If you budget

[Budgetting]

Do you stick to your budget? Eg

Budget for groceries but run out of some things before; do you go and to up or make with what you have until the next weekly shopping?

Budget for outings £100 but more invitations come up. Do you say not?

similar with clothes, sat budget £100 but found thing’s which are more expensive.

Basically do you stick to it? I feel like you have to be thinking of money all the time, keeping an eye on the bank an expenditure?

Any advice would be appreciated. Trying to save some money.

I'm more flexible with the food shop budget, sometimes I borrow from next week's food pot or just dip into the discretionary funds in our current account. (I really need to stop this, I feel like I spend most of my money at Aldi!)

For outings I would usually decline if we didn't have the money budgeted. Which is much easier because I'm an anti-social buggar who likes to be at home in my pjs 😁

I cook 4-5 days from scratch. I adjust the meal plan so I am within the budget. It is easier to do as I do my weekly grocery online which means I have time to adjust the total cost weeklu. It is the best thing about online groceries.
About clothes, I only replace mine and my daughters when we need to. For outings, if we don't have much spare money left, I will do pack lunch and then have coffee/tea & cakes for outings. If we have spare, we'll go for lunch instead. Yes, it does mean I need to constantly keep on the expenditures. I use one credit card to pay for groceries and outings, so it is easier to track. The harder bit is to compromise with my husband so we can stay in the budget 😆 Usually I will have to "trim" our online groceries after he's done with his order as he tends to be a bit more extravagant than me.

We stick to it because we have no choice really, if that’s what the budget is where are you getting more money from to go over the budget? Re clothes if it’s a monthly budget I’d save this months and buy it next month.
re food shopping no we make do with what’s at home in the last week/if the budget is running low.
and yes we do decline invitations to go out if we haven’t the money.

I went £20 over the grocery budget this week, it came from my personal discretionary spends.

My food shop budget is a fixed amount. Doesn't mean I spend it all in one go on one weekly shop.

I do budget for everything for the upcoming month and also put money aside each month for, eg, MOT and service and Christmas.

What's left over is mine to spend as I like. Not that you can do much with 59p

It used to be easier to budget when cash was the only option. You could see what you had left in your purse instantly. No internet required.

Thank all. We are doing weekly shopping at Aldi which saves quite a bit instead of topping up at Sainsbury’s. I do feel you really have to keep an eye all the time in it; can’t do anything spontaneous.

Maybe i need a discretionary fund. I just dig into savings if we run out of things . Probably we need another account for holidays, house repairs, etc.

Agree that grocery budget is probably the trickiest one.

I have sinking funds for things like MOT, Christmas, house repairs.

Occasionally I steal from one of them if i go over on another!

(All a huge improvement on Old Me who would have slapped it on a credit card without a second thought).

I budget for everything (using YNAB). So if I go over on one budget category I need to take the money from another budget category so that the budget balances.

I have an 'Emergency Fund' budget and I do dip into this when there are unexpected expenses, so my goal is not to use it. For more discretionary expenses I tend to leave them til the end of the month, so I can see how much I really have left. If I had a smaller grocery budget I think what I'd do is make sure to buy the big ticket items that will last the month - toiletries, frozen stuff - at the start of the month, so I could adjust how much I had available for the weekly shop. Some YNAB users have one grocery budget for each week of the month, so again you can make sure you're staying on top of it.

I think it's useful to have separate accounts for different things.

We have one joint account for monthly direct debits and food. If it gets near to the end of the month and it's getting low I cut the food shop a bit. But I do tend to stock up on things we use regularly when in offer, so I can just avoid that in the last week of the month. But I aim to roughly stick to our weekly food budget. I find it fairly easy as I do all food shopping online and get a fruit and veg box.

We have another joint account for things that have one-off payments like car service/MOT, insurance, holidays, petrol, house maintenance.

DH and I put money into both of those accounts each month, him more than me as he earns more. We keep an eye on them and can transfer between them if necessary, but generally the system seems to work.

DH and I have our own personal accounts for other things. Since the DS are mine and the dog is his, we each use our own accounts for things for them, plus for personal items for ourselves like clothes. We don't really spend money going out that much, so have no budget for that, but if we do it comes from our personal accounts.

I stick to it as much as I can. I have different jars on hyper jar for things like Christmas, birthdays and a holiday fund. I make sure to put a set amount over to savings each month and stick to a budget for food and fun.

Mines an approximation.

I use YNAB to budget.

It has a lot of flexibility- but I
Know if I overspend on groceries I have to take that out of another category in my budget.

It's great cause I can jiggle things around, whilst also being aware I can only spend a pound once.

I do try not to go over if I can avoid it and will put off a shop for a few days until the next month ticks over.

My bank account has grown with this method. I never overspend and have no debt apart from mortgage.

I budget all monthly expenses. If I go over budget somewhere then I have to spend less elsewhere. So I could go over budget with too many days out and then make up for that by doing a cheaper grocery shop towards the end of the month.

I set budgets for each spend but never stick to them . I'd like to spend more sensibly but don't have to budget . So if the allocated amount is spent I just go to the cash point Very different to someone who has to set a budget and stick to it because there literally is no spare money .

I used to be extremely tight with mine (when I had to be) and would say no to social activities/price up my groceries as I went round Tesco because I didn't have a choice! Now I just leave an additional buffer in my account each month and if it gets spent, I'll transfer less to savings the following month.

Thank you all. I think the discretionary/additional buffer is a good idea as some additional things come up; also keeping an eye and compensate on other things if you went over other ones plus having separate accounts and being realistic with the budget.

I want to get more organised but not to the point of having to measure every penny

Food I wouldn't go over budget because I would usually have something in the house I could make do with and I'm cooking for one.

Clothes I wouldn't go over budget because I have a set amount every month that I don't spend until I see something I love. I would only buy a garment to replace an item that was no longer wearable and that keeps me in check.

Outings I budget £10 a month for socialising and I never spend that but if I had the chance to go out somewhere I would absolutely blow the budget because that would be a one-off.

I use Monzo for all this and it has been transformational.

The more months you budget the more accurate it becomes.

Do you use an app? I use YNAB and
find it really useful.

I found budgeting pretty impossible when I was younger with a family, because there was always some expense it was impossible to budget for - child loses a coat, children grown out of shoes, sudden unexpected demand for a school play donation etc.

Now I'm older and on my own, budgeting is far easier. I do have to budget but can stick to it, most of my monthly expenses are set amounts anyway. Food is easier for one than a family, I rarely eat out but home cook and batch freeze everything. Sometimes top up shop for things like milk.

I don't specifically budget for yearly events eg. Christmas but I don't buy lots of presents anyway and there's usually a bit of leeway built up over the year to cover this.

Thank you. I just use excel for the moment. Most of the money is related to kids stuff like clubs, also bills and groceries.

I am trying to be more careful as before I didn’t think much and just bought what it was needed. Now we do weekly shopping in Aldi and I think it helps

So I do my budgeting in a way that I never have money in my current account

pay day comes and I have multiple pots, these are my individual pots for the month and annual bills

gas & elrctric - put in £200 a month but pay exactly what I use from monthly reading

xmas & birthday presents £45
days out/meals out £75
car insurance £25
house insurance £18
car service MOT £15
groceries £380
hairdressers £30
fuel £40
holiday £150
ISA account £600

i have direct debits monthly for
water
council tax
rent
th

these payments all come out on 1st of the month

what’s left in my account on 2nd I transfer to a savings account

through the month as I put fuel in the car or have a hair cut - I transfer the exact money back to my current account.

so if I spend less on groceries in February or July when on holiday, I’ve got more to spend at xmas. When the car needs servicing annually I have the money to pay, it’s ready and waiting.
Christmas or birthdays I use that money for presents

it works for me as I know what’s mine to spend as it’s in my savings accounts that I keep anything left over on 2nd of the month

On average yes, but with your examples, I would except the invertations and go over budget but then make sure I spent less then £100 next month to make up for it. I also try to run under budget in November and I know there will be more events over Christmas.

For food or cloths, it depends if it is needed or wanted. If it's just wanted, I might make a note of it and get it next time, but I not going to leave anyone in the family hungry or without shoes/a coat, but again might go light on wanted things next month, to make up for a month with lots of needed things.

We use an annual budget, so if food is £400 a month, as long as the average at the end of the year is that, then we spend under some months and some a little over.
Excel is brilliant as you can set up a formula to calculate this.

We also like the 2 months we don't pay the council tax, as that can cover a few mild overspends.

It has taken a few years to get the budget right especially for food and holidays and clothes.

i have pots, i move money between them but do say No