Budgeting........
 

We are really awful at budgeting, but things are getting tight and i decided to take it more seriously, so have went through statements n all, but found it difficult to work it out monthly, as we pay everything so haphazardly, anyway posting what i have come up with and would be grateful if peeps think its realistic or am a just making it up:o In particular i found it difficult to work out gas, water, electricity monthly. I know its basic , but we gotta start somewhere:o We are a family of 4.

MONTHLY OUTGOINGS

RENT 1803
CREDIT CARD REPAYMENTS 300
CONTENTS INSURANCE 20
ELECTRICITY 100
GAS 111
WATER 71
INTERNET 134
DAUGHTERS TUTOR 167
MOBILE PHONE 90
DAUGHTERS BANK 40
DAUGHTERS POCKET MONEY 80
PRIVATE HEALTH INSURANCE 100
SUPERMARKET 1200
LUNCHES - HUSBAND 200
LUNCHES - DAUGHTER 60
LUNCHES - ME 80
TRAVEL/TRAIN 240
CAR TOLLS 15
PETROL 240
CAR INSURANCE 50
OTHER 200



TOTAL 5301

Re: Budgeting........
 

I've got to ask... why does your hubby need more than twice as much for lunch as everyone else?

Re: Budgeting........
 

Well spotted, thats gets right on my........:frown: coz half the week we take a packed lunch, and usually only buy lunch when we have ran outta food or time, but no, hubby treats himself to lunch everyday in the city:frown: and.....then never eats his bloody dinner at night.....:frown:


yes, we have had one almighty row about money!! am bad with money, but my god he's hopeless!

Re: Budgeting........
 

Actually, should've added medication in there as hubby is asthmatic, but i have no idea what it costs.....and cant ask as hes getting the silent treatment.:o

Re: Budgeting........
 

I would say a ventolin inhaler is about $6 and steroid one is approx $33.

I cant believe his lunch bill, I take packed lunch every day and only occasionally buy something outside.

There is a new handbag in that lunch money Mags, dare you to treat yourself and tell him 'thought I would forgo lunch in return for a handbag/new shoes etc'

:sneaky:

Re: Budgeting........
 

and the worst thing is, i actually think he spends more than that:ohmy:, god those steroid ones are expensive, he also carries an epipen and takes antihistamine medication every day (hes developed some weird allergy here:lol:, where his face swells up on a regular basis (and his penis:confused:, i joke not:lol:), so he attends allergy clinic at the alfred and apparently is a great mystery, we have had a couple of runs to the emergency dept with his tongue swelling
I reckon he was bit by summit here.

Re: Budgeting........
 

:eek:

What do you reckon he would say if you spent an equal amount on outside lunches? That is such a lot of money, imagine that in a year.

I will admit to liking to buy food outside but with recent financial struggles it became a no go zone really.

And now when Mr PP brings food from work, I scoff it before 11am and end up hungry anyway.:o:lol:

Re: Budgeting........
 

It's the credit card payments that stood out to me - and the internet.

Re: Budgeting........
 

most women would call you a lucky bastard :lol:

Re: Budgeting........
 

I am hoping he will rethink a few things once he sees it in black n white. I know hes hopeless, but its one of the reasons i love him:o coz he doesnt give a shit about money....which is why we are always in a mess, coz we are both really immature about such things.....but we're hitting 50, time to grow up and be financially more aware.

Re: Budgeting........
 

:lol::lol: Yeah, even the doctor said when we told him.....thats called looovvee:lol: hubby was not amused:lol:

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:o:o yeah, i know, but another 3 months and they'll be history:)

is that alot for internet, i have no idea, but am sure that is one of the things thats accurate, do you know how much approx monthly you pay for electricity, gas and water and internet?

Re: Budgeting........
 

Mr PP will be 50 in Sept and me 45 in August, we took a mortgage break (had no choice) and are back paying again - over paying to attempt to catch up but its added heaps to our mortgage, we shall continue to over pay to try and get straight.

Its only nearly losing what we have that kicked our arses, although with the house we are always careful but it made us realise where we went wrong and much of what we spent was wasted.

Still need to win the lotto though.:o (or a miracle)

Re: Budgeting........
 

You're not a woman are you Soapy!???

Maybe you can look at transferring your CC debt to a proper loan or something with a low interest intro deal for balance transfers.
You may also look at a better deal for the internet...

The Girls cost what the girls cost, so economising on that front is probably not feasible.

Re: Budgeting........
 

I know youve had it tough, hope things get better:) I know alot of argument goes on here about mortgage vs rent, but youve gotta live somewhere, and pay ! With the stress we've had renting i can totally understand why people take on large mortgages later in life.

Re: Budgeting........
 

mmmmm not sure if its worth it , as it will be over soon, or do you think its worth it we owe about $1000

but will defo look at internet and wiring up husbands jaws!........hes so bloody skinny to, its not fair!

Re: Budgeting........
 

straight away i would swap internet and mobile

i am with TPG for both

$60 a month unlimited broadband and line rental

$30 a month mobile which has $1000 a month credit, i use this all the time to ring/ text international as well and have never gone over

no contract either sim only for mobile and month by month for the broadband

Re: Budgeting........
 

thanx, am afraid am on a contract:o, god am beginning to feel like a right idiot:o

Re: Budgeting........
 

how did you guess
:lol:

Re: Budgeting........
 

Worked out over the year it's roughly:

Electric - $160/month
Gas - $50/month
Water - $40/month

The gas is fairly constant during the year as we don't use the heating system due to it being crap! Electric is high for 2 (colder months) bills, and drops to about half during the 2 warmer month bills. Water costs is largely due to washing machine in frequent use due to 2 small children and cloth nappies.

Re: Budgeting........
 

Very true, I love my tatty little house - it is clean and my home, it certainly isnt a palace but no regrets on the mortgage, I would rather pay my own than someone elses.

Mr PP has just come home armed with lemon cheesecake and whiskey - being married to a chef has its perks.:thumbsup:

Re: Budgeting........
 

Jelous of the lemon cheesecake... one of my favourites!

Re: Budgeting........
 

I think you'll find it makes more sense as a pie chart :

http://i.imgur.com/H79yT.gif

What that says to me is you spend quite a bit in the supermarket, in addition to buying lunches, that could be adjusted. At a rough guess you could probably trim 10% by being slightly canny. Whilst the internet bill is high, is nothing compared to the potential savings on the supermarket bill. Focus on that, and what a planned diet might do for that segment.

Re: Budgeting........
 

He's a See You Next Tuesday....it's not on...Margaret!

I would never buy lunch every day knowing that my family were budgeting..
By the time you add a drink....

Re: Budgeting........
 

Cans can be expensive...true that there are trimmings to be had probably.

My wife cuts out rubbish from the diet and its amazing the savings.

What about booze - we were talking about that the other day.

Just a thought - 300 dollars a week is not a disaster for food in this day and age? It's typical, even if savings can be had.

Re: Budgeting........
 

Its not a disaster, but its actually 385 per person once you add in the other meals.

Whilst you are economising, that the figure that can most easily be trimmed, usually by reducing on the preprocessed and packaged unhealthy food. Add in some Aldi, some bulk purchase and freezing, etc. and 10% is usually easy.

Tell the daughters that they are going to learn to cook and eat healthily for the next month and get them to help out cooking a prepared menu for the month (that's focused on not being too expensive either). If they ever end up away at university, they'll thank you.

Re: Budgeting........
 

Ok, what is "daughters bank" $40?

Supermarket $1200 could become somewhere between $1000 and $1100 with a bit of effort.

Mobile Phone $90 - you could reduce this to $50 I reckon.

Internet $134 - you could get that down to about $60.

Lunches - tell your husband he can eat out twice a week not every day, maybe drop his budget to $120 per month.




So you could save maybe $400 per month by doing the above... and soon you'll have paid off the credit card bill.


Why do you want to save anyway? Is there a reason? You need to set a goal to aim for, otherwise budgeting can be hard. Lets say that you're saving for a house deposit. You might set a target of $50k in 2 yrs. I've got no idea what your income is, but lets say $7k after tax per month....
Once you've paid off the credit card you might have e.g. $2400 each month spare. Save $2000 of that x 24 months, add in a bit of interest and you've hit your goal of $50k.

Re: Budgeting........
 

Can anyone recommend a good app to track expenditure?

Re: Budgeting........
 

To cut your bills, make sure that you give daughter and OH a packed lunch every day. Don't buy coffees every day, take a plunger and a bag of ground coffee into work instead. Buy in bulk where you can, eat seasonal veggies, and use junk food as a treat, not an every day snack. Buy the store brand labels and work with seasonal produce which is cheaper. Shop around. Buy a box of wine not bottled. Look for specials. Make a list and plan your meals.

Allocate a set cash amount each week and do not go over it, rather than using cards to pay for things.

You can cut your grocery bills in half.

Re: Budgeting........
 

You could make a bit of money on the side with your hubby.Rent a space for the comedy festival.He can go onstage;pop in his meds and his dick swells up! I'd pay to see that:D;)

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Is it the same daughter getting $120 or two of them? If it's two why is one getting two lots? Can you stop that until you have finished paying off the CC? I had to cancel Tiddler's allowance because we just couldn't justify it whilst we were broke. She still gets stuff, she just doesn't get stuff and money.

Re: Budgeting........
 

I saved so much money by making a list and planning the dinners for the week. I went from $350 a week to $300 so not quite half but a big saving.

Re: Budgeting........
 

Did anyone see the sunday mail article yesterday, feed a family of 5 including teens 16,13 and kid age 9 for $150.

Most amazingly annoying article ever.

Family eats cereal, milkshakes and hot choccie for breakfast.

Allowance of 3L of milk for the week. Yeah right!! that would work.

They also eat toast, but the budget didnt include bread.

Meat allowance for 5 for a meal, 250g and the leftovers do them for lunch the next day:rofl:.

Here teens, have one meat ball and dont forget to leave some for lunch tomorrow. And dont drink your 85ml of milk a day allowance all in one go:lol:

Re: Budgeting........
 

I read a similar thread on Mumsnet. People claimed 1 chicken breast could feed a family of 4 for 3 meals. It became known as the Duracell Chicken :D

Re: Budgeting........
 

We're also a family of 4. Your utilities bills seem very high - our actuals for the last one year was as follows:
Gas and Electricity: $ 120
Water: $50
Internet seems incredibly high. We have Telstra cable+home phone bundle for $85 (TPG is even cheaper)

I am planning to cut my daughter's pocket money ($80) considering she charges me $20 an hour to tutor the younger one and she makes a good $150 ++ a month:sneaky:

I'd try and bring down lunches to 0 - that is a big no no - typically unhealthy and over priced. We've done it for the past 15 years and so it's not impossible.

I'd also rip the credit card and keep a debit card instead and use one account for all expenses. Much easier to track them that way.

Our grocery bill is around $850 a month. We keep away from all 'ready to eat'/ packaged meals to a minimum. Similarly keep away from canned beans and lentils. We look out for half price specials and stock up on items like detergent, softener, coffee, peanut butter etc.

Re: Budgeting........
 

Through our recent hard times, we didnt even consider our allowance for ourselves, just keeping our heads above water.

When I was younger, if Mum could afford pocket money then I had it, if not then tough.

I have noticed many teens today do get more than I would allow myself even now, I wonder if they know how lucky they are or even appreciate it, and I wonder also what they would do if it was stopped due to financial hardship?

My friend cut her teens allowance when she was signed off sick and her daughter went mad, refusing to see the logic of it all, so my friend told her to get off her arse and get a part time job, you would think she had suggested eating a kitten.

Sign of the times I guess.

Re: Budgeting........
 

Yeah - a pen & paper...

Re: Budgeting........
 

A year? How the hell do you manage that? My water bill is higher than that and we don't even use town water, just pay to remain connected.

Re: Budgeting........
 

Those are monthly figures. No idea:unsure: It's not as if we were consciously trying to keep the bills low.

I just downloaded my entire txn history. Let me check the previous years too.
We were renting a regular 4bed, no pool and a small garden. Hubby's laptop and his server is practically on 7x24 due to his work. TV/music is perpetually on. And we used to have lights on in my teen's bedroom who insists keeping the curtains drawn and then keeping the lights on:frown:

And ducted used to be on for around 5 hours every day during winter.

No baths, just showers. Our garden now is massive so I expect our water bill to go up in summer. Luckily most of the trees are established. Roses and the smaller plants will require more water. But one the other hand we'll probably use less electricity as the rooms have a lot of natural light.

Re: Budgeting........
 

Never used a spread sheet only time we've had to do budget is actuallying using physical money and envelopes. One thing we always done is round the money up to the nearest 50.... hence 1803 rent would be 1850...... Gas 150.... etc etc. That way you've definitely got money left over each month.

Tis up to you obviously how you spend your dosh... it's whether you can afford to actually do it using the envelope and nearest 50 system where it gets interesting. Oh money towards our own needs.... Lunches/phones etc comes last... also used a priority list numbering the bills in priority... Rent would be Number 1... with the utilities close behind etc. This way you can work out which is the easiest bill to cut. If you cant cut, then OT or extra job is the only way.... I honestly beleive that any family can make 200 - 300 bucks a month by solely shopping at Aldi... thats money in your pocket... beats working OT .

best of luck

That envelope system really works, but it's a huge pain in the arse.

One thing... Paying credit card interest is a huge no no to someone on a tight budget. Look at consolodating the loan... line of credit is a good way but can also be too tempting and causes the majority of people problems. Depends how determined an disciplined you are. So personally speaking the credit card bill would be number 1 priority... Who wants to pay high interest to Banks. I would definitely get rid of that bill first and use a redraw loan to do it.... then possibly run on a visa debit card than credit.







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