How do you Budget yourself to last the month?

Here's another alternative, albeit a strange one.

Learn to hate spending money. I know I do. I don't fritter away money on stupid things, always leaving me ample funds to pay for the big things. Apart from bills and food, some weeks go by where I hardly spend more than a tenner on myself. I hate wasting. All wasting, especially money. I'm not a scrooge and can be very generous towards mates and family, I'm just strict on myself.

Never been in debt, ever. Never been skint either. Works well.
 
regulus said:
Here's another alternative, albeit a strange one.

Learn to hate spending money. I know I do. I don't fritter away money on stupid things, always leaving me ample funds to pay for the big things. Apart from bills and food, some weeks go by where I hardly spend more than a tenner on myself. I hate wasting. All wasting, especially money. I'm not a scrooge and can be very generous towards mates and family, I'm just strict on myself.

Never been in debt, ever. Never been skint either. Works well.
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Same theory I have really, I've just always hated spending money. Means I have enough spare cash for whatever may come around, and the occasional nice purchase if I want to.
 
£900 a month pays all my bills. My monthly wage varies depending on overtime. I just take £900 from my wage and that's what I've got a month to live on . The Mrs comes out with a good wage. She buys the shopping etc.....
 
stop wasting it. if you can't help yourself, how on earth can you expect people on an internet forum to take you seriously?

you are getting a good disposable income if you have over £1k left after rent and food. try setting up direct debits that are staggered and checking your account via internet banking every other day.
 
I have two accounts, one of those has an online saver attached to it so if i'm saving short term i'll put it in there so it's harder to get a hold of. The other is my student account which I transfer some money across to each month to pay off the overdraft so that I can close it.
 
I have a spreadsheet with accurate monthly spends and predictions for ad-hoc items based on past spend. It also takes into account potential pay rise points, budgets for holidays, change in circumstances (such as my student loan payments coming to an end) etc.

Currently projects forward about 3 years and has been accurate to the penny for the last 18 months with predictions replaced by actuals on a weekly basis.
 
Hedge said:
1250 Credit card
150 Overdraft
800 Loan off Mother.
40pm Internet
40pm Mobile.
50pm Car insurance.
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Why are you paying £40 a month for mobile?!! :eek: And £40 a month for internet?! :eek:

I budget by not spending much. :p As has been said already, get 2 accounts (or more) and the moment you get your pay in, transfer the amount you wish to save out of your everyday account. Then pretend as if the money in your normal account is all you got paid. And check your balance regularly so you know what you're spending!
 
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I have a spreadsheet with a page of regular bills and savings calc these up then subtract f4om my fluctuating income cos of overtime any oney left over is divided by 4.3 and thats my weekly money allowence
 
I have 2 accounts:

1 account my salary gets paid into, and I use for general spending money throughout the month.

The other account is my "bills account" - money gets transferred into this on payday, then it gets left alone - that way I know that all my bills are paid on time, every month.

I don't have any savings whatsoever at the moment, however I'm planning to start soon :)
 
Myself and my wife have our own accounts whilst we have a joint account with all the direct debts and other house/utility bills

Things such as mobile phone etc we use our own accounts for
 
My simple budgeting is that basically everything comes out on the first of the month - I leave it until around the 10th and everything else I have in the bank account is to use (so put most in savings, then some more for toys, some more for meals out, etc.).

My only debt is my mortgage. As others have mentioned I'd be getting rid of your debts. Once you have rid of your debts you'll have a lot more disposable income to save or to spend. Though the £40 internet / mobile does sound rather expensive and is probably something you could massively save on.



M.
 
When I had 8 direct debits what I did was ensure the dates was 5 days after pay day. This ensured any problems with pay to be sorted as soon as possible. I just rang the companies that I had DD's with and changed the dates. It's as simple as that. Once these were payed the remaining money was mine.
 
The last week of the month sees me always having more money than my friends who earn more, and the most consistent reason for this is that they eat out at least twice a week and tend to spend loads on booze and cabs at the weekend. They also waste money buying lunches when I budget those in to my weekly grocery shop and take in leftovers.
 
godinman said:
What the hell is a food court?
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A food court is a collection of competing fast food joints, which share a common seating area and bins.

If there is a Chinese as part of it they have samples on sticks and shout `you try this` as you walk past.
 
I used to struggle with this. All I did is created myself a spreadsheet with all of my income and outgoings. From there I could see the amount of disposable I had, and the amount I had per week. Sure I still go over some weeks, and under others, but it gives me a much better idea of what's there and what isn't. I also save a fair amount a month so can easily dip into that should I come unstuck.

I found it beneficial to move direct debits closer to pay day as well, with things like phone bills, I just credit my account after I've been paid so I know its sorted.
 
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