Oh look another post about money and budgeting, I promise these will start to be reduced in frequency very soon however, today's post is a look at the new budget I have created for myself, I am still trying to get Liam to create one but we shall keep working away at that and he might cave one day. I have mentioned a lot of times recently how I am absolutely useless with money and I have found myself taking money out of my savings rather than putting it in, I am just getting sick of throwing money away on stupid purchases that go to waste. I am honestly feel like I am maturing more when it comes to my responsibility and my finances so I have decided to make sure I am changing my spending habits once and for all so that I can stop wasting money and actually have plenty in the bank to cover all the jobs we want to get done over the course of this year and into the future. There are a lot of jobs we want to get done so the cost is starting to add up then we also want to have money for breaks away etc, so it is important that we both get into a better position financially and keep these aims in mind. I have been saying for a while that I would sit down and create a real budget to stick to however, I just haven't gone through with it, until now. I have sat down and gone through my bank account and created a lovely spreadsheet with my new budget on it and even a little section for my cash stuffing in the hopes that I can get on top of my finances once and for all and start seeing a difference. So here are the categories that made it to the budget and what they consist of...

First up we have the home & car category which is filled with those monthly costs which unfortunately come with owning both your own house & car. We have our mortgage payment in here which is luckily the same cost every month so we consistently know what is going out and on what day when it comes to our mortgage. We then have my monthly food shop budget, we split the month in half for this I pay for two weeks and Liam pays for the other two which works nicely for both our paydays. It is driving me insane the cost of a weekly shop now so we have had to add a bit more to this each month but we set a price each week and thanks to doing Shop & Go we can see if we are cutting close to the budget or not. We then have our Sky TV payment in here, I pay this whilst Liam pays for the broadband etc, luckily it isn't too expensive at the moment but I think once it is up for renewal we might be taking a closer look at this cost and seeing if we can make any changes to cut back a little bit. The car is also added into this category and rather than paying a finance company for this I pay my parents back as they helped me get the car, luckily I have set a realistic amount for this and pay them back a set amount each month. I also pay into a service plan for my car just to help spread the cost over the course of the year in the build up to it going in for the annual service. The only other car cost in the budget is for petrol which is set at a very low amount as I don't use the car daily meaning petrol can last me a while.

The next category is a pretty big one as this is general items such as day to day and those things that might crop up monthly. In here it is pretty fitness orientated but cover the cost of things that are more than likely to take place throughout each month. First up we have the most important bit, football, this is broken up into Women's Football and for the club I pay for. The sections include a budget for tickets we might need to buy and my annual subs for playing, this just ensures the money is there ready to go if we need it, plus any we save on this can go into savings ready for the new season so it is all covered and i don't have to be scraping money together trying to cover the cost. The general category also covers my boxing classes, these are £5 a week so I make sure I budget for each class whether I am going or not just to be on the safe side. In this category I also have my budget for my haircut, I have cut back on how many times I go now as I am growing my hair out but I still like to have it in the budget so I know I have enough to cover the cost. 

The general category is a pretty big one with a lot of different subsections, I am setting myself a budget for treating myself too, this will include new clothes, games, football shirts, rather than just going and spending a fortune like I do I am going to limit myself so I am going to have to save for those more expensive purchases and really think about those silly little ones, is it worth eating into the budget for or do I not actually need it. There is also a section in here for gifts so I am not going overboard with what I am buying for people like previous and I am sticking to a set amount and buying them what they need rather than things for the sake of it. I also have the cost of my online coach in this category, this is a big chunk every month but whilst I am on this weight loss and fitness journey it is a very beneficial part of the budget as it is teaching me so much and really pushing me to hit my goals, this isn't going to be a forever cost as one day I will be able to go alone on my journey but for now it's helping me tick all the boxes. Finally in the general category we have takeaways... this has been where most of my money goes each month previously and I am really trying to cut back in here so I have only set myself a small amount to ensure I don't have them too often, instead I want to focus on my fitness journey and fill my body with good food. Takeaways will be massively reduced if this budget goes to plan so it should be beneficial all round really and help me achieve financial and fitness goals. 

Finally on the budget we have the subscriptions category and to be honest I don't actually have as many subscriptions as I expected however, this is a category I am going to keep checking back on as if I aren't using them I am going to cancel them so I can save the money elsewhere. Spotify is in this category and it is safe to say that is going nowhere as I listen to things on there daily. We then have Disney Plus which is my go to for TV shows so that won't be going anywhere soon. I then have City+ in this category which to be honest might not be there much longer, it is only cheap but I don't use it too often, I got it to watch the Women's football and there hasn't been much on lately that I can't watch elsewhere, this is going to be budgeted for a month or so and then we will see if it is worth keeping or not. Finally we have the Adobe package with Lightroom and Photoshop, I haven't used it much lately but as I focus more on my content I am determined to get my use out of this so lets hope we see a change soon or we might see this being cancelled too.

As I said earlier I am giving cash stuffing a go once more so I will be taking some categories from my budget and withdrawing that set amount out of my account on pay day ready to stick to the amount. I have found that using cash helps me think about my purchases more and stops me spending too much as once the envelope is empty I know that is it until next payday. The envelopes I have so far are boxing, football, treat money, hair, goal shop and gifts, the set amount goes into these and it just helps me visualize where I am each month stops that reckless spending. When I did this method last year it benefited me so much so fingers crossed I can get back on track with it and see it benefiting my spending once more.  

At the end of each month I will fill out my savings section on my budget with the amount going in each section based on what I managed to have left in my account at the end of the month. I am hoping that I see this improving month after month and that I can add to the home & car, treats, projects and goal shop accounts every month to work towards those jobs in the house and purchases I really want to make for myself and for my little projects. The goal shop should see the most benefit though as I add to that every month with the money left over from the rest of the envelopes so let''s hope those have more left in them over time. 

Having this budget is definitely going to show me what I can cut back on and where I need to up the budget a little bit if I keep going over, but I know not everything is going to be correct every time and it is going to take a few months trial and error but I should soon see things settle down and finally get back on track with my spending and see those savings start to increase. 

I am looking forward to seeing this all take shape and just see where I am financially by the end of the year, times are hard for everyone at the moment with the cost of living but it is time to take control and get saving for those things we really want.