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New year new budget

21 replies

Lorijune · 26/12/2023 19:51

Anyone using YNAB? I’m trying to get to grips with it in time for new year budgeting. We seem to earn plenty but don’t manage to save at all with highish outgoings although we have no debt or loans (except mortgage.) Budget as follows:

mortgage 800
transport 500 (big commute)
gas/electric 340
nursery costs 340
bills 300
food and household 750 (4 in family)
1 child’s hobbies and clothes 200

on top we are going to save little pots for other non regular expenses:

xmas 150
car maintenance 200
house maintenance 100
birthday gifts 100 (huge family)
Savings 500 ??

500 each for personal money
Leaves £600 for eating out/entertainment/unexpected stuff

What have I forgotten??

OP posts:
thirdistheonewiththehairychest · 26/12/2023 19:58

Are these figures monthly?????

ivfbabymomma1 · 26/12/2023 20:01

My monthly income is maybe £1k less than yours but I'm still very impressed how you've managed to to divvy it out so well!!!! Off to look at mine.....

MikeRafone · 26/12/2023 20:13

you ask whats forgotten - i've put in what I see as expenses you would/could have missed - you put bills but not what that included,?so may have duplicated

mortgage 800
Council Tax
house insurance
contents insurance
transport 500 (big commute)
gas/electric 340
water rates or meter
nursery costs 340
bills 300 which bills
internet connection
Tv licence
Mobile phone
food and household 750 (4 in family)
1 child’s hobbies and clothes 200

on top we are going to save little pots for other non regular expenses:

xmas 150
car maintenance 200
VED
MOT
Insurance
house maintenance 100
birthday gifts 100 (huge family)
Savings 500 ??

Lorijune · 26/12/2023 20:17

Thank you. I think we’ve got everything covered that you mentioned. Car ins in the bills. MOT etc in car maintenance. We pay our mobiles out of our personal cash. Water rates included in council tax. The only thing I might add is a dentist budget. Costs a fortune to get a check up and hygienist in Scotland.

OP posts:
Lorijune · 26/12/2023 20:21

Yes this is monthly. Are the figures looking high for monthly? Interested to know what we could cut. We are already being more careful. Our food budget used to be higher before eldest went to Uni and we started to be more aware. (I pay for her Uni costs out of a different pot so not added to list.)

OP posts:
menopausalmare · 26/12/2023 20:30

Personally, I would look to overpay the mortgage and spend less on presents and savings.

MikeRafone · 26/12/2023 20:40

where doe the cash come from then? and he university money funds?

Id sit down with all your bank statements and the citizen advice money budget and go through that, you can input weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually easliy

sounds like you have several incomes and that covers different outgoings

Velocity · 26/12/2023 21:09

I also also have budget pots for:
Clothing - everyone has their own budget
Individual Fun Budget
Family Fun
Subscription (Netflix etc)
Holidays - split Christmas / Summer
Childcare
Public transport
IT replacement
Investments
Medical - Health
Rainy Day Fund
Groceries - split into weekly amounts rather than monthly (game changer)
Pocket money
Gifts
Tax / social security
Party (birthday party costs)

  • lines for anything specific that we need to save for out of the ordinary.

Good luck!

GreenSmithing · 26/12/2023 21:13

Yes, I use YNAB. So the various insurances - car but also house and contents, life, pet, if needed.

Any annual subscriptions like gym/amazon

You've mentioned dentist but might also want Opticians

You might want a separate eating out budget for tracking purposes, as that tends to be bigger than most people expect.

Are you thinking holidays would come out of savings, personal money or entertainment? You might want a separate category for them.

You have house maintenance and car maintenance but you might want a separate category for appliance replacement and tech replacement (what YNAB calls true expenses - you know at some point you will need to replace these things but not when).

You may want a category for bigger home improvements like a new kitchen.

If you want durable household items like new sheets/a new lamp/garden furniture - you might want a category for that.

And when you say savings, rule 1 is give every dolllar/pound a job, so ideally you'd be more specific- are you saving for x months' worth of income replacement, in case you lose your job, or towards a house deposit for kids, or retirement...?

Good luck with it. I've found it really helpful. There's a reddit ynab forum that can give more specific advice.

Velocity · 26/12/2023 21:34

I missed out a 'charitable' budget line.

FusionChefGeoff · 27/12/2023 00:31

The main thing for me was to keep tweaking for at least 6 months I was constantly juggling and changing when yet another 'minor' expense threw me out.

I also tried to be more forward thinking so as soon as we applied for secondary schools I added a uniform pot. Same for school trips / holidays - as soon as they are discussed I start the pot.

laclochette · 27/12/2023 16:46

Travel insurance and holidays, if you go away?

Any subscriptions eg Amazon Prime, Spotify, Netflix...

House maintenance seems low - you should budget 1% of the value of your home per year for maintenance so unless your home is only worth £120,000, then that doesn't seem to be enough. You are budgeting more for Xmas than for maintaining your home!

Could you reduce the cost of Xmas at all and rebalance that? For example moving to a family Secret Santa model (you may already do this).

Dental treatments?

LegoFlower · 27/12/2023 19:05

thirdistheonewiththehairychest · 26/12/2023 19:58

Are these figures monthly?????

What else would they be? Xmas Confused These figures could hardly be annual, and if weekly I would think OP's family ate a LOT of food and she would prob not need to have a struct budget. Xmas Grin

Bills, nursery cost and mortgage seem low, lucky to live somewhere cheap I guess/ have got a low mortgage amount outstanding now. I'd kill for mortgage/ childcare costs like that!!

Car maintenance seems very high @Lorijune . It must be very old and unreliable to cost that, and would likely be cheaper to buy a newer second hand one or even lease a new one than pay out £200 per month in MOTs/ repairs! And not have that uncertainty.

No mention of holidays? Pension contributions?

LegoFlower · 27/12/2023 19:09

Also house maintenance as a PP said. Kitchens/ bathrooms, carpets/ repainting/ new windows/ new boiler.... there's always something like this that crops up and easier if saved for over time. Or would this stuff come from the general savings pot? Also replacing appliances etc over time.

I am still surprised your bills are so low. Council tax is huge now (where I am) and would take up that budget alone. Have you included house insurance, buildings insurance, life insurance, critical illness insurance?

Lorijune · 27/12/2023 19:32

So I guess the £500 savings realistically is the holiday budget although I can see we need to reshuffle to have a pot for appliance replacement, household goods, appliances and furniture. Our insurances are in with the bills. We own 2 cars so the maintenance is £100 each which allows for MOT, tyres etc. One car is older but the other is 4 years old. Both are gas guzzlers so I’d love to rethink them but hubby loves his VW Transporter for his sport equipment. Our house has cost a good bit in DIY but it’s complete now. It’s a 200 year old house with 5 bedrooms and 1 office. We are hoping to move this year as it’s big and old and never very comfy or warm. Our budget will let us know what sort of house we should aim for in future.

OP posts:
LegoFlower · 27/12/2023 19:56

Overall it sounds like a pretty sensible situation then OP and like you're in a good position for the future, especially given how horribly expensive things have become in the last couple of years. Presuming this is all on net income after pensions so you have that covered separately?

qpalbfy · 27/12/2023 19:58

Somewhat similar to ours although our personal spends are less (£300 each) and we have a holiday pot (£500).

Lorijune · 27/12/2023 20:08

I forgot to type 250 Council tax. I did add it to budget so just a typo not an omission money wise. Pensions covered before salary.

OP posts:
laclochette · 28/12/2023 00:23

I assumed savings were for eg investments - might be good to split between short term savings for holidays, for an emergency fund and for appliances etc (in easy access cash accounts), and long-term investments that aren't pensions in eg stocks and shares ISAs, fixed term bonds etc. I personally wouldn't put money towards holidays if I wasn't putting anything into more long-term wealth building savings, but I appreciate that's not what you were asking about and I don't know the details of your existing assets or your expectations in terms of inheritances etc!

thirdistheonewiththehairychest · 05/01/2024 15:11

LegoFlower · 27/12/2023 19:05

What else would they be? Xmas Confused These figures could hardly be annual, and if weekly I would think OP's family ate a LOT of food and she would prob not need to have a struct budget. Xmas Grin

Bills, nursery cost and mortgage seem low, lucky to live somewhere cheap I guess/ have got a low mortgage amount outstanding now. I'd kill for mortgage/ childcare costs like that!!

Car maintenance seems very high @Lorijune . It must be very old and unreliable to cost that, and would likely be cheaper to buy a newer second hand one or even lease a new one than pay out £200 per month in MOTs/ repairs! And not have that uncertainty.

No mention of holidays? Pension contributions?

I would also suggest that the OP doesn't need to have a strict budget if they have £1600 per month leftover for 'personal money' and 'other'! That's a lot of spending money in my world!

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