Critique my Budget!

[kravestix]

After essentials which includes bills (direct Debits, mortgage, gas and electric, insurance, tax, etc.), food and transport, we have £507 left a month.

£100 Emergency Savings
£50 Monthly Spends (to include, car repairs, mots, DIY, barbers, clothes for DC)
£100 Holidays
£50 Days Out
£80 Chrisrmas and Birthdays
£50 My personal Spends
£50 DH personal Spends
£25 DC Savings

=505

Does this seem OK? Are there things I'm missing? Obviously I wish we had a bit more available but this is what we've got to play with.

£80 for birthdays and Xmas seems high given the small budget. £50 for car repair doesn't seem very high. A new tire for us is £150.

I also think, given the small budget I'd be skipping kids savings in favour of your own, and dropping days out etc, until there was a buffer of a few months' salary saved.

Also holidays, that's essentially 10% of your total take home. I'd skip that for a while and again add it to the general savings pot. You don't need £1200 to have a decent UK holiday if you visit family, air B&B or camp.

How many DC do you have and what age are they? £50 for kids clothes, DIY stuff, mot and barbers seems really low to me. Kids clothes won't cost much if your DC is still a baby but it won't go far if you have a teenager

No childcare costs eg holiday clubs or kids'hobbies like swimming lessons if they are young or phones if they are older?

@BigPyjamas

Also holidays, that's essentially 10% of your total take home. I'd skip that for a while and again add it to the general savings pot. You don't need £1200 to have a decent UK holiday if you visit family, air B&B or camp.

10% of our total take home is about £285. We have 5 children between us so Birthdays, Christmases and Holidays can be quite expensive. £80 per month for Christmas and Birthdays was really the minimum amount I calculated but I definitely see your points! Thanks.

@BigPyjamas

£80 for birthdays and Xmas seems high given the small budget. £50 for car repair doesn't seem very high. A new tire for us is £150.

I also think, given the small budget I'd be skipping kids savings in favour of your own, and dropping days out etc, until there was a buffer of a few months' salary saved.

Definitely see your point about days out though and upping the monthly Spends and emergency savings.

Are you paying your car and home insurance monthly? It would be cheaper to save towards the annual premium every month and pay this as a lump sum. Otherwise you are paying interest on top.

@Comedycook

How many DC do you have and what age are they? £50 for kids clothes, DIY stuff, mot and barbers seems really low to me. Kids clothes won't cost much if your DC is still a baby but it won't go far if you have a teenager

We have one DC who lives with us and DH has 4 DC who stay with us but live with their DM. The £50 Monthly Spends is just to clothe our 1 DC and barbers for DH and DC. Car repairs for both our cars but DH is a mechanic so only parts and no labour need paying for.

@marplemead

Are you paying your car and home insurance monthly? It would be cheaper to save towards the annual premium every month and pay this as a lump sum. Otherwise you are paying interest on top.

Yes we are. Have never been able to previously pay yearly as no lump sum available. It's only now we have more money spare as DC is getting funded Nursery hours.

@RainingZen

No childcare costs eg holiday clubs or kids'hobbies like swimming lessons if they are young or phones if they are older?

Have already factored in Nursery as part of the bills. And would like to start paying for swimming lessons for DC soon so will need to find out cost and work that in somehow.

I find its all the unexpected things which are so difficult. So for example, the kettle breaks, the washing machine breaks, your kid gets nits and you need the expensive solution to deal with it, they lose their pe kit etc, a friend has some bad news and you need to send flowers etc etc. Just life shit really!

@Comedycook

I find its all the unexpected things which are so difficult. So for example, the kettle breaks, the washing machine breaks, your kid gets nits and you need the expensive solution to deal with it, they lose their pe kit etc, a friend has some bad news and you need to send flowers etc etc. Just life shit really!

Those are the types of things I was hoping to cover with the £50 Monthly Spends. Well, apart from big appliance breakages, that would come out of our emergency savings of £100 per month. So the £50 monthly Spends would cover small appliances, nits, any kind of prescription charges, bulbs, batteries, clothes for DC, barbers, car repairs, new litter tray, etc. But I'm concerned that £50 per month isn't quite enough to put aside.

Yes I think £50 won't be enough for this stuff

Monthly spends are too low, service and mot alone is £200, if you need a couple of tyres or brakes that's your annual budget nothing left for the barber, clothes or diy, what if you have an appliance break?

I would cut back on Christmas and birthdays and holidays, and put into a general fund, if there's money for a holiday or bigger gifts at the end of the year all well and good otherwise you cut back

@Comedycook

Yes I think £50 won't be enough for this stuff

What sort of amount do you think would be better? It's hard working out how much you'll need for that kind of stuff because it's just completely random one off stuff. Some months you might not need it at all and then one month, as is typical, the car will need a new part, one of us will need antibiotics or DC will need new school shoes, then the microwave will break!

I would suggest buying a set of clippers for the hair, I saved at least a thousand pounds

I think £50 pcm to cover all that is definitely not enough.

I’d up it to £100 by putting the whole ‘days out’ budget in there - you get days out if you don’t need it for other things. You’ve already got a generous holiday budget.

Personally I’d cut you and DH down to £40 a month. Don’t save for the DC, you can’t afford to. And probably save less for ‘emergencies’ e.g. £75 a month to give you more wiggle room.

@gogohm

I would suggest buying a set of clippers for the hair, I saved at least a thousand pounds

DH normally does DC's hair but DH won't let me touch his hair with the clippers after last time I did it! But tbh, he hasn't had it cut for over 6 months, he likes it long. And the barbers is only £10 for DH. So maybe £20 a year total for barbers with the amount of times he actually gets it cut!

What sort of amount do you think would be better? It's hard working out how much you'll need for that kind of stuff because it's just completely random one off stuff. Some months you might not need it at all and then one month, as is typical, the car will need a new part, one of us will need antibiotics or DC will need new school shoes, then the microwave will break!

The thing is, they’re not all completely unpredictable one offs.

You KNOW your DC will need school shoes/other shoes/clothes X times per year. Work out how much that is a year, divide by 12.

How much do tires cost you, the MOT, etc? Divide by 12.

And so on. If you don’t spend it one month it’s in the pot when you need it.

It’s not that the expenses aren’t predictable- you know they’ll happen, or something similar, you just don’t know when exactly. But you can have an educated guess that your fridge is 10 years old so more likely than not to pack up, or whatever.

Seems ok, tho I’d lose child savings a bit, and re allocate to emergency fund.
Given things being tough, might d and g be good for appliances?
If you have the cash fine, if you don’t then it’s an option.
My rule is if it’s paid for itself, and you can save £10 a month to replace great, if not it’s bad.
Days out, do many of them?
Another consideration.
Recently retired and my budget reduced ( early retirement), I don’t do personal money as such ( cat and I), varies as to other stuff.
Do save the change which is about £10 a month, hol money ( tho last year paid for car serving and a couple of other things) family abroad.
Hope these may be helpful

I know it's a nightmare!

I do my budget slightly differently to yours. Once my bills and direct debits go out, I take my remaining money and divide by the number of weeks in the month that I need it to last for. Then I try to underspend each week to give myself a bit of a buffer.

I guess if you're putting money in savings, you could aim for £50 with a view to using savings if you're really stuck. It's the same principle I guess.

@Nsky

Seems ok, tho I’d lose child savings a bit, and re allocate to emergency fund. Given things being tough, might d and g be good for appliances? If you have the cash fine, if you don’t then it’s an option. My rule is if it’s paid for itself, and you can save £10 a month to replace great, if not it’s bad. Days out, do many of them? Another consideration. Recently retired and my budget reduced ( early retirement), I don’t do personal money as such ( cat and I), varies as to other stuff. Do save the change which is about £10 a month, hol money ( tho last year paid for car serving and a couple of other things) family abroad. Hope these may be helpful

What's d and g?

I have also applied for another job which will get us another £480 to play with but I'm not sure I actually want to do it. But I can't deny the money would be great. Do you think this budget seems workable without having more money?

Domestic and general

Nosquirrels , saving for child is wise, maybe £15 or £10, just needs to be re thought.
Like OP and DH, £50 each is a nice idea, tho may not be needed every month, as I said I do save the change.
Realised after hol has spent too much , and then had to pay off weekly ( used credit card as easier abroad) as got paid weekly., seemed the ideal solution, it was!
Paid for some nice meal out and stuff, and see it as ‘free’ money tho it’s not.
If both do it great ,