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.

Oops, random angry face. I'm happy honestly.

My Husband does this with his money and after 10 yrs together has given up trying to get me to do it.

He has lots of savings for if things go awry, I do not. I like buying shiny things.

I am an accountant and I don;t do this (except for clients who need to do it!)

On the other hand I could give your DH a link to a lovely free online accounting package when he could upload your bank statements and "tag" what they are and produce a whole profit and loss account. He could even value your house and assets and do a balance sheet. Hours of endless fun and amusement

My spending counterbalaces his miserliness and we don't argue over what is spent. It just seems a waste of time to me.

I've just phoned him to let him know he's got a lot of reading to do when he gets home. He wants to know who's right and who's wrong. I've kept him in suspense...

He'll take note of those who do the same as him, just as i'm taking more note of those that side with me. The last page or 2 are interesting though.

well then prove it to him, do it yourself, let him be impressed then admit you just copied out the joint account statement, added up all the supermarket bills and it took you a fraction of the time!

Oh and /i can see where this comes from BTW - my parents used to do this monthly, write it all down, balance the cheque book etc, my dad tried to convince me that I had to write down all my spending, I was 18 when i pointed out that I could check my balance every time I went to the cash machine and if I was ever unsure I could just log on to my bank account to look. He still thinks this is an inferior way of doing things, but ten it's only in the last 10 years we've explained they don't need to go to the bank every Friday or Saturday to withdraw the money for the week and pay for all their food shopping with cash (if you live like this, then the spreadsheet/writing it down does make sense, it's just living like this when everywhere takes cards doesn't make sense)

I'm sure he would love that kew sadly

My DH does this and while I tease him about it and cant be bothered myself I must admit that it is fantastic

He has it down to a fine art and apart from the mortgage we dont owe anyone a penny and havent paid interest on our credit card in over 5 years he can also predict our bank balance for any given month (obviously things can alter with unexpected bill etc )

It is hard work but worth it if someone else does it

Im trying to ignore you dontmind I really really don't want to do anything myself. I may have to, but sad to say i'd need to ask him where everything is . In fact DH - as you were. You are doing a brilliant job and I am completely wrong...

3is

I guess it comes down to what value you place on your own time.

To me, an hour of free time is worth literally hundreds of pounds. So, for me to 'spend' that hour of time pissing about with receipts I would expect to see a return of more than that sum.

I just can't see that an hour spent logging receipts would ever 'save' me more than this sum.

That's before you've taken into account the opportunity costs, like spending time with DCs who will only be DCs for such a short period of time.

Does he want to have to explain to them when they're older that he spent their childhoods dicking about 'doing the finances'? that didn't actually need doing in the first place

Its quite a sad thought really.

I ve just started keeping a daily note of absolutely everything I spend (after reading a book about achieving financial independence - no work! Imagine! ) It's stupidly fun and for the first time ever I am on track to have a surplus in my current account by month end. I'm with your DH, sorry OP!

I have a spreadsheet! And I update it every time I spend money. But I generally know how much I have available to spend because of the spreadsheet, so it's very helpful to me.
I don't tend to do receipts though, unless I can't remember exactly how much I spent on something and happen to have the receipt still. Otherwise I just look at my card/bank balance and figure it out from that.

yep duck

I don't do it.
I have two accounts, one is my personal account and the other is a household account (hangover from being a joint account with exP). My salary gets paid into my account, and a large proportion is immediately transferred into the household account. Maintenance, child benefit and tax credits also get paid into that account. All DDs and standing orders are set up to be as close to the start of the month as possible so any month left over in the household account is for general spending on food and things for the house or DS. Anything left in my account is for my own personal expenses.

I know how much spending I can do from both accounts each month and check about once a week to make sure that everything looks OK (i.e. I've got enough left in the accounts and there are no odd transactions) Sometimes I need to shift money around a bit if unexpected expenses come up (i.e. taking money out of savings to cover house repairs).

I do also have a budget where I work out what I am spending on household things like utilities, just so as I can work out where to save money. I really need to update this!

I did it once for a month and it was such a PITA I gave up.

I can't imagine anything worse than tracking every penny unless you really had to.

I have a spreadsheet. I don't list my receipts on it though. I just keep my receipts and periodically check them against the transactions on my online statements. I always have a rough idea of what is left in my account as I mentally deduct every time I spend. The spreadsheet simply allows me to budget for the future (e.g. knowing I can't spend more than £50 on clothes that month). It takes me about 20 minutes twice a month to stay on top of things this way, but then it's just me and my bank account.

Erm, we do this! We have a spreadsheet, that every single item is listed on as we do it....ie reciepts, cash, cheques etc. It automatically deducts each direct debit and standing order too and gives us an estimated balance after everything is paid. Means that it doesn't matter when the actual debit is taken, it's accounted for and we know exactly how much we have left. Works for us!

I have an app called "Spending" which lets me use multiple accounts, input regular bills etc, so I can see what's what. Much easier to stick in "supermarket £40" (I round up) than worry about the end of the month!

Every single receipt? Seriously? What a bloody time wasting exercise.

Has he heard of technology? That he can go online and find something called a bank statement which will give him, lo and behold, the same list of what's been spent?

No way - and what's the point? If you pay for almost everything with cards, you have a complete record on your online bank statement.

Ok, you need a teeny bit of memory to know what a particular item was, but I don't find that any problem, doing accounts every month or three.

I have budgeting spreadsheets, by the month, one for the household accounts (bills, groceries, stuff for dd) from the joint account, one for my personal spending, for my account. I have found the forecast, record and adjust approach very useful. I've been able to trim back unnecessary things, seeing where savings can and cannot be made, also recognising where some categories require more funds than I thought.

I just run through the online accounts, tot up for each category and put it in my spreadsheet. That way I can easily see running totals across the year, so act to level out a particular line. I can also adjust within a month, balancing overspending on one thing with less for another (usually dd stuff against groceries, usually by shifting timing of grocery shops and avoiding any unnecessary luxuries, if necessary).

I wouldn't say it takes that long or is a faff.

The only time I've ever kept receipts was as a landlord, when I'd throw them all in an envelope and get them out once a year to do my tax return. That's the only scenario when receipts were actually needed, as potential evidence for HMRC, not that they ever asked.

Has your DH or his mother done accounts for a small business before, so had to keep receipts for tax reasons? That might explain the fixation, or idea that it's normal.

Not time wasting for us Orangepixie, a useful forecasting tool to see how much money have have every everything is taken care of.

I'm an ex bank manager. I've seen it go wrong for people too many times when they didn't keep track of their finances and I just can't ever go there, so I'm happy to do it. DH designs and fixes the spreadsheet and gives me his receipts. I input them onto the spreadsheet, and update all the other account balances at the same time. I do this every couple of days, cross referencing with internet banking.

Keeps me sane because I know exactly how much I have, and therefore have guilt free spending

There isnt enough variety and/or opportunities to change your mind in our lives.

Our income doesn't vary all that much- any extra income goes straight into savings anyway
Our bills are direct debits- and I review the energy/insurance/media/etc contracts from time to time and take a view on what we spend at that point
We take out regular amounts of cash each week for sundries and live on that.
I do the supermarket shopping online so I know what the bill is before I confirm the order- I walk round the kitchen with my iPad, checking the cupboards and knocking things off the shopping list
We don't run a car and we walk to work and school, so travel doesn't come into it
Childcare costs an eyewatering amount but it's the same each month- or if there's overtime to pay, theres nothing I can do about it

What are you guys all doing, that's so unpredictable you need to devote hours of time to understanding it?

And do you actually take any action as a result, that you wouldnt have taken anyway?

*excuse the crapola first sentence...should read "how much money we have left and that everything is taken care of".

That's what I get for typing on MN whilst on the phone....

Nothing and no beast

Except transfer money but we could have a few extra pounds in the bank balance to cover that - but that would be lost interest!