Where does the money go?

[tempName101]

So I have created a budget, and should have plenty left over after all essentials.

I can't believe that I'm just frittering away £290! I'm working from home, only travelling for the school run, obviously Xmas shopping at this time of year but I never have any money left at the end of the month. No savings and things like MOT cause a right month.

I have some debt but that is being managed by a DMC at £34per month.

Maybe my food bill is higher? And daft things like comics for DC...?

The school meal cost is odd

Re groceries, what are you including in that? Are you buying pricey brands, posh toiletries etc?

You need to look at shopping receipts in minute detail.

Just referred back to the post about daily food spend- £80 per week seems like plenty for food shopping! I shop at aldi mainly with a few small bits from Tesco (washing powder/bread). We don't waste much and eat every little meat. No alcohol.

And where are things like comics, spotify etc in the list? You need to see all those added up.

No posh brands, 99%aldi, some 'treats' (nice choc etc) but they are also from aldi.

Spotify/Amazon/Netflix etc are in the list- comics and DC sundries aren't- so maybe £20pw on bits for DC.

Shopping includes cleaning products and toiletries.

I love Aldi

Then again, it’s the only place I can walk to, lol

You’re definitely missing some other stuff...it’s there, look at your receipts

What have you out in that “running costs”?

It’s not possible to see a full breakdown of your costs from this.

Clothes
Gifts
Holidays
Days out
Eating out inc. takeaway coffees etc
School uniform
Shoes
Cleaning supplies
Pets?
Things like contact lenses?
Swimming lessons or clubs?
MOT
Household repairs
Kids entertainments and treats (like the magazine you mentioned)
Lotteries/magazine subscriptions etc.
Union memberships
Life/home insurances
Hairdressers and beauty treatments

If you're so rural that the school is 13 miles away, then surely you would be entitled to school transport? We're very rural and there are minibuses that go to the remote villages to pick the kids up. The people I know who are even more remote than that get council subsidies towards the cost of driving their dc to school as that works out more cost-effective than sending a minibus 3 miles down a single track lane for one family.

Running costs is above- basically covers petrol, tobacco, food shopping and (the much disputed£ school dinners.

Receipts is what I need to do. Not due to go shopping or buy anything until at least Wednesday (see this is part of the problem!?) but will try and keep all receipts from then onwards.

Yes, £80 seems plenty for food shopping. It is plenty, but is that actually what you spend? Because you've just added in 25% of your weekly food bill for "sundries" for your child.

That's over £1000 a year which is a hell of a shortfall on fripperies. Do you really spend less on smoking than you do on magazines etc for your child? And half the amount on smoking than you do on her school account?

Another thing is, this is a really bad time of year to look at receipts. People tend to spend more around Christmas time.

How do you pay for your shopping? Can you go back three full months on your statements and add up everything from Aldi and Tesco?

School transport starts once they are 7 🤷‍♀️

I've had a look at the list and will Consider it more fully and On a yearly basis, but so far.

Clothes- £20 pm max?
Gifts- I will need to think about this one
Holidays- ha! Yea that would be nice.
Days out- £15pm inc extra fuel.
Eating out inc. - maybe £10 per month?? It's rare and not all during COVID.
School uniform covered by school
Shoes- £30 3 times a year for DC?? A bit less for me?
Cleaning supplies in with weekly shop
Pets none
Contact lenses none
Swimming lessons or clubs - all covered by school
MOT - ooft ok, £300 per year.
Household repairs -landlord covers but yeah maybe decorating?
Kids entertainments and treats (like the magazine you mentioned)- £20 per month, maybe?
Lotteries etc
Union union memberships
--Life/home insurances
Hairdressers and beauty treatments--

@myhobbyisouting I'm actually trying to max out the sundries/fripperies estimate to make sense of a budget that allows me to treat DC while reaming within budget!

*remaining

Thinking about it I've just paid for MOT, boiler service, so have a good estimate of those yearly costs to put down on a yearly budget.

I will take your advice @myhobbyisouting and print out 4 months of bank statements and get busy with the highlighters!

Another good way is to get a notebook and every time you spend even 1p write it down.

Good luck!

Also, sell some things on eBay or marketplace. Having a boost to start you off always helps the mindset for making savings

Clothes- £20 pm max?
We spend more like £20 per person per month. School shoes, wellies, trainers eat up a huge amount of this. We don’t buy much for ourselves really
Gifts- I will need to think about this one
Holidays- ha! Yea that would be nice.
Days out- £15pm inc extra fuel.
Are you sure? Over a year? Don’t you do more in school holidays etc?
Eating out inc. - maybe £10 per month?? It's rare and not all during COVID.
School uniform covered by school
Shoes- £30 3 times a year for DC?? A bit less for me?
Ah! see you’ve got shoes as a separate category so ignore my above comment
Cleaning supplies in with weekly shop
Pets none
Contact lenses none
Swimming lessons or clubs - all covered by school
MOT - ooft ok, £300 per year.
tyres, wipers, an emergency big repair contingency?
Household repairs -landlord covers but yeah maybe decorating?
Household stuff? Like tea towels, duvets, crockery, new appliances etc
Kids entertainments and treats (like the magazine you mentioned)- £20 per month, maybe?
pocket money?
Lotteries etc
Union union memberships
--Life/home insurances
Hairdressers and beauty treatments--

@tempName101

I will take your advice *@myhobbyisouting* and print out 4 months of bank statements and get busy with the highlighters!

This made me wince at the cost of printer ink. More expensive than champagne I think?

Def best to keep paper statements for bank accounts, you can still see your transactions online.

@tempName101

I will take your advice *@myhobbyisouting* and print out 4 months of bank statements and get busy with the highlighters!

Might be better to copy them into a spreadsheet. Then you can do a certain amount of sorting (and it will add up for you!)

I will take all that into account @NoSquirrels thank you!

I struggle massively with spreadsheets! I could do with an excel crash course I'm Much more comfortable with pen and paper, but this means endless scraps of paper/lists floating around!

Why have you got BT and EE? Isn't there a cheaper package to cover broadband and mobile? I think my Spotify is £10 per month, yours is £15.

The only people the only supplier to my property is BT, and I recently downgraded my phone and they told me that EE are now owned by BT, and that I am on the cheapest available internet deal 🤷‍♀️.