Budget Tool

If you've never prepared a budget, the below might look a little overwhelming so focus on one section at a time.

We usually know our income amount/s but it's too easy to 'guesstimate' the outgoing amounts, so a good source of information is previous utility bills, TV license and shopping receipts, as well as bank statements. If you don't have these and must estimate, it's better to over-estimate.

Not everyone has a regular monthly income but for simplicity we're using monthly totals. For any weekly amounts multiply up by 52 and divide by 12, to give you a monthly figure. Similarly, some outgoing payments, such as insurance renewals, may be paid on an annual basis, so for these divide by 12 to give you the monthly amount to set aside, which eases the finanical burden when the payment is due.

The easiest way to complete the planner is online. The totals auto sum and there is a SAVE button to allow you to save your input at any point. After entering each number hit enter/go/done.

Once completed, you'll have a clearer view of your current financial situation which will help you budget through the year, and be available if you need to prove your financial position when applying for a loan or mortgage, for example.

At the top of the page, there are three options:

• SAVE - Pressing this button will give you a randomly generated alpha-numeric code, allowing you to save the current input and return at a later date to review and amend as needed. The code is called a Budget Reference.
• LOAD - Pressing this button will allow you to provide a Budget Reference which will load back your previously saved budget.
• PRINT - Allows you to print your final input for future reference.
• DELETE - All saved data for the currently loaded Budget Reference will be immediately deleted. This will be greyed out until such time as a budget was loaded.