Help with budgeting, more of a new year necessity than resolution.

[Belleende]

Having just drained my savings on mat leave, and now back at work with 2 in childcare, for the first time since being a student I need to be careful to ensure I have enough left to cover all necessities, I also need to be a lot more careful to afford nice things like holidays.

I need to really start being a grown up about managing finances. Myself and DP have til now kept totally separate finances but I think we now need a way to manage our finances jointly even if we don't have a joint account (he has a shitty credit history in the dim and distant past which I am not keen on poking around in or connecting myself to)

So people, any tricks/tips/apps that help us start to manage our finances together and save some £££.

Write EVERYTHING you spend down, right down, ideally as soon after you spent as possible, to putting change in charity tins at shops, you soon notice patterns, things you don’t need.

Once you have the pattern you can work out what you can cut and what you need/what you do need but can have cheaper etc.

You need this.

It's probably worth getting copies of your credit histories to see what is lurking on your DPs file, it might be old enough to have dropped off by now (over 6 years) so won't affect you. Otherwise, don't get a joint account until he has a clear file.

For sharing finances, the aim should be to jointly cover all essential bills, food, travel and DC expenses from a joint pot, save jointly for annual and irregular expenses and end up with an equal amount for personal spending.

So once you've done your budget, you could both pay an appropriate amount into an account that is only used for joint expenses and keep what's left in your own accounts.

The account of shared money is then only used for shared expenses.

You might want to separate off some savings and/or money for things like food and fuel, or we keep most of our money in a Santander 123 account as it pays cashback and interest up to £20k so is ideal for a combined bills/savings account as long as you have the discipline not to spend money because it is there.

Pop over to the Money boards .... there is lots of advice about getting out of and staying out of debt
or the Frugaleers are useful with ideas

Thanks all. Was hoping there would be one leading app to pick, but doesn't look like it.

Debt isn't an issue, just £1k on a credit card. We have a decent combined income, but with 2 kids, no unpaid childcare and an expensive commute for me, there isn't much left at the end of the month. It has been a bit of a shock for us both.

Will pop over to the money board.

YNAB (YouNeedaBudget) gets good ratings ....

You need this app

It allows you to imput expenditures and clearly see who owes what and to whom.
It’s great for house sharing.
Don’t link finances with him if he has a bad history.