activities) and the remainder is left for incidentals or budget pots.

Hope this helps.

Download a trial of Youneedabudget. It's a fantastic budgeting tool.