Variable pay and bills help??

[Helpsortshit]

Posting in Aibu for traffic (and had some great advice) but didn’t realise there was a money group!

I need to get a more solid hand on our finances. But I can’t figure it all out as there are so many bloody variables!!

So here it goes! I work as a teacher (substitute at the moment so pay fluctuates) it works out 150 per day after tax.

DH pay somewhat fluctuates because of expenses but is ballpark 3.4k per month

Childcare ALSO bloody fluctuates As DH is home for weeks at a time so no childcare needed when he is home. Also they don’t bill us weekly! In fact I’ve paid one bill of 240ish since January...because I asked for it 😂!

Electricity bill is every three months (not a set amount)

Rent (temporarily) and insurances add up to approx 1050

Phone bills x2 are monthly and approx 70 so that’s fine.

I’m going to be honest I just want to have a set knowledge of incoming vs outgoing but I can’t seem to get a solid monthly figure!!

Now my mind has gone blank I can’t remember if theirs anything else I need to pay monthly or not! (This may lead to a drip feed if I think of anything 😂)

Everything else is food/fuel etc

How do I try to calculate a monthly “budget” to work with as their are so many variables??!!

Work on minimum income and maximum expenditure figures - so lowest that you and DH will bring in. Maximum childcare that you need (transfer to separate account if necessary). Change electric to monthly billing.

If you work to that, then you’ll hopefully have a decent amount extra each month to put into savings, and can gradually increase what you spend if you need / want to.

Council tax
Water bill
Gas & electric
Car/transport costs/MOT /insurance
Tv licence?
Broadband
Phones
Work out how much this costs monthly and put the amount into a separate account on payday, then set up monthly dd for all bills from that account

What’s left is your to spend on food, fuel and extras

After the rent is paid, that is

@ivykaty44
Council tax- don’t have
Water bill -don’t have
electric- every 3 months as stated but I think I may change it to monthly so I can manage it on a monthly basis
Car/transport costs/MOT /insurances- I usually just pay insurance and tax all at once to get it over and done with
Tv license- no tv
Broadband - I just use my phone internet
Phones - one of our few monthly bills yes

Well if it works for you paying the bills when they come along - then continue paying that way.

For me to get a handle on my bills I like to have a monthly amount for every bill and then stick that money away in a bills account, then if the car insurance comes up in September it doesn’t matter how much I earn that month as I already have the money put away in the bills account. Same with the MOT and car service, it’s put away monthly so I pay it from the bills account.

It might help to get all your income into one account and then pay a regular set amount of money into a separate account to cover monthly bills.

Then separate off another amount to pay for food, fuel and other weekly incidentals. Or you could pay for these things on a credit card that is paid off in full every month from the bills account - so when you are doing the monthly payment to the bills account, it needs to include enough to cover last months spending on the credit card as well as the regular bills.

As far as annual and irregular things like car expenses, Christmas, holidays etc, you could just pay these as and when from the 'income' account, or separate off a monthly amount and pay them from there.

What will help if you can manage it is to accumulate a float to cover gaps eg if you get paid late or have a fallow period. However, whether you can do that depends on whether you have any spare money to start with. What I have suggested with using a credit card will help with this, as a chunk of spending will be delayed needing to be paid for, or you could try to be frugal for a few weeks to free up some spare cash.

@BarbaraofSevillle we can’t get paid into one account as we get paid in two different currencies (but similar value)

I also don’t have a credit card and don want to get one 😬 I’m not a fan

Thank you though