I'm trying to get my finances in order this year after years of irresponsible spending.
I am married with 2 children. DH is self employed and we split bills but I earn more than he does so I cover our childcare bill alone and we save separately, so I am trying to save for an emergency fund for us and for holidays (camping in UK only so never that expensive and we use our own camping gear) and DH saves for home improvements as he can buy a lot of materials through his work anyway (carpernter).
Monthly income after tax and pension £3000
First budget, joint account
£750 pm (each so £1500 pm)
£1080 Mortgage
£140 council tax
£75 electricity
£50 shared life insurance
£35 Water
£30 Internet
£50 to cover annual expenses of home insurance and chimney sweep.
Leaves a £600 a year surplus for unexpected expenses or price increases.
We have solar panels with a battery and an electric car so our heating is a mix of the fire which DH brings home free firewood for and electric radiators so our electricity and heating bills are very cheap luckily.
Second budget, my personal bills account
£200 pm
£18 professional union
£10 Sim only contract
£9 personal life insurance
Annual expenses (158pm worth)
£750 car insurance (recent renewal was £600)
£190 car tax
£120 professional registration fee
£95 Amazon Prime
£800 cover car MOT, service and maintenance
Third budget (remaining £2050)
£500 childcare
£235 car payment
£30 swimming lessons for DD1
£25 ballet lessons for DD1
£300 groceries
£200 miscellaneous spending in a month
£500 emergency fund savings
£260 general savings (clothes, annual passes and holidays).
DH covers his own bills equivalent to my personal account and he pays for karate lessons for DD1 too. DD2 is only 2 and does not attend any activities yet.
We get £170 a month of child benefit and we save this in a separate account to cover all birthday and Christmas presents for DDs and all family too.
I work 4 days a week (FT in 4 days so long days) and DH works 5 days and I invest in annual passes so we don't actually need that much miscellaneous spending each month as we don't actually spend very much on our days off and weekends as we usually visit friends and family and rarely do expensive days out.
DH doesn't really contribute to savings but he does pay for any home improvements and will usually do one big food shop a month so my £300 grocery allowance only needs to cover 3 weeks really.
This is currently all theory as I have been spending very badly on silly things that we don't need. I buy far too many clothes which I have more than enough of for me and DH and my girls are fortunate to have lots of cousins and friends who pass down a lot so I really don't need to spend that much at all on clothes. I have also been funding a skincare addiction which I have more than enough to cover this entire year so have banned myself from buying any more this month and I'm hoping I can follow the above plan and actually save some money this year as I know we do actually earn quite well. Does it seem reasonable?