Sticking to a budget

I hope once your OAP and his pension kick in later on things may feel a bit easier. But it is worrying to think how others who don't have those sources of support are coping. Wishing you all the best going forward and hope the budgetary steps you're taking start making a positive impact. Stay strong!

Oreo

Yes, it’s def a time thing isn’t it? I both work and have childcare to do, plus cleaning and shopping and helping Mum with hers.
If fully retired and you can get, and live near an allotments it’s worth applying for.

Yes,the lady I war h wouldn't be able to manage without her allotment, and she has said recently that its damn hard work.

It's the difference between her managing or not.

She made a cheap tomato soup, from basics she had bought, and one that used her allotment grows, and the allotment version was about 40p cheaper, I think.

I'm not sure which country you were in abroad, but I'm surprised you find the UK so expensive in comparison. France is much dearer for food, (chicken breast x 2 for 5 euros, half that price in Tesco or Sainsburys). Everything has gone up everywhere.
I know our DD2, DH + 3 hungry children struggles a bit. She has just bought a second freezer and uses the toogoodtogo App to stock up. She now batch cooks more and freezes. So despite the initial outlay, the new freezer is a godsend and saving money.

Petrol has shot up in price too. I used to pay £25 every five weeks to get to work. I’m retired now and use the car for local trips. My petrol for around six weeks is now around £40 for quite a small car

Casdon

I’m not sure the concept of generic has been understood by some? Of course they don’t fit you individually. These guidelines are aimed at helping people start to budget who haven’t before, and give broad principles, not the detail of the finances of those of us who have been around the block a few times and already know how to do it. Just because they don’t fit your circumstances doesn’t mean that a tool to help people start budgeting better is a bad thing - that’s like saying others don’t need to learn the alphabet because I can read already.

🙂 yes. I started this yonks ago setting up separate accounts for the 30-20 -10+% and bank transfers made automatically every month. The current account sees to my essentials. It is all done without any thinking on my part. Of course with a young family it needed a lot of discipline which I found difficult at times. But I treated it as a guidance not tablets of stone.

Whitewavemark2

I think guidance is extremely useful particularly for someone just starting out.

I’ve just looked at the banks guidance and what it actually says is

50% essentials

30% wants

20% savings.

I’ve obviously added the other stuff over the years without realising it.

For those who like to plough their own financial furrow fine - plough ahead, but for others a little bit of guidance goes a long way for future stability and financial confidence.

I do a money class at Church, for young people who need a bit of help knowing how to put their finances right.

I advise 60% musts, 20% wants, 10% savings, 10% tithe.

Seems to be a good mix, regardless age, income, family size.

We make a list and stick to it, never go shopping on an empty stomach, have a fresh fish delivery weekly/fortnightly, and buy meat from a local butcher.
We might pay a few pence more for the fish and meat but at least we can be confident that both are fresh - if you think supermarket frozen fish works out cheaper, that's your choice but do look at the point of origin and where it was packed.
A few months ago I picked up a pack of frozen cod in the supermarket - it was caught in the North Sea.............and packed in CHINA! I rest my case.

I’m not sure the concept of generic has been understood by some? Of course they don’t fit you individually. These guidelines are aimed at helping people start to budget who haven’t before, and give broad principles, not the detail of the finances of those of us who have been around the block a few times and already know how to do it. Just because they don’t fit your circumstances doesn’t mean that a tool to help people start budgeting better is a bad thing - that’s like saying others don’t need to learn the alphabet because I can read already.

Generic guidelines are no good when they bear no relation to your familys size, circumstances or income.

The only way to budget is to sit down and work out what your money is being spent on currently and then work from basics, rent/mortgage, utilities, food upwards.

The actions anyone needs to take to control spending will vary from person to person. I was advising someone elderly with a developing debt problem and suggested that instead of just buying what she wanted and paying by debit card, she worked out a weekly spending limit and took out the cash once a week (this was before COVID). It worked a treat, she was out of debt in six months - but that would not work for everybody.

Casdon

I do like generic guidelines for budget management, because I think far too many people over-extend themselves and get into unmanageable debt because they don’t think of the future. Therefore things they have to save up for but which are inevitable cause a crisis, and they have to borrow more money. These days far too much is available on ‘buy now pay later’ schemes. It’s helpful to know how much the bank recommends you should put aside for those eventualities, particularly for young people and those who are struggling with debt.
Having said that, I don’t worry too much about dipping into my savings for bigger purchases, because that’s what they are for. I’d be worried too though if it was necessary to use them routinely because once they are gone it must be incredibly stressful to have no funds to fall back on.

That's all very well if people really do have surplus, having taken care of essentials. I'm afraid I don't, so I have to budget differently. I've already cut things down to the bone. At the beginning of each month, I compare my income with essentials and earmark that money. Each month is slightly different, eg birthdays, car expenses, other major travel, etc.

I don't have any beauty treatments, but I do pay for a decent haircut every so often. That's the one thing which can be postponed from one month to the next.

I now have very few savings, so I look to my wardrobe, loft and bookcase to see if there's anything I can sell on eBay or Vinted. Currently, I'm saving for a car service and am putting aside money I receive from selling books and recycled print cartridges (I scrounge them from friends).

I just about manage by paying for everything on credit card and paying it off at the end of the month, which gives me a couple of weeks of "free credit". Diabetes means I have to eat reasonably well and plan my food, but I find that quite easy to budget for. I rarely pay for any vegetables (although I never know what I'm going to get every week). Wherever possible, I eat salad rather than veggies which need to be cooked, to save fuel. I also batch cook/freeze, so there are some weeks when I hardly buy any food. My absolute maximum for food and cleaning materials, etc is £150 a month.

I buy clothes in charity shops and/or in sales and regularly re-sell clothes I haven't worn for a while or which I bought for an occasion and will never wear again. Most of my clothes have some kind of recognisable label, so they're easy to sell and I guess most people have no idea how little I spend on them. (It made me smile when some poster on GN claimed to be able to tell poor people from the clothes and shoes they wear ). She probably also posts about people who can't be poor because they wear designer clothes . My smartphone is years old and reaching the end of its life, so some serious research is going to be needed about replacing it. Any long-term savings I ever manage go into my "car fund". I'm hoping my current car will last a couple more years and that I'll be able to afford one more car before I become incapable of driving safely/pop my clogs.

Yes, it’s def a time thing isn’t it? I both work and have childcare to do, plus cleaning and shopping and helping Mum with hers.
If fully retired and you can get, and live near an allotments it’s worth applying for.

Allotments help hugely Oreo. Most are very cheap, my dad (aged 94) pays £20 per year for his. Fruit trees and bushes cost very little in upkeep and supply enough for the freezer to feed them for the whole year, and there are vegetables growing all year round, and stored and frozen too. It saves at least £10 per week I’d say. You don’t even have to buy seeds if you save them from one year to the next, but most allotment societies also do very cheap deals on both seeds and fertilisers, plus you can make your own for free.. If you have the time and energy it’s really beneficial - lots of younger people are getting into it now too, for the same reason I imagine.

Allotments have to be paid for and so do seeds, bulbs and fertiliser.
If anyone has the time and the inclination of course, it must help, tho carrots for instance cost about only 40p or less for a bag in some shops.
I manage on a strict budget for the two of us, it works but we don’t smoke (£16 a pack!) or vape or drink much alcohol.
Making essential shopping lists helps and not getting carried away in supermarkets.

I think guidance is extremely useful particularly for someone just starting out.

I’ve just looked at the banks guidance and what it actually says is

50% essentials

30% wants

20% savings.

I’ve obviously added the other stuff over the years without realising it.

For those who like to plough their own financial furrow fine - plough ahead, but for others a little bit of guidance goes a long way for future stability and financial confidence.

I watch a lady on YouTube who genuinely manages on a budget of around, say, £10 a week on food.
She shows her menu, always cooks from scratch, and has an allotment that has been her mainstay in providing a good deal of her food.

However, she now needs to move and probably won't have an allotment any more as her arthritis is getting too hard to manage.

I do like generic guidelines for budget management, because I think far too many people over-extend themselves and get into unmanageable debt because they don’t think of the future. Therefore things they have to save up for but which are inevitable cause a crisis, and they have to borrow more money. These days far too much is available on ‘buy now pay later’ schemes. It’s helpful to know how much the bank recommends you should put aside for those eventualities, particularly for young people and those who are struggling with debt.
Having said that, I don’t worry too much about dipping into my savings for bigger purchases, because that’s what they are for. I’d be worried too though if it was necessary to use them routinely because once they are gone it must be incredibly stressful to have no funds to fall back on.

I always find the "guides" meaningless too MOnica.

I spend just under a third of my total income on rent - and that's with housing benefit factored into my income.

From the remainder, I spend just over 10% on council tax, about which I have no choice. So that's 40% on rent and council tax. That leaves me with approximately the same as the full new state pension (even though I receive occupational pensions).

I have never in my life had 30% of my disposable income for presents, holidays, etc. I'd love the luxury of not having to budget, but it's not to be.

WWM2 Assuming the bank division is generic, where does rent/mortgage fit in. If all household costs come out of 50% of income, then some families will have given up on eating to do so.

I never like these generic guides. Every family is different. At one point, when mortgage rates were heading through double figures, our mortgage alone equalled half our income. At another time 25% of our income was accounted for by car costs. As for having 30% disposable income for presents, holidays etc. For most of my life that was an impossible dream.

The day my husband came home, in the 80s and announced that everyone was immediately on half salary to save jobs. That was when I got the envelopes out and calculated exactly how much cash I would need for everything every month. The envelopes were labelled and lined up in my underwear drawer

It worked, we stayed afloat, we changed meals to veggie eg broad beans and parsley sauce, tvp.

I have some cash but will not be doing envelopes again, I live alone and will be remaining comfortable wrt heating etc but who would have thought those days would be looming again

My bank gives guidance for a monthly budget.

50% of total income on weekly outgoing, including household, rates, fuel, energy etc.

30% for entertainment, holidays, gifts etc

20% for large expense like house repairs, car maintenance etc.

I keep to that - but I usually have sufficient left over from the 50% budget to save at least 10% of my total income for a rainy day.

Within that i budget £520 for food a month and never ever spend that. But I have noticed my bills going up and up and the pension increase is not keeping up.

I would add that other pensioners I talk to - all with varied income are finding life more difficult. Those (all women) on just the state pension with pathetic top ups. are finding life increasingly hard/impossible. There is real pensioner poverty out there.

Quick Update well we made it just ! Last Thursday I took £110.00 out of the ATM and I have £1.27 left. That includes feeding a very fussy large Dog and having MIL for lunch on Mothers day +small bunch of flowers. It wasn't easy it made me think about every penny, we run of salt and I usually buy the grinder sort from Aldi /Lidl but its once in a while purchase but it still took £1.50+ out of my budget. This week we need Dishwasher Tablets ( I know owning a Dishwasher is a luxury) The whole experience has made me think were not well off but there is a bit of 'wiggle room' for which I am grateful but we will continue.

There's plenty of good advice here, but I'm not sure what your budget is, or what you like. You say that you are near supermarkets, but don't mention markets, which we (and one poster) think excellent value - but I would agree that they are variable.
Neither do you say what you like - we do a 'big shop' every 6-8 weeks at our local wholefood co-op, and make most things from scratch. I use the pulses to bulk out soups, stews, salads etc.
We buy good meat from farmers and local butcher, and stretch it a long way by using veg & pulses. I also make stock with the left-overs. But I know some people find such things expensive because of the fuel. I do use both a Remoska & a slow cooker, and there is a lot of expertise on here around air fryers and 'Ninjas'.
Are you eating seasonally? That makes a big difference. We do get some treats - I have a couple of satsumas and a box of grapes in the fridge at the moment, but we mostly eat local (meaning stored apples & pears at the moment).
I hope all these different ideas help.

In Lidl they have cooking bacon packs. (less than £1.50) We look for the leaner ones. It makes boiled ham after being wrapped tied and boiled. ( boil twice to get rid of the salt) There is enough meat for a hot meal, then salad or sandwiches for 2 days and stock to make soup.
I also look for the £1.50 boxes but you have to be there early for those.

£20? Wow that's impressive for the 60s. My first job paid £6, I then worked in a bank in London for £17 a week and thought that I'd made it!

Can I make it clear I am absolutely not criticising paddyanne, nor am I doing anything snide with remarks about less well off peopk but given that we also have a very comfortable income and, like paddyanne can spend as much as we want on food - and we eat well because I love really good food well cooked - i am genuinely curious about what food paddyann buys and if she comes back and tells me it is none of my business, I will happliy accept that.

the one difference I can think of, is that although I buy expensive meat, I do not buy expensive cuts. I do not like steak, or joints or large lumps of meat so do not buy them. Instead I mainly buy stewing cuts, mince, offal to make into casseroles and stews.