Budgeting

[NotMyCat]

Long story but I'm consolidating debt and taking out a mortgage so I'm going to be debt free (almost) for the first time in a LONG time and I want to keep it that way! And also have savings

This is my budget, can you spot anything wrong/missing? The e cig stays, I don't drink so it's my only vice
The £100pm savings is to cover MOT/service for my car and emergencies
My wage varies so I may be able to put more aside

Council tax 125
Cat insurance 38 (he's old..)
Gas and electric 65
Netflix and Amazon 15
PRA 50 (debt)
Capquest 30 (debt)
Mortgage £400
Car tax 10
Water 20
BT internet/phone 30
Denplan and TV license 30
Car insurance 35
Contents insurance 10

£900
£100 savings

£1000pm total

£300
Food (£200pm) , cat food/litter (30pm) , petrol (40pm), e cig (30pm) £300pm

Total £1300pm

Wage - £1300 worst case scenario to no limit but usually around £1600pm

Clothing, footwear.
Non-edible groceries - laundry powder, cleaning products, etc.
Mobile phone.
Leisure & Fitness - swimming, yoga etc.
Pension & Investments.

@nannynick

Clothing is going to have to be out of anything left over - I don't NEED anything, so it will just be replacement tights/underwear etc as required

Non edible groceries included in the food cost, I occasionally do a giant Wilko/home bargains £20 haul which lasts months which I can add in (i am a hot soapy water cleaning fan)

Mobile phone - n/a it's a business contract one and I don't pay

Leisure and fitness - none, unable to due to health condition at present, this may change in future

Pension comes out of my wage

So if I add an extra £20pm on for the Wilko/clothes fund...

Does your property have a garden? Will you need equipment to maintain that?

Does your property have communal grounds, or communal owned road, that sort of thing?

How long till the debts are cleared, that £80 a month will be useful.

@nannynick yes a garden but it's maintained, and I've included that as part of the mortgage costs so no equipment needed
I do want to have a new fence eventually so I'm aiming to save what I can

@ancientgran a while.. the £30pm will be the first one. However if I can save a lump sum they are likely to accept a final offer. There's no interest on them and they have already defaulted hence why not consolidating them

Building insurance?

@Badbadbunny included in mortgage! Really I should have put mortgage + maintenance

Checked my payslips and over 3 years I've only ever had one pay day which was worst case scenario of £1300
Last month was £1865, month before was £1670

Looks pretty good, how about Haircuts? Birthday & Christmas presents? Boiler service?

@TwoBlueFish ah knew I had forgot something
Hair is £40, twice a year
Don't do birthdays or Christmas
Boiler serviced recently, I should dig out the bill..

So including the haircuts, clothes, cleaning stuff from Wilko I'm getting it all totalled at
£1350pm which includes £100pm savings

The budget tool www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/everyday-money/budgeting/budget-planner?source=mas here is really good. Lists everything you can think of, then tells you how you are doing.

I would have a separate account for your wages to go into and then use your current account for the bills and then have a 3rd account for shopping, petrol and sundries

so I would set up an account for your wages to be paid into

then into the bills account (possibly your old current account) pay in the amount to cover all the bills for the month - this will cover all the direct debits and ny standing orders to cover bills.

then set up a third account for you to have as an account for you to pay money into to cover your shopping and petrol and sundries but instead of paying this in months you pay it in weekly on a Friday.

So for example your food, pet food, ecigs etc is £300 per month - but put £70 per week not this account

that way you only have to wait until Friday until you pay yourself again and not an entire month, which can make it much easier to budget

sorry forgot to add

so when you get extra pay you just leave this in the bank and don't touch it as an extra savings pot

@ivykaty44 I kind of do that I guess! When we aren't in a pandemic I usually withdraw X amount for the week for food, petrol, cat and pay everything cash

I have a separate account already so I'm going to look at making it work for me

My debt was mostly well, debt and then spiralling interest charges meaning I was only just scraping the minimum payments, so I'll actually be £450pm better off with the new budget than I am at the minute

I use Monzo as you can have different pots and can have direct debits come out of that pot so you will always know that you have it covered. I found it really helpful to have the various pots there so it’s not showing on your main balance.

Do you have a buffer savings amount in mind? You could put any extra in that until you’ve got your target and then funnel it into the next pot and top up as you need to withdraw.

I’ve found with budgeting that I need to give myself ‘fun’ money so that I don’t get fed up and jack it all in.

Once you have enough of a buffer you could pay for insurance yearly so that it would save you a bit. Also I use top cash back religiously now and just from switching insurance/utilities got close to £500 in a year.

Oh also congratulations! It’s fantastic that you’ve got this far - I know how hard it is to drag yourself out of debt!

@LeroyJenkinssss sadly it's just consolidating it really but it means no extortionate interest charges or overdraft fees etc etc

No target savings wise in mind really but I have a few bits I want to do around the house which are looking to be around £1500 - 2000
New blinds
Fence/hedge
Shower door/new cubicle
Built in wardrobe

Eventually I would like to redo the bathroom and kitchen so I guess that's a long term one but I don't know how people usually finance that? (Clueless...)

So how much is the building insurance ? Loads of people who did it this way paid well over the odds for it.

@userxx it's an apartment so included in the fee I pay for the management company, I can't change it

Is there a ground rent?

[quote NotMyCat]@userxx it's an apartment so included in the fee I pay for the management company, I can't change it [/quote]

Fair enough 👍

@Gazelda yes, included in budget. It's something ridiculous like £7pm

Didn't realise cat insurance was so high!

@userxx he has a history of suddenly deciding to get very unwell about 5 minutes after the vet shuts
The last bill was 3k so I'm v pleased I got insurance! He's older too and I've had a lot of claims

Don’t discount what you’ve done which is addressing it and planning forward - lots and lots get stuck in a downward spiral. The fact that you’re actively planning a budget is excellent.

By the sounds of it you’ve got a handle on most things - the main thing is squirrelling away the excess so you don’t fritter it and can save for the things you want.

Yeah I want to be able to do some home improvements so that's my motivation!
I don't spend anything on entertainment except for Netflix, don't drink, don't go out... all mostly debt related