DH says everybody keeps track of their finances by logging receipts

[shewhowines]

After another long night of DH huffing and puffing "doing the finances", we had the age old discussion of him saying he needs to, because that is the only way and most people do it like that (his mum does), and me saying 90% of people don't do it his way.

He makes me keep every receipt and he logs every single item we buy, on a complicated spreadsheet. He uses this to forecast our expenses so that he can transfer money if necessary. Can I just add, he is not controlling as to what I spend. It's just if I spend it, or get money out, I must keep the receipt. The system obviously works, but it is sooo time consuming. I wouldn't mind, but then I have to put up with him moaning.

I say that most people work retrospectively. They scan through their credit card bill to make sure there are no errors, and correlate this with their bank statement. Money can be transferred if necessary, at that point.

I am right aren't I? Nobody keeps their receipts and meticulously logs every bloody transaction.

This is a bit like the threads on washing towels or food dislikes. Half the posters go "oh no it is perfectly normal to do XXXX" while detailing the fact they never allow their towels to pass over their bodies more than once (maximum), and/or that they dislike a list of foods that go on for about half a page....and the other half look at them in bemusement and get on with having a life.

And what Oblomov said. There are many more lovely and rewarding ways to spend the evening than huffing and puffing over receipts. Try t'ai chi. Or karaoke.

Whatever. I was noting a pattern that is emerging here and offers some explanation for the behaviour described.

A number of people have suggested that people like OPs DH who log receipts obsessively have OCD or similar. I am making the point that for a few people a different, almost opposite, issue might be at the root of the behaviour. A lack of normal financial awareness or self-control that they are (over)compensating for.

A few people have said 'I see money in the current account as available to spend, so I need to demonstrate to myself that some of it is already accounted for, or I will spend it'. I think 'why on earth would you think that, or do that? Just don't spend what you haven't budgeted for, or are aware (if you have normal money-sense) is outside your means.'

Explaining, not judging. I don't care why people behave like that. I'm noting it as a possible explanation for some of the behaviour illustrated here. Interesting, because it is opposite to the explanation of being hyper-controlled that others have offered and which will be true in some cases.

It strikes me that some of the obsessive loggers on here may well be the ones who on an evening out place down EXACTLY £6.95 for a pizza because "they do not drink" forgetting that they had two large cokes and there's a service charge and a tip.

In my experience people can't stop their love of counting their money spilling over into public life and impacting on others' pockets.

I think you might be right lainiekazan. I used to be a logger, as a student and when I first started work because I needed to know how much I had and that my budget was holding up. That was 25 yrs ago though and there weren't all the on-line ways of doing things or even access to Excel! I used to use a notebook.

And I used to be the type who worked out the bill to the penny too although I did used to pay for my drinks. Funnily enough, in one of my first jobs, I went out with the rest of the accounting staff in the firm I worked for and we all wanted to work out the bill to penny. Occupational hazard of being an accountant perhaps?!

I don't do it now but then I am not on a really tight budget. If I was I would rather not go out than not be able to split a bill equally without making a fuss.

Motherinferior - it is like the towel threads yes, but I don't think they are ever 50:50. I think we might read it that way but usually those with the impossibly high standards are in the minority (like the OP's husband) but make the most fuss and noise about it so that anybody who doesn't reach their impossibly high standards looks a bit pathetic next to them. They con us into thinking it is normal a. by making a lot of noise about their anal way of doing things and b. by making others who don't have the same high standards feel a bit inadequate rather than perfectly normal, well balanced individuals who then either don't post or don't sound convincing.

Lottie, I don't overspend, I don't know why you have interpreted my post that way.

If I don't keep a record of our spending we might run out of money. That doesn't mean we habitually overspend.

I need some dental work it is going to cost approx £200. If I had told the Dentist to go ahead and do it straight away we would have overspent this month. Instead I am putting £50 per month into my savings account and I will have my teeth sorted in 4 months time.

It's not always big expenditures that cause a problem the groceries bill can be quite random some weeks. Last week we went to a different supermarket than usual and ended up spending about £20 more than normal. Because I'm quite anal and log my receipts I know that we have to cut back a bit this week. If I didn't log my receipts I might not remember and we could have a problem at the end of the month.

I do Internet banking too but it takes a few days for transactions to show so I like having the spreadsheet for piece of mind.

I'm quite insulted that people think I have a problem for doing this. I don't want that to cross my fingers and hope for the best when I am in the supermarket, I want to know that I have enough to pay for my shopping.

I also don't like the assumption that being like this means you are tightfisted. In a restaurant I just split the bill like everyone else.

TheArticFunky- I don't think that people do think you have a problem if you do this because you are on a really tight budget. I just don't see the point in the OP's case as they are not on a tight budget.

It's just not necessary for most people to log all receipts now that we have online banking. Transactions generally appear pretty quickly online. There may be a bit of a delay on some transactions but if they are for a small amount it wouldn't make me and probably the OP go overdrawn. If they are large then you would notice that they hadn't gone out anyway if you check your bank account regularly surely?

It only takes seconds to do as well. I work from home so I'm on my computer a lot. It takes me 5 seconds to log my receipt on a spreadsheet.

Also meant to add that I delete it every month. I don't analyse the information. It's just an additional safeguard in the event of Internet banking not being available.

Also forgot to say that I started doing this after a supermarket deducted £90 almost 6 months after the transaction was alleged to have taken place. I'm pretty sure I didn't make that transaction but I couldn't be sure so I took the hit and decided to start keeping better records.

TheArticFunky - you expressed incredulity that anyone could avoid 'running out of money' if they didn't log receipts. Do you really believe that everyone does this? really?

Most people are not on very, very tight budgets to the extent that they need to manage cash flow closely all the time. Some are (as I and others have discussed up-thread). So, the only reason most people would 'run out of money' is if they habitually overspend.

It is therefore a simple, logical step to think that you might habitually overspend. The alternative explanation for your post is that you think everyone lives on a very tight budget, at the edge of their overdraft limit. That's not the case. The OP doesn't, for one, so I know that you know that...

As I and others have pointed out up-thread, the best way for people to avoid 'running out of money' is to budget in advance and spend accordingly. Most people don't need to track cash flow to achieve that. For those who do, using receipts is a very old-fashioned and unusual way of doing this. Much useful discussion earlier in the thread.

To heavily tip the average in the OP's favour on the Anal-O-Meter, I only keep receipts for things I might want to take back, then generally throw them away by accident.

I occasionally look at my bank statement online, and think 'that looks about right'. DP and I have never had a conversation about every-day budgeting. We frequently go overdrawn. The two, I do realise, are connected.

I didn't express incredulity. I mistakenly thought that people were on tighter budgets than they obviously are. I'm always hearing people talk about money being tight -perhaps it's a smaller problem than I thought it was.

For me it makes sense to keep my own records and as I said before it isn't time consuming it takes seconds to do.

Oh right, I read your last two sentences as asking how people avoided running out of money if they didn't log expenditure (logging being an action, not just relying on online banking), as you couldn't see how that could work.

Slightly at a tangent but linked
I'm an accountant. Lots of my clients are disorganised builder types.
I'm weaning them off cash and onto direct debit and visa payments
because cash vanishes
but electronic payments show up on a trackable record.
They tend to find that they spend 10% less when they stop using cash.

YNAB isn't about tracking spending, though. It's much more than that. It's about purposefully allocating every penny (even if the 'allocation' is 'savings'). The tracking of spending is just to ensure that the allocations were successful.

Tracking spending alone is putting the cart before the horse.

ah but for those of us who are self employed, we control our own incomes as well :-)

I don't overcompensate anything.

talkin as a disorganised type myself, I now try to put all work expenses on the credit card, then I can send my accountant my diaries and credit card statements for the year.

It really helps with tax returns .