Budgetting
 

How do people budget? Seriously?
Any tips for saving some pennies?

You write down your outgoings (what you're spending), you write down your income, then you weigh them up against each other. You think to yourself 'do I really need to spend X amount of money on food/clothes/travel/luxury items?' and you see where you can make savings.

If you're like me... you will then become incredibly depressed and hopeless and will give up and bury your head in the sand and try to never think about it again.

My one tip is to shop in the supermarket late in the afternoon when all the reduced price stuff comes out. Take a look at www.moneysavingexpert.com

Good question!!!!
I hope some people have some advice, because I am always looking for ways to save money, but I suck at budgeting :(

One tip though: write down everything you buy and how much you spend. Even if it's only a pack of gum. This will help you see where your money is going, and if there's anything you can cut back on... or even do without buying.

Keep a spending diary, and keep as many of the receipts as possible. This way you'll see how much you really spend on a day-by-day basis.

Moneysavingexpert has a budget tool you could use to get an overview of your situation.

Once you have an idea of that you can work out how to cut down. Are you on the cheapest utility packages? Do you bulk buy food so you can get it cheaper? By own-brand makes? Do you regularly buy newspapers or magazines? All that sort of thing.

It is depressing and very hard to stick to, but keep trying!

I just looked at the site, and all the stuff is set to EUROs... is there any way to change that?
I can't do the conversions in my head and I live in the US >.<

Are you using this tool? It should work whatever the currency because it's just numbers you are filling in.

i dont have no idea how to budget , but i do know that the post office do savings accounts and all ya need is your name , NI no , and address

One thing I (try to) do is figure out how much I having coming in (i.e. loan) and how much that equates to per week, after taking off direct debits and suchlike. I think the student loan equates to about £100 a week. So I take out £50 a week on a Monday, and won't take out anymore, if I spend it all, then I don't go out at the weekend. Then it gives you money for emergencies and suchlike...

ugh i need to set up a budget

I generally don't budget other than to work out how much my direct debits come to and so on and make sure I have that money in my bank when it needs to be there.

I also have got into the habit of checking my bank balance every day/every other day just to keep an eye on it. That actually really helps because it means I am then aware of what I am spending and can make a decision about whether I really need to buy that extra nice smelling washing powder lol

Student loan= Interest free overdraft!

But I take out money at the beginning of the week and try not to spend any more unless I really have to!

also, if you do a non-meat dish now and again it's cheaper - I love vegetable soup, anything with chickpeas, and lentil curry with loads of soy sauce

For long term savings for your clothing: take an inventory of what you have. make a note or list of what you need, and then wait until it comes on sale. It may sound boring, but it helps build a good wardrobe too.

yep meat is expensive! I'm veggie and it horrifies me when I go down the meat aisle and look at the prices.

i no longer have a debit card and find this really helps because i see the money i am handing over for things. like other folk i have a weekly budget - i take money out on a sunday and that is it... i have FOUR bank accounts (wow, i only just counted).

account 1 is where my money coming in goes and my weekly budget rent etc stays there.

account 2 is a separate current account with a small pool of money (for if i use my credit card - but i never put more on my credit card than is in the bank - it is for big purchases like new glasses, flights to see my family etc and also internet purchases).

account 3 is my monthly savings account - i work out my incomings and my outgoings, and then transfer the rest every month.

account 4 is an ISA - every few months i move money from my savings here and it is difficult to get my hands on it because it is a book only account.

and then i have a credit card - it is rarely used, and mostly is just for ordering stuff from home (i am travelling lots at the moment) when i need my creature comforts.

day to day basis - i always make my lunch and i try and do just one shop a week so that i bulk buy things (it helps make meat a little bit cheaper rather than buying day to day). i also stopped buying snacks and buy multipacks at the supermarket - i tried just no more snacks, but ended up secret binging and spending more money.

i am on a low income, and i find separating my money into the different accounts really works because i just kinda forget the other money is there, i just see what is in my regular account.

This is a really good thread!!!
I have seen many tips that I think
I may want to try!!! :)

I think food is one of the easiest ways to be frugal. A lot of supermarket own brand stuff is ok, the general rule of thumb is the fewer ingredients something contains, the smaller the difference between the value brand and the ones markets as "higher quality", so value chopped tomatoes= no discernable difference, but a value ready meal probably would be significantly different. Also cook things from scratch, learn to do your own pasta and curry sauces. Buy staple foods in bulk, if possible buy a sack of rice from an asian supermarket, it's way more economical.

Asian supermarkets are also good for cheap herbs and spices. Which is another way to save money, pretty much any food can be made tasty with the correct seasoning. I eat a lot of pulses, curried chickpeas or kidney bean chilli.

Other ways I save money is by looking in second hand shops for clothes. I'm lucky in that where I am there are a lot of decent charity shops and vintage shops. But I know what my mum does when charity shop shopping is go to ones in affluent areas, rich people tend to get rid of better quality clothing!

I guess I'm just generally quite tight with my money, I seldom treat myself to anything more than alcohol or nice food. I know some students who seem constantly to be buying new clothes or mobile phones and then complain about how skint they are, drives me insane!

I just came across a really website with tons of articles related to making and keeping a budget. It is here.

I did our budget for 09 last week - we have bills oweing to the amount of £1,345.27 more money that we earn this month!! Yay baby!!! lol

On the positive side - by the end of April we will have £37.65 spare cash to 'live' on in May! which will be the first time since the start of the year we don't start the month in the - figures so thats something to celebrate!! hahahaha!

suprisingly I have no tips to share... but good luck!

:-)

it's really hard when you don't have as much coming in as going out. It makes you feel so helpless. We're not too bad at the moment, but a year and a half ago we were selling our stuff to pay the rent. Then we moved house to a smaller place (too small it's so cluttered!) but over £100 cheaper.

I used to do Kleeneze catalogues. It's hard work, but I was earning about £50 a week, which was just about tiding us over.