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.

Good Lord.

If dh logged all our money/spending I'd... well, I'd not be married to him. He is a bit of a spendthrift, but I'd rather that, frankly, than some twitchy type who started getting a nervous tick if you ever treated yourself to a cream cake.

A former colleague of mine had a dh like this. They were actually quite well off. At her leaving do, he came along and upon seeing his wife standing there with a cocktail (bought by boss), he snapped, "How much did that cost?" I'd have thrown the cocktail in the arse's face.

Keeping abreast of the big picture is sensible. Keeping tabs on every last penny is... just not attractive. [Disclaimer: if you are really struggling that's different - but the types who have spreadsheets never are struggling - just the opposite, usually.]

My dmil writes details of every receipt she gets into a wee book and then checks them off her bank statement. Don't think it's to keep an eye on her balance, its because she doesn't trust her bank card...

Dh uses some kind of app thing for this. Cash just becomes miscellaneous expenditure. Mostly we use debit cards so its easy to spot where the money goes. He doesn't mind how it's spent though, just likes to keep an eye on it.

Does mean if we are going over we can reign in spending.... or if we've spent less than normal we can have a treat.

orangepixie, just as others have said, it's to allow me to forecast. What's showing in my bank when I look at online banking is not what I have left.....I like to know what dd's are still to come off, any cheques written and not cashed yet etc etc etc...saves me getting a bill and panicking about it, because I know exactly what's coming. Also means that when an unexpected bill does arise, I know that I can cover it or if I need to transfer from another account (which I also know the balance of).

It works for us, I probably am anal about it, but I find I relax more knowing that the banking is up to date on my spreadsheet. I guess you can take the girl out the bank, but not the bank out the girl

Should add that it's not that I freak if DH spends, it's just keeping an eye on it. I perhaps won't mention that DH converts the data into nifty little graphs - it really opens your eyes to how much the cost of groceries has risen, fuel too! shuts mouth now

lainie, there is a middle way between spendthrift and twitchy type...

So do people honestly write in a book (or spreadsheet, or app) if they buy a Mars Bar?

I can see if you put in £60, fuel, or £100, Tesco etc then that is valuable but to stop and make a note of everything - does it make you very mean? Would you, for instance, put a £1 in a collecting tin or would that blow the system since you couldn't get a receipt?

We keep very receipt and every card transaction. They get ticked off on every statement - but that's it! The only spreadsheets we have for expenditure is for Christmas presents.

The only people I know who do this are the grandparents. Did he have to do this as a child? It could just be habit

My DH (an accountant!) does this with his money. It means he can project how much it costs to run the house. It makes him happy and it doesn't take up too much time. I did it for a year after getting into a financial hole and it really helped. I now do a 'lite' version where I don't track my cash purchases but do track it all on a spreadsheet.

And yes you can download all transactions from your bank statement but that does not account for cash purchases and that is where a lot of frittering can occur.

My sister and her DH who are very well off are always on an 'economy drive' and I suggested they did the same even for few months, but it was too much 'bother' but I know they fritter loads away on food shopping through poor planning. They think changing their mortgage (and extending it!) is going to solve it all thought!

lainie we started to watch even those £1 when we realized we were being 'nickeled and dimed' to death. For awhile, yes, even that £1 thrown into the charity bucket was noted down.

i don't log cash purchases, but i would log the cash being withdrawn from the account

if i paid for a mars bar on my card then yes i would log that

Same as williewaggledagger I'd note the cash being withdrawn but not the spending with it - we'd note down if the cash was taken out for housekeeping, dinner money, whatever really. If the mars bar was on a card, then yes, it would get jotted down.

I write in my diary every time i buy something or every time i take money out of the bank.

About 7 years ago my exh would just spend money as & when he wanted so we ended up in debt but now I am a single mother on a low income & there is no way i am going to be in debt.

I dont care if that makes me weird or abnormal.

I do this, I have a fancy spreadsheet with all income and expenditure on. I also have little reconciliations for all my accounts.

Basically a certain amount we save for car stuff/xmas/birthdays etc which I plan for equally over the year. This then shows us how much money we can afford to spend or put away for holdiays and so on.

We draw out a certain amount of cash for the month but then everything else goes on the card (esp as you can get good cash back deals). I don't log receipts as I use online banking for everything. I do it once a month.

It is a great way of planning and also it helps you not to overspend. When my brother and his wife first got a house they seemed to be in their overdraft all the time, they asked me to do a spreadsheet with them and they actually had £300-400 spare each month but they were just using their debit card all the time and not saving for xmas or their car insurance so by working it all out they actually 'found' money their didn't think they had!

Disclaimer - I am an accountant and I love spreadsheets

BTW we are both fairly frivalous with money so keeping track is a good thing as we are always aware if we can afford things or not. If we can't we either don't buy it or we do and find the money next month instead

Can he do this for me?

For those who have said 'why don't you just look at your account and see whats left' - what about transactions/bills that haven't yet come out, what about when car insurance is due?

I have in the past sent mumsnetters my secret spreadsheet on request

I would tell my husband to fuck off if he asked me how much I had spent on a cocktail (also, isn't it fairly easy to work out based on your venue?. That being said, I wish there were a "bad cop" in my marriage.

I give myself a set amount of spends each week and take that out of the ATM rather than spending on my card, I don't log down everything I spend but I try not to go over that budget I give myself

That's what I meant by 'pocket money' Sooper. We each get that to spend on whatever as we go about our week and then anything else above that gets either put on the debit card or the receipt kept/jotted down.

We've been doing this last few months and it's a complete Fing PITA. I'm only to do it as a kind of audit because we had a sudden income dip but I can't do it forever. And not very accurate because there are bits and pieces of expenses you can't easily remember (DD's £13 for bus fare, or £1 for her catering class, £2 for cleaner's Xmas at work, etc.) I've got 2 bank accounts & at least 2 credit cards to check, and they all have statements on different days of the month so it will be sometime 3 weeks after the month ends that I get a (sort of final & definite) total of spending. I can't do the records all at once because that's too much work in one go.

What's worse I've a background in CBA so I can't help but attribute things correctly; hence travel expenses don't go under merely "car" but rather why was I in the car (DC club or commuting or what purpose?). So I've complicated that part myself.

However, since we started doing it we seem to have nice ££ surpluses each month, so maybe not all bad.

I've tried to do it and it turned into a right nightmare. I either forgot to take the receipt (usually just ask sales people to bin it) or the dog ate it - DHs pockets usually bulge with paper anyway and whenever we tried to keep track of receipts he'd be showering bits of paper everywhere whenever he stuck a hand in his pocket or got his wallet out.

Just not my style.

We have done this for years. We have Microsoft Money on our computer and all spending goes on there and then we reconcile it against our bank statement. It doesn't take too long at all. We also have the monthly bills set up so at the press of a button we know how much we have left till pay day.

Couldn't care if people think we're anal - I'd rather be that than broke!

YY to this BeastofBurden

"There is a big difference between having a budget and logging what you spend.
Having a budget is a proactive thing. You decide what you ought to spend on a certain area and if you get too close, you stop buying stuff. (this has been a concept quite difficult to transmit to my DH).
Logging everything you spend is just an exercise in describing what you did. Useful when you first set your budget up, so you can decide what you ought to spend. useful once you have a budget, to see if you are sticking to it"

This is precisely our problem! We know all our expenditures, and have a lovely spreadsheet showing incomings and outgoings, and a lovely healthy figure at the bottom which should mean we're living the life of reilly but this is not the case!

Mmm, now I'm going to be spending a few hours this evening researching these apps/websites to see if any of them can help us find out where the money is going now and also to make a budget for certain areas!

OP your DH has started something here!