What is a Personal Survival Budget?
A Personal Survival Budget details your average monthly income (like your salaryor benefits payments) minus all the costs and expenses you would incur in a typical month (like your rent, your utilities bills and your monthly grocery bill). As the name suggests, this is a personal budget – not a business budget.
This budget is designed to help us determine whether or not you will be able to meet your monthly Start Up Loan repayments. As a responsible lender, it is important that we believe you can afford a loan before offering you one.
This file includes a separate tab with guidance on how to use the template, as well as some useful hover-over tips and messages on the template itself to support you as you work through. For your ease, this file includes a blank Cash Flow Forecast template, which you must also submit with your application. These two templates are automatically linked together to reflect where any shortfall in your personal budgeting may need to be made up by drawings from your business. The file also includes a Business Plan template, which is required for your application.
Remember, you don’t have to use our template – particularly if you have already created a Personal Survival Budget. However, if you are starting from scratch, we recommend using our template because it is designed to make it as simple as possible for you to complete. Another benefit of using our template is that it includes all of the right information that our loan assessment team requires from you to make a fair and informed lending decision.
Please note, the following documents should open on any device with a document viewer and editor but for the best user experience, we recommend editing this template on a desktop.
Why is a Personal Survival Budget important?
Even if you decide not to proceed with a Start Up Loan application straight away, a Personal Survival Budget can be a great tool for helping you keep on top of your personal finances. There a several benefits you’ll gain from creating and regularly updating your Personal Survival Budget.
A Personal Survival Budget:
• Is great for planning, particularly if you’re saving up for something
• Helps you avoid overspending
• Supports you in making sensible, realistic decisions for you and your family
• Gives you greater control over your personal finances and spending decisions
How do I complete my Personal Survival Budget?
A Personal Survival Budget is made up of three key sections:
1. Personal income – money coming in
This section is where you list all of the sources of personal income you earn in a month. Among other things, this could include your salary from an employer, your personal savings, benefits payments or even returns from an investment. The number of items you include will depend on your personal situation, but a typical personal income section includes between three and six items.
You add all of these sources together to figure out your total personal monthly income (A).
If you use our free template (see download link above), this will be automatically calculated for you.
2. Personal expenses – money going out
This section is where you list any of the expenses you personally incur in a typical month. Among other things, this could include your home rent or mortgage payments, personal loan repayments, council tax, utilities bills, childcare or school fees, personal savings or monthly grocery bill. Again, the number of items you include will depend on your personal situation, but a typical personal expenses section can be anywhere from 10 to 20 line items.
You add all of these sources together to figure out your total monthly personal expenses (B).
If you use our free template (see download link above), this will be automatically calculated for you.
3. Total surplus or deficit – the balance
This final section is the difference between your total personal income (A) and your total personal expenses (B).
e.g. “Total personal income (A) – Total personal expenses (B) = Your monthly balance’
If this figure is negative, it means that your personal expenses are greater than your personal income for that period and you may need to think about ways to either cut your costs or bring in new income. Conversely, if the figure is positive, it means you’re earning more income than you are generating costs – great news for your savings account!
If you use our free template, it will automatically calculate your monthly balance, and generate an annual snapshot for you too.
Our top tips for creating your Personal Survival Budget
These tips have been prepared by our Business Advisers and loan assessment team to help you understand some of the key things that will strengthen your application:
Think about what impact receiving a Start Up Loan will have on your personal budget.
When you’re starting a business, it can take a bit of time for that business to start generating revenue and this often requires the business owner to invest more of their own finance into the business. As a Start Up Loan is a personal loan that you invest in your business, you are ultimately responsible for making the monthly loan repayments, regardless of the state of your business. It’s important that you feel confident you can manage these expenses in the event that things don’t go according to plan or the market is a little slower than you anticipated.
