Budgeting £500 ? Help?

[Ozster]

We are looking to move house and will have £500 left after mortgage/bill/car insurance/kids clubs/petrol/food.

I need some advise on how to split the £500 into 'pots'
I'd like to cover saving/emergencies/sinking fund(mot,car service,boiler service,kids clothes)/days out/yearly holiday

Where do I begin ? And how much in each pot per month ?

I want to be savvy with this £500 and not just blow it away frivolously

Why gave you started a second thread on this?

At £500 per month you have £6000 a year. Firstly I’d take off the cost of car service, MOT, and boiler service (few hundred?) off the £6000. Set a budget for kids clothes for the year. Take that off. Then take £1000 emergency fund off. How much would you like for a holiday? Take that amount off. Whatever is remaining from the original £6000 split between saving and days out.

Split the amount you’ve assigned to each pot by 12 to work out how much to put in each pot per month.

@PegasusReturns
Because I am asking a different question here.

How to budget and split the £500 to make sure I have all the above areas covered.

Looking for people's experiences of budgeting.

I’d also include a monthly amount for Christmas/birthdays etc I’d you haven’t covered that already.

@TheUpholder
That's brilliant ! Thank you !
It makes it so much clearer :)
As each 'cost' would come at different tiles of the year I just pay as and when ? Whilst keeping the 'pot' topped up ?

@TheUpholder
Oh yes ! Birthdays and Xmas ! Completely forgot

I sometimes ‘borrow’ from one pot if need be, but just ‘pay it back’ in the next month or so and make sure I don’t overspend from that one pot over the year. Have you also included things like hair cuts, clothes for yourself etc? It’ll only work if you’ve covered everything.

The best thing we did for budgeting was get an app called YNAB (you need a budget). It gets me and my husband on the same page and solves our money arguments.
As for how to split the £500, no one can really say that for you. It depends on your lifestyle and your family's priorities. For example I budget £100/month towards my new car fund but if you don't drive that'd be pointless.
Go through your bank statements as far back as you can manage to see what annual expenses you have (Christmas, insurances, gifts, holidays, clothes, shoes, haircuts, house repairs etc) and then you can work out an annual amount for each of these.
My budgeting tips would be:
Include some fun spending money each month. You don't have to wear a hair shirt, life is short and it makes it easier to stick to your budget long term.
Include some misc annual savings for when the tumble dryer breaks or you need a new hat for your friend's wedding or whatever so you don't have to raid your emergency fund.
Save 3-6 months annual income for serious emergencies like one of you loses your income. Don't raid it unless you really have to, then prioritise repaying yourself when things are back to normal.

Oh just to add, money saving expert has a tool that lists loads of categories that you should consider. It's free and definitely worth a look.

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

@Hollywhiskey
We will have 6 months income in savings when w move off really big, unexpected things

Thank you for all the tips

I would use the

money advise service free budget

put all your expenses in the boxes

then id open a second bank account, you can usually do this with your own bank or you could open a new bank account with somewhere else to transfer your monthly bills amount into

So you'd take your monthly total for all your outgoings - apart from fuel & shopping and then drop this into the other account by standing order each month on paydayand set your DD to come out of this account.

Set up another account for all Christmas present, birthdays hair cuts, pockets money - basically anything else and put the monthly amount into this account by standing order on payday

what is left in your account is for food and fuels - if there is enough then set up another standing order for savings

Santander is doing a bills account which if you pay in £500 a month and have 2 dd then you can get cash back o your bills - so could earn you £15 each month