Monthly Budget

In my last post I mentioned I would be adding a breakdown of all my income and expenses for an average month. I was going to wait a couple of days, but I figured I should just get to work while I'm in the zone! So, here goes...

INCOME

£955 (Salary after tax and pension contributions)

EXPENSES
 
£250 (Shared rent)
£100 (Income tax)
£130 (Bus fare commuting to office - This is the one thing I would change about my job, as I realise it eats into a large part of my salary)
£50 (Water, gas, electric, TV, internet, phone)
£10 (Clothes/Accessories/Toilettries - I can never buy highstreet clothes to fit properly and generally either raid charity shops and adjust the items or just make my own from scratch. Slow or non-perishable toilettries I buy in bulk at the start of the year as this gives me a huge discount)
£10 (Mobile PAYG)
£20 (Work expenses such as clothes, makeup, work socials, cakes on birthdays, etc - basically anything that I wouldn't otherwise spend money on)
£10 (University fees - 90% of my degree is paid for through grants due to my low salary, so I only pay a top-up amount. I dropped out of a regular 'brick' uni in London back in 2004 due to the massive costs. I couldn't work enough hours around my classes to cover the bills and back then you couldn't get a student loan to cover everything as they assumed your parents gave you money. So this time around I am distance studying with optional lectures so I can hold down a 9-5 job simultaneously)
£40 (Christmas and birthday presents, socialising and other random expenses - the majority of this goes on presents)

£955 - £620 = £335 left for savings

So that's an idea of where my money goes each month. There are obvious areas where I could cut back on expense, such as commuting costs to and from the office. If I didn't enjoy my job or work with such a great team, then it would be an easy decision to just look for somewhere closer. But I never wake up in the morning dreading my job, which is a big deal to me when most of the people I know have to drag themselves out of bed! Plus the organisation is very flexible about working hours (something I'm not used to) and that makes it easier to fit in any exams or projects I have to complete for uni. So for the time being, I'm content to deal with the longer days and just use the travel time to sleep or study.

I don't think I can cut back much more on rent without sacrificing security/privacy. I don't live in an expensive area (I could move closer to the city where I work to save on travelling, but rent would go up to rebalance that) and our flat is just big enough for the two of us not to feel claustraphobic.

We are getting rid of Sky when our contract runs out in October. We are both studying the harder parts of our degree now, so won't have much free time to sit and rot in front of the box in the evenings/weekends. We pick up enough channels on freeview to keep us entertained and have iPlayer, Youtube, etc to catch up online (not to mention the numerous DVDs, games and books in the flat that could be picked up and dusted off).

In a couple of years I will have graduated, so the monthly £10 (£120 a year) on university fees will go towards savings. Until then, I can't really decrease this.

The other major increase to my savings would be to maximise my income. I currently only work 4 longer days per week rather than 5 to save on bus fares, but I have requested more hours at work to bump this up enough to justify the extra day. I could then get a monthly or yearly ticket and save more money than the cost of commuting for an extra day. So I will wait to hear back on this. Until then, I will look into making additional income through other means. If anyone can suggest any (legal) methods then I would love to hear them!