What Babe Did Next

Thursday nights ain't what they used to be

I want to be able to regale you with tales of how I celebrated my new-found freedom with a magnum of champagne,  coupled with dancing ’til dawn. But with the exception of, what can only be described as, ‘a bit of a bop’ to an old Gods Kitchen CD whilst cooking tea, there have been no celebrations as yet.

This is partly because:

a.) Whilst I can see the exit sign, the end is a long way off yet – I’ve still got 81 working days to go at my current ‘day job’. Not that I’m counting, you understand.

b.) Whilst this is all terribly exciting; it’s also shit scary. On the one hand the fact that Love of my Life and I are investing in such a lovely, homely property makes me all the more determined to succeed. On the other hand it makes a voice in my head go ‘Eeeek! What about the rather large mortgage’.

And, so, because of reason b, I have spent the evening with a sobering pint of squash, a trusty spreadsheet and a lovely big calculator with the most amazing clickety buttons (I know, I need to get out more). Yes, it’s been time to do some number crunching and look where that skinny waist belt can be tightened a bit…

Spending cuts

Redundancy cover – considering amending to only cover Love of my Life, or cancelling completely

Electricity, gas, water, groceries – unfortunately I need to cook/wash/eat – but for the next few months I’ll need to try to do this a bit more economically

Contact Lens subscription – a possible luxury I could do without, if needs be

Train Fare – if I’m not commuting to the day job on a regular basis, this would be one less expense

Spending money/saving – wouldn’t happen – essentials only (eek!)

Fees for financial products – these are ordinarily offset by cash back offers, but if I’m not spending I won’t be earning cash back so another possible way of making my money stretch a weeny bit further

Lovefilm subscription – a luxury I can do without, we’ll just have to watch all the box-sets we’ve been given as Christmas presents over the years.

All-in-all I reckon these cost-saving measures could save us approximately (big calculator with clicky buttons time)… £3821.76 per annum, over two-and-a-half times my monthly take home, which leads me to wonder… how much does working cost…?!

Wedding Day Budget? Something we Excel at, Naturally

As you will no doubt know by now, myself and Love of my Life are spreadsheet aficionados. So it should come as no surprise that one of the first tasks we undertook when planning our wedding was to pull together our budget spreadsheet.

Geeky? Maybe. And at times it seemed useless. What was the point of having a long list of items, with their associated cost next to them, when we don’t have enough saved for even half of them. Luckily we persevered.

Our spreadsheet lists every single item or area which we’ll need to part with cash for (and in true OCD style similar items are grouped together and, er, colour coded). It was depressing and a tad worrying to see a figure of £16k sitting at the foot of the spreadsheet. Laughing at our puny bank balance in that evil, knowing way usually reserved for cartoon villains. On the plus side that included all of our proposed (pardon the pun) expenses for wedding AND honeymoon.

In my opinion plotting out what you plan on spending for all areas of the wedding is really important for a number of reasons…

1.) It makes you think about what’s really important for your big day and where you can compromise. For us the venue and food HAS to be right and we’ll pay more bucks for that, but we can compensate for that by spending less on venue decor and making stuff ourselves (do Hobbycraft do a loyalty card?!)

2.) It focuses your mind on what you need to save. Remember SMART goals? Knowing how much you need to make your dream day right for you allows you to pull into place your savings plan accordingly.

3.) It makes it easier for people who want to contribute. Family and friends are likely to want to support you on your special day, but them giving you money can be awkward. Perhaps they’re assuming you’re going to spend it on flowers but instead you opt for balloons. With a list of items to chose from they can see what you want and opt to contribute towards something tangible. Do, of course, check how much input they’re expecting on said item. If your mom offers to buy your dress you might want to check what her expectations are of the perfect gown in comparison to yours.

4.) It allows you to make rational purchases. It’s so easy to be swept along in the moment and up-sold items for your big day. You need to have an idea of what you’re prepared to pay for everything so you can decide whether to snap it up, or walk away and find if cheaper elsewhere. Hence why the £1200 gown which I tried on is not on order. Obviously there will be some occasions where you just fall in love with something and end up blowing the budget, but if you did that on every item? Eek.

5.) You get to feel super smug when you come in under budget. OK, it doesn’t happen often, but my god it’s a sweet feeling when it does.

So whilst a wedding should be a whole lotta heart, using your head for the money part could mean you start your married life, well, slightly more solvent. And who wants to be arguing over money?

Tweet what you spend – the results

Must stop buying cake

If you’ve been paying attention you’ll know that January saw me tweeting every time I parted with some of my hard-earned cash, but did it work? Hard to tell. I didn’t overspend as much last month which is a good sign and looking back on my tweets has proven a great way of seeing where my money is actually going.

The majority of my money went on ‘gifts and events’ throughout January. That is, paying out for accommodation, transport and random pink things for my best friends hen do next month, as well as buying birthday gifts and attending a maternity lunch. All worthwhile investments I’m sure you’ll agree?

I also spent a few pounds on eating out, £55.58 to be exact. To be fair in my ‘blow the budget’ days that could have gone on one meal, whereas now it’s split across several lunches and take outs. It has, however, highlighted to me that I need to be better at taking my lunch to work with me as those M&S lunches and Boots Meal Deals soon add up.

Keeping myself topped up with caffeine and cake has also seen me digging out the Radley on a regular basis. With around £20 spent on this over the past month. Not bad?! If I spent that each month, over the course of a year it would add up to £240 which is a lot to spend on a drink I can make in my own kitchen.

Another of my addictions appears to be glossy reading matter as £13.69 was spent on magazines and newspapers to keep me occupied on my daily commute. Maybe I should start picking up a free copy of the Metro each morning?

With a further £30 being spent on beauty products – about average, eh girls? There was also £3.95 spent on snacks.

Overall I think I’ve done pretty well, but I can’t help but feel that if I was more prepared and less prone to emotional spending I could be saving more and spending money on clothes, furniture and other things which have more longevity than the food and frivolities which I’m currently splashing my cash on.

Keeping a spend diary

I have £255.04 to last me from this payday (26th November) to the next (21st December). That’s just over £250 to spend on whatever I want – clothes, lunches, coffee… It’s a little more than £10 a day to use to purchase glorious things just for me. That’s easy, right? £255 (and the all important 4p) should easily last me until mid-December and enable me to have some fun along the way, maybe there’ll even some funds left over at the end?!

Hmm, if you believe that you truly have no idea of how capable I am at spending my money on absolute cr*p. So I’ve decided to keep a spend diary, which entails…

1.) Keeping a notepad & pen with me at all times
2.) Noting down every single purchase made with this months ‘kitty‘

I’m hoping this will have two affects..

1.) Highlighting where all my money is going/wasted, so I can address this
2.) Ensuring I make a more active choice of whether I need to spend or not. (It’s amazing how knowing you have to write details of your spends down can guilt trip you into spending less.)

At present it looks something like this:

Available funds: £255.04

Friday 26th November (payday)
Extra Christmas gift for my sister: £4.99 (Boots)
Lunch & more Christmas gifts: £12.00 (M&S)
Yet more Christmas gifts & wrap: £8.05 (WH Smith)
Lipstick, nail polish, eyeshadow: £8.18 (Boots)

Daily total spent: £33.22
Funds available: £221.82

Saturday 27th November
Grande gingerbread latte with whip and slice of caramel & pecan cheesecake (for sis visiting from Bristol), Tall Eggnog latte and chocolate and hazelnut latte (for me): £10.20 (Starbucks)
Pasta, wine and tip: £17.00 (Pizza Express)
A warming cuppa as my sister’s train was delayed by 40 minutes: £1.79 (random train station cafe)
Glamour magazine (with free Nails Inc nail polish!) and Fruit Pastilles: £2.70 (train station newsagent)

Daily total spent: £31.69
Funds available: £190.30

Sunday 28th November
Sanitary products: £0.85 (Wilko)

Daily total spent: £0.85
Funds available: £182.28

Monday 29th November
Dry shampoo and sanitary products: £12.09 (Boots)

Daily total spent: £12.09
Funds available: £170.19

That’s £58.45 spent in just four days! This could prove an interesting experiment.

How to save – part 2 – budgeting

Whether you need to pay off your debts first, or you can crack on with saving straight away, you need an idea of how much is coming in and going out to find out how much you can afford to set aside – let’s get budgeting!

What you’ll need…

• A day where you won’t be interrupted
• Paper & pens
• A calculator
• A way of recording your budget. For me this is a trusty Excel spreadsheet. For others this might be a notebook – whatever works for you – so long as it’s clear, accessible and easy to maintain
• Any relevant paperwork (including bills & statements)
• Your partner (if you live together and pay for things jointly)
• A mug of tea and an endless supply of Bourbon biscuits*

A cuppa & a mighty Bourbon - King of the Biscuits! Essential tools for budgeting babes!

Ready?

1.) Firstly decide whether you are going to create a weekly, fortnightly or monthly budget. This will largely depend on the frequency you get paid. For me, monthly works

2.) Make a list of all the regular bills and costs which you fork out on, whether this be on a daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly basis. If you’re doing this with your partner you’ll have to decide how to do this. Do you just split joint costs and have your own budgets (like Love of my Life and I do), or do you share everything? This is likely to be largely dependent on how you work your current/joint account.

My list of outgoings is…

• Mortgage – shared with Love of my Life
• Redundancy cover – shared with Love of my Life
• Life Assurance – shared with Love of my Life
• Ground Rent – shared with Love of my Life
• Service Charge – shared with Love of my Life
• Water – shared with Love of my Life
• Electricity – shared with Love of my Life
• Gas – shared with Love of my Life
• Council Tax – shared with Love of my Life
• TV Licence – shared with Love of my Life
• Grocery Shopping – shared with Love of my Life
• Home Contents Insurance – shared with Love of my Life
• Landline & Broadband – shared with Love of my Life
• Contact Lenses
• Train pass
• Mobile Phone
• ‘Spend Kitty’ – this covers a multitude of sins, I prefer to give myself a ‘pot’ of money which I can use on such ‘luxuries’ as eyebrow threading if I can afford it, rather than setting aside money for this sort of thing each month. This will also be my ‘going out’ money, latte fund and where I splurge on wedding magazines! If you have regular treatments/ consistent monthly outgoings, or you find it difficult to stick to a budget you might want to break this section down into more detail (e.g. beauty treatments; going out fund; clothes fund) – even if you do this, still maintain a ‘spend kitty’, with the best will in the world you’ll need to allow some spontaneity!
• Savings/money to pay off debts

A true 'Spend Kitty'

3.) OK, now go back & double-check your list – have you included absolutely everything? Certain you have? OK, take another slurp of tea, try not to feel too disheartened at how long the list is, and…

4.) Now you need to find out how much everything costs you each month (week if you’re doing a weekly budget). For some things this will be easy, for example my Contact Lenses cost me £11.00 each month; my train pass is £54 each month. For other outgoings this may be slightly more difficult. For example, your gas and electricity bills are likely to be more expensive in the winter months. In this instance you’ll need to find out what your ‘average monthly spend is’. To do this you’ll need to dig out the past 12 months worth of bills and make sure the solar panel on your calculator is pointing towards the window. Here comes the maths…

Now that's my kinda calculator

Let’s use gas as an example…

We are charged quarterly for gas and over the past twelve months our bills have been for:

Bill 1 = £59.22
Bill 2 = £62.22
Bill 3 = £41.19
Bill 4 = £74.84

Total = £237.47

Simply divide this total amount by 12 give you the total you’ll need to put away each month, so:

£237.47
12                 = £19.78

It’s generally a good idea to add a bit of contingency to this amount to make sure you’ve enough stashed away to pay for that unexpected cold snap. So, for example we put away £20 per month to cover our gas bills.

You’ll need to do this for all of your outgoings. Yes, it’s time-consuming but it’s great way to find out the true monthly cost of things.

5.) Once you’ve completed the last step, decide how you’re going to split things between yourself and your partner and then work out your personal totals, so you should end up with a list a bit like this…

Babe’s Monthly Outgoings

• Mortgage = £379.98
• Ground Rent = £18.20
• Service Charge = £34.03
• Life Assurance = £21.51
• Redundancy Insurance = £9.27
• Electricity = £13.00
• Gas = £10.40
• Water = £15.60
• Council Tax = £44.20
• Home Contents Insurance = £2.08
• Phone/Broadband = £20.80
• Groceries = £90.66 (this one is a bit of guesswork unfortunately)
• TV Licence = £6.67
• Contact Lenses = £11.00
• Mobile =£30.00
• Train Fare = £54.00

6.) You’ll notice at this stage that you haven’t given yourself any allowance for your ‘Spend Kitty’ or to save/pay off debts. I don’t have any ‘debt’ as such, so the way I work it out is as follows (if you have more debts you may want to look to put more money aside for paying these off).

Take your monthly take home and minus all of your outgoings from the list above, so…

£1452.57 – £761.40 = £691.17
take home – outgoings = leftover funds

Hopefully, like me, you’ve got a positive balance at the end of that calculation. If not, you really need to start looking at ways to cut back and live within your means (future posts should be able to provide some help with this).

I simply take this amount and divide by two, so…

£691.17/2 = £345.59

So, I put £345.59 aside as my ‘Spend Kitty’ and put the remaining £345.59 into my savings or towards paying off any debts which I may have accrued.

Well, that’s how I work it anyway and it seems to work for me. If you don’t earn the same amount each month, don’t worry. Whether you’re an Excel lover like me, or you prefer a notepad and pen approach to your budgeting, your budget will be a continually updated work in progress, so long as you’ve worked out your average outgoings it should just be a simple case of recalculating:

take home – outgoings = leftover funds

leftover funds / 2 = savings & debt money & ‘Spend Kitty’

I ♥ spreadsheets

Go on… get that kettle boiling, dig out that calculator and get budgeting!

Not a fan of my method? That’s cool. Let us know what works for you. xx

* Other biscuits are acceptable, but Bourbons are the best in my humble opinion!