making salary last all month

[birtyditch]

Hi Everyone,

After a lot of procrastinating, I have finally got round to starting to make a proper budget. I am sick of running short of money every month.

I get paid on the 28th of each month, and I can see that I regularly start to struggle around 20th-22nd of each month, effectively leaving me with about a week where I am worrying and scrimping.

Does anyone else live like this, and if so, what stage of the month do you start to feel low on funds? How have you overcome this?

@birtyditch

this could be a start?

I make sure all my bills/essentials (e.g. savings standing orders) come out of my account just after I’m paid. I use savings pots for essentials I know I’ll need to pay through the month, like groceries, petrol, parking for work days, school lunches etc - all of these are topped up by standing orders the day after pay day. Then my ‘fun’ money is what’s left over. When it’s gone, it’s gone.

I do similar to @FloraBotticelli. It always gets close at the end of the month but I do take out savings as soon as I get paid and have other pots for big expenses like holidays, car insurance etc which I pay all at once to save money.

Do a through budget including routine (bills food travel and things that stay roughly the same month to month) and non routine hair cuts, clothes, birthday, dentist, pet bills, holidays, days out, beauty, entertainment, school trips, parties and events, home maintenance, garden , health and unforeseen
for the non routine or really is guess work and some I lump together like home & garden / clothe beauty & hair/ children/ entertainmen

if you are running out because you do not earn enough you will have to tighten the belt and sure you do not over spend on one aspect

if you are running out because you are over spending on certain aspects this will help control it

once I have budget it use saving pots in starling or monzo to stash away money each month so I know I always have £100 for petrol for a gift

I pay all my direct debits from one account and have just enough in there to cover them and all my spending from monzo

also things I get caught out by each year like car insurance and fire wood delivery!

eg
Rent and bill £1000
food 500
travel (car petrol or train)300

Non routine
gifts 25
christmas 75
clothes hair and beauty 75
home 50
pets 25
entertainemnt 75
Holidays 100

I use YNAB it costs £75 for a year but it's great

it has taken to my fifties to feel in control of my money. YNAB has really worked for me too

You need to first know where your money going. We have a spreadsheet with all of our bills and incomings.
Go through the last 3 months of bank statements to see where all your money is going.

Make sure you include annual costs in your budget. The first quarter of the year we have 6 annual costs come out of our account which combined come to about £1000 so we know that as we start each year we need a surplus in our account. You might want to set up a separate annual cost account where you transfer in 1/12th of the cost each month to cover that bill when it comes through.

On the flip side any regular costs need to be accounted for too. Multiply any daily costs by 365, working day costs by 250 and weekly by 52 then divide each by 12 to get how much they cost you each month. It can help show how small regular costs can make a dint in the budget.

If you can move as much of the costs to the first week of the month. Get a decent shop at the start of the month topping up cupboard essentials. We don't do it on a rota but roughly in a 4 week period we do one shop about 25-30% than usual, 2 usual shops and one shop about 25% less than usual. It all averages out over the month but means we can get an easier week when needed too.

I also used Monzo pots and it ensured I always had money. Split your money into pots and set the pot to unlock on a Monday each week with your weeks allowance.

This always used to happen to me. I solved it by having a better budgeting discipline and also analysing my expenditure.

for instance - I thought I spent £150 a month on groceries - I actually spent £250 (it was a while ago!)

A crucial thing was setting budgets for things like personal spending, so I have £200 a month to fritter away on coffees etc (was less when I earned less).

Get 3 months of bank statements and go through them line by line. You’ll soon find your hidden spending.

I also have separate accounts for bills, personal spending, groceries and Monzo for pots and savings. That helps me not use one allocation of money for something else.

Once all the bills have been paid, I give myself a budget per week - some weeks I may go slightly over, so it just means the next week I have less.