We budget $200pw for food and petrol and I averaged out all of our bills (utilities, insurances, rates etc) over the year which works out at $225 pw and put that away separately so whenever a bill comes in I just pay it. Play money is a definite necessity. Some weeks we can have $50 each, some weeks $50 between us, but it's something.
Today is my first day of maternity leave and I have sat down and set up a budget in Excel. I didn't realise just how much our monthly out-goings were. Its been a real eye-opener. And now we're down to one income....I really need to get a handle on things!
I too have added up all the regular bills & expenses and averaged them over the year to come up with a weekly figure that I have to put aside into a separate "Bills" bank account. I have set this up as an automatic transfer when DH gets paid.
We pay a bit extra on our mortgage and hopefully will continue to do that, even a small amount regularly cuts down the length of the loan so I'm happy to keep that up and skimp somewhere else.
We have take-away once a week, so I should pop that into the budget now that I'm thinking about it.
Tell you what, its a good thing I'm a good cook, can make a meal from nothing and can do 1001 things with mince!
ETA: What do you think I have to think about with the arrival of a new baby? What sort of things do I need to add to the budget? I am going down the MCN & breastfeeding (fingerscrossed) paths so hopefull its just little things like creams and clothes?
PS Sorry for hijicking Arimeh!!
Last edited by Winter; February 23rd, 2009 at 04:22 PM.
: Baby questions
I do the budgeting in our household and i think i have it down pat now, each week when DH gets paid i bpay our bills straight away....we pay extra on the mortgage, electricity and rates each week then on alternate weeks i will also pay a bit of the mobile account, this basically means that when those bills (elect,rates,mobile) do come in they are at a very minimum if anything at all -although having said that in Dec i received a bill from optus saying we owed them xxx amount of dollars when i had already paid it on bpay but the three payments went missing!
Our budget is something like this:
Home loan $650
Pre-school $130
Fuel (two cars) $100
Food $250
Parking (Dh's work) $30
Extra's(play money) $100
Rates $50
Electricity $50
CC $150
Savings $200
This is an average week, it does change as DH gets paid different each week depending on what shift he does...so the above list is what we do on his highest paid week. The lowest week is pretty much the same except for CC and Savings they arent as much and sometimes not at all.
Last edited by westy; February 23rd, 2009 at 05:00 PM.
Per week, though we work fortnightly usually, since we get paid fortnightly, so everything is about double.And if we don't use the money, it gets put towards the mortgage for redraw monthly.
This is the minimum weekly earnings that we get. Some weeks DH and I earn more if I work an extra few hours a week and if he does more night shifts. In that case, the extra just gets put into savings for the kids or in the 'just in case' place, lol!! I like to have a bit of money on hand for 'justin'...
Per week, though we work fortnightly usually, since we get paid fortnightly, so everything is about double.And if we don't use the money, it gets put towards the mortgage for redraw monthly.
This is the minimum weekly earnings that we get. Some weeks DH and I earn more if I work an extra few hours a week and if he does more night shifts. In that case, the extra just gets put into savings for the kids or in the 'just in case' place, lol!! I like to have a bit of money on hand for 'justin'...
I don't write a budget. I find that its much like a diet. One self indulgent splurge and you are back at square one. The budget/diet itself tends to be the cause of that self indulgent splurge because it feels so restrictive, and you need to feel freedom.
When the money comes in, I pay by priority. What I NEED is prioritised over what I want. When you have recognised exactly what you need it starts making things much easier. I *need* the internet for my DHs business. I *want* pay tv. You can imagine which bill gets paid first if I can only do one.
It works much more extensivly to that too. I *need* a mobile phone. I *don't* need it to take photos. I - and my sister - go into more detail on this on my mothers "You can make an Impact" blog. But its and extremely liberating philsophy. I feel chuffed when I buy a $12 DVD at the big movie sales, because its not something I needed, its something I wanted.
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) paths so hopefull its just little things like creams and clothes?
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