My Real Budget for May 2025 (And How You Can Use This to Build Your Own!)

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Hey friends 👋

Welcome to the first post in what I hope becomes a super helpful, real, and slightly messy (because… life) budgeting series. This is not some Pinterest-perfect financial breakdown or a copy-paste “how to budget” post. Nope—this is my actual May 2025 budget, based on what I actually spent in April, and I’m sharing it here to help you see exactly how I put it together.

Why? Because I know how overwhelming it can feel to get started with budgeting, especially if you’re staring at a bank statement full of random charges and wondering where the heck your money even went. Trust me, I’ve been there. That’s why this budget is raw, real, and designed to show you how to start—not how to be perfect.

So let’s dive into it: my real budget for May 2025. I’ll walk you through what I did, what I looked at, and how I turned one month’s worth of spending into a plan for the next.

Step 1: I Started With My April 2025 Bank Statement

Honestly, this is the best place to start. I pulled up my April bank statement, took a deep breath, and categorized every single transaction. No judgment. No guilt. Just data.

This part took me about an hour, but it was so worth it. Here’s why: when you really look at where your money goes, it becomes way easier to plan for what’s coming. It’s also a bit sobering (hello, $85 in random food delivery I forgot about), but it gives you a solid starting point.

I split my expenses into the following categories:

Mortgage/Rent
Groceries
Utilities
Subscriptions
Monthly Insurance Premiums
Fuel
Donations
Entertainment & TV
Savings
Phones (devices and plans)
Personal
Car insurance due next month

These are the categories that make sense for me, but you can adjust them depending on your lifestyle. The key is to be real about what you’re actually spending on.

Step 2: I Built My Budget for May Based on That Spending

Alright, here’s the moment you’ve been waiting for: my actual May 2025 budget. 🎉

Category	Budgeted Amount
Mortgage/Rent	£0 (zero this month as I sold my house and I am staying at my parents place while they are away for a while!)
Groceries	£450
Utilities	£111.29 (I adjusted this a little to balance my whole budget back to zero as this is just an estimate for now anyway)
Subscriptions	£60.50
Monthly Insurance Premiums	£47.96 (based on actuals)
Fuel	£100
Donations	£10 (monthly donation to Great Ormond Street Hospital)
Entertainment & TV	£153.98
Savings	£2,350
Phones (devices & plans)	£85.83
Personal	£300
Car insurance due next month	£550
Total	£4,219.56

A few notes:

I just sold my house last month and my parents have gone away for a couple of months so staying at theirs rent free (only covering bills)
Groceries in April were a bit chaotic (too many impulse buys), so I’m challenging myself to stick to $400 this month.
Subscriptions cover Netflix, Spotify, Audible and a couple of apps—I’m keeping a close eye on these since they can sneak up on you.
I recently started a high protein diet as I have begun strength training so keeping to the food budget is going to be tough.
Savings is non-negotiable. Even if it’s small, I want to keep building that habit.

Why I’m Sharing This Budget Publicly

Okay, so you might be wondering: why put this all on the internet?

Good question.

I’m doing this because I think there’s power in transparency. There’s so much budgeting content out there that’s either:

So vague it’s useless (“just save more!”) or,
So perfect it feels totally unrealistic.

I’m not a financial expert when it comes to personal finance. Even though I work as an accountant by day, personal finance has emotional strings which makes it so much harder than what I do as a job! I’m just a real person trying to manage my money better and make it work for my goals—like setting up my son (who is currently 4 for a good future).

By showing you my real numbers, I’m hoping to take the pressure off. You don’t need a perfect plan to start. You just need to look at your money and try.

Want to Build Your Own Monthly Budget? Here’s What I’d Suggest:

If you’re inspired to make your own monthly budget (yay!), here’s a super chill way to start:

Grab last month’s bank statement. Go through every transaction and label it.
Group those into categories. Keep it simple—you can always fine-tune later.
Add it all up. This is what you actually spent.
Look for patterns. Where are you overspending? Where can you cut back?
Make a plan for the next month. Don’t aim for perfection—aim for awareness.

That’s literally all I did. And next month, I’ll be back here showing you my actual May spending vs. this budget. I’ll talk about where I nailed it, where I blew it, and what I’m learning along the way.

SEO Bonus: Why You Should Track Your Budget Monthly

(Yes, I’m sneaking in some SEO goodness here too. Gotta help people find this post, right?)

If you’ve been Googling things like:

“How to make a monthly budget”
“Real budgeting examples”
“Monthly budget vs. actual spending”
“How to start budgeting from scratch”

You’re in the right place.

Tracking your budget monthly is one of the best financial habits you can build. It helps you:

Understand your spending habits
Spot trends (good and bad)
Get intentional with your money
Reduce financial stress
Build toward goals like debt payoff, savings, or investing

And it doesn’t need to be fancy. It just needs to be consistent.

What’s Next?

Next month’s post will be all about how my May budget held up to real life. I’ll share:

How closely I stuck to each category
What totally threw me off
What I’ll change for June

It’s going to be honest, a little messy, and hopefully really helpful. 🙌

If you want to follow along, make sure to subscribe or bookmark the blog. And if you’re building your own budget, drop a comment or shoot me a message—I’d love to hear how it’s going.

Let’s figure out this money stuff together. 💛

Until next time,