How do you practically track and manage your household finances? Not what you spend, but how you organise and monitor it.

Monzo has a cool feature called ‘Trends’ where you can set your budget lines a target. So I use the MSE budget planner then put the targets into Monzo and I can see in real time how much eating out / shopping money is left etc. It really helps me stay on budget. Each month I move some money into a Monzo ‘pot’ which is for less frequent expenditure, eg the grocery money stays in the current account, but the money for dentist or optician gets put into a separate pot each month so it’s there when I need it.

Totally agree with Tarborlin.
We have online banking.
I keep an eye on it, but I'm not obsessed with saving money. I don't overspend and move whatever is left at the end of the month to savings accounts.
Life is too short to be tracking money and transactions.

I just cba to be honest. I'm busy and I don't want to spend my free time squinting at spreadsheets. I earn what I earn, I spend what I spend. I save the rest. Fundamentally, I don't really believe that knowing exactly how many pennies I'm spending would make me save more.

Main shared current account with one spreadsheet, others tracked online / app.

Very basic Open Office spreadsheet with the following columns:

blank (to check off when it goes out of the account)
date of transaction
Cheque number
Transaction
debit
credit
balance

It's basically just that tally sheet from a cheque book in spreadsheet form.

It's got busier as we use the debit card for more things, but it means I can predict outgoings and if we have anything left.

I have all possible regular outgoings and incomings as a template which I copy and past in for each month. I justs delete the rows for anything not happening that month.

Master spreadsheet with all payments listed with dates they come out from each account.
includes a breakdown of all credit card balances and dates the 0% end and any savings.

3 current accounts, 1 for my BTL income and all expenses, 1 for joint bills (getting divorced but we still live together), 1 for my personal bills and used for personal spends.

STBEX uses absolutely fuck all which is why he is headed for his second bankruptcy at this rate and why we are divorcing- he is completely astonished each month that he is presented with an itemised bill. He can’t have any direct debits himself as incapable of paying them so absolutely all of it comes
from mine.

Can’t bloody wait to have it all back in control
and not harassing a 52 year old man to transfer his share of the bills (which is proportionate to income).

Used to use ynab but moved to actual budget about a year ago, as wanted to self host

This all makes me feel ill

We pay our bills when we get them, put a regular amount into savings and pensions and don't spend money that's going to make me overdrawn.

Four accounts. Current, all bills. Savings 1. Fun money. Savings 2 big bills (car really) savings 3 money for if I get made redundant. Anything left at end of the month in current or savings 1 account goes into savings 3.

I have a spreadsheet, 3 pages per year:

Accounts: all outgoings e.g. bills, food, personal, holidays, 1 off large purchases etc. A column for each month. I fill it in at the beginning of the tax year to show expected spends for the year, then update it throughout the year as things change.

Finances: tracking the balance of investments + savings, new totals at the end of each month.

Food: date + balance of each food shop to show monthly total. I fill this in maybe every other month.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5382927-ive-just-done-a-budgeting-spreadsheet-shocked?page=1

sorry not read the whole thread but there’s a very recent one on this that might help

no, I wouldn't have the time and head space to deal with that on top as I have a lot going on. Having said that, we live quite frugal. packed lunches for work/school, rarely eating out. I cook from scratch. DIY haircuts, only but clothes when really needed. No luxuries at all. All money is spend on stuff we need and I just buy that (as I can afford - I realise not everyone is that lucky that I don't have to be worry over e.g. the food I get from the supermarket). I always shop around for deals with insurance etc though.

Spreadsheet: there is a budget for everything from dentist to food to petrol - it’s all there. There is also a budget for buffer! Budget is set for the year using data from previous year and known changes eg dd going to university. All spending is logged by month on the spreadsheet and we track spend to date, liquidity, investments etc
dh is a retired finance director and enjoys tinkering with his spreadsheets.

I've wondered about YNAB, but I don't really have any motivation to try it out. We don't budget tbh. We just pay some of our salary into a savings account each month. When we need to spend some of it (e.g. on home improvement etc) we do. Otherwise it just builds up. That's it!

I doubt it.

i do similar but track it with YNAB.

Thank you for this thread, @HouseHelpRequired. I love reading about how other people organise their finances.

I also maintain a slush fund of £300 in my Current account for things I may have missed so I never go overdrawn.

Am I alone in getting paid, money goes into savings & bills come out, whatever is left gets transferred to other savings.

Two decent, but not huge, salaries. Pay both into a joint account, transfer some into savings, some into a housekeeping account, and some into our private accounts.
The housekeeping account has different sub accounts for Christmas, holidays and bills so we try and level out bills/expenses etc.
Works well for us - minimum fuss!

@HouseHelpRequired
You can edit and save to reflect changes in i.e income and outgoings.

I use a spreadsheet.
A sheet for the current account showing everything going in & out with analysis columns (house, car, food, kids clubs etc)
Then a sheet each for

• credit card expenditure
• savings
• Pensions
• ISAs
• Investments
• summary; bringing it all together on one sheet to give an overview & enable planning.

I go in at the start of the month (both paid on the last working day) & update everything, schedule credit card payments, move the money in the account at the end of the month into savings etc
I might update mid month too, depends what's going on. I will July August September as they're big spend months (holiday, child care, back to school)

I love a spreadsheet & am happy to do this as i like to be in control of our finances.

We have notebooks for this purpose. All monthly income and outgoings written down.
Then we plan what to do with the money leftover after bills and food, 12 months in advance usually, with some wiggle room for unexpected changes.
We check our banking apps every week and make notes of balances, and check off our lists when bills are paid.
We have a weekly food allowance and monthly savings pots we put into.
We both really enjoy the planning and calculating.

Spreadsheet and named budgets
Single income household; my income goes into current account.
First of the month Standing Order to Savings account for long term stuff (just had bathroom redone, for example).
Standing Order to other savings account for annual payments like MOT, Insurance, Christmas etc
First of month also money goes into ISA (PAY YOURSELF FIRST!!!)
Out of current account goes DDs and I split everything else into separate sheets for:
Household
Miscellaneous
Travel
Entertainment

I check against my bank account daily.

Works for me. There are loads of tools out there that will do this for you at a cost, but I'm sort of fond of my system and it has undoubtedly helped me budget and save over the years.

Excel:
Daily cashbook for main current account

Annual budget sheet for items that I need to save / hold cash for.

2 current and 2 savings accounts:

Main current account receives salary and pays out direct debits
Transfer set monthly monies from that to a second current account to pay for day to day spends - food/ social/ car fuel
Transfer set amount each month to household savings - for costs that are paid annually such as insurance, tv licence
Remainder transferred to high interest savings to keep for rainy days, holidays and bigger purchases.

The best thing I did to simplify my finances was have all income into one current account, transfer enough to a separate DD ac. DDs are set up to be debited 4 days later. The remaining funds are transferred straight into savings. All spending is done on a cashback credit card which is paid in full by DD in the DD ac.
It keeps it all separate and organised.