Budgeting when moving out

[rizzo]

Hey guys,

Moving out in two weeks and was wondering what the best way to manage my money is. Obviously will have to pay all bills/rent/food etc. What would be a good budget to set for all this sort of stuff?

Have you got any effective ways of managing your money?

Any tips would be great

Cheers,
Rizz

 

[bunsen burner]

90% beer
1% deoderant
9% tv dinners and pizza.

 

[Jimmy_the_Gent]

Only 90% on beer?

 

[bunsen burner]

One must learn to be responsible at that age.

 

[Frodo]

You've made a step forward that many never have and never will.

You have considered making a budget.

So get working on it. Use a spreadsheet.

Write down your income, and your anticipated expenditure. Include an amount for a 'rainy day' and savings.

Now see what the balance is and re-balance it until your happy.

If you don't have enough, increase income or reduce costs. If that doesn't work then stay at home.

Keep the spreadsheet and update it regularly. make sure you are in control, and not your credit card.

 

[xyakks]

Hey guys,

Moving out in two weeks and was wondering what the best way to manage my money is. Obviously will have to pay all bills/rent/food etc. What would be a good budget to set for all this sort of stuff?

Have you got any effective ways of managing your money?

Any tips would be great

Cheers,
Rizz

Hey man long time no talk! Depends what sort of budget you want. I'm looking at buying a house about 3-4 years from now so I find it's best to "pay myself" first before I pay any bills on payday. I put $1,200 into a savers once a fortnight and from there invest the money once every 2-3 months in low risk investments.

That leaves enough for rent ($410 a week) Phone/internet ($100 a month) food ($80 a week) electricity/water/gas and about $200 spare change.

You've just got to have in mind what your ultimate goal is. Once you know what you want it's not hard to find a way to make it happen, you just need some self discipline.

Good luck man,

Yax

 

[Scotland]

I'm with Frodo, excel spreadsheet. Very easy to use.

Bills consist of regular (ie rent, phone, power, water etc. - sometimes constant amounts sometimes variable) and one-off (car rego, insurance etc.). Say you've got $200 a week rent, $80 a week in regular bills plus a $1000 insurance bill in December and a $600 car rego bill in June I'd recommend budgeting for the extra $30 a week ($1600/52 weeks) so your forecast weekly bills are $310 a week. Give yourself say $100 a week for food and $100 for other and your weekly spend would be $510.

The key is to pick a start date and take note of your bank balance on that date, then check your incomings/outgoings over the next month, two months, three months etc. to see how accurate your budget was and adjust accordingly if required. You don't want to go backwards but there's no point unnecessarily sticking to a budget that involves living off beans and 2 minute noodles for the sake of it.

 

[cats2rise]

Look.. You will get carried away and burn your money and live off toast for a day or two in the first few weeks - its what happens.

You just learn to be responsible. You learn quickly if you buy that new t-shirt, you will be low on food, and in all honesty that t-shirt will still be there later on.

Are you renting a whole place, or just have a room in a share house for uni?

 

[daddy_4_eyes]

Work out what your fixed costs are. E.g. rent, utilities, phone, car rego, insurance.

These costs are fixed because they have to be paid regardless.

Now work out how much money that leaves you each week/fortnight/month (depending on how regularly you get paid) for variable costs such as food, fuel, cleaning products, etc. I'd suggest keeping essentials separate from luxuries. So don't include take-away, alcohol, holidays, entertainment and even clothes & shoes as essentials. Budget for these out of your surplus cash flow, this way you don't blow your grocery budget after a big night out on the booze.

A couple years ago I lived on a $50 weekly food budget, and that was just enough to get by on.

What blew the budget was the ad hoc costs. Car broke down, house needed repainting, even insurance costs ($800 in one lump sum can hurt). I'd suggest setting a minimum bank balance, say $2,000, and ensuring you never dip into that in your regular costs of living. This way if something pops up you can dip into it so you don't have to go without the essentials.

 

[rizzo]

Gonna be on about $650 a week, but the GF is coming with me so everything will be halved.

Not sure what the average gas/water/electricity bill is worth??

Rent is $90 each p/w
Was thinking $50 each p/w for food. Maybe $60 each.
Petrol is covered by work

Then mobile $70 a month
Internet $30 each per month

I'm hoping to save $300 a week from my $650 (give or take $100). Is that possible from your experiences?

 

[xyakks]

I'm hoping to save $300 a week from my $650 (give or take $100). Is that possible from your experiences?

If you're sharing the rent I don't see why not. Probably leave more for food as you'll find some days you don't have time to cook and end up eating something quick and easy.

 

[year of the roo]

Gonna be on about $650 a week, but the GF is coming with me so everything will be halved.

Not sure what the average gas/water/electricity bill is worth??

Rent is $90 each p/w
Was thinking $50 each p/w for food. Maybe $60 each.
Petrol is covered by work

Then mobile $70 a month
Internet $30 each per month

I'm hoping to save $300 a week from my $650 (give or take $100). Is that possible from your experiences?

I can see scope for savings right there.

In all seriousness...

 

[Hawkamania!]

There is a lot of good advice on this thread.

On your utilities, have a look at what the payments are at the house you are in. Then divide that amount by the total amount of people living at your new place and add another 50% to that. Don't worry about overestimating your budget on this as anything you don't spend from that will be treated as savings after your bills.

I would also increase your shopping bill to $140. You will have to buy stuff like soap, cleaning products etc. Just like the utilities, overestimate and adjust after a couple of months. Anything you have surplus will become savings.

Add an entry for car repairs/expenses. Try to put a fair amount into this and build it up to about $2k.

In your budget, also put a bit of money aside for medical emergencies. This will cover trips to the doctor, additional prescriptions, ambulance costs (touch wood) etc.

Get into the habit of saving your money. If you have a credit card, replace it with a debit card with credit card facility. This will force you to save first before purchasing and hopefully keep you away from any credit traps.

And have a small fun fund. Put aside $30 a week and once a month do something fun with it. This could be a night out dinner with the gf or drinks at a watering hole. It will help keep you sane knowing you can have a little fun every month and you don't have to spend it all.

If you want a free budget program, this one may interest you.

http://buddi.digitalcave.ca/index.jsp

And finally, stick with the budget. A budget will only work if you are following it.

I hope this helps you out in some way.

 

[fairdinkum]

Gonna be on about $650 a week, but the GF is coming with me so everything will be halved.

Not sure what the average gas/water/electricity bill is worth??

Rent is $90 each p/w
Was thinking $50 each p/w for food. Maybe $60 each.
Petrol is covered by work

Then mobile $70 a month
Internet $30 each per month

I'm hoping to save $300 a week from my $650 (give or take $100). Is that possible from your experiences?

Are you (or your gf) much of a cook?

 

[rizzo]

Are you (or your gf) much of a cook?

Both can

 

[rizzo]

There is a lot of good advice on this thread.

On your utilities, have a look at what the payments are at the house you are in. Then divide that amount by the total amount of people living at your new place and add another 50% to that. Don't worry about overestimating your budget on this as anything you don't spend from that will be treated as savings after your bills.

I would also increase your shopping bill to $140. You will have to buy stuff like soap, cleaning products etc. Just like the utilities, overestimate and adjust after a couple of months. Anything you have surplus will become savings.

Add an entry for car repairs/expenses. Try to put a fair amount into this and build it up to about $2k.

In your budget, also put a bit of money aside for medical emergencies. This will cover trips to the doctor, additional prescriptions, ambulance costs (touch wood) etc.

Get into the habit of saving your money. If you have a credit card, replace it with a debit card with credit card facility. This will force you to save first before purchasing and hopefully keep you away from any credit traps.

And have a small fun fund. Put aside $30 a week and once a month do something fun with it. This could be a night out dinner with the gf or drinks at a watering hole. It will help keep you sane knowing you can have a little fun every month and you don't have to spend it all.

If you want a free budget program, this one may interest you.

http://buddi.digitalcave.ca/index.jsp

And finally, stick with the budget. A budget will only work if you are following it.

I hope this helps you out in some way.

Thanks mate

 

[fairdinkum]

Both can

Excellent. If you know how to make a few different things out of minced meat, for instance, then it will be much easier to stick within $50-60.



Unless, like me, you are happy to eat the same thing every night, in which case cooking skills are not essential.

 

[mjr_42]

My wife and I have a grocery budget of $120 a week and that has worked fine for the past three years. You guys should be sweet.

As others have said, identify all your definite costs: rent, electricity, gas, water, phone, internet, car rego, car insurance, mobile, groceries. Have a educated guess at what each might be worth and annualise that figure (e.g. $120 per week for groceries *52 weeks). Add all those annualised figures together to get a yearly amount for your bills.

Then, work out when you get paid (weekly, fortnightly, monthly) and divide that yearly annualised figure by 52 (for weekly) or 26 (for fortnightly) or 12 (for monthly). Subtract this new figure from your net income each pay period, and you're left with your disposable income.

Of this disposable income amount, work out how much you want to save and put that into another account each pay day (like ING Direct or one of those high-interest, at-call accounts). Then whatever is left over is play money.

My wife and I have been following this general philosophy for the past five years and in that time, we've paid off a wedding, paid off two $10K car loans, bought $10K of shares, gone on three overseas holidays (Malaysia, Thailand, Europe) and saved a house deposit. We started from absolutely scratch.

Good luck! I'm sure you'll have no worries.

 

[greenred]

The Fido budget planner is good http://www.fido.gov.au/FIDO/fido.nsf/byHeadline/Budget planner?opendocument and because it converts amounts for each period, you can calculate what you need to be putting away each pay so those big annual bills don't bite so hard.

If you're disciplined enough, you can keep good track of just how much you're really spending by paying for everything by credit card - just make sure you pay it off before you need to start paying interest.

 

[sabre_ac]

Food is closer to $100