1. Getting Money Smart in Salford
•
A step by step guide to personal
budgeting support
Salford Advice &
Information
Network

2. Salford Budgeting Course!
• OUR PRINCIPLE AIM: The only way to manage your money is to
draw up and manage a household budget.
• Our Aim involves supporting people to develop the skills,
knowledge and understanding they need in order to be able to
manage their money effectively and make informed decisions to
assist them to sustain their tenancy and live off their income.
• To do this then this course will advise & assist in ways to Create &
manage a tailor-made monthly household budget plan.
• The focus will be based around Universal Credit changes– managing
monthly, paying rent & joint household incomes.
• The outcome is to create a budget plan and be able to self-manage
it thereafter.

3. Before attending – it would be useful if the attendee
can obtain the following before coming
• A copy of your last money statement (if they
have one). Eg: bank, p/office etc
• Any amounts of income eg wage slip, benefit
letter.
• How much rent is (any service charges)

4. Your 5 a day!
£
Creating & managing your personal household budgeting plan.

5. Understanding Key Terms
• Disposable income
• Household Income
• Expenditure
• Budget planner
• Overspend / underspend
• Monthly conversion
• Essential / non-essential bills/payments

6. Let’s create a monthly budget plan
"Implementing a workable budget is the single most
important thing a family can do to get control their
money,"
Remember: every member of your family will be
affected by your family budget, creating that budget
should be a family affair.
If everyone has a say in creating the budget, they
are more likely to help in maintaining the budget.

7. EARNINGS/INCOME
• Do you know how much money you have got
coming in each month?
• Is it regular/varied eg bonuses, overtime,
non-recurring income
• Is some income occasional, weekly, fortnightly,
4 weekly, monthly or other.
• How to convert all regular income to monthly.
• Set aside extra income.

8. Wages
• Make the most of what you earn by
understanding your pay and benefits
Check your wage? Your tax
code and any deductions

9. Understanding benefit decision notices
• You should read it carefully. Check the details
are correct.

10. Understanding Housing Benefit
decision notice
Understanding key terms, applicable amount, non-dep, bedroom deduction
etc

11. Earnings/income
• Ensure you have what you are entitled to
• CAB benefit check – premiums, disability
benefits etc.
• Discretionary Housing Costs – bedroom Tax
• Energy Grants
• Single persons Water discount
• Large family water cap

12. Types of Benefits – Am I eligible?
• Council Tax reduction
• Housing Benefit
• JSA
• ESA
• Income Support
• PIPS
• Universal Credit

13. How can your family contribute?
• Are all income receivers in the household contributing
to the budget?
• Everyone should be mindful of electricity / telephone
etc.
• Are bills shared – Is the household aware of the
costs/bills
• Are some bills shared if overused by a member of
family.
• Let the members make their own budget predictions
and compare the actual results
• Are they paying their share as non-dependents towards
rent and Council Tax?

14. Spends- Rent & Essential bills
• How can you ensure you pay your rent and
other essential bills?
• Direct (APA), Jamjar a/c, s/order, direct debit
• Setting aside (separate bills/rent a/c)
• What are the other essential bills:
• Eg: Ctax, Gas/Electric, TV
• Consequences of non-payment
• Accessing Help

15. Essential or not? Priority & nonpriority
• Electric
• Rent
• Water
• Food
• Shoes/clothes
• Mobile
• TV
• Council Tax
• Magazines
Ways to reduce the above? Or budget to be able to afford.

16. Other bills
• Direct debits can vary in amount such as
phone bills. You need to be wary of this.

17. Using Money Accounts
What types of money accounts are there?
Basic
Current
Savings
Post office
Credit Union

18. Direct Debits or Standing Orders

19. Which is correct?
• Key banking terms
Agreed overdraft
ATM
Direct Debit
Debit Card
PIN
Credit Check
Standing Order

20. Needs/Wants
• Go through last months statement and
highlight what was essential and what might
be non-essential. Can you cut back? What
savings are made?

21. Budget for Sufficiency
• The key is making your household budget work is
ensuring it is sufficient for your needs. For example, if
you need £200 per month for food, but you only
budget £100, your budget won't work. You'll end up
taking £100 from some other budget category to spend
on food which will make that category short, so you'll
take from a different category to fill that need. It
becomes a vicious cycle.
• This is the time in the budgeting process when you
might have to make some tough decisions, particularly
if your income isn't sufficient to meet all of your needs,
much less your wants.

22. Creating the budget planner
• Either on our print out page or in Excel (at home)
create a list of all your expenses for each month
Universal credit will generally be paid monthly:
5 headings:
• Expense, Budgeted Amount, Actual Amount, Due By
and Paid.
• Eg: phone mobile,
• £20/m,
• £30/m (overspent £10)
• Due by 28th Paid 26th

23. Bert-Savings
• Expense - savings,
• Budgeted Amount - £40/month,
• Actual Amount, 0
Bert overspent in other areas so he saved nothing.
He’ll need to look at areas where he overspent and
see if his budgeted amount is realistic. He needs to
look forward and ensure that saving becomes a
priority,

24. Taylor - sports
• Expense: sports
• Budgeted Amount: £50/m
• Actual Amount: £28
Taylor has underspent.
Taylor didn’t spend as much as she thought on her
golf. She has hurt her leg so didn’t play much.
However she may not want to alter her budgeted
amount for next month if this is a one-off incident.

25. Suzie – trips out
Expense: trips out
Budgeted Amount: £40/month
Actual Amount: £76/month
Suzie overspent by £36. The family will need to decide on
whether the trips where essential or find ways to cut
back. If not their budgeted amount may have been
unrealistic.
It may take several months to budget more accurately
based upon the monitoring of your budget.

26. Sandy: Travel – including to and from
work /school
• Expense: travel
• Budgeted Amount: £200/month
• Actual Amount: £350
• Due By: monthly bus pass 15th each month
• Car insurance 28th each month
• Paid: 16th, 28th.
Sandy struggled as she was not sure what went under travel. When
you use a topic you need to be sure what it covers and that it covers
the same things each month. Use the split headings as accurately as
you can and insert ‘other’ headings for regular expenses not listed.
She also had an unexpected car repair for £150 and has put it under
travel. As she had no emergency fund or hasn’t been saving, it has
made her overspend on her budget. Otherwise she would have been
‘spot on’ with her budget.

27. Make Adjustments
• If your budgeted expenses exceed your
income, you need to make some adjustments.
• You only have two options: cut your expenses
or increase your income.
• Increasing your income might not be an
option and cutting your expenses could take
some time.
• Make sure the figures are correct – with so
many numbers mistakes can happen.

28. Tips to cut back
• See if there’s anything you can easily cut back on, or shop around
for a better deal.
• Save on utilities & phone bills
• Cut down on car or travel costs – monthly passes pay be better.
• Avoid impulse buying – comparison sites: shop around (well in
advance)
• Obtaining vouchers - websites
• Cashback cards - websites
• Energy saving grants
• If in debt then we can advise on debt referrals. There are many
organisations that can help/advise on debt.
• Avoid using Credit to pay off Credit – it might spiral out of control.

29. Shop & Compare
Be sure you are getting a good
value, especially with big
purchases, by shopping
around and comparing prices
and products

30. Emergency Fund
• Conventional wisdom says you need three to six months'
worth of living expenses saved up for a rainy day.
• When you live on a low income, everyday can seem a rainy
day, so saving that kind of money might seem unrealistic.
• But unexpected expenses come up in everyone's lives --
regardless of income level -- and having a few hundred
pounds in an emergency fund can meet those needs
without wrecking your budget and forcing you into difficult
choices.
• Making your emergency fund should a top priority, right
after creating your budget.

31. Emergencies that may result in no money ?
Have any of these happened to you or could they?
Failed ESA Lost money
No money whilst
appealing
Under investigation
JSA sanctions
Immigration
Failed to attend
medical
Pending decision
Emergency needs
Fail to sign on/agree claimant
commitment
issues
Delay in payments

32. Three categories of applicants
Immediate Emergency
Assistance
Resettlement Grants.
Council Tax Discretionary Fund
Latest caselaw
Salford
Discretionary
Support
Scheme

33. Ways it can help.
Resettlement
Grants
a bed, fridge or
cooker
scheme will provide essential
furniture items only
referral to another
service, agency or fund

34. Ways it can help.
referral for baby food
or a food parcel
Immediate
Emergency
Assistance
essential furniture items, for
example a bed, fridge or
cooker
travel costs to attend a
job interview or
workplace
help with emergency supply of
gas or electric where there is
no heating in the household
referral to another
service, agency or fund
people who are in a crisis,
emergency or major disaster

35. Other Ways
• Grants
• Charities
• Short term benefit advance
• Advance payment
• Hardship payments
• Saving pots
• Credit unions
• Advance budgeting loan
• Alternative payment arrangements

36. Access to money
• Pre pay card
• Cash card
• Debit card
• Credit Card
• Store card

37. Saving
• Set savings goals
• Establish a time-frame
• Figure out how much you’ll have to save
• Keep a record of your expenses.
• Trim your expenses.
• How much will £2 a day raise in a year?

38. Protect
• Taking precautions about your financial
situation, accumulate emergency savings, and
not falling into debt.
• What ways can you lose money?

39. Reasons for High expenditure
• Money scams/online
• Holidays (school hols)
• Recreational expenditure?
• Advertising influences
• Luxuries
• ‘image’ designer labels etc
• Things I don’t need – but what can I cut out?

40. Borrow
• Borrowing money can enable some essential
purchases and builds credit, but interest costs
can be expenses. And, if you borrow too
much, you will have a large debt to be repaid
• What types of credit do you know?

41. Types of Credit & APR
• Credit cards
• Loans
• Mortgages
• Payday loans
• HP
• Catalogue
• Credit Union
• How budgeting can help avoid the need for credit

42. Summary
• Create a budget plan that best suits you
• List all your household expenses
• Consider how you will ensure your rent is paid
• Look at savings & disposable income
• Predict and estimate and monitor results
• Understand what is essential and what is not
• Look at ways to cut back and save money

43. Put your budget to the test:
• Now your monthly budget plan has been
completed – it is time to test it out.
• Put your budget to the test: Try to live within
your budget, and see how it feels.
– At the end of each month what (if any) changes need
to be made?
• We’ll contact you in a months time and review
your budget planning, so we can see how you are
getting on.