How often do you budget?

[Pieceofcakes]

How do you do it? Every month and check every week, readjust if needed, etc.

Have different pots?

Monitor every day?

Really stick to it?

I seem to end in an overdraft every month? This month has mainly been to repairs, replacing broken things, etc, a bit of entertainment for the kids. I don’t have a credit card, don’t buy much clothes, don’t eat out or do take aways much either. Getting the bus to work, taking packed lunch.

I have a page on my phones notes for expenditure, with my income and a list of all my outgoings (including dates and amount).
Then when payday comes, I put the total of outgoings into a different bank account and everything is paid via direct debit or standing order and that is solely what that account is used for.
The remainder of my wage, I can use for other things and know my bills are covered for the month.
I really recommend a separate account for all of your bills and outgoings!
I’ve been doing this for years and it really is helpful

I use YNAB, which is a zero-based digital
envelope system, and check it every day, usually more than once, and adjust where needed. Everything is funded and accounted for in digital pots, I have around 50 currently, but the money is physically in our joint account and a couple of different savings vehicles. Every time we get money, salary, interest, child benefit, whatever, it’s assigned to categories within YNAB.

I create a monthly budget then every few days I'll go in and tick off expected expenditure (ie direct debits for bills, council tax, etc) and allowable spends against my budget (ie food, fuel, clothes, etc). Then I can see where it is going, what I've got left, manage anything unexpected. I generally have already moved any savings to the relevant place which I do as soon as I've been paid. My budget is generally the same every month but I'll do an overall adjustment if I get a payrise or if the bills change.

I also use notes on my phone.
I have all money going into account A, I leave enough in to pay all direct debits. I then move some to account B for savings and the rest to account C this is for everything else (food, transport etc).
I also have a set food budget. I plan all meals to stick to this, bulk buy, buy more when on offer etc. Which helps me stick to my budget.
Planning ahead too. So dt are going into sixth-form in September with no school uniform so I know they'll need extra clothes so I've started buying them some in order to spread the cost. Same with planning ahead for Birthdays and Christmas, I have a list and budget and spread them out throughout the year.
Everytime something changes eg a bill goes up I reevaluate my spending. I also look at when my income increases what do I do with it, mainly it goes on the increased cost of living but I also increase my mortgage overpayments too if possible.

I have a note in my phone which lists it all out but I do a monthly budget the day I get paid.

In -2750
CB-280
Benefits-177

Total: 3,207

Rent 1400
Electricity 120
Life insurance 40
Internet/tv/2 phones 86
Bin charge 23
Apple 20
Disney 10
DS club 25

Total 1,724
Leftover 1,483

1483 goes to
300 food
240 fuel
200 savings
50 kids clubs/school trips etc
100 treats/coffees/takeaways
100 clothes/shoes
50 birthdays/gifts
50 prescriptions/medicines
150 holidays/trips (either as a payment off a booking or as savings)

is generally how I work it, it can vary in savings amounts and holiday amounts etc.

After bills I divide the remainder by 30.
That gives me a daily spending limit, money not spent on any day (including small change) gets transferred onto credit card debt or savings.
budget checked daily discussed every 2-3 days.

Everyone tells you to budget. but sticking to a budget isn’t easy. I struggle with unforeseen costs, then I take something out of a pot meant for something else to cover it, then I’m short. Or because of my memory, I forget if I’ve already spent a lot of money. And then I spend money I don’t have and am short. I don’t think it’s an easy answer

I review my general budget probably yearly. This includes pots for things that don't come up each month. I also set aside amounts for general spending. Whilst general spending varies from month to month I have a reasonable feel for whether I'm spending a lot one month or not.

If you're in your overdraft every month you are not sufficiently budgeting for irregular known expenses and giving yourself enough of a pot for "things that come up".

It depends on my financial situation. If I'm in a position of steady incomings and outgoings I don't always check my accounts from week to week, month to month.
If our incomings or outgoings have changed I'm then more vigilant until I can be confident that our budget is working for us.
When we were saving for a deposit for our house this was another time when I was more vigilant with finances.

I was made redundant in Feb so since then I have been paying more attention to our outgoings to make sure that we have everything covered. We have a spreadsheet with all of our expenses in including annual expenses averaged to per month. I have been going through out outgoings each month to check that what we have accounted for shopping for example is what we have spent and so on.

For us step 1 is always a clear understanding of what is coming in and what are the costs of our key bills.
Step 2 is how much we can assign to the essentials that have flexibility e.g. food and general spending. What tolerance is there for this and do we have to micromanage these costs to stay in budget or is there a bit more flexibility in the budget
Step 3 is then working out the special stuff how can days or evenings out, birthdays, Christmas etc can be accommodated.

I think it's important to include the annual costs in monthly budgets at the other end being mindful of the small daily costs that can add up over the course of a year.

Thank you all. I think we need different accounts, also the notes on the phone will probably help too.

How many pots/ accounts people and have and what do you call them? Eg:

Groceries and bills: includes petrol, transport for kids, school lunches,

Holidays & entertainment, birthdays
House repairs
Kids education
Kids clothes

I get paid every two weeks, so each time I get paid - I have a separate budget.

We are retired (early).

Monthly I record our outgoings and compare to expected.
Quarterly I check our balances (savings / pensions).
Once a year I do a kind of lifetime cashflow type thing, checking our annual outgoings Vs income, how much of the total savings / pensions we have drawn / expect to draw each year, check we are not drawing too much or too little.

To start with I'd just have one additional account, daily spend and extras. Get yourself comfortable with knowing how much you need to cover the daily stuff and how much you can put to one side.
Give that a few months then you can decide how to start splitting up the stuff to one side. You might want 4 pots you might just want to separate out "extras" - holidays, birthdays, clothes and educational from "house repairs".