This is our finalised budget for 2012…the essentials and non essentials that make up our normal monthly budget before we start saving towards financial freedom.

Notes:

• Mortgage: Our normal monthly payment which we will increase to £2,000 for the next twelve months.
• Council Tax: An annual bill which we pay over ten months
• Water Rates: Another annual bill which we pay by direct debit over ten months
• Gas & Electric: Our average monthly cost which was recently reduced from £99 (Yay! Finally!)
• Telephone Basic Line Rental: We pay this annually which compared to paying monthly, saves us £55
• Contents & Building Insurance: Renewed every April (by us searching for the best deal) and paid annually to save money
• Life Insurance: Fixed monthly cost which would pay off the mortgage and give either of us a large lump sum if any dreadful was to happen.
• Digital & TV Licence: Annual charge for TV Licence (£145.50) and monthly digital subscription (£70.25, includes £10 paid by daughter for her bedroom box)
• Grocery: This is a variable expense which I’ve set at £50 a week for 2012. It will vary every week depending on my son being home from university, but on average I’m hoping to keep to £216.67 a month.
• Gifts: A monthly saving we make to cover the cost of all gifts throughout the year. I plan to be a little more savvy with gift buying next year and shop for bargains.
• Miscellaneous Expenses: My iPhone charge (£35) and the cost of our monthly local window cleaner (£9)
• Miscellaneous Personal: £80 each for all of our personal spending…clothes, books etc.

Inspired by how great our budget would look without it’s monthly payment, I’m really looking forward to attacking our mortgage in 2012!

What are you most looking forward to (financially speaking) in 2012? 

Our Budget for 2012 is a post from: Move to Portugal

One goal I’ve had success with this year is menu planning. I really find it a chore sometimes, but it definitely helps to keep our grocery spending, and just as importantly, our food waste down.

I’ve kept track of our food spending this year and in total to the end of November we’d spent £2,702 on grocery – an average of £245.63 a month.  This amount was for the most part, for four of us.  With my son now away at university, I’m hoping to reduce this figure to £216.67 a month/£50 a week in 2012.  We tend to stick to family favourites most of the time, which makes planning and preparation much easier!

On our menu this week:

• Monday: Stir Fry Beef
• Tuesday: Vegetable Pizza + Salad
• Wednesday: Chili and Rice (from the freezer)
• Thursday: Soup
• Friday: BLT’s
• Saturday: Out for our anniversary (Curry)
• Sunday: Baked Salmon with Vegetable

For further menu planning ideas please visit I’m an Organizing Junkie

Another thing I like to do is display the menu in our kitchen as it stops people from eating the food you have planned for dinner!

Do you menu plan?  Have you had success with your grocery budget this year?

Menu Plan Monday is a post from: Move to Portugal

It may seem a little early but due to how we fund our bills account (20th monthly), December will be our first budget month for 2012 and so I’m getting the numbers ready.  Not a lot has changed from this year but we have big hopes for next year being our most budget conscious year yet.  As always our budget strategy is to reduce the essential expenses as much as possible and then add the fun things afterwards.

And here’s what I have so far:

I think it’s mostly self explanatory however I’ve made a few notes;

• Mortgage: There’s a (big) possibility that the mortgage may go up next year, it all depends on interest rates
• Council Tax: I believe that this will not increase next year
• Water Rates: We pay a monthly fixed amount and I’m not sure if this will go up in 2012
• Gas & Electric: I’m hoping to reduce this amount in 2012
• Telephone: I believe the annual charge (which is cheaper than paying monthly) will remain at £120 for basic line rental
• Contents and Building Ins: Estimate based on this years costs

Any money earned (salary) above this amount will go to mortgage over payments and our travel fund.  Any extra money earned (side income) will go towards paying for further home improvements and/or our emergency fund.

Our number one priority in 2012 will be to attack the mortgage…….our goal is for it to be less than £85k. When I write that down it scares me a little lol, but to make our move financially possible we need to reduce our UK mortgage as much as possible, so we’re going for it.

Okay so what are you going for in 2012?  If you’re in the UK how does this compare to your budget?

I’m always a little hesitant to post actual numbers on this site but I always hope that it helps some people?  Let me know, does my posting our numbers help you at all?

2012 Budget – What we have so far is a post from: Move to Portugal

It’s cold, which has nothing to do with this post except to say that the heating is still off…..although if the predicted snow arrives then I’m giving in and firing up that boiler!

Anyway I’ve been making a few financial moves before 2012 begins and we have a crazy mad mortgage payoff year.

• Moved our main emergency fund ISA to an account with a better rate (+£135)
• Cancelled our monthly film subscription (+£72)
• Added another £100 to the mortgage overpayment
• Worked overtime +£158
• Started a storecupboard challenge to keep the grocery spending below £200 this month
• Made a (strict) Christmas gift buying list
• Made some extra income and added it straight to the NY travel account
• Kept the heating off

What financial moves have you made this month?

Dream Save Do Giveaway:

First off before I announce the winner I’d like to say thank you to Betsy and Warren from Married with Luggage for offering readers of this site the chance to win a copy of their new digital guide: Dream Save Do.

Betsy and Warren are truly an inspiration to me, because not only are they the nicest people you could ever want to meet, but because they are actually out there doing it. They are living their dream.

So onto the winner.  I numbered all the comments and let random org do the work and it picked (lucky) number 13 who was……Tasmanian Minimalist!

So congratulations to Tasmanian Minimalist, I’ll be in touch soon

Thank you so much to every one who took the time to enter the giveaway and I wish you all luck with your dreams.  I hope that they all come true!

PS. If you wish to buy a copy of the digital guide Dream Save Do then it’s available for $29.99 here.

(ny photo credit)

A few financial moves and the giveaway winner is a post from: Move to Portugal

Our budget strategy is always to first reduce the essential expenses as much as possible, then add a few non essential expenses, for example my mobile phone, and then finally decide on the best way to use the remaining money.

So far this works for us….but we have to keep on top of it as costs go up and occasionally extra stuff creeps in.

At the moment I trying to reduce the gas and electricity usage so when it comes round to annual review time, our monthly bill is reduced from the £99 we currently pay.  This winter, as usual, blankets are at the ready!

I’m also working on our grocery spending.

This year on average we’ve spent £255.77 on grocery every month.  With my son gone away to university this figure should be dropping, hopefully by quite a bit. I’ve changed the way that I shop for food so many times this year, but now I have a system that works for us: once a week shopping.  First I go to the farm shop and then to the supermarket.  I’ve stopped buying any food in between that once a week visit.  If we run out of anything midweek, then we go without.  I still have a lot of work to do in this area as I’ve stopped using my price book and I don’t batch cook enough, but I will get better at this.  My aim is to get our food bill below £180.  A challenge, but one I think is quite doable.

And the occasional stuff that creeps in is still book spending. Can I still wear my frugal badge with pride if I can’t stop buying books?!

Anyway, as I prepare the budget for 2012, there’s still plenty to be working on.

Do you have a budget strategy?

(photo credit)

Budget Strategy is a post from: Move to Portugal