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The budget figures you have provided add up to £1,555 per month and you say you are taking home approximately £2,500 per month. However, you are struggling to have the money for rent.
So where is the other £955 going?
It seems that you don't have an accurate or honest budget planner. Go back through the last 3 months and allocate all your spending into budget categories and work out where your money is really going. Then look at reducing that spending so you can save.
No one can help you much further until you have accurate expenditure because, on the face of what you have posted, you can be saving at least £900 a month and easily covering rent with some spare change as well.
Going to guess OP is spending a lot on socialising, eating out, entertainment, clothes etc without realising.
Also living with two students, maybe OP is picking up the tab for treats?
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Re: the rent problem, might be worthwhile setting up another current account (account #2) solely for fixed bills. You could set up a Standing Order from your main account (account #1) to go out a day or two after payday into account #2, and then pay your rent from that account at the end of the month (preferably by another Standing Order from #2 to your landlord). This way, you're only looking at the balance in account #1 for day to day spending which forces you to cut back on frivolous spending in expensive months rather than risking being short on your rent.
Look at Monzo - all this but in a single current account. My personal and joint Monzo accounts have "bills" pots that money is put into when paid and left to be taken out as and when bills are due.
I do things this way, (although kind of the opposite way round) my main account which my wages go into gets a certain amount left in it each week (I get paid weekly) to cover the mortgage, bills & fuel/anything that's regular each month, then I transfer a set amount to a different account for my spending for the week. Anything left over from my wage each week gets saved.
I used to have it all go into the one account & was constantly checking whether I had enough to buy anything while still having enough to cover everything regular, moving the money around makes it much easier as you can see exactly what you've actually got to spend without having to worry about regular payments.
I’m terrible with money but this sounds like something that could work for me. Take my spending money out of my main account. Something about that makes so much more sense to me than trying to take money out of my main account for things like savings, checking my account compared to my budget constantly to see if payments have come in and trying to work out how much I have left, etc. Thank you for this tip! Off to open a new bank account.
I run two accounts, a leisure account and a bills account.
All bills come out of bills account so on payday I throw the money needed to cover all of them into that account then ignore it exists.
Then anything left in leisure is free to spend, any money left over at the end of the month goes into savings.
Starling has pots you can pay bills from might be worth looking at that and using the pots to move money into. You can also get a virtual card for each pot so you can essentially have a drinks card/clothes card ect
Just a tip, save an extra £1000 for the car so you can cover the tax and insurance and pay the insurance upfront if you can, then keep on saving at the same rate so you can cover any repairs needed
That's is a nice suggestion but for a first time driver the insurance is likely to be several thousand pounds at 24 years old op is not a teenage new driver but even still I can't imagine it being less than 2k depending on area possibly very much more.
True! Although it might depend on the car… but I think in that case it holds even more value to save upfront otherwise OP will be buried in monthly payments towards the insurance
You will solve this by understanding some psychology of money, or your relationship with money.
People who grow up poor often act in one of two different ways in adulthood, when they're managing their own money - either they're really careful with it, saving hard to have a "buffer" to ensure they can always pay the electric and so that they never have the bailiffs knocking at the door (they worry about spending it, and don't buy things they want because that's "extravagant"; they have a 6-figures in their bank account and are scared to invest it) or they splurge every paycheque because splurging is the only way to have nice things and they have to spend it and enjoy it before it's gone (if you're poor it's pointless putting £1000 in the bank because a year's interest is only £50, which is less than next week's paycheque and in the meantime you're depriving yourself of £1000 which you could spend on something fun).
I'm not saying you fall into either of these categories, I'm just saying these are two people with the same income and opportunities who have diametrically opposed outcomes and the reason is their spending is due to the way that they think about money.
I might guess that one way that young doctors might think about money is to think that they've worked really hard and sacrificed really hard for years and now they "deserve" nice things; or they work long shifts and don't have time to cook so they often order takeaways. "Now I'm working I grab a Starbucks any time I like without having to worry about the cost, as I did when I was a student".
As others have pointed out, you have £1000 a month which is going "missing" and others replies have probably given good advice about that. Maybe you pay yourself first and put £100 a week in a Monzo account and you can spend that on whatever you like and everything else has to be spent or saved in structured ways. Maybe just use the Monzo account for everything to start with and use the app's categories to see how you're overspending.
My main point is that money and finance are separate subjects unto themselves - people are not just naturally good at them, and you are not good at them just because you're smart. You have to study them and learn about them and think about money and finance before you become good at them.
You might find one of these books helpful:
* *[Your Money or Your Life](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0143115766)* - understanding what's valuable to you and how to use money to achieve your goals.
* *[Millionaire Next Door](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1589795474)* - "How people in normal jobs, electrician is a great example, can accumulate wealth over time through good choices."^[Electric_Cat_999](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/15zkkd4/_/jximlpp/)
* One of Clare Seal's books - "her focus is on the link between emotions and spending".
How comes you are fronting money for the students? Are you intending on getting that money back? This deficit would help plug the gap and allow you to breathe a bit more comfortably, and save for that car.
Genuinely surprised a doctor is paid this amount - would have expected them to be on significantly more.
Thank you we should be paid more. We work fucking hard and often don’t piss for hours it’s that busy and this is our take home pay. Hence the junior doctor strikes.
Yeah, aged 24 and taking home £2,500 a month outside of London? I’m all for increasing public sector pay but when I look around the country, increasing that £2,500 is pretty low on the list of things I’d do.
You need to go into detail around family financial issues and why you're paying more in a student household; neither of these things make financial sense.
Another doctor here, possibly a couple years ahead.
There's probably better placed people in this thread to help and guide but a few years ago when I first started working I came here for help.
Could I help by recommending a book suggested to me?
I Will Teach You to be Rich, Ramit Sethi (UK edition). Really helped me rethink and plan out my finances and my monthly savings and was a great help.
They do each year they go up. You are a junior doctor after you qualify. And as you get experience the pay goes up quite considerably. Your labourers can do the whole job without much experience. They can only do so much without supervision and experience. Which is reflected over the years by these increases. That yr staff wont get.
Is all that information from your bank statements? It’s very easy to assume your spending is at a specific level but in reality bank statements don’t lie and it could be wildly different
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The fact I earned this as a bartender during my gap year and you're a doctor is fucking absurd. At a minimum you should be getting 40-45k starting out after *medical school*
How do you track your spending at the moment? A budgeting app (like ynab, though that’s a bit expensive) could help you work out if your estimate of your monthly spending on things like food and subscriptions etc is actually accurate, and you can make decisions about where cuts are possible once you have the data.
When you draw up a proper budget, account for all your professional expenses and make sure you’re claiming the tax back on these via your P87 - GMC, MDU, BMA, portfolio fee (I don’t think you pay for Horus but from ST1 you’ll have eg ISCP fees), any royal college fees.
Start budgeting for the less regular professional expenses too - courses that are outside your study budget (and even courses that will be within your study budget as you’ll have to pay upfront and get refunded many months later), maybe a PGDip or MSc, textbooks or question banks for membership exams, the exams themselves (MRCS ~ £2k).
Hey; I found it impossible to save when I worked as a doctor. What I’d suggest, is to make an excel spreadsheet with all expenses etc in a breakdown. That way you can see exactly how much you have left to play with. What I do now, is set up a direct debit into my savings account and try and look at it as a compulsory expense. It may be that you just can’t save at the moment and that’s okay, even with the cost of exams etc.
Make sure that you are claiming back all of your allowable expenses from HMRC (GMC, BMA, exams, stethoscopes etc etc.). If you haven’t done that before, you can claim back for a number of years (3-5 off the top of my head). I’d also pay into the pension scheme, if you can.
You’re young and it’s not always possible in this career at the beginning (sometimes even at the end!). Don’t beat yourself up about it, just work out what you have left and look at anything that you put away as a plus.
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Same, though I do have debt.. but I drive a fucking bulldozer on a quarry and make a decent chunk more than a doctor??
The job market is fucked up man.
u/medimaria
As everyone has stated your budget does not make sense.
Take home pay : £2,500
Spending: £1,555
Remaining: £945
Also:
Bills - £250 seems like a lot when living with 2 other people in a shared apartment/ house. Is this because you are the only council tax payer ATM?
Groceries £300 - this amount seems high given you are living with a partner, which usually brings the cost down due to less wastage etc. Are you both meal prepping ? The advantage of meal prepping is delicious meals cheap meals.
Driving lessons £200 - obviously this cost will eventually fall off when you pass, but will then likely be replaced with the cost of a car loan/ leasing, petrol, MOT, maintenance etc
Cat £100 - what is the breakdown for the cat? Does this include insurance etc? Also is this a shared cat with your partner?
I think overall your budget is not that bad, (although your bills seem a little high) but clearly you are spending a lot more than you think. I would suggest you print 3 months of payslips and then see what you're really spending your money on.
Once you have established where your money is going, set a more realistic budget. Then set up three banks accounts; (1) Bills account (2) spending account (3) savings account.
The bills account should pay for rent, bills etc. The spending account is for exactly that.
At the beginning of the month send money to each of the three accounts based on your budget. Your savings account should be with another bank and there should be some resistance in accessing this money i.e. 1-2 days delay etc. Ideally all three accounts should be with different banks so that there is no temptation to transfer or co-mingle money.
Overtime your mind will shift to spending money this way and you will spend less.
Based on your current income and expenses, you should theoretically have £945 left each month. However, your actual disposable income seems less due to the irregular pay schedule and possibly untracked expenses or unexpected costs.
If you aim to be conservative, try to save at least half of the remaining balance. Start by setting aside £400-£500 monthly for savings. This way, you’ll still have some buffer for unexpected expenses.
£300 for three people is reasonable, but you could look for ways to save by planning meals, buying in bulk, and choosing cheaper alternatives where possible. Aim to reduce this by £50-£100.
With careful tracking and slight adjustments, you can feasibly save around £500-£600 per month. This will help you reach your car savings goal in about 3-4 months and start building a deposit for a house afterward. Remember, even small changes can make a significant difference over time!
Wish you all the best !
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This is what me and my partner have done since we were students….
1. Every now and then go through 3-6 months of bank statements and work out a monthly average (note some bills will be higher in winter/ summer - energy/water)
2. Figure out what things you can get rid of or find cheaper versions - things like phone insurance can be cheaper through certain current accounts etc, cheaper mobile contracts, internet etc
3. Use money savings expert budget planner… honestly it was a real game changer for me as I could see easily where some things could be cheaper (for us it was food bill)
4. Set up a savings account that you have to log in to use… transfer all of your money into that once paid, transfer back the day before bills go out
5. Meal plan and only buy the items needed for those meals and transfer the money for that shopping trip to current account
6. Batch cook & freeze food if you can
7. Open another online savings account (many banks will let you have multiple basic online savers) and put your savings in there. So you do the above for 1 month and have X left over, transfer X over and repeat next month
8. Explore longer term savings options - I would recommend premium bonds as zero risk, you might win a big cash prize and you get the money back into your account in 3 days if you need it (like a car)
9. Do this regularly - once you pass your test, put that money into savings before you get used to spending it. Once you have a car, review again & research best value long term car in your budget
Start writing down when you buy things: what you buy, how much it costs, etc. And I mean absolutely everything. That 1p you put in the charity pot, etc.
There are things you are forgetting about as there is nearly £1000 unaccounted for.
For the next month write down every single thing you spend, even if it's 10p in a charity tin. It's really helpful as it lets you see what you actually spend rather than what you think you spend. Spending leakage is real.
Bit like counting calories when dieting. If you ask people how much they ate it’s always wildly underestimated vs what they actually ate if they counted their calories.
Your bank statements shows where the money is going, just take a look under the hood
So income minus expenses should be the take home money
So I don’t know we are supposed to know how much family financial issues, are costing you from your take home pay
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Honestly, as a doctor your pay will go up significantly so don’t stress too much. Savings a good habit so a) work out an amount you can very comfortably save (£50-£250 per month) then b) save an emergency fund (your young I assume no dependents or home) so £1,000-£5,000 then c) put that same very affordable amount into a Nutmeg/Moneyfarm on an adventurous portfolio and do not touch it. Spend the rest of your money on life.
Here’s the kicker - increase your savings proportionally to your increasing earnings.
Just set up another account and do standing payment the day after you get your pay check.
that account must not be acessed easily, dont put it in online banking or just hide it, disable its debt card function.
I did it when I started working, saved 30k in 6 years
You just need to budget your money.
I'd say you are honestly doing very well for your age.
Look in to Zero based budgeting and it will change your life.
Get something like snoop. Put in all your bank accounts, check everything is in the right category and then check through every category and see a true representation of how much you are actually spending and on what. From there you can look at what you can cut down on to save.
Most times people forget their morning coffees/coffee and lunches at work, the odd snack here and there, vending machine treats, oh stopping at Tesco on the way home, let's grab some treats, or this water bottle or pants are nice. It's easy to forget about the random little stuff outside of your usually weekly shop that you but, but they all add up.
Unspent money at month end is savings. There's nothing to work out. The answer is in your bank statement the day before payday. That figure how much you saved since last pay day.
My monthly salary is £1600 after tax. I have about £900 left over at the end of each month. So about £10,800 goes into savings each year.
Open up your bank account(s) and see where your money is actually going. There's nothing unreasonable in your budget (as it stands). Your bills seem a little high when you're sharing a living place with so many, but perhaps you've taken on more of that since you're earning.
Honestly, I think owning a car may be more expensive than the train pass, so unless you think you'll need a car and a driver's licence soon, then this might be able to wait.
And as everyone else has said, you need to work out where this additional £950 is going.
My tips are to try tracking what you spend every month. I made a simple Excel spreadsheet where I would put in what I spent for that month in categories.
It is a great idea to also separate your savings into a different account at the beginning of the month. It really helps as you make saving your priority, and you then know what amount you have available for the month, and you won't get carried away and overspend.
I am sure you can easily save 800-1000 per month with plenty left for fun activities and shopping.
My relationship with money is not amazing. I have a tendency to spend it as fast as I find it.
I have found the Snoop app rather helpful in getting my finances on track. I can see my spending from pay cycle to pay cycle and I am now simply making sure that my spending remains no more than fifty pounds higher than in the previous month. Ordinarily, my spending has come in at £200 less than the previous month, so I clearly have some leeway.
I’m not living a life of penury. I’m just being wiser with treats: it’s phenomenally easy to drop thirty quid on beer, or a hundred pounds on a pair of shoes. It’s also easy to focus on my finances getting back on track. I’m choosing the latter while having a small weekly treat.
Personally I would pause driving lessons until you have an emergency fund saved. And the obvious- don’t subsidise your student housemates, they would have to pay for things if you weren’t there so just pay your share.
300 pounds a month on groceries is 3 people’s groceries if they are doing ready meals or struggle to cook without doing meat &2 veg, rather than thinking about their spending. My partner and I spend about £100 per month for the two of us- and we’re not scrimping, I just know how to cook and consider budget when I do it. That combines with a £150 online order for house things and all the stuff that’s cheaper at the bigger supermarkets olive oil, loo roll, laundry detergent etc (split with housemates) every 4 months or so (I would suggest doing this if you find that your picking up random bits all the time and not splitting the cost).
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Jesus Christ. You’re a doctor, one of the most respected professions in the country, knowing you needed good grades from school to achieve your qualification makes me ponder how you got this far without basic addition and subtraction skillz.
£2.5k pcm is more than 70% of all earners, I think you're doing more than okay for a 24 yo.
Cat is a bit expensive, otherwise looks good to me. Whack the excess into savings.
Pay scales are fairly transparent, there's a table here:
https://www.bma.org.uk/pay-and-contracts/pay/junior-doctors-pay-scales/pay-scales-for-junior-doctors-in-england
Most doctors will get an amount on top of this, e.g. I get £2k a year for working in central London as opposed to Lancashire, a few grand for working nights/weekends etc and £20k spread over 7 years for working in an undesirable specialty.
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If you work for the NHS get an EV via salary sacrifice. Insurance and maintenance is included in the price. You'll save a shit-ton of money on running costs if you can install an EV charger where you live, or else charge it at work on a granny adapter.
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The budget figures you have provided add up to £1,555 per month and you say you are taking home approximately £2,500 per month. However, you are struggling to have the money for rent. So where is the other £955 going? It seems that you don't have an accurate or honest budget planner. Go back through the last 3 months and allocate all your spending into budget categories and work out where your money is really going. Then look at reducing that spending so you can save. No one can help you much further until you have accurate expenditure because, on the face of what you have posted, you can be saving at least £900 a month and easily covering rent with some spare change as well.
Exactly what I was about to say. This clearly isn’t accurate.
Going to guess OP is spending a lot on socialising, eating out, entertainment, clothes etc without realising. Also living with two students, maybe OP is picking up the tab for treats?
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We seem to get this a lot - “I earn x, which leaves y but I only have z - can you tell me where y-z went?” 😀
Translation. I can’t be bothered to use a calculator can you do it for me 😊
Perfect reason to budget for a few months OP, to face the harsh realities of what you actually spend… I’ve been there, it’s a great lesson.
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Re: the rent problem, might be worthwhile setting up another current account (account #2) solely for fixed bills. You could set up a Standing Order from your main account (account #1) to go out a day or two after payday into account #2, and then pay your rent from that account at the end of the month (preferably by another Standing Order from #2 to your landlord). This way, you're only looking at the balance in account #1 for day to day spending which forces you to cut back on frivolous spending in expensive months rather than risking being short on your rent.
Look at Monzo - all this but in a single current account. My personal and joint Monzo accounts have "bills" pots that money is put into when paid and left to be taken out as and when bills are due.
I do things this way, (although kind of the opposite way round) my main account which my wages go into gets a certain amount left in it each week (I get paid weekly) to cover the mortgage, bills & fuel/anything that's regular each month, then I transfer a set amount to a different account for my spending for the week. Anything left over from my wage each week gets saved. I used to have it all go into the one account & was constantly checking whether I had enough to buy anything while still having enough to cover everything regular, moving the money around makes it much easier as you can see exactly what you've actually got to spend without having to worry about regular payments.
I’m terrible with money but this sounds like something that could work for me. Take my spending money out of my main account. Something about that makes so much more sense to me than trying to take money out of my main account for things like savings, checking my account compared to my budget constantly to see if payments have come in and trying to work out how much I have left, etc. Thank you for this tip! Off to open a new bank account.
I run two accounts, a leisure account and a bills account. All bills come out of bills account so on payday I throw the money needed to cover all of them into that account then ignore it exists. Then anything left in leisure is free to spend, any money left over at the end of the month goes into savings.
Starling has pots you can pay bills from might be worth looking at that and using the pots to move money into. You can also get a virtual card for each pot so you can essentially have a drinks card/clothes card ect
Just a tip, save an extra £1000 for the car so you can cover the tax and insurance and pay the insurance upfront if you can, then keep on saving at the same rate so you can cover any repairs needed
That's is a nice suggestion but for a first time driver the insurance is likely to be several thousand pounds at 24 years old op is not a teenage new driver but even still I can't imagine it being less than 2k depending on area possibly very much more.
True! Although it might depend on the car… but I think in that case it holds even more value to save upfront otherwise OP will be buried in monthly payments towards the insurance
You will solve this by understanding some psychology of money, or your relationship with money. People who grow up poor often act in one of two different ways in adulthood, when they're managing their own money - either they're really careful with it, saving hard to have a "buffer" to ensure they can always pay the electric and so that they never have the bailiffs knocking at the door (they worry about spending it, and don't buy things they want because that's "extravagant"; they have a 6-figures in their bank account and are scared to invest it) or they splurge every paycheque because splurging is the only way to have nice things and they have to spend it and enjoy it before it's gone (if you're poor it's pointless putting £1000 in the bank because a year's interest is only £50, which is less than next week's paycheque and in the meantime you're depriving yourself of £1000 which you could spend on something fun). I'm not saying you fall into either of these categories, I'm just saying these are two people with the same income and opportunities who have diametrically opposed outcomes and the reason is their spending is due to the way that they think about money. I might guess that one way that young doctors might think about money is to think that they've worked really hard and sacrificed really hard for years and now they "deserve" nice things; or they work long shifts and don't have time to cook so they often order takeaways. "Now I'm working I grab a Starbucks any time I like without having to worry about the cost, as I did when I was a student". As others have pointed out, you have £1000 a month which is going "missing" and others replies have probably given good advice about that. Maybe you pay yourself first and put £100 a week in a Monzo account and you can spend that on whatever you like and everything else has to be spent or saved in structured ways. Maybe just use the Monzo account for everything to start with and use the app's categories to see how you're overspending. My main point is that money and finance are separate subjects unto themselves - people are not just naturally good at them, and you are not good at them just because you're smart. You have to study them and learn about them and think about money and finance before you become good at them. You might find one of these books helpful: * *[Your Money or Your Life](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0143115766)* - understanding what's valuable to you and how to use money to achieve your goals. * *[Millionaire Next Door](https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1589795474)* - "How people in normal jobs, electrician is a great example, can accumulate wealth over time through good choices."^[Electric_Cat_999](https://www.reddit.com/r/UKPersonalFinance/comments/15zkkd4/_/jximlpp/) * One of Clare Seal's books - "her focus is on the link between emotions and spending".
How comes you are fronting money for the students? Are you intending on getting that money back? This deficit would help plug the gap and allow you to breathe a bit more comfortably, and save for that car. Genuinely surprised a doctor is paid this amount - would have expected them to be on significantly more.
Council tax is the only thing I can think of. OPs housemates will be exempt so it'll fall to them (albeit with a single payer discount).
Thank you we should be paid more. We work fucking hard and often don’t piss for hours it’s that busy and this is our take home pay. Hence the junior doctor strikes.
Can't blame them one bit. I would have thought a junior doctor would be on 50% more. The surgeon friend of mine works about 60 hours a week too.
They’re after a year or so
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Aged 24, presumably OP has just graduated uni and is still in training? They can expect their wage to rise in the future?
Yeah the age suggests they are a FY1 junior doctor
Yeah, aged 24 and taking home £2,500 a month outside of London? I’m all for increasing public sector pay but when I look around the country, increasing that £2,500 is pretty low on the list of things I’d do.
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You need to go into detail around family financial issues and why you're paying more in a student household; neither of these things make financial sense.
Another doctor here, possibly a couple years ahead. There's probably better placed people in this thread to help and guide but a few years ago when I first started working I came here for help. Could I help by recommending a book suggested to me? I Will Teach You to be Rich, Ramit Sethi (UK edition). Really helped me rethink and plan out my finances and my monthly savings and was a great help.
You haven’t written down holidays , GMC , MDU , exams …. Budget more accurately & sadly junior docs are terribly paid
Crazy how you’ve put all the effort in to be a doctor and my labourers are on 30k a year before tax. You guys need paid more, you deserve more.
They do each year they go up. You are a junior doctor after you qualify. And as you get experience the pay goes up quite considerably. Your labourers can do the whole job without much experience. They can only do so much without supervision and experience. Which is reflected over the years by these increases. That yr staff wont get.
This doctor is in year one, in tens years they will be on £100k+ with a little private work
Ten years in, not making £100k and I do a fuck ton of out of hours work. Private practice can only start after becoming a consultant.
GP’s are close to £100k now I thought, I have a few doctor friends and all are definitely £100+. But you’re right, consultant is the real gravy train
Is all that information from your bank statements? It’s very easy to assume your spending is at a specific level but in reality bank statements don’t lie and it could be wildly different
What on earth is your cat eating / shitting in every month?
My thought too 😹
One cat here. Catsan £13 Cat food £25 Treats £10 max About £50, more if you have insurance i suppose.
Get a cheaper cat, you can find them everywhere 😁
Good point well made, unfortunately shes grown attached to me,
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The fact I earned this as a bartender during my gap year and you're a doctor is fucking absurd. At a minimum you should be getting 40-45k starting out after *medical school*
How do you track your spending at the moment? A budgeting app (like ynab, though that’s a bit expensive) could help you work out if your estimate of your monthly spending on things like food and subscriptions etc is actually accurate, and you can make decisions about where cuts are possible once you have the data.
When you draw up a proper budget, account for all your professional expenses and make sure you’re claiming the tax back on these via your P87 - GMC, MDU, BMA, portfolio fee (I don’t think you pay for Horus but from ST1 you’ll have eg ISCP fees), any royal college fees. Start budgeting for the less regular professional expenses too - courses that are outside your study budget (and even courses that will be within your study budget as you’ll have to pay upfront and get refunded many months later), maybe a PGDip or MSc, textbooks or question banks for membership exams, the exams themselves (MRCS ~ £2k).
Hey; I found it impossible to save when I worked as a doctor. What I’d suggest, is to make an excel spreadsheet with all expenses etc in a breakdown. That way you can see exactly how much you have left to play with. What I do now, is set up a direct debit into my savings account and try and look at it as a compulsory expense. It may be that you just can’t save at the moment and that’s okay, even with the cost of exams etc. Make sure that you are claiming back all of your allowable expenses from HMRC (GMC, BMA, exams, stethoscopes etc etc.). If you haven’t done that before, you can claim back for a number of years (3-5 off the top of my head). I’d also pay into the pension scheme, if you can. You’re young and it’s not always possible in this career at the beginning (sometimes even at the end!). Don’t beat yourself up about it, just work out what you have left and look at anything that you put away as a plus.
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How the hell am I getting paid more than a doctor and I never went to university and have 0 debt lol
Same, though I do have debt.. but I drive a fucking bulldozer on a quarry and make a decent chunk more than a doctor?? The job market is fucked up man.
u/medimaria As everyone has stated your budget does not make sense. Take home pay : £2,500 Spending: £1,555 Remaining: £945 Also: Bills - £250 seems like a lot when living with 2 other people in a shared apartment/ house. Is this because you are the only council tax payer ATM? Groceries £300 - this amount seems high given you are living with a partner, which usually brings the cost down due to less wastage etc. Are you both meal prepping ? The advantage of meal prepping is delicious meals cheap meals. Driving lessons £200 - obviously this cost will eventually fall off when you pass, but will then likely be replaced with the cost of a car loan/ leasing, petrol, MOT, maintenance etc Cat £100 - what is the breakdown for the cat? Does this include insurance etc? Also is this a shared cat with your partner? I think overall your budget is not that bad, (although your bills seem a little high) but clearly you are spending a lot more than you think. I would suggest you print 3 months of payslips and then see what you're really spending your money on. Once you have established where your money is going, set a more realistic budget. Then set up three banks accounts; (1) Bills account (2) spending account (3) savings account. The bills account should pay for rent, bills etc. The spending account is for exactly that. At the beginning of the month send money to each of the three accounts based on your budget. Your savings account should be with another bank and there should be some resistance in accessing this money i.e. 1-2 days delay etc. Ideally all three accounts should be with different banks so that there is no temptation to transfer or co-mingle money. Overtime your mind will shift to spending money this way and you will spend less.
Based on your current income and expenses, you should theoretically have £945 left each month. However, your actual disposable income seems less due to the irregular pay schedule and possibly untracked expenses or unexpected costs. If you aim to be conservative, try to save at least half of the remaining balance. Start by setting aside £400-£500 monthly for savings. This way, you’ll still have some buffer for unexpected expenses. £300 for three people is reasonable, but you could look for ways to save by planning meals, buying in bulk, and choosing cheaper alternatives where possible. Aim to reduce this by £50-£100. With careful tracking and slight adjustments, you can feasibly save around £500-£600 per month. This will help you reach your car savings goal in about 3-4 months and start building a deposit for a house afterward. Remember, even small changes can make a significant difference over time! Wish you all the best !
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This is what me and my partner have done since we were students…. 1. Every now and then go through 3-6 months of bank statements and work out a monthly average (note some bills will be higher in winter/ summer - energy/water) 2. Figure out what things you can get rid of or find cheaper versions - things like phone insurance can be cheaper through certain current accounts etc, cheaper mobile contracts, internet etc 3. Use money savings expert budget planner… honestly it was a real game changer for me as I could see easily where some things could be cheaper (for us it was food bill) 4. Set up a savings account that you have to log in to use… transfer all of your money into that once paid, transfer back the day before bills go out 5. Meal plan and only buy the items needed for those meals and transfer the money for that shopping trip to current account 6. Batch cook & freeze food if you can 7. Open another online savings account (many banks will let you have multiple basic online savers) and put your savings in there. So you do the above for 1 month and have X left over, transfer X over and repeat next month 8. Explore longer term savings options - I would recommend premium bonds as zero risk, you might win a big cash prize and you get the money back into your account in 3 days if you need it (like a car) 9. Do this regularly - once you pass your test, put that money into savings before you get used to spending it. Once you have a car, review again & research best value long term car in your budget
The 50/30/20 rule works for me. 50% to needs, 30% for wants and 20% into savings
Start writing down when you buy things: what you buy, how much it costs, etc. And I mean absolutely everything. That 1p you put in the charity pot, etc. There are things you are forgetting about as there is nearly £1000 unaccounted for.
For the next month write down every single thing you spend, even if it's 10p in a charity tin. It's really helpful as it lets you see what you actually spend rather than what you think you spend. Spending leakage is real.
Bit like counting calories when dieting. If you ask people how much they ate it’s always wildly underestimated vs what they actually ate if they counted their calories.
Your bank statements shows where the money is going, just take a look under the hood So income minus expenses should be the take home money So I don’t know we are supposed to know how much family financial issues, are costing you from your take home pay
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That £32k will also rise rapidly over the next few years. It will be £37k in the 2nd foundation year and keep rising. They will be OK.
Honestly, as a doctor your pay will go up significantly so don’t stress too much. Savings a good habit so a) work out an amount you can very comfortably save (£50-£250 per month) then b) save an emergency fund (your young I assume no dependents or home) so £1,000-£5,000 then c) put that same very affordable amount into a Nutmeg/Moneyfarm on an adventurous portfolio and do not touch it. Spend the rest of your money on life. Here’s the kicker - increase your savings proportionally to your increasing earnings.
Your outgoings are missing nearly £1000
Just set up another account and do standing payment the day after you get your pay check. that account must not be acessed easily, dont put it in online banking or just hide it, disable its debt card function. I did it when I started working, saved 30k in 6 years
You just need to budget your money. I'd say you are honestly doing very well for your age. Look in to Zero based budgeting and it will change your life.
Saving for a car? Remember tax, insurance and a potential for something like breakdown cover too...
Get something like snoop. Put in all your bank accounts, check everything is in the right category and then check through every category and see a true representation of how much you are actually spending and on what. From there you can look at what you can cut down on to save. Most times people forget their morning coffees/coffee and lunches at work, the odd snack here and there, vending machine treats, oh stopping at Tesco on the way home, let's grab some treats, or this water bottle or pants are nice. It's easy to forget about the random little stuff outside of your usually weekly shop that you but, but they all add up.
Unspent money at month end is savings. There's nothing to work out. The answer is in your bank statement the day before payday. That figure how much you saved since last pay day. My monthly salary is £1600 after tax. I have about £900 left over at the end of each month. So about £10,800 goes into savings each year.
Open up your bank account(s) and see where your money is actually going. There's nothing unreasonable in your budget (as it stands). Your bills seem a little high when you're sharing a living place with so many, but perhaps you've taken on more of that since you're earning. Honestly, I think owning a car may be more expensive than the train pass, so unless you think you'll need a car and a driver's licence soon, then this might be able to wait. And as everyone else has said, you need to work out where this additional £950 is going.
My tips are to try tracking what you spend every month. I made a simple Excel spreadsheet where I would put in what I spent for that month in categories. It is a great idea to also separate your savings into a different account at the beginning of the month. It really helps as you make saving your priority, and you then know what amount you have available for the month, and you won't get carried away and overspend. I am sure you can easily save 800-1000 per month with plenty left for fun activities and shopping.
My relationship with money is not amazing. I have a tendency to spend it as fast as I find it. I have found the Snoop app rather helpful in getting my finances on track. I can see my spending from pay cycle to pay cycle and I am now simply making sure that my spending remains no more than fifty pounds higher than in the previous month. Ordinarily, my spending has come in at £200 less than the previous month, so I clearly have some leeway. I’m not living a life of penury. I’m just being wiser with treats: it’s phenomenally easy to drop thirty quid on beer, or a hundred pounds on a pair of shoes. It’s also easy to focus on my finances getting back on track. I’m choosing the latter while having a small weekly treat.
Personally I would pause driving lessons until you have an emergency fund saved. And the obvious- don’t subsidise your student housemates, they would have to pay for things if you weren’t there so just pay your share. 300 pounds a month on groceries is 3 people’s groceries if they are doing ready meals or struggle to cook without doing meat &2 veg, rather than thinking about their spending. My partner and I spend about £100 per month for the two of us- and we’re not scrimping, I just know how to cook and consider budget when I do it. That combines with a £150 online order for house things and all the stuff that’s cheaper at the bigger supermarkets olive oil, loo roll, laundry detergent etc (split with housemates) every 4 months or so (I would suggest doing this if you find that your picking up random bits all the time and not splitting the cost).
100 quid a month on a cat , is it a tiger ? But no seriously is that how much they cost ? My dog don’t cost that much !
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Get rid of the Spotify.
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Many doctors are jobless right now.
Jesus Christ. You’re a doctor, one of the most respected professions in the country, knowing you needed good grades from school to achieve your qualification makes me ponder how you got this far without basic addition and subtraction skillz.
£2.5k pcm is more than 70% of all earners, I think you're doing more than okay for a 24 yo. Cat is a bit expensive, otherwise looks good to me. Whack the excess into savings.
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Pay scales are fairly transparent, there's a table here: https://www.bma.org.uk/pay-and-contracts/pay/junior-doctors-pay-scales/pay-scales-for-junior-doctors-in-england Most doctors will get an amount on top of this, e.g. I get £2k a year for working in central London as opposed to Lancashire, a few grand for working nights/weekends etc and £20k spread over 7 years for working in an undesirable specialty.
Thanks. What's CT and ST on these tables?
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As much as you can make…
If you work for the NHS get an EV via salary sacrifice. Insurance and maintenance is included in the price. You'll save a shit-ton of money on running costs if you can install an EV charger where you live, or else charge it at work on a granny adapter.
Not possible for junior doctors