What do you do?

[nsmonkey]

Okay today I am on a mission to write out the boys routine, a meal planner and a budget.

Just curious, how do you do your budget up?

DH is getting paid weekly now and I get centrelink fortnightly. I was going to write everything out and plan for it weekly since I think out of a month we only got 1 week free of bills but still need to budget for the following week.
I have tried over and over to make a budget work but it never has, I really want this to work. The other ones I wrote up were all monthly.
Would weekly work for us?

[Bunnyhugs]

Definitely do it weekly. We get paid fortnightly and that's how we do our budget.

I pay a certain amount off our bills each fortnight so that when they come in, they're more easily managed PLUS if the money has already been paid off the bills, it can't be spent on frivolous things that we don't really need.

I've set up automatic payments to come out of our account the day after we get paid. For example, if our credit card payment is around $80 per month, then I pay $40 a fortnight off it. You can also do this with your bills - just get out your last phone bill and power bill and work out how much approx per week you need to pay off it.

Another thing you could do is do your big grocery shop every fortnight when you get your money from centrelink.

[nsmonkey]

My money I get from centrelink I pay the mobile, internet, austar, savings, hamperking and also fuel for my car.
I do the same as you I pay half of the bill every fortnight, it is so much easier. With the internet monthly its $89.95 but I always put $50 on it a fortnight. So these bills are already paid for before we get the bill plus in credit by a few dollars aswell. Been doing this for almost 3mths and have found it so much easier.
As with shopping I was doing one BIG shop once a month but was finding that a bit hard though, so fortnightly should be good, will ask DH and see what he says coz I will do it on a saturday when DH is home. Town is an hour from us.

[nsmonkey]

Oh and another question, how do I go about writing it up, yeah I am going to write/draw it up as my printer decided to not work.

[Bunnyhugs]

Write down your incoming $$$ and then your outgoing (bills etc).

Then you can write out what money you're paying off what :

Rent/Mortgage $$$$$
Power $$$$
Phone $$$$
Fuel $$$$

etc etc

[nsmonkey]

so i can write it out like this:
week 1:
food
phone
fuel

week 2:
fuel
internet
austar

etc etc

or should I just do it weekly but go by the dates of the month april 1st to 8th ?

[Bunnyhugs]

Well, you said that you pay Austar, net etc out of your centrelink money? So personally, I'd leave them off the budget and just concentrate on what bills are left and just go off DH's wages to pay them. If you pay the same things each week, you only need to write it out once, don't need to do it every week - did that make sense?

[nsmonkey]

yeah that does, thankyou

[nsmonkey]

Okay well I wrote up the budget the other day. I have also got what DH earns, well his mininum wage a week and what I get a fortnight from centrelink.

I have done it like this:

WEEKLY BILLS
fuel-hilux $60
smokes $60
FORTNIGHTLY BILLS
mobile $40
internet $50
austar $ 35
fuel- commodore $50
food $250
MONTHLY BILLS
car repayment $500
ute repayment $560
personal loan $302

etc etc you get my drift

[Bunnyhugs]

yep so now I'd split your monthly bills into weekly bills so that you don't have so much to pay in one hit.

[nsmonkey]

what just put money aside coz we can't just put the money straight onto the bill as they are at the beginning of the month, if that makes any sense.

[Bunnyhugs]

Well you could put it aside if you wanted to but I would just pay it straight off the bill each week. At the end of the month, the $500 has already been paid off it so you don't have to worry. With the loans, you can call the bank or whoever it's through and get them to change the payments to weekly if you want to.

[nsmonkey]

Hhhmmm Might see what DH says about paying them fortnightly as that would be easiest I think or maybe even weekly, thankyou Tasma. :)

[subaruforestermum]

Definately get your loan payments changed to weekly of fortnightly, as you make MORE repayments if pay weekly than if you pay monthly (as there are not 4 weeks in every month, sometimes 5), cutting your loan down quicker, and paying less interest! :thumbsup: