Budgeting

[shedidwhatnow]

I want to work on our budget and have a monthly amount for everything.

We currently budget weekly.

How do you budget monthly when some months are longer than others? £75 per week food shopping works out at £325 a month but if one month has an extra week it’ll be a struggle.

Apologies in advance if this is a daft question!!

I would not be surprised if your holidays, birthdays, Christmas and entertainment/slush lines are much higher in reality, they are all very prone to creep...
Lines in mine which I don't see in yours:
Home maintenance
Water bill
Dentist/prescriptions
Replacing technology (eg, laptop packs up)
Charity donations

Hi all!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Will try and remember to reply to everything!

Wedding ... venue is paid for, photographer is paid for and it’s a small wedding so I think all we have left to pay is balance of flowers, registrar, outfits for OH, bridesmaid and kids and rings. I am absolutely clueless with weddings so if there will absolutely, definitely be other stuff but nothing like table decorations and chair bows and all that faff. It’s not that kind of wedding.

I don’t think we can afford a honeymoon tbh - possibly a couple of nice nights away in the UK but certainly not abroad. So putting £100 for holidays is just because I feel we should be putting something away somewhere for this but with no real plans in mind. We’ve got LOADS of other stuff to worry about first!! Holidays is probably where most of our debt has come from if I’m honest but I think we just need to accept a year of none for the long term gain.

I honestly think the rest of our money just gets wasted. Entertainment etc we simply must be spending more on now eg a night away in early January and a meal out while we were there but at the moment this budget is obviously being made with paying off debt being at the forefront of my mind so it might just need to be £100 at the moment and once it’s gone it’s gone. It’s not an ideal world. Once the debt is paid off we can rethink. We used to be takeaway fiends but have had none at all this January so far so we’ll be saving a good chunk here.

Phones - our contracts ran out this time last year and I negotiated a sim only deal which I was happy with at the time but I mentioned yesterday I’d called back and they’re up again in 9 days so I’ll definitely be switching them. I’ve found one for £7.50 each for 6BG which I think is a good deal and should hopefully be enough data for us. It’s a 30 day contract so if it doesn’t work out I can rethink. Am going to change the broadband but it probably won’t be much cheaper, maybe a couple of pounds if I don’t add in sky. Which I shouldn’t I know

We’re a family of 4 btw! Two primary aged kids who do 3 extra curricular clubs each a week plus another which is free at the weekend.

I currently pay £230 per month to my credit card.

There’s no doubting we’ve made poor decisions in the past and I’m angry at myself for allowing it to happen but I think at the moment we just need to grin and bear it and get this card paid off.

Our car is paid off this year too thank god. Not sure if I mentioned that.

So with credit card paid off and car already there’s £500 a month less going out.

Pet insurance is fairly new for our cats and is good cover so I feel it’s worth it but obviously when the year is up I’ll look at it again!

Sorry if I missed anything. I definitely did.

Last year we had 4 UK breaks plus 2 abroad city breaks and at least one single night in a hotel I can think of. There’s well over £3k straight away.

Well down OP, it sounds like you've had a really good look at everything 🙂. I haven't looked at my budget yet this year - I will, I'd like to compare it to yours!

Haircuts and clothes seem low for all of you.
I think they sound high!

Haircuts and clothes are such a complete guess. We don’t really do either on a very regular basis. I look like a complete tramp 99% of the time for this reason! I bought a few bits on eBay at the end of last year, bought the kids Christmas party outfits in December too and a pair of jeans for myself in November.

These figures are really a stab in the dark at the minute for a lot of things, I know that.

@SideHustle I’d be really interested to hear how yours compares!

Should I raise or lower haircuts and clothes do you think? Or go with it and see how we get on?

Have a separate bank account for haircuts and clothing - put the money directly into the account each month, you’ll soon find out if there is enough - though a full 12 months will be needed as there will be some months nothing is needed

Do you mind if I ask how much you allocate for that?

I’ve created lots of pots in my Monzo for all these different categories. Can’t wait till payday to sort it all out.

Agree with pp who said you've missed dental/ prescriptions and water bill. Pet insurance - be VERY careful if you look at changing! It isn't just about getting the cheapest price.

Do you mind if I ask how much you allocate for that?

I don’t, I have a monthly pocket money account.

I put a certain amount in each month and this has to cover, food, fuel and other sundries

If I spend more on hair cuts then I need to cut back on fuel & food shopping. There is an incentive to make everything balance and be clever at shopping. There is enough pocket money but not enough to be blaze - iyswim

We’re in Scotland
So no water or prescription but yes to dental, thank you!

Yes I get what you mean Ivy. That’s probably a good way of doing it as well because one month you might spend more on clothes then hair the next.

@BamboozledandBefuddled agreed, I definitely would want to keep the level of cover the same.

Wanted to update this thread now that I’ve been paid.

Have moved money to all my new Monzo pots and was left with around £565 BUT just had the car MOTed and it’s £580 so will use all of my leftovers plus £15 from my new MOT pot and hopefully this time next year I’ll have the money sitting there to pay it instead of having to do this!

That's great though- now you have one more thing which isn't going to catch you out next time!

Exactly! It’s sad how happy I am to have no money left to spend from my wages but to see all those little pots with their money in them for when I need it.

We’re away for a few days next week and sneakily using the council tax money for spends (shouldn’t need much as good all paid for and already have some euros) so even that’s sorted!

Free council tax month btw! I’m not just not paying my council tax

Brilliant! I account for the free months in my pot, so already build in the lower amount. But I always wish I didn't when everyone else is having their free months' bonus dosh...

You can ask for your council tax to be spread over 12 payments if you'd like it to be.

Found your thread shedidwhatnow looks really useful, thank you, will be looking into this all.

OP would you be able to list all the Monzo pots you created?
I know you’ve listed all your expenditures but I was interested if you included all monthly, weekly and annual expenses under different pots.

I also use monzo And looking for a better way to manage my spending

Thank you x

Sure!

I have:

Christmas 2020
MOT
School Uniform
Birthdays
Car Insurance
Holidays
Haircuts
Clothes
Dental
Kids Activity
Entertainment
School

In our regular joint Monzo account I put all the food and fuel money for the month plus money for a couple of the kids clubs. It sounds stupid but it is quite scary for me because we usually work week to week and if we fuck up it’s always only till Friday till we get paid again but this time the money has to last the whole month.

We’re going away this week and I’ll put our spending money in my personal Monzo account to keep it separate.

I’m certain there’s ways I can do it better and I’ll definitely come up with other pots I need but so far I’m happy, it’s a start. Rome wasn’t built in a day

Thank you:)
It’s quite similar to what I do - every month I transfer all my money for food, petrol, kids clubs, hairdresser, eating out into Monzo. Basically everything that is not a direct debit or a standing order payment.

I also add any month-specific expenses , for example this month is DH birthday so the money for that went into Monzo. The same with half term holidays.
I Then create a budget Within Monzo and monitor the different categories within the budget ‘circle’ on the app.

I use round-ups to save money for our annual anniversary getaway.
It goes into another Monzo pot.

It makes sense to use the pots for annual expenditure separately and pay into each pot monthly, rather than deal with big expenses as they arise. It’s definitely something I might copy, thanks for sharing!

This is really interesting. So is Monzo like a bank?

No problem at all!

Monzo is a bank but I just use it as a secondary account really just similar to the old system of withdrawing money and putting it in envelopes! Same thing but all done on your phone.

Also LOVE LOVE LOVE that you can use it abroad with no charges. Saves changing a load of money and having to guess how much you’ll need.