British Loans : Your Personal Budget

Having a budget that details all your income and expenditure will help you to maintain control of your finances and, if necessary, help to illustrate the problems you may be having to your creditors.


*Start with the reality of your current situation :

Keep a record of everything you spend money on to complete an accurate picture of your monthly expenditure.

Make a conservative estimate of your annual income and divide it by 12 to get a monthly figure.

You also need to work out expenses that do not necessarily occur every month, such as insurance, holidays, car repairs, vet bills etcetera.

Estimate how much you spend on these each year and then divide by 12 to determine your monthly cost.

The information below will give you a good idea of what needs to be included.

MONTHLY INCOME:

Your basic salary
Partner's basic salary
Guaranteed overtime
Pensions
Child Benefit
Income Support
Tax Credit
Other benefits
Maintenance

TOTAL INCOME £


MONTHLY EXPENDITURE:

Commitments Everyday Spending Occasional
Mortgage / Rent Food & sundries Christmas
Water Pocket money Birthdays
Ground rent Childminder Holidays
Service charge Toys & books Car repairs
Council tax Pet food House repairs
Property insurance Laundry Decorating
Contents insurance Chemist Replacement
Electricity Parking Furniture
Gas Public transport Vet bills
Oil TV rental Clothing
Telephone Video rental Dentist
TV licence Evening classes Opticians
Car MOT CD's Trips/outings
Road tax Alcohol Meals out
Vehicle insurance Cigarettes Other
Personal insurance Newspapers
Private pension Magazines
Maintenance
payments Petrol
Other
Second mortgage

Loan repayments

HP repayments

Credit card payments

School fees

Other

Total Commitments £ ( You may wish to further classify this figure into Total Everyday Commitments £ , and Total Occasional Commitments £ )

Total Monthly Expenditure:
Total commitments £
Total everyday spending £
Total occasional £
Grand total £


Balance:

Monthly Income £

Monthly Expenditure £

Monthly surplus/deficit £



If the difference between your income and expenditure is a positive amount, you have a budget surplus and have money to pay towards your unsecured creditors.

If, however, you have more expenditure than income, you have a budget deficit and will need to make changes to your spending habits to find money to pay your unsecured creditors.

You should also ensure you are maximising your income.