I need help with budgeting

[teenagersandatoddler]

I am horrendous with money. I really need help with learning to budget. I have tried everything and nothing stuck or lasted. I feel that I am downing and do not know how to get out of it. Could someone please give me some advice if you have also been in my position and turned your situation around? How did you stick at budgeting and how did you get out of it?
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Nobody can advise based on this information, we don’t know how much you earn, we don’t know if you have a mortgage, rent, live with parents or partner, we don’t know if you have kids, we don’t know if you’re claiming all you are entitled to (if anything), we don’t know whether you’re shopping at M&s or Aldi, we don’t know if you have a car or use public transport etc. The advice is very different depending on your situation.

A simple way might be to split your money into different pots and if it's an over-spending on non-essentials issue, put your 'spending' money in an account and only spend from that account on a 'when it's gone, it's gone' basis.

However, before you do that you need a comprehensive budget that includes all essentials, including those which happen randomly like insurance, car repairs or white goods replacement. You then need to save for these before you consider money to be 'spare'.

You also need to know if you have, on paper, enough money and it's a spending and prioritisation issue or if you're actually short of money even for essentials and your problem is that your money runs out before payday each month.

Have a look at:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/budget-planning/

Not enough info - what do you earn, what bills do you pay, what do you need to save for, and most importantly, what is ‘everything’ that have you tried?

Spendee app helps me budget

Using a spreadsheet or notebook, make a list for September of all money coming in and all bills.

Then allocate what is left. Hopefully, enough to live on this month. If not, you need to look at what you can cut back on - use less energy, negotiate reduced payments on debt, spend less on food - or earn more - claim more benefits, do overtime.

If you cannot balance the budget, get help from CAB or one of the free debt help organisations (MSE links above have all that info).

Unfortunately, that's just a start. If, with adjustments, you can manage, draw up an annual budget - all income and all outgoings. So, that is monthly bills x 12, but also annual costs if you pay insurance etc if you pay it once a year.

Add in birthdays and Christmas, MOT and something for car repairs, entertainment if you go out. Everything you can think of - this will mean you have a more accurate idea of what you need to spend every month, but also what you need to put aside for Christmas, school trips, car costs etc to get through the year on what you earn.

Do a CAP money course

Read Debt free wannabe board over at moneysavingexpert.com

i love YNAB - it’s revolutionised my spending.

Definitely MSE debt free boards
Really knowledgeable people on there.

Use spreed sheets, use an account similar to Chase or mono where you can transfer money into many different accounts each month by standing order for your yearly budgeting items (house insurance, xmas, MOT, Car service, car insurance, annual bills)

So write down your monthly bills but the yearly amount, for example

Council tax £1800
Water £600
Gas and electric £1800
mobile phone £600
internet £432
tv subscriptions, BBC or Netflix etc £200
House insurance £260
Car Insurance £340
Car finance £3960
Mortgage £14400

total £24392 then divide this by 12 = £2032, 66

if your income is £3466 wages

Then you know each month you have £1434 left

So save £434 for a rainy day account and set up a standing order to pay yourself this money into a savings account ISA would be better interest.

Account for all your money on pay day, monthly bills to be paid - annal bills to be paid that are now in monthly packet accounts

then what you have left is yours to spend

But without knowing your incoming and outgoings its hard to advice any further

Agree start with 1 month by 1 month until you have got things under control.

Then draw up a yearly budget.

Have wages go into one account.

Have a set amount for bills go out to another account on payday and a set amount for savings go out to savings on payday.

Then you have what is left to live off.

I like HyperJar which is a prepaid debit card with jars - load the money onto that for the month if you really struggle to keep track. Or Monzo I think has jars. I have (for example) a jar for Tesco.

The other old school approach is envelope budgeting but that involves taking money out in cash.

Even before knowing what you earn and bills etc, it would be useful to know what you actually struggle with when you say you're 'horrendous with money'.

Do you spend more than you earn? Are you a "head in the sand" person when it comes to finances? Do you have debt you need to clear?

What do you want to be better at - simply sticking to a budget? If so, what have you tried before and why didn't it stick?

I use Snoop. It links to my credit card and current account and you can label each transaction re bills, food, household stuff etc. It will then tell you what bills are coming out that month and you can easily see what you have left to play with. I just use the free version which tells me all I need to know.

I withdraw my money out in cash and divide it into 4 weeks. I then only pay cash for everything. It's the only way I can budget.

I used to be the same and managed to get out of it - you can too I promise!

I started with a bank called ‘Think Money’ - they charge a monthly fee, but might be a good bank to look into to start with maybe. They take details of all your incomings and outgoings and haven’t separate pots - one for spending and one for bills. The bill one cannot be touched and pays all your bills, and any extra they transfer to the spending one so you can only spend that amount and no more.

I stayed with them for 4 years and then left to do it alone. I have 4 different bank accounts. One solely for bills, one for a weekly spending account, one for savings and one for my childcare bills. I write everything down on a spreadsheet for my bill account, making sure enough is in there at all times to cover the bills for the month. Any extras, I set automatic transfers to my childcare account, savings and weekly spending account.

Everytime a bill goes out, I mark it off the spreadsheet so I know it has been paid, and check everything is still on track. It has worked for me and I have now become addicted to budgeting!

I hope that this helps a little and good luck xx

Mines 20% rent, 18% long term asset investment, 28% cash saving, 30% bills/ food/ transport/ gym/ other expenses, 4-5% entertainment/ impulse splurges.