Am I being too strict with myself? Wage management

[annastasia]

Hi All,

Not a very complicated post just looking to hear for some feedback if possible.

I' m 28 y/o living in manchester earning 32k - £2060 per monthI've recently come out of a long term relationship (6 years) and I never really thought much about my outgoings but I'm trying to be a bit more clever with it.

Outgoigs and Savings

+
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K

1
Rent
Bills
Council Tax
Internet & Phone &data
Transport/Gym/Netflix/Meds
Food
Savings
Total Outs
Wage
Spare
Current Saved

2
£400
£250
Included in bills
£70
£250
£300
£600
£1,870
£2,060
£190
£22,500

I feel like I might burn myself down the line, leaving myself only £190 a month for anything else like clothes/shopping/extras, or is that normal?Based on my income/spends should I try to lower a few things ? I know my mobile is outgoing is stupid high but that is ending mid next year...i'm on a phone contract

I'm looking to buy within the next couple years so my focus is on savings at the moment

 

[zogy101]

@annastasia I'd split out the bundles a bit more to single things so you can see where the money is going and what you need to change ... 'bills' are included in your rent agreement for an extra £250 pcm ... or have you just written £250 because it is enough to 'cover the bills' ?

Typically the accounts would be written out vertically rather than horizontally as that's how we write on paper and do sums.

A further thing I do is plot out the whole year to cover any annual payments ... say like home insurance or a tv license ... which isn't shown on your sheet ... it also shows the annual cost of something you spread out monthly too ... which again can be an eye opener.

 

[annastasia]

@zogy101 I understand thank you.

Because I'm renting, the bills are fixed for the year, £400 rent and £250 for any bills electricity/water/council tax/tv license.

There's no other annual payments besides the phone contract that I'm on.

I understand the spreadsheet does look weird but I had to compile it as it wasn't working here the original one

 

[zogy101]

@annastasia Are you renting a room in a house with no lock on your own door to your own private space ... or renting a place where you have the front door keys to yourself ... ?

TV license would not normally be included in any rent as you might not have a TV ... if you can lock your own door then you need a tv license of your own ... and every household pays council tax ... not the landlord ... is this a private rental ... do you have a proper tenancy agreement ?

Sorry I guess this is off topic ... but just concerned for you.

 

[annastasia]

@zogy101 Thanks for the concern I think I just wasn't explicit.

I'm currently sharing with another person, a friend landlord, and he does pay TV license and I pay some of it which is included in the bills. And yes I do have a proper tenancy agreement

 

[zogy101]

@annastasia

Sorry I guess this is off topic ... but just concerned for you.

you are effectively a lodger then ... that makes more sense.

 

[dominusvobiscum]

@annastasia As you have saved £22500, you probably dont need to save anymore as you can support yourself for more than a year with that, maybe cut down that £600 to something like £150 will help you out

 

[wildflower5]

@annastasia As a really quick starting budget categorise your spending into 3 groups. Needs, Wants, Savings/repayments and calculate a remainder that could rollover to next month. Then itemise every single individual outgoing you have into each category (Netflix, phone bill, gas, electric etc…). Personally I have a max target of 50% Needs, 30% Wants and 20% repayments and savings. I say max as I want to ensure I have money left that will roll over and I usually stick it in savings.

It’s not the best budgeting strategy but I’ve been using it for 6 years now and it works very well for me.

 

[doreenpayne]

@annastasia £300 seems a lot for food - maybe look at meal prepping or shop at a different supermarket.

Me and my partner do about £200 between us

Others have already commented how you've bundled stuff together so it's not so easy for us to break down.

The internet/phone seems expensive to me as I pay £26 fibre and £7 sim only

I think you can easily find some savings and I'd rather have more than £190 spare a month for peace of mind.

 

[annastasia]

@doreenpayne Thank you!

I'm rubbish when it comes to shopping, I'm just one of those that just grabs anything that looks nice but I hear you...if you can manage £200 a month between 2 I definitely need to work harder on this. I was even thinking of £50 a week but even that is probably a bit high.

My internet(mobile data) and phone contract is £68.99 a month, so to speak I was greedy and went for like the latest phone 2 years ago and gotta cope with it for another year until the contract ends...

Thanks for the food insight I will see if I can tweak that

 

[doreenpayne]

@annastasia £50 a week isn't unreasonable because it's actually harder to buy as a single person.

The discounts can come in buying bigger quantities but a single person doesn't need the biggest version of everything.

So you end up paying a bit more unless you buy the larger portions and meal prep.

 

[annastasia]

@doreenpayne Makes sense! Thank you again

 

[justin017878]

@doreenpayne £200 a month for 2 people is very impressive how do you manage that? We spend a good £80-100 per week on shopping even with cooking everything at home. We do get lots of fruit and veg which pushes the price up but is non negotiable health wise to us.

 

[doreenpayne]

@justin017878 Aldi

It's probably creeping up a bit now as everything is going up but it's still around that figure.

Buying based on price per gram rather than what looks a bargain. Grab discounted food and freeze it for a later date etc.

 

[cookiesforthree]

@justin017878 Same here, it averages out at about £450 per month for us. That covers all meals (taking packed lunch and homemade snacks) and doing meal prep for the week on a Sunday so there's no wastage!

 

[eltan]

@annastasia I was until recently on the same wage - my rent is double yours (London etc) and I save £400 a month so this plan seems pretty doable (I spend a lot less in the transport/gym/netflix/meds category than you do I think - so the £400 I spend on rent you've split to here and savings compared to me in effect, which makes sense particularly if your commute is more expensive etc)

What I do with this is put c£300 into 'long term savings' (£333 a month maxes a Lisa for example) and c£100 into 'short term savings' which is easy access and permitable to dip into for largish expenses (recently I bought new glasses from here for example) could be worth considering.

Or doing that with your £190 spare as I find I spend on extras unevenly so it'd be helpful to know 'i didn't spend £90 out of the £190 last month so this month I have £280 in that fund which is great because I want to get a long train to see a friend/buy some new clothes /whatever this month'. In that scenario you could do something like carry over half save half also - but essentially it builds up a buffer in months you 'underspend' compared to budgeted to use in months where you have a lot of extra expenses for whatever reason.