Working out a monthly budget..

Priapus

Priapus

Priapus

Soldato
Joined
30 Jul 2004
Posts
10,573
Location
East Sussex, UK
Howzit guys,

So, I need to start saving big time to afford my new place next year with the girlfriend. :cool:

I am trying to find a way to budget my monthly expenses against my income per month as well. But I fear I may be missing key steps and doing it all wrong.

At the moment I am unable to find a decent budget sheet online so was going to do my own.

How do you work for budget out?

Any tips would be awesome!

Thanks! :D
 
Make list - two columns - "in" and "out".

What you earn under in and what you spend under out.

Look at your bank statements if you use your card a lot to see where you spend your money, and check receipts too.

Make sure you put everything on the list, and make an allowance for emergencies and savings every pay day.

Stick to said budget.
 
I made my own and have one sheet per month. I know where I am to the penny and include non-monthly expenses such as insurance, water etc...

Always best to overbudget your expenses slightly and leave yourself a bit of cash over incase.

Best way I found to save is have a minimum figure you want to save and setup a standing order to savings account....... but have it with another bank so you're not tempted to withdraw savings early (if you don't have much will power that is!!)
 
I don't make sheets anymore, but when I did, I found a 3 column approach useful.

In - Obvious
Out - This is the "essentials" you buy each month, so bills, soap, food, etc
Extras - Did you buy a stack of DVDs? A new PC? They go in this column, it's an easy way to split out the things you can sacrifice first if you need to save more.
 
Ice On Fire said:
Howzit guys,

So, I need to start saving big time to afford my new place next year with the girlfriend. :cool:

I am trying to find a way to budget my monthly expenses against my income per month as well. But I fear I may be missing key steps and doing it all wrong.

At the moment I am unable to find a decent budget sheet online so was going to do my own.

How do you work for budget out?

Any tips would be awesome!

Thanks! :D
Click to expand...


Ok, first thing - split the budget items into two:

Fixed - ie these will not change over a period of time
Variable - these change on a monthly basis

Next - plan a whole year and not a month. The reason is that you may have to save money during summer but then use it for heating in winter. The more enjoyable is that you can save up over a period for holidays etc.

Split the year up into months but show a running total. Put in things that area yearly, quarterly and monthly payments.
As you go through the year you should have an estimate for each month of outgoings. As you go forward calculate your actual outgoings and record them. If they're different (within reason) then look at why this is and modify the year plan based on the discovered items.

Usually you'll have an one or more income for each month, a set of outgoings (including credit cards as well as any other spread payments) etc.
 
just make an excel sheet with a column for every single thing you buy, put your wage in another cell and make a sum so every cell with an outgoing gets deducted and a total put in a new cell so you know what you have left.

after a month you will have a list of everything you have bought and you can then decide if you need it or not and next time dont buy it.
 
what i did when i was saving was, after doing my bedget, was open another bank account, and transfer say £100 quid a week into via stadning order.

That was my spending money for the week, and when it went, it went. and i had to wait until next week.

worked a treat.
 
Don't include any "fun" stuff until the end i.e. beer money and the like. Get the essentials down, then worry about that stuff.
 
Budgetting is such a waste of time on a personal level. Just dont spend out unnecessarily, only purchase the bare minimum you are content with. Any money left over can be transferred into a savings account.

Having a "budget" will not save you money, you will spend what you need to spend. Just stop overspending on things if you are finding that you curently do not have a surplus.
 
Jez said:
Budgetting is such a waste of time on a personal level. Just dont spend out unnecessarily, only purchase the bare minimum you are content with. Any money left over can be transferred into a savings account.

Having a "budget" will not save you money, you will spend what you need to spend. Just stop overspending on things if you are finding that you curently do not have a surplus.
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Kind of agree. It is however useful to make a budget or more importantly a spending log just to prove to yourself that the £10 for lunch a day is too much.
 
Saviola said:
Kind of agree. It is however useful to make a budget or more importantly a spending log just to prove to yourself that the £10 for lunch a day is too much.
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I cant see the point in any sort of log. If he wants to save more money, then he just needs to stop spending on anything he feels as though he will be content with not having.

If you are unable to save and you are spending out on things like £10 lunches every day, then i think working out a pointless "budget" is the least of your worries!
 
"Would you like a receipt sir?"

YES!

Account for every penny spent, as they soon add up, and then work back over what was necessity or bilge. It should highlight areas that need work and give you a clearer picture.

Years ago I used to withdraw for the sake of having cash in my pocket, cash in the hand only leads to one thing, cigarettes, alcohol, fast girls and dancing cars. Nip it in the bud!
 
What I did when I was going to buy house.
Estimate bills, mortgage, council tax, insurance, food etc etc
take total of above and subtract current equivalent outgoings (eg rent to parents) and bank the diff each month. That for me sorted my deposit over a year :)
This in theory put me in the same position as if I was already living there. I found it ok so I knew I would be ok whe i got my own place.

For estimating bills etc find someone who lives similar to how you will and get some estimates off them.

Once I had my house I used to budget my utilities etc based on the year and had a book where each month I put my £30 gas etc, when I payed a bill I knocked it off my running balance, obviously if it went negative I had to pay in extra that month, as time went on I increased or decreased the amount per month as I needed, I also "capped" each one at the maximum possible bill I could get so that I knew I would be covered for worst case, but if I hit the cap I would treat that as extra spending money till it dropped below the cap.
Working this way I had all my bills covered and I had actual cash in the bank to pay the bills. Did this after pay day each month and then basically compared the amount my book said I needed to my bank account, diff was spendable cash.
Worked well for me, may not for you, just work out a way that you can and will do the budgeting and stick to it.
Some people pay say £100 or £50 a month into an emergency bank account, thats supposed to take the pain out of something like the washing machine going **** up.
I stopped budgetting food and jst controlled that one on the fly, if I was spending a lot that month I would conciously cut back a bit, if I was doing ok I would just buy what I fancied.
The closer you on income to fixed expenditure the more you need to watch.
At one point I stopped taking my cards to work and only took some cash, that stopped me going and impulse buying at lunchtime as I had a terrible habit of buying CDs that I really didn't need.
 
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