Right, this is the most important thing that you will do when you are sorting out your finances.
You need to work out what your monthly spending is and what your monthly income is.
I have set up a budget form at my website that you can print out and fill in, I think it is pretty detailed so should cover all areas of your monthly spending. If I were you I would sit down with your last three months bank statements so you can see everything that has come out of your account for the past few months and work from there.
You can find the budget form at www.sortyourfinancesout.co.uk
The completed budget form will show you how much money you have left over at the end of each month.
If you discover that you spend more than you earn, you need to take immediate action as this is unsustainable and will only result in you having debt that you struggle to pay off.
If you are one of the lucky ones who end the month with money left over, congratulations!
The problem that I had when I did my budget was that even though my budget showed that I had a surplus of £300 per month but at the end of each month I actually had nothing left. To find out where my money was going, I filled in a spending diary for a month. Every single thing that I spent was written down in my book (husbands too.... although he wasn't pleased to have to produce reciepts for everything!!!). At the end of the month I added up how much we had spent on everything and was shocked at the amount I had spent on crap.
£60.00 on work lunches
£34.00 on kids toys when we did our weekly shopping
£10.00 on chocolate for husband on the way to work
£50.00 on takeaways
So, now I take packed lunches, do my shopping on line and buy multi packs of chocolate for hubby to eat on a morning. I have also started Slimming World now so that cuts down on the Takeaways.
You need to work out what your monthly spending is and what your monthly income is.
I have set up a budget form at my website that you can print out and fill in, I think it is pretty detailed so should cover all areas of your monthly spending. If I were you I would sit down with your last three months bank statements so you can see everything that has come out of your account for the past few months and work from there.
You can find the budget form at www.sortyourfinancesout.co.uk
The completed budget form will show you how much money you have left over at the end of each month.
If you discover that you spend more than you earn, you need to take immediate action as this is unsustainable and will only result in you having debt that you struggle to pay off.
If you are one of the lucky ones who end the month with money left over, congratulations!
The problem that I had when I did my budget was that even though my budget showed that I had a surplus of £300 per month but at the end of each month I actually had nothing left. To find out where my money was going, I filled in a spending diary for a month. Every single thing that I spent was written down in my book (husbands too.... although he wasn't pleased to have to produce reciepts for everything!!!). At the end of the month I added up how much we had spent on everything and was shocked at the amount I had spent on crap.
£60.00 on work lunches
£34.00 on kids toys when we did our weekly shopping
£10.00 on chocolate for husband on the way to work
£50.00 on takeaways
So, now I take packed lunches, do my shopping on line and buy multi packs of chocolate for hubby to eat on a morning. I have also started Slimming World now so that cuts down on the Takeaways.
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