Are you good at budgeting money?

Write down everything you have coming in Then everything you have going out, bills etc. Work out what you have left over, from there you should be able to make realistic budgets for food shopping and whatever else

@Parker 又 I bet loads of people around the world screenshot this when reading :) I just did 😅 funny when you think about it.

@Rosa very happy to of service (: If any of it is confusing feel free to ask questions lolol (to anyone reading) I made it cause i hated all the free templates I kept finding

@Parker 又 thanks for this what is flux expenses ?

thank God my partner is but I swear I miss SHOPPING FOR NO REASON 😂🫠

@Samina flux expenses would be things that either don’t occur EVERY month, or that frequently change in their cost! (Hair cuts, dog wash, car wash, buying birthday gifts for others, etc or your electric bill if that varies often) Where as fixed expenses are costs that occur every single month & cover the cost of basic needs! (Rent, food, bills, gas, etc) In the most basic terms; fixed expenses cover all basic cost of living expenses, flux expenses are things that you can either live without for a month or change frequently in their final costs!

@Parker 又 thank you 😊🙏 screenshotted as well

@Samina of course!! I hope it’s helpful! If ya have any other questions about it I’m around when I can be 🫡

Once you've written everything down, then go through them and see if you can make any savings (that's what I've done). For example, I cancelled my gym membership that I never use and changed my phone contract to sim only!

I've used YNAB for a few years and it's been amazing for me. It's easy to use.

Horrible. Definitely a New Year's resolution to get better at this but I have a lot of expenses.

I started using the nerd wallet app just to get a really clear picture of my past spending. You can connect all your bank accounts, credit cards, etc and it will show you every purchase and catergorizd. It’s free. Then you can plan what to cut back, catch things you forgot to consider - see what surprises have popped up. I made a spread sheet based on predictions too and check to see if things are in line with what I thought

@Parker 又 i drew a similar sheet a few years ago, it’s mostly pink lol

Round all your bills up to 50p/£1 then if you don’t have money to save that little extra from rounding up is you starting to save. Might only be £2 a month but that’s an easy save and better than nothing. Meal plan, try to buy bigger portions so like a small chicken for 1 meal is £2.99 but an extra large chicken is £4.99 and can do 3-4 meals. Etc A takeaway is nice but make a pizza, curry and have it as a date night/family fun making and eating it, watching a film.

So I work out my bills monthly break it down into 4 and that’s how much I put away every week. Then the months that have 5 weeks in you gain that money back so it feels like a bonus. And every bill is rounded up to the pound. I always try and stick to the same shopping it’s just gas and electric that sometimes cost more depending on usage x

We have just about got our budget under control every month with our incomings to our outgoings but the problem for us is they are pretty much even amount at the moment so when an unexpected or not the usual monthly payments needs to go out, it throws our budget off completely for that month. It's a complete nightmare at the moment as we are pretty much paycheck to paycheck. So I feel we are good at managing our budget, we just don't have quite enough to give ourselves savings as we're not paid quite enough for that to happen. We're looking forward to our daughter starting Reception class in September so we get a little bit of a financial pressure release

I have a standing order that goes into a separate bank account which all bill come out of like mortgage, car payment, electricity, ect with £50 being sent to my savings. I then look at what I have left. I spend roughly £40 a week on petrol so I make sure I have at least £120 for that. I find getting cash out stops me spending money. For me it's 1 effort to get it out but also I think do I actually need this because I find it harder to part with cash then tapping my card. It's also a physical reminder of what you have left in your budget so if you said I'm giving myself £100 a month for me for example you'd get £25 out a week and once it's gone you can't spend anymore. There is no over going that budget because it's physically not there (well unless you get your card out. Some places are cashless which I do budget for and I will automatically take that out of my cash allowance and pop in the bank if I happen to be in town or I shove it in a box to take down when I have enough to bother with going to the bank

What @Laurie said ^ completely agree with that. But also I have separate bank accounts. Eg. One is called "bills", another is called "wants" and "needs" etc. Then if you have a kid and want to make an account for them, a holiday account, a savings account etc. It makes it so much easier. All our bills are automatically deducted from our bills account and because we calculated our yearly and monthly expenses then divided it by fortnightly (when pay comes in) we send the same amount of money to each account every fortnight. It means we don't get thrown off by unexpected things and always have the same spending money to use as we wish.

I pay my bills and then waist £700 a month on new clothes for my daughter 🙄😂

@Helen im considering opening a second bank account to do this, might make it easier x

@Ebony-Rose if you have iPhone create a spreadsheet on numbers for your bills and tick off when you’ve paid them, do a food shop and see average you spend and put that away 4x for your monthly shop, put so much away for treats even if you don’t spend it you’ll have something to fall back on x

@Fay i dont have iphone and samsung dont have spreadsheets x

@Ebony-Rose it should help at least then you know you can't spend the important money that needs to go out