Ok - now I've made the "responsible" decision of getting rid of all debt except for the mortgage....
How do you guys budget? What do you normally allow for everything? Last time I had to budget was back in 2002, when my exH and I had to live on $27,000pa combined (cos I was a student) and we had to pay rent of $140 a week, and a car loan of $125. I got by on $50 a week for food for the two of us. I can't even comprehend HOW I did that now, considering its hard getting it under $300 a week for us now.
So what does everyone put aside for their electricity, phone, and everything else that pops up? I was putting away $80 a week for everything (other than food) and it just wasn't enough, so obviously I stuffed up somewhere!!!
I'm wanting to do this properly - and I know that we will follow a budget cos we're not that irresponsible (yes, totally skimming past the fact that I just got rid of $17,000 worth of debt!) but there were a couple of big ticket items in there that we HAD to get and we didn't have the money and the credit card was a lifesaver at the time.
-phone bill is about $300 a month (net, both mobiles, landline and foxtel)
-electricity is about $80-90 a month
So I put aside $100 a week for those.
For rego I put aside about $20 a week for regos.
$50 for fuel.
All that usually takes up Shels pay.
Then we pay loans and CC with my account. Pretty much as much as we can with leaving a little bit for just in case measures through the week.
The hardest thing for us to keeping our weekly shopping down, its usually $100 but the extra 50 is for during the week when we go OOPS forgot this, that and something else.
At the end of the week/fortnight I do like an inventory, and work out how much left over I have and thats our play money. Usually only $100 in a fortnight but enough to have maccas, me to have coffee with my BB girls and spend a little at big w LOL.
We are pretty tight. As in tightass lol. It's saved us MANY a time!
My DH would be the one to talk to about this - he is FANTASTIC with money!!!!
Bascially we have a VLOC - so everything goes in that (u have to be very careful with it and strict)- we also have a credit card in which we pay for everything on and at the end of the month we pay it off completly so we dont have to pay interest or anything - and the points we get from our credit card we use to pay the yearly fee or whatever it is for the card - so really our card costs us nothing!
Also we have $50 each a fortnight spending money just for the little things like if he is at work and wants to buy a drink or a chocolate etc.... and i use mine for when i go out to coffee with BB ladies!
Also when the bills come in we always round them up - so its a little less next time!
If you go onto one of the banks website's they have budget planners on there, that you can download and save. Excel has a good one as well .. all for free
I looked at all our past bills,rates, rego, phone etc, and figured out how much I needed to pay each week. I like working in a weekly budget, and I bpay the money on the bills before the bills arrive, so when they do arrive I dont owe anything.
I found if I put the money into a saving account, we would dip into it, something would always come up.
You have to be so diciplined, let us know how you go ...
Mine and DH'd big discussion is " how much play money he should have each week" ... he thinks $150.00 a week after petrol and lunches, is fine.. I think its insanely over the TOP !!! What do you guys think..
And how much do your significant others and yourselves allow for your "play money" ?
electricity - ring the company and ask them to average your bill over the year and then just pay that. i pay fortnightly and it doesn't phase me seeing that money go out of the bank cos it's automatic. being on mains gas (if you have gas) you should be able to do the same (we're on bottled, so have to budget for it)
water, you can kinda work out yourself and pay it off like that. just have a look at a water bill, work out how much it is weekly or fortnightly, and pay that out
phone - same thing - just work out what your average bill is and pay that portion when you get paid. for us, it's about 120 a fortnight for house phone and mobiles (but we have high mobile plans given our living situation with DH being away so much)
set up a seperate account for money for rates and rego - smooth it over a year and put that much per fortnight into the account. IF you have to dip into it for something before that money is due to be paid out (last resort) work out how much you've taken out, and then you have to pay more back into it until those bills come due
fuel, work out your average fortnight and then add AT LEAST 20% to cover fluctuations. if you dont use it, save it - there will always be stuff that crops up that you need to get to or pay for, so that extra is a godsend. our fuel when i'm working is about $100 a fortnight (as you know, i live in the sticks, so no choice but to travel) - we budget $150 a fortnight from my pay to fork out for fuel - the normal expenses come out of that, the extra $50 is for incidentals like the trips we were doing for IVF or are now doing for hospital. if you can, put extra aside for services. work out how much the average service is, how often, put it aside
insurance - not sure if you have PHI or not, but a lot of companies will, for both PHI and your car/home/contents allow you to pay by the month (or we've lucked into fortnightly payments) - i have an account that money goes into just for this. have never missed a payment, never been without insurance cover in the 11 years since i first got cover.
groceries are hard to budget cos your needs and things vary depending on the time of year and whether kids are eating solids. work out an average bill, and budget an extra amount (as Leasha said, the extra $50 is her safety net) - buy in BULK where you can. it seems a lot at the time, but the long term savings are huge!
one REALLY important thing - budget "play money" for you and DH - doesn't need to be much, really depends on your lifestyle - but ALWAYS allow an amount each week or fortnight that you don't need to justify. it might be the money for takeaway when you're out, might be money you spend on getting your hair done - but it's money you don't have to include in your justifications - it's simply $30 a week (as an example) that either of you have to spend that you don't have to try to explain. if it goes on chocolate, so be it - if you go out to lunch, so be it. it takes the "stigma" off living on a budget if you have money to play with. if you don't spend it, put it in a money box (i really do this!) at the end of the week and it's your own little emergency fund. mine lives in a glasses case and last count there was about $60 in shrapnel that i hadn't put in our savings money boxes - it is MY safety net if something is needed kwim?
I agree with BG, play money is really important. It's like a diet raelly, if you cut something out completely you're gonna end up going over the top with it eventually. If you don't budget for play money, if you're too strict, you'll blow the whole budget and be back where you started (or worse, if you have a buying binge).
Tell me about your budget!
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