How do you budget?

[Dontgiveamonkeys1350]

I’m taking over the financial reins in our family. The way we had been doing it wasn’t working before. So I wanted to pick peoples brains on here about how you do it.

Do you have a separate account for ur bills.

Do you budget for money weekly

Do you have a strict food budget and take that out weekly.

Do you always have less money at the end of the month than u think u do.

Do u budget within an inch of ur life or do u wing it.

Really hoping to get some good ideas here to make it easier to keep a track of the in going me and out going’s.

Do you write stuff down everyday you have spent and take it off the total.

Let me know how you do this. As I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed by taking this on. It makes sense for me to do this as I’m now at home most of the time and my husband is at work. I just want to get this right.

I’m changing my bank account so I can have two. One for bills etc which doesn’t get touched and one for spending money.
Saving accounts for different things. And I’m going to try taking the money out for food. At least then I know I will have money for food no matter what happens

I just sit and cry.and wish for somone to save me from it.

Oh I’m sorry!!!!!!

DH pays the mortgage, home insurance, BT, SKY, gas, his mobile, cars etc Lunch money for DC2.

I pay food, my car ins and petrol, electric, school uniform, mobiles x 3, lunch money for DC1. I tend to but a lit if shopping in pay day. Meat for freezer, pizzas, cupboard stuff, toiletries etc. Then weekly fresh stuff.

Im on a low wage so i can only save x amount each month.

I bulk cook too so its handy for the freezer.

Oh we have a joint account but only as we got a cheque in both our names when we got married🙄otherwise we don’t need it.

I went through our bank statements to work out how much fuel we use, how much our bills are etc. Then I set up a spreadsheet with our income at the top, including child benefit, then put everything that we need to pay underneath. It's grouped into essential bills, then extra things (like NowTV etc), basically highlighting the quick things to cancel or cut back on if we needed to.

I've assigned us a budget for fuel and groceries, and we're able to leave a little bit spare to cover any little extras. We've always tried to account for saving a little bit too.

I found it much easier to give DH and I a small amount of 'pocket money', just £10 a month to start with when money was really tight, so we could buy hobby things if we wanted. I like yarn and DH likes the odd coffee out. This way it's stopped lots of random spending.

We have done cash in jars in the kitchen before, for shopping etc but now I just go through the bank statement every week and tick it all off the spreadsheet, adding on what we've spend on groceries etc to see how much I have left for the next week.

It's a bit of a job and it takes us a few months to really get into the swing of it. So don't be downhearted if it takes a while to embrace the changes.

We use a joint account for everything, a joint savings account and we each have our own individual accounts for the pocket money.

I pay all regular bills monthly so nothing gets missed. Easier to do if you're paid monthly though. I write down what I spend daily for everything else. It makes me think about where it goes that way and I total it weekly. I try and keep the weekly spend to less than £100 (that includes food, petrol, treats). I'm conscious I don't really save anything though and that bothers me a bit.

Can I ask what the decision is to have separate accounts. We have never done this and have always had joint. But for a long time we didn’t have much money spare. We do now. Not much. But I don’t earn a lot due to medical problems. So all our money gets put in together. And if we want something we just buy it if we have the money. But anything over £30 is discussed by us both.
I have been sorting this out today. Have a folder. Made check sheets etc. I feel more organised now than I did three months ago

Best case sceanario for you OP would be a system where you were spending each month what you earned the previous month rather than what you were earning that particular month. That way, it wouldn't matter if you were paid the 10th or 20th of Month as you wouldn't be spending it till following month. That's what I do, but it obviously means you need one month's outgoings saved to get started.

I have a big tin with envelopes in for everything I need to pay regularly or save for. Not utility bills or mortgage or anything else which I pay by standing order, but things like drama fees, guitar lessons, saving for holidays, winter coats, school uniform, school trips, haircut every 5 months, Christmas etc...there are loads. I get the cash out at the beginning of every month and distribute to my envelopes. I withdraw cash for groceries £50 per week, and pretty much stick to it. I use cash pretty much exclusively. I have found this system has really helped me to get a. Grip and it feels really good to be in control.

Just read the whole thread...I am really annoyed on your behalf that people don't pay you on time. Hope you can sort that soon.

Also, just so you know, I was 43 when I finally came to terms with how bad our financial grip was and realised that instead of feeling sorry for myself that we couldn't do things, like holidays, I would have to take charge and sort it out. Wish I had done it years ago.

We have both our wages & child benefit put into our joint account. Rent, council tax, water rates, gas & electric, virgin media, phone bills, car insurance, petrol etc all comes out monthly. We set ourselves £65 a week food / toiletries budget, £40 a month nappies & wipes / baby snacks etc. What’s left at the end of each month (DP gets different bonuses) we split into 4. 1/4 for myself to spend on whatever I want, 1/4 for DP, 1/4 for the savings and 1/8th into each of the childrens savings accounts.

For birthdays & christmases / car services etc we use money from the savings. This way we end up having between £50-£100 each a week to spend on whatever we like, plus £50-100 savings per week and £25-50 per week into the childrens accounts too.

Some weeks DP only gets a basic wage of £300 and I only work 20 hours (full time uni student) so we have slightly less money for the next month’s spending / savings.

Before doing it this way we had the exact same amount of money but for some reason at the end of every month we had NO savings NO money and were just miserable!

When we decided enough was enough (when in hospital with DS and struggling to afford DP’s taxi’s there and back 4 days in a row) we sat down with our income and outgoings and this website to work everything out
www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/tools/budget-planner/start

Forgot to say, whatever we have each for spending each week/ month gets put into our own bank accounts so we cant accidentally spend more than we intend! DP now thinks before buying an expensive lunch at work or a coffee every morning

I put in an Excel file all bank transactions for the month going out and what's going in, cash just listed as cash. Then monitor we aren't going over in the longer term. If appears overspending I then look at what it is.

I also review bills and accounts to see if we are getting best deals, you can note on Excel file when contracts end so you can change again. No credit cards and have never gone into debt. If you are on tight budget I would set allowances for everything and with shopping just take that amount of cash so you can't go over.

I’m going to take out the food money in cash. Seeing how that goes.

I was 43 when I finally came to terms with how bad our financial grip was

There's hope for me yet then!

OP I'm not sure I can be much help as am piggybacking your thread for ideas myself.

I try to get my direct debits to go out between payday on 24th and 1st month, which makes life a bit easier, but in spite of meal planning I always spend too much on food, and do 'comfort shop's which has resulted in more debt than I'm comfortable with, so will be doing some hard-core belt tightening in the new year.

On the positive side I do £50 a month 'Save as you Earn' direct from my wages to the local credit union. It's currently paying the last couple of hundred quid off a loan I got to pay for my divorce but will become savings again in a few months. It's not much but is a hand slush fund if a tyre need a replacing or a school trip comes up, and otherwise help out for birthdays and Christmas.

Anybody use You Need a Budget . Is it worth trying ?

I have not heard of it. Is it an app

@sandgrown Yes, I would highly recommend YNAB.

Thanks I will have a look.

We have three joint accounts
One which DH's wages go in - this pays all the bills, food, petrol and a chunk goes into savings. All the direct debits go out by the 7th.
My wages go in a separate account which pays for days/nights out, gym, fun stuff, clothes and my savings.
The third account is were money gifts and investments go and is saved for anything we need over the year- house/car maintenance, Christmas, birthdays.
Holidays are paid for from bonuses.
We don't have a strict food budget but arent huge eaters and nothing gets wasted.
We're fairly strict about putting savings away first otherwise it will get spent.
By the end of the month it is pretty much all gone but mainly because we prioritise saving and have a lot of to fall back on if we ever need it.

I take money out in the form of cash
I love cash
I never get over the feel of newly minted notes

Me and my husband pay about £300 each into a joint account
That covers bills
He’s started putting food on a card where I prefer to pay on cash but we split all joint expenses
Cinema, petrol meals out
What we have left out of our pensions is our own

I use YNAB and would highly recommend it. It's revolutionised my spending. It's a months free trial then I think £45.99 a year or £3 ish a month. I save probably £45 per month using it.

Can't tell you how great it is.

Just to add, i shop online for groceries. That way, i can see exactly how much before checkout, and replan if necessary.