How do you all budget?
Im a working mother of two children, no mortgage, with a husband who is a self employed builder, we have about £700 between us each week and should easily be able to do this but we still struggle. Our childcare is £600 a month and our money is very much seperate. He pays the house bills and the food shopping, I pay for the kids clothes, birthdays, luxuries if you like. We don’t share money at all. We are both pretty naf with money but I think I’m a little better. Anyway, answers on a postcard please!
Perhaps a starting point would be to put down on paper or excel sheet all your income and all your important bills like rent, council tax, energy etc
Include all other outgoing payments to thing like subscriptions, entertainment etc
If you add them all together you can see what all your outgoings are.
Other things to consider are: could you save money by switching energy providers, phone, mobile & broadband?
You may be surprised at how much money is spent or wasted.
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Getting on top of bills would be a great place to start.
If you’re spending your money on luxuries as you put it, then that’s probably where the overspending is.
I’d say you have to put the money together (at least on a spreadsheet or simple chart) and budget for known household bills and necessities then take off for ‘quality of life’ expenses like extra clothes , TV subscriptions and then see what’s left over to either spend on birthdays etc and maybe savings.
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Agree with @gordondack & @kolok I think you need to sit down and look at your incoming/outgoings. Split your spending into what is essential (rent/council tax/food shopping) and what is a luxury (spotify/netflix/eating out) you’ll be surprised at how much you’re spending on stuff you don’t really need.
Have a scroll through bank statements and make sure there aren’t any old direct debits coming out that you have forgotten about. Then look at what switches you can make, whether it’s your utilities supplier or where you do your weekly shop.
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