Come budget with me?

[CrazyCatsAndKittens]

I’m really rubbish at budgeting and tend to overspend after pay day and then be on a tight budget for the rest of the month. I’d like to even things out. Does anyone want to join me?

I watched some of The Budget Mom You tube videos which are great, even if she is very shouty.

Sorry I can't offer any advice, but I need some myself for the same reasons 😫

Hi, last year I started using YNAB and it has 100% turned my finances around.

I'd strongly recommend giving it a go

Have you scheduled most of your Direct Debits and Bills close to your pay day? Then you know how much you have left to play with. I then work out a daily average of the remainder and try to keep inside it. There are days I dont spend anything which means I start saving.

Thank you!

I tried using YNAB before but it was too complicated for me. One problem I have is that my income varies a fair bit month to month. I also have a lot of unexpected costs with the kids, for example this month I needed to buy a lot of clothes. Summer is the worst, I always run out of money in the summer holidays.

I think I need to try and save a little every month for things like birthdays/Christmas, clothes and shoes and I think I need to be a lot more realistic about my budget and not just stick my head in the sand.

I have 2 jobs and sometimes I do extra freelance work, so my pay comes in at different times of the month. Last year, I did one freelance job and they forgot to pay me and it was so stressful constantly checking my bank account for the money to come in.

My bills and rent go out after I get paid for my main job, but it's the rest of it that is so complicated. I have three kids, so sometimes they suddenly need new shoes a week before pay day. Some months I have a lot of pay and I just spend extra and then I'm screwed the next month if I get paid less and don't have the funds to cover it. This is really why I need a budget to level things off.

@CrazyCatsAndKittens I discovered the budget mom a couple of months ago and have been working my way up to setting up a proper budget each month. This is that month! Husband gets paid on the 24th so I'm using the pay cycle 24th May - 23rd June as my month of June.
I'm happy to join you in your budgeting journey!
Best of luck to you :)

I've tried YNAB and similar and I could never really get on with them either.

What has completely changed our financial position and attitude to money is Monzo and spreading our money into pots.

I have separate pots set up for every single thing. Mortgage. Council Tax. Car MOT Oct 2021. Christmas. Birthdays. Holiday April 2022. School holidays 2021. Weekly budget May, week 1/week 2 etc.

Basically, anything happening in life that will need money - whether a regular bill or one off holiday - I have a pot for it.

On pay days I fill up all our regular bills pots with the required amount. Then I put each weekly budget into its own pot (for food etc).

Then I look at each of my other pots and spread the remainder out - usually half of what's left goes into a catch all, rainy day, general/emergency savings - which with Monzo, you need to give 24 hours notice to withdraw which is handy.

Then the other 50% will go where needed, so this month I've put it all into April 2022's holiday pot as everything more immediate is looking reasonably healthy but I still have a fair balance left to pay on that which I want to get cracking on.

Every Monday I take that weeks usual budget from its own pot, back into our current account, from where it can be spent. When that weeks money runs out, it's tough. If we're irresponsibile with money that week and we're skint by Thursday then we suffer till the next Mondays 'Pay day'.

If we have something coming up and I can see that our Monzo pot for it is looking a little low then I know well in advance that I need to pull my finger out and do some overtime, specifically to top up that one pot.

I really couldn't recommended it enough, it sounds silly to make such grand claims but it's literally been life changing for us.

@RaiseTheBeastie I can't recommend monzo enough either, for the same reasons! I have pots for council tax/rent/utilities etc and wherever I pay by DD, the payment is set to come out of that pot.
I still found that things like our food shop money was running out around mid month though, so then inevitably we were bouncing bills in order to put food on the table. That's where the budget mom has really helped me sit down and think about exactly what I'm doing with our money.

I like your idea of separating it down even further though and giving yourself a weekly 'payday' for things like food! I've made a few changes this month but if those don't help I'll definitely try that going forward. Thanks for the tip!

Should also add that Direct Debits and Standing Orders can also be paid directly from the pot of your choice.

So when I put £46 into my 'Kids clubs' pot for instance - I just put that in and forget about it. Then 2 x Standing orders for football subs come out and a DD for swimming club, directly from the pot...but I don't need to move money any where for those.

The only thing you can't do is spend directly from a pot on your Debit card.

My husband does this thing that I thought worked well.

He takes off an amount for loan repayments and basic bills from his monthly wages, then he divides the remaining amount into 30.

This is what he limits himself to spending each day. If he wants to spend more he will save a few days (without spending) then use those days all at once. But he doesn't spend ahead, so doesn't borrow ahead to purchase things.

This means he usually breaks even at the end of the month.

He's very methodical and I like this way of working out spending. Unlike me, I swing between ooh that a lot I can spend all, to that's not enough I'm not spending again until next month.

@rhij86 I found the same when I first started with Monzo. I felt happy all our bills were paid but we'd still then blast through our 'normal' budget money after 2-3 weeks and have a miserable ten days or so before payday.

I think it was on here I originally read the tip to set up weekly budget pots and it really works well. There have been a few times where we've thought oh, we'll get a couple of bottles of wine and a takeaway tonight (Saturday) but because we've been loose with money that week, we've run out so can't (sadface) 😂.

It makes us much more careful and aware of what we spend by default. But at least if we do go back to our old ways and piss our money away on something, there's only until the next Monday to 'suffer' through rather than half the month!

@RaiseTheBeastie yes that's definitely a good way to be! I'm trying so hard to turn things around in terms of our finances, and I'm getting there (very slowly) but little tips like this make all the difference :)

You can do a budget using the lowest amount your likely to receive a month, anything above that I'd take as a bonus... Unless you work more when big bills are due, tax, insurance etc?

In our house I save for the car stuff and Xmas all year round so I'm not stuck short in those months.

I agree with Combat. Budget based on the "base amount" you will get in a month and then as other money comes in divide it into pots eg short term saving /spends and longer term saving.

The trick is to shove the money into different pots as soon as it comes in, so you don't think you have lots when really it should have been allocated for things.

I agree with putting money into pots as soon as you get paid. This is the first year I have been putting money aside for Christmas and I was pleasantly surprised how much I have already. I have been given a promotion and currently working out how much extra I can put in my pots. I have also opened a triple interest account that can not be touched for a year. I am hoping to have saved £2k by the end of the year (fingers crossed and everything)

@YorkshireIndie good luck!

I worry I'm trying to tackle too much all at once, I'm trying to pay down debts, build up an emergency fund (don't currently have one at all) and also put money aside for things like birthdays, Christmas etc.

Playing catch up on bills and debts after being made redundant and unfortunately can't stretch the money to cover everything I want

@rhij86 I hope you do not think I am bragging. It really might not happen. I know it is American but I found the Dave Ramsey baby steps program a good step by step. I am still on step one - save £1k

This is the first time in years that I am not living in my overdraft

@YorkshireIndie oh no don't worry I absolutely don't think you're bragging! I used to get very bitter and jealous about anyone who was in a better position financially than me, but I've come to realise all that's doing is hurting me. Everyone's journey is totally unique and every success should be celebrated, whether that's paying off a £300 debt or having savings of 30k!

I've looked into Dave Ramsey too. I'm sort of following his stuff. I've set up minimum payments towards my debts to stop my credit score etc getting any worse (not that it could be much worse!!) and then any extra pennies are going towards an emergency fund. I started at the end of March, and have managed to get £175 in there so far, through things like facebook sales.

Once that 1K target is reached, I'll move any extra pennies on to snowballing my debts.

Dave Ramsay has given me a good structure to follow in terms of what order to tackle my goals in, The Budget Mom has helped me in terms of learning to manage my money better and take a good hard look at exactly where my money is going every month, and how to make it work better for me.

Do standing orders, including saving, works well.
Just recently decided to retire early, lucky that I can, getting strict on food budget, not before.
Feels good

@Nsky that's the ultimate goal, well done you! You must have worked really hard to get yourself to the point where you can retire early. Congrats :)

The biggest tip I can give you is to think of everything you need to spend for the year and ensure you put money aside when you have a better month. Things like kids shoes should never be a surprise, for instance and set money aside for when the kids need clothes etc if money is tight but secondhand

Life has been kind, I’ve been lucky.
It feels so much better when you manage what you have, money wise ,tho it requires planning, and a strong will at times

I'm currently on a free trial for YNAB and I'm loving it. I've been zero budgeting for the past year which I think has helped me understand the basics and now I'm going a bit further. I'm still figuring out the true expenses stuff. Normally I just chuck an amount in a savings account and hope for the best.

I tried using YNAB before but it was too complicated for me. One problem I have is that my income varies a fair bit month to month. I also have a lot of unexpected costs with the kids, for example this month I needed to buy a lot of clothes. Summer is the worst, I always run out of money in the summer holidays.

This is 100% the thing that YNAB is genius for, though. Smoothing out variable income and making sure there are no ‘unexpected’ expenses.

It does have a fairly steep learning curve but once you get it, it’s awesome, really. There’s a lot of help around for it too from committed users.