Right! This is what I earn, tell me how to budget and save because I am a complete money disaster!

[Sortmeoot]

Ok here goes!

Between dh and I we have £2600 AFTER rent/council tax every month.

Out of this £2600 I have £600 direct debits (gas/elec/car/life home car ins etc) this leaves us with £2000.

I prob spend about £100 on petrol and the rest completely disappears! I am always up to my £1200 overdraft limit.

I HAVE NO SAVINGS!

Am fed up of living like this, we should be able to manage so much better than we do.

Starting wed (payday) it's all going to change.

I can't get better deals on my £600 direct debits and can't really decrease my petrol costs so what I would like advice on is

1/ how much should I be budgeting for food/clothes/birthdays every month

2/how do I go about decreasing the overdraft (I.e £100 a month or get rid before I start saving?)

3/ how much should I try and put away in savings every month?

There is dh and I and 3dc to feed, one still in nappies!

I think we are all looking for good value, some of the basics/value/stuff if excellent and some isn't. My policy is to try most things once and then keep on if they are OK. We are vegetarian and pay particular attention to nutrition so I have to pay extra for pasta and as we only eat wholemeal pasta and brown basmati rice.

It's never a good idea to keep running your car fuel or domestic oil tank down to the very last before you refill. There's always detritus in a tank and this can be sucked into the engine/boiler and cause huge problems very costly to repair. Anyway, no money is saved changing when you refill - you save money driving more efficiently or fewer miles.

Pay off your OD first - no point in saving until that is done. £1900 pcm disposable income

1 - £600 groceries
2 - £400 misc - cover clothes, presents, treats, activities, etc
3 - You still have £1000 left pcm. I would throw at least £600 of that at the OD and clear it in 2 mths.
4 - You still have £400 left for whatever crops up - if you don't need to spend it, I would chuck it on the OD and have less to pay off next month (handy with Xmas coming up!)

Sorry - I'm £100 out there - you have £900pcm left over after a generous £1000 pcm allocation for expenditure excluding bills which you have already accounted for in your direct debits.

Spending too much in supermarket is your main problem. And it was mine

So I only did online shopping - seems more expensive with the delivery charge doesn't it ? but it's not as you don't buy the crap/ooh I will just try that etc.

I wrote out 7 meals and bought for that plus packed lunches and cleaning products and then I DIDN'T GO SHOPPING.

I trust myself now and am now able to just go to the supermarket and buy what we need. But I still mostly shop online.

Hi,

I've just overhauled my finances, set up a spreadsheet on my budget, and opened a second basic current account to help with my 'plan'. What I did was worked out from my monthly income, how much goes out on bills/direct debits/standing orders and ring-fenced the overall amount. Then, I've set up 3 standing orders for 3 different savings accounts I have - one for just 'savings', one for household maintenance, and one for car maintenance/repair bills. The rest of my money is what I use day to day, week to week, where I need access to actual cash. That's the amount I transfer to my second, basic current account. I only access that for things like paying for shopping, petrol, parking, lunches, hair cuts etc. etc. basically all the things I would normally be taking out £10, £20 etc. from the cash machine, never really knowing how much I had to spend because I still had DDs etc. coming out. This way, I know exactly what I have left to spend of my 'disposable' income, instead of thinking I have loads left when it's more likely to be a DD hasn't come out yet and I end up spending the money I don't have!

It's early days, but I've cleared all my credit cards, and don't intend using them again anytime soon. If I can stick to my budget, I'll be saving about £900 a year net, after all the extra expenses I've budgeted for have been deducted. I don't have as much income coming in as you, but nor do I have as much outgoings either!

hi new here and seen your post you are very lucky having all that money :)
your not too bad off

my partner earns 900 per month i work partime and earn 379pm we get tax
credts of 120pm we also have a baby girl aged 3

csa for his son from previous relationship 350 pm
csa for my 2 boys from previous relationship 130 (they live with their dad)
rent 280 pm
council tax 120pm
car 115pm
car insur 50pm
120pm petrol for partner to get to work
gas/elec 140pm
direct debits 100p
childcare 60pm
nothing much left over to spend on food or clothes never mind luxuries like taking our girl to swimmng or dancing etc wondering if its worth me just giving up work as im paying out more than i make?? anyone any ideas as we are going under
thanks :)

I don't buy cleaning stuff or non food from supermarkets. Wilkinsons or poundshop is better value. A lot of it is unnecessary if you have washing up liquid.

How much do you spend on alcohol? Work it out, a few bottles of wine a week add up.

Do you go shopping for leisure/fun? If so, find something else to do when you would normally go shopping.

Do you shop to cheer yourself up? If so, make a list of things to do which don't cost much or are free, and keep away from the shops.

I think you might not be claiming all the help that you could be Mum41. Have you had a look at entitledto.com or the benefits advisor on directgov?

no not seen that site.we did get working tax credirs of 80pm but they have since stopped. will try that site thank you munkee

Did you visit the moneysavingexpert forums? They're fantastic for giving advice on how to save money and live within your budget.

This thread explains their approach to clearing debts/overdrafts while still being able to eat and live:

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=107280

And it includes a link to a very good budget calculator that helps you answer the question 'where did all my money go this month?'

www.makesenseofcards.com/soacalc.html

DH and I have 2 current accounts. My (higher) salary gets paid into one and his into the other. We pay the rent, childcare, bills and general living expenses out of the one my salary goes into and try to pretend that the other one doesn't exist at all. We do use it for unexpected expenses or emergencies, but the vast majority of DH's salary goes into our savings every month. (We're saving for a house deposit, so this is very important). We don't have an overdraft at all, and just transfer a small amount of money into the main account if and when necessary.