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Regular spending |
Irregular spending |
| Mortgage/rent House and contents insurance Council tax Water Gas/Oil Electricity Home Phone Internet Mobile phone(s) Car insurance Car tax Car maintenance/MOT Debt repayments - credit cards, loans, finance Regular savings - pension, ISA's Childcare Pocket money School meals TV licence Satellite/cable University/college fees |
Home and garden maintenance
Food shopping including pet food Eating/drinking out Cigarettes/tobacco Petrol Parking Other transport - bus, train, other School trips Baby equipment - nappies, toiletries Hobbies Vet bills for pets Days out/entertainment Books/music/films/games Adult clothing and shoes Children clothing and shoes Birthday and Christmas presents Dentist Haircuts Optician - contact lenses or glasses Big one off purchases - TV, washing machine, sofa Any other expenditure |
If you wish to make your own budget then it needs to have four columns
- Outgoings
- Monthly average
- New budget target
- Actual spend; this could be filled in month by month to help you keep a track of your progress.
Click here for a printable sample.
Insurance
Annual costs such as insurance should be divided by 12 to give a monthly average.
Car insurance premium £240 annually Monthly average £20 per month By changing your insurance provider, you might manage to reduce this cost to £200. This new monthly average is the figure that goes is the new budget column
New car insurance premium £200 annually
New monthly average £16.66
Food
By keeping a spending diary, you might have calculated that you spend £50 per week on food.
Current food spend £50 per week
Monthly average £200
By reducing waste and meal planning, you might hope to reduce this to £150 per month, which would be your target. When you add up all your spending at the end of the month, you put the total in the "actual spend" column, and you can see if you have achieved your target.
Electricity
Quarterly bills can be switched to a monthly direct debit. The target could be achieved by switching suppliers or turning off appliances on standby.
Current quarterly electricity bill £90
Monthly average £30
Monitoring your bills will let you know whether you have reached your target.
Big spends - holidays, Christmas
Average spend on family holiday £1000
Monthly average £83.33
By shopping around or taking a cheaper holiday, this can be reduced to meet your new budget target
| Outgoings | Monthly Average | New budget/target | Actual spend |
| Car insurance | £20 | £16.66 | £16.66 (on budget) |
| Food | £200 | £150 | £180 (over budget) |
| Electricity | £30 | £25 | £23 (under budget) |
| Holidays | £83.33 | £50 | £66 (over budget) |
| Total | £333.33 | £241.66 | £285.66 |
| Income | £300.00 | £300.00 | £300.00 |
| Balance | £33.33 deficit | £108.34 surplus | £14.43 surplus |
In this example, although the budget has gone over by £44, overall the family is left with a surplus.
Where to next?
- Working parent? Find out all you need to know here
- Child Trust fund - so what's it all about
