Have read through everyones ideas, we are doing it tough at the moment.
Glad i found this thread.

Thanks ladies these tips are great and are working we managed so far to save $800..which isn’t much but is great for us.

We sat down and worked out how much our bills were for the entire year then evidence it into 52 weeks and put that money into a seperate account every week

Join the club so many of us single income families living pay check to pay check. Try buying groceries in bulk when on special. Fresh stuff mostly freezes well and packet/tinned stuff has lengthy shelf lives. Cook in bulk and freeze too. Plan out your meals for a week so you know exactly what to buy at the shop, and stick with it

ge$50 a pay taken from wage and put it into an account with another bank and forget about it…. it mounts up!

We have started shopping online not only saves time. But have noticed cheaper shops as no impulse buying.

Try meal planning and only buying exactly what you need for the meals. Make snacks rather than buy them

Thanks for all the tips this is of interest to a lot of us i think

thanks ladies for the tips

Hi we also are a 1 income family and live pay check to pay check.
We ensure that all our bills come out at the same time every week, so any bills that are direct from account all come out on the same day. I get a set amount for groceries every week which includes fuel money and layby money. (I layby everything if I can).
We very rarely have savings money…but as long as we can pay our bills and have food to eat and roof over our heads that is what it important. Luxuries can wait.

I have calculate how much money we need to put away each pay so that we have money there for when a bill comes in. Then any remaining money from each pay is used for groceries and small amount of spending. You have be strict with keeping your spending and food shopping under you limit and never go over what you calculated you have to spend

We best budget in this house hold by having how much income you are getting in per week or fortnight, then i write down all the bills for that month, and each pay i put money away for that bill. I priotise with the bills though, which ones need to be payed first etc. and i have a set weekly food allowance and i need to stick to that. with bigger bills for eg. car rego, i tend to put a little bit away each pay then you dont have the massive lump sum when it arrives. when you are in the habbit of doing it this way, you can start putting a little spare away each pay so then you have emergency money just in case.

Hi,
I see you have a few budget tips, but as a single mum who also lives week to week, I’ve also looked up some pretty handy savings tips:

Savings tips

1. Be energy wise
2. No takeaway. Pack a picnic
3. Smart banking no ATM fees, low int credit cards etc
4. Sell unwanted stuff
5. Maximise reward programs ie fly buys
6. Make bday cards etc
7. Strict on shopping list
8. Invite friends over for coffee, etc instead of going out for coffee
9. Free events activities
10. Extra batches when cooking
11. Buy quality that lasts
12. Plan to supermarket specials
13. Reduce mobile bills
14. Remove credit card numbers from online accts
15. Buy gifts ahead on special
16. Become a time banking volunteer
17. Enter comps and freebies etc
18. Cut own hair
19. Buy second hand first
20. Hire from library DVDs books and magazines instead of buying
21. Sell stories to magazines etc
22.Become a mystery shopper
23. Babysit other kids
24. Monitor school exams
25. Become an online researcher

There are also some great reads on saving your money on a minimum income and working your savings towards high interest savings accounts, managed funds and further to shares and other investments. Definitely worth a read as they arent about unrealistic get rich plans but actual realistic goals. One have is titled $0 to Rich but again its just about better managing your finances. Definitely helped me alot after separation to manage on one income with a young child and still save.

Just a few thoughts, hope it helps

Yes I agree with writing down every purchase does help with a budget for sure!

Like the other ladies have said – record what you’re spending, and plan ahead to put away money for your essential bills each pay as a priority.you can then find out what’s leftover to budget for the less essential but still important things like clothing, etc. it will take a little while to build up your bills account but it does take some of the pressure off knowing those essentials are covered. The only other option is doing some extra work here and there to increase your income slightly.

Hi. My husband and I work out all of our bills yearly. Eg car rego, insurance, electricity, internet etc. We then add it all together and divide it by 52 weeks, this is now how much you should put into a “bill account” every week and sometimes it will look high but don’t touch it because there will be times when you get bills that are that extra bit higher or they all come in at once. Leave extras out that are weekly eg, rent, groceries, fuel, any kids activities, tolls etc that can come directly out of your pay. Do up a spreadsheet and update it every 3 months. P.s shop at aldi if you don’t already, it’ll save you heaps on your grocery bill.

Write down every single money that is spent. You will be able to see where your wasting the money.

budget, even if you have to lay out a year’s calendar and write down when bills will be coming in, big expenses like anniverseries, weddings or birthdays etc. Work out when you can get an advance payment from c’link to help with big bills like rego.

We’re also a single income family and feel like it’s paycheck to paycheck too. It was stressing me out not know what our spending money was, so I did the bills account thing. I found a budgeting program I liked and budget for the fortnight. I’ve worked out what all our bills cost per fortnight by dividing monthly bills in 2, yearly bills by 12 etc and putting that all aside. The rest is food/petrol and odds n ends. The first few months we kept realising there were odd bills we forgot about so it made sense we were struggling as most months we had a sudden bill to pay… Such as our yearly ambulance cover, buying a new gas bottle, car Rego, Visa card fee, rates and more (I could go look them up now). Things like the gas bottle, I’ve now included in the bills account even though it’s like $5 a pay, we could no longer afford to forget about so many yearly bills. It’s definitely helped. We’re now working on trying to be more consist with food budgeting but work on one thing at a time

love the idea of the bills account as thats something that always gets us.