How I budget for living in England

I love my budget. I realise that isn’t an exciting confession, but in the video I shared in May 2021, I could happily have talked about it all day. I’d been living in England for five years, and keeping track of my money mattered to me. Running out of it abroad was frightening, especially with my family back in Canada.

I’d tried several budgeting programs, including an attempt to make my own in Excel that was an absolute disaster. For the previous few years, I’d used You Need a Budget. It wasn’t sponsored; I simply liked it. What I wanted to show was how I’d arranged my categories, including the everyday costs, the things I enjoyed and the bigger expenses I was saving towards.

Home went at the top

My most important group was home, so I kept it at the top of the budget. Rent had its own category, and bills sat together in another: council tax, water, electricity and internet. I could have separated those further, but I couldn’t be bothered. Mobile and groceries were separate categories, and groceries were somewhere I always spent too much.

There was also house stuff, which meant furniture and the little bits we needed around the home. Health and beauty covered a surprisingly broad range, from my gym membership and paid prescriptions to a new hairbrush. I went through quite a few hairbrushes. Those categories worked well for me, and I liked being able to see the group with all its smaller categories underneath.

There was room for the things I loved

My quality-of-life group included flights to Canada. I tried to go back once a year, so I wanted money set aside for a ticket when I went. I also had entertainment, where my Cineworld card belonged, although I wasn’t doing much in that category at the time. Next holiday had been waiting in the budget for ages without a destination. Hopefully somewhere sunny.

Day trips were separate from that bigger holiday category. I thought of a holiday as going abroad and seeing something in another country, whereas day trips were smaller outings nearby. Under just for fun, I kept dining out and takeaways, clothing, gifts and Christmas. I loved eating out, and having money set aside for birthdays and occasions such as Mother’s Day was useful too.

Pub and coffee shared a category. I loved going to pubs and little cafes, so I budgeted for them, even though I wasn’t going often then. I liked having money assigned to those outings without worrying about it. There was a miscellaneous category as well, although I couldn’t even come up with an example of when I’d last used it. It was there just in case.

Some costs needed their own space

I’d sold my car and hadn’t yet needed to buy another, but I kept the car group in the budget. There was still money in it, and I thought I’d probably need a car again eventually. It included tax, insurance, fuel, parking, repairs, maintenance and an MOT, plus a category called new car. That meant a car new to me, rather than a brand-new one.

Adventures and Naps had expenses too. I budgeted for smaller purchases such as food and drink for videos, while a big item like a laptop or camera could get its own category. Once I’d bought that item, I could hide the category and move any remaining money elsewhere. The larger purchase stayed separate from the everyday expenses while I was putting money towards it.

I wanted to see what I’d actually spent

Usually once a week, I’d sign into my bank account, open the budget and enter my transactions manually. That might sound annoying, but I preferred it. Paying with my phone or watch made spending so easy that I could barely feel the money leaving. Sitting down and entering the week’s charges made me look at what I’d spent and where it had gone.

In the demonstration, I entered an old Asda transaction as groceries and showed the category going into the red. I’d left the figures out of that example budget because I didn’t want to share all my real numbers. It was a way of showing the process: put in a transaction, categorise it, then see where money needed moving around.

The worry behind all this was quite personal. If I lost my job and couldn’t afford my flat, moving in with my mum wasn’t a simple local option. She lived in another country. I loved talking about the budget, but I also wanted to know where my money was going while I made a life here. By the end of filming, I was excited to go and work on it again.

Watch my original video about my budget categories and weekly routine.