Tracking my grocery and incidentals budget with ease

My budget is pretty detailed, across categories within ANZ MoneyManager, but I was still having trouble in managing spending in my bucket for groceries and incidentals on a weekly basis. It seemed to be the area I bled from. 

My budget is $345 p.w., with a notional budget as follows: 

$345.00 Week

$220.00 Week budget groceries

$125.00 Week budget incidentals

$28.85 Gifts

$4.62 Home maintenance

$40.00 Kids

$11.54 Clothing

$2.77 Entertainment

$2.31 Electronics

$15.00 Education

$11.54 Restaurants/dining

$2.31 Service charges

$2.77 General merchandise

$124.46 Total

On a weekly basis they look like small numbers, but across a year they add up. 

ASIC's TrackMySpend to the rescue! I have it as an app on both my iPhone and iPad plus website access. Over the past 7 weeks, I have a better picture on how this bucket has overs and unders each week, and I keep a running total in my budget cash flow spreadsheet. I only use it to track the $345 budget so it doesn't get over complicated. I also use it at the point of spending, not when cleared as a credit card transaction, so I know each day where I'm up to.

At this point it looks like $345 a week is unrealistic, but I've just come through an expensive month with two significant birthdays, so I'll see how it pans out over the next two months before I adjust it. 

My style of personal finance podcasts to motivate

Over the past 2 months I have found new inspiration in creating new financial goals from the following podcasts/vodcasts:

- The Barefoot Investor on MTR1377 - Australian Scott Pape with excellent advice to callers, and educational on saving and investment strategies

- The Barefoot Investor season 1

- The Barefoot Investor season 2

- The Dave Ramsey Show - when you need a smack to the back the head, consistent advice to callers to the show

- Stacking Benjamins - lots of interviews with other experts

- MoneyPlan SOS

- The Suze Orman Show - podcast of her TV show, easy to listen to without video, I've read her books before too

- The Clark Howard Show - the nicest, most genuine guy you'll ever listen to, 27 yrs of radio experience, everyday personal finance scenarios, info on scams as well - he doesn't judge you if you still use a credit card

- Listen, Money Matters - 2 30 something yr old guys sharing what they know and what they do with the rest of us 

I found these on the Apple Store, and they meet my need for relatively conservative advice focussing on getting out of debt, owning your own home, having an emergency fund and saving for retirement and those things that matter. The last six are US based (rather than Aussie), but still have relevance in most episodes. They are all backed up with informative websites and Twitter handles to keep up to date. 

Save on petrol costs

I'll start off my saying that I own a Hybrid, a Honda Civic that is 2 years old now. My average fuel consumption over that time is 6.3litres/100kms. A tank normally takes me 630kms and I fill up before I'm bone dry. The Civic has stop/start technology so the engine stops when I'm at a full stop at lights and intersections. I chose the Civic because my route to work takes me over 2 good size hills and a mountain (by Australian standards anyway) and the petrol engine with electric assist really helps going up the hills, and the downhill runs recharge the battery. The hybrid has an excellent display about my l/kms that tells what is happening based on my driving habits, and when I'm using the electric motor or charging it.

The hybrid aside, the things that have a noticeable impact on the l/kms reading include:

• speed of take off from traffic lights, the slower/smoother the better
• coasting down hills rather than using the accelerator to meet the speed limit
• increasing the tyre pressure to the standard printed on tyres, and keeping them there
• limiting the number of people/objects in the car - weight in the car plays a big part in efficiency
• 100-110km/hr on freeways, going up to 120 increases fuel consumption
• watching the traffic signals ahead and slowing down by taking your foot off the accelerator well prior to slow down naturally rather than needing to brake closer to the lights (but don't annoy other motorists around you) 
• matching the speed of cars around you when practical, weaving in and out of traffic and accelerating to overtake are real fuel wasters. Leave earlier so you aren't in a hurry if it really bothers you
• playing calming music on the radio/iPod, relaxed driving makes a difference
• short trips around town are killers for fuel efficiency, the longer the trip, the better
• if you have a fuel efficiency gauge that shows what happens as you are driving, set it so you can see it as you are driving as default and watch it closely.

Saving of fuel costs at the pump:

• I use E10 unleaded petrol/ethanol mix, its even recommended by Honda for my car. $0.04 per litre off normal price (I think)
• I have an Everyday Rewards card from Woolworths, and even though most of my shopping is at Aldi, I do buy pet food, coffee for work and some of my preferred name brand groceries/specials from there once or twice a month. I make sure I stock up and pay just over $30 per shop to get the fuel discount. 
• Fill up in the mornings when the car and service stations are still cold and vapours haven't expanded in the tanks
• Fill up on slowest setting to stop vapours you are paying for drawing back into the hose
• Fill up when half full so there is less air in the car fuel tank

Free petrol:

• Link the Everyday Rewards to QANTAS Frequent Flyer membership (for free QFF membership when done this way)
• My main credit card used for bill paying is also linked to QFF membership (ANZ)
  (NB. I keep the money for bills in my home loan as redraw so it isn't really credit, but using the interest fee period and rewards points accumulation to my advantage saving interest on home loan, paying no interest on credit card by paying it off in full each month, and having a credit card limit that matches what you can afford as a monthly budget)
• Redeem points in QFF store for a Woolworths Petrol fuel card. The Woolworths discounts will no longer apply, but its free petrol.
• 14,500 points gets you a $100 fuel voucher - it takes me about 5 months to earn that, and $100 fuel lasts about a month in my car.

Happy motoring!

The squeeze on family budgets

Never before is a family budget so important as now, the pressure points of threatened interest rises, energy costs escalating, carbon tax, and rates increases has scared the bewillikers out of me, and since becoming a single parent/single income household it really is my responsibility to keep it together, and educate the chilluns at the same time.

I developed a budget, well version 10 at least, two years ago, and it has really helped me lift out of credit debt, travel around the world for a 5 week trip of a lifetime, made it possible to apply for and sustain a mortgage on my own income and put some away for the kids as well. I used ANZ's MoneyManager to build up a future picture of my expenditure, trawled through credit cards, bills and bank statements and looked at my income sources, regular monthly bills, ad-hoc bills and what could be spent on food/incidentals each week. I then kept a fortnightly running sheet of previous balance, income, expenditure and end of fortnight balance to give my cash flow 9 months into the future, wow did that tell a story - May was not a month to look forward to with utilities, car rego, house insurance and rates all due at once, but I could plan for it. I look at it weekly and update it, and live by it.

You've heard the advice of others to have a budget, but heed it, seriously, it gives you complete focus and piece of mind at the same time.