How do you budget your earnings?

[Hello55]

Hi just wanted some advice on how you budget your money like what percentage of your income do you put aside for things? Do you have categories like hobbies, bills, savings, investments, treating yourself, holidays etc? If so could you share your category headings please?
Also do you put aside money for your children if so what percentage in separate accounts for them?

Wanted some advice as I feel a bit clueless on how to budget money!

Tia X

I go on what we can afford rather than % so it depends how much money you have to burn? Otherwise im dictated to by food cost, bill cost and so on.

Thank you that's very organised! X

@Hello55 your list sounds very similar to my spreadsheet! There's a lot of detail & movement. It's not always perfect but it keeps us on track

We have pots like this;
bills & food 25%
mortgage 20%
savings & holidays 30%
Our pocket money about 20%

DDs come out.

With what's left
£200 savings (this is for car related stuff, Christmas, birthdays, holidays and emergencies)

£400 food and fuel

That leaves around £300 a month for everything else (clothes, shoes, days out, occasional take away etc.)

It's just me and teen dd.

It depends on your circumstances, which you have given no details about. What would be the right answer for someone who is currently renting and saving for a mortgage deposit, or a couple with two preschoolers and big childcare bills would be very different to someone who is mortgage free and already has savings and a decent pension.

As well as the Moneysaving Expert budget planner, the financial flowchart is a good place to start as it gives you a to do list to work through that will help you decide where your priorities should lie.

https://ukpersonal.finance/flowchart/

I have a bills account , each month I tot up my essential costs and transfer that in .
I then transfer into a spends account the amount I allocate for treats / socials / clothes etc
What's left is divided into long term savings ( I have an emergency fund and large pension fund ) . I have 3 holidays planned next year so I have an individual pot for each trip to cover cost of holiday , spending money , dog care . Once that holiday is over I put any leftover spending money into the next holiday pot .
It sounds complicated but works for me .

I do this to the extreme -zero based budget so by the day before pay day there is nothing left.

The key trick is a direct debits account, a spending account like g term savings and annual saving (hols) Xmas

Salary goes into one account and these come out of that:

Savings
Household Bills (my share)
Food and household
Personal bills (gym, car phone union etc)
Spending

Leftover classed as Spending transferred to starling into and various pots:
Every month:
Clothes
Beauty and hair
Petrol and car fund
Gifts
Dog
Amazon prime
Wood
Miscellaneous spending (left in main account around £200)

Then any additional is paid into a general saving pot and distributed between:
Xmas
Emergency fund
Husband birthday
Holidays

I now have around 4k in starling pots.

I won't give amounts as it won't be useful but my pots in order of priority include; holiday, leisure (which does all leisurely things including birthdays, clothes come out of this too), contingency, Christmas, car, house. DH and I also have some personal spends.

We save a very small amount for DC, I finish paying my student loans in a couple of years, that's a fair chunk which I plan to then use to save for uni for them pretty rapidly.

(Oh and bills and food obviously! Bills are the most expensive, but food technically falls behind holiday, priorities )