Budgeting - Part 1

So, now you know what I'm about and where I want to be - let me tell you about how I intend to get my foot upon first rung of said property ladder.

First things, first - budgeting!

It's not glamorous, but it's oh so essential if you're to actually save any money. Before I started budgeting I was actually spending more money than I got paid each month (If I'm perfectly honest I still do some months). Here's how I popped my budgeting cherry. . .

1.) Make a list of all the things you want to be able to afford on a monthly basis, for me this included things like:

• magazines and newspapers (surely a gal is allowed her Guardian fix, right?)
• Beauty treatments (brow wax, bikini line and massage, anyone?)
• Socialising (think cocktails and brunch)
• Gym membership (well a girls gotta look good while holding her Mojito!)

2.) I then added this to a list of things which I had to fork out for, whether this be monthly, yearly quarterly or otherwise. This included the slightly less glamorous categories of:

• Money for joint account for bills, including: rent, water, gas, electricity, TV licence, home contents insurance, food shopping etc...
• Payments on my car loan (also Car Tax and money towards MOT and service)
  
• Train Fare
• Petrol
• Contact lenses

3.) For those items with a set monthly cost (for example, I pay £11.00 per month by Direct Debit for my Contact Lenses) I created a second column to my list and added these monthly amounts in.

4.) For anything that was less than monthly I calculated how much that item would cost me over the space of year and then divided the total amount by 12 (months in a year) and added this amount in.

5.) For anything that didn't have a set amount, but which I'd paid for before (For example my MOT, my car passed last time, but that's not to say it will be so lucky this time around!) I took the previous amount I had paid and added this (as a monthly figure as per steps 3 or 4 as appropriate).

6.) For anything else I guessed - nothing wrong with a bit of an estimate.

7.) I then added up all these amounts to show me how much money I would need per month to be able to live the lifestyle I wanted.

Can you guess what I found out? Have a think and I'll tell ya tomorrow! xx