LEARNING TO BUDGET

[rachellxx39]

Hi,Just wanted to know how other people are getting on budgeting while in iva.

[james.c]

diffcult, i have to go with out alot of the time.

[ianmillington]

I'm afraid it will never be easy.

The CCCS guidelines, which will apply to most VAs nowadays, have very little slack in them.

Ian

[rachellxx39]

I have only just made my first payment,so i am just getting used to sticking to the budget. Car tax coming up end of feb !with 3 kids it aint easy,but im gonna do my best.

[cr15py]

It's not easy rachell. The best way I have found to do it is to have "pots", perhaps not literally have flowerpots dotted around the house, but I draw the necessary costs out in cash that I need (bus fares to work, supermarket consumables, etc), buy my shopping online monthly (you will be amazed how much that saves!). Have a couple of bank accounts for storing unused and contingency money in.

A couple of ideas. They are helping me so far!

Good luck with it rachell. [:)]

[rachellxx39]

Thanks for the advice ,i have got savings account so i shall proberbly start putting bits away in there.

[maxdebt]

I moved 'down' a level in my Asda shop... by that I mean for instance if in the past I bought branded fish fingers then I changed to asda's own. If I previously bought asda's own then i moved down to Smartprice. There was h*ll on at the beginning with a threatened revolt from my children and wife ( 4 children, 1 wife) but they have adapted now as the Borg would say. I save abour £50 using this technique

[louisa.s]

We found it really difficult to start with as we really weren't used to it. To make it easier we got separate accounts to divide our budget up. I understand you are in contact with Caraf? If she has still got them i sent her a copy of our budget and how it breaks down and what goes into each account and I am perfectly happy for her to forward it to you if it helps!

At the end the of the day everyone works things differently and although Huby and I have an interlocking IVA you wouldn't know coz he doesn't actually deal with anything relating to it.

Lou x

[caraf]

I am just learning to.
I have my Lloyds account, which my husband wages and the benefits are paid into, and all the household DD come out of there.
I have my smile account which has my wages paid into, and this I call my "living" account, food, petrol, dentist etc..etc..
at the moment it is working but only in the very early days yet.
I shop at Asda everyweek, and this is what I seem to be struggling with at the moment always 7-8 quid over every week, need to tighten the strings a little as i only have 400 per month which is not alot really for 4 people. Its hardtoreak the habit of just throwing everything in and then put it on the plastic..

[Lisa2009]

Look upon it as a learning curve.
You learn to think "do i actually need this" before you buy it.
You shop around for better bargains and save a little.
Look how well disciplined you will be after the 5 years.

mrs skint

[cr15py]

If you can get a delivery online, then try buying all your non-perishables (frozen stuff, tins, tea, coffee, etc) online and I reckon we have saved £75+ a month just by doing this. The number of times I went in to my local supermarket, bought 3 or 4 things for tea that ended up costing £10 or so. I made something last night that probably cost £4 and was absolutely gorgeous!

You will probably find, especially on the tins and frozen stuff that you get 2 for £x, when before you might have bought one for a week, then bought the same the following week, when you could have saved 20%. It's the little things that make the big difference!

I can eat own brand "cheap stuff" very easily, doesn't bother me at all - the girlfriend isn't so keen though!!!

That's where my the majority of my savings have come from.

[rachellxx39]

I have started to buy sainsburys and asdas brands while shopping and it does make a huge difference.For childrens pack up for example 20 choc bars £99p but if you buy kit kat or penquins you can be talking £2 ! unless they are on offer that week .We shall see how it goes .Food is so expensive these days i dread to think what prices things will be when my kids grow up !

[gracey84]

As the others have said its really hard. I'm now 2 years into mine, and although i'm usually counting the days til payday I still have money to last me until then whereas before I was just spending my wages and putting everything else on my card. On the bright side though and more of a long term benefit, i'm now excellent when it comes to money saving and living on a tight budget that I think come the end of my IVA I will be able to continue making the same payments into a savings account! Its been a long hard lesson, but a good one at that!

[rachellxx39]

Also if you spend under budget for your housekeeping are you allowed to keep whats left over for savings.

[size5]

I find that shopping at Tesco's works for me as I save all the clubcard vouchers for xmas, I also pass a Tesco express on my way to work so I buy my petrol there as well.
Silly, I know, as I could save more by shopping elsewhere but last xmas was a lot easier than previous ones.