To wonder where all my money goes?

[Oohgossip]

Household income of around £75,000 in the midlands so around 4500 a month.

We don’t live like kings yet seem to live pay check to pay check.

Mortgage and associated bills of around 1500. 2 children, £300 a month childcare. We rent our cars and have one hol a year. Kids don’t want for anything but I haven’t spent a penny on myself in years.

Hands up, we don’t budget.

Where the hell does the money go?

I think Tesco takes all my money 😂

Any recommendations for apps etc to track things?

Write down everything you spend for a week or two - you will soon see where the money goes!

Food! You need to start budgeting for your shopping.

How can you spend so much, I don't understand. How much is it after tax? Can you write down something based on your bank statement to get an idea?

Transfer all your spare money into a Monzo account each month and pay for everything through that. No cash, all on the card. You'll soon see where the money goes.

I’ve downloaded Money Dashboard for tracking spend. It’s a first step to starting to budget - got to figure out where all the money goes first! Another good one is Yolt.

If you spend on card you should be able to download your transactions and categorise them to see where your money is going.

When you say you haven't spent anything on yourself in years, do you never buy food or drink out of the house, no clothes, no beauty treatments or haircuts, no books or magazines, no alcohol?

Does 'we' include a partner? Are they spending any money?

If you have days out with the DCs have you looked at ways to do it cheaper - if you take a picnic and look for 2 for one vouchers, the cost will be a tiny fraction of how much it would be to just walk up to the door, pay full price to get in and then have (usually overpriced and poor quality) food in the cafe.

Do you put money away for annual and irregular expenses like insurance, Christmas, holidays, broken white goods etc or do you just pay as you go along?

Do you have any debt? Credit card interest and overdraft charges can eat up a lot.

If you go through the Moneysavingexpert money makeover it will help you put together a comprehensive budget and suggest ways to trim your expenses.

Do you meal plan and stick to a budget or do you wander round Tesco throwing lots of 'that looks nice' into your trolley and then waste a lot of it?

Are you getting tax free childcare?

Or is that 'one holiday a year' a luxury fortnight in Maui that actually costs about £20k?

Get out the bank statements. Go through listing everything. Direct debits, standing orders, children costs - not just child care but clubs, clothes, treats - and your treats. Time to start being honest with yourselves. You are in a very fortunate position financially so why can’t you see that?

Btw we put aside £2000 a month into the household account. Not all bills are monthly - some quarterly and others annual - so it means they are all covered.

Also check to see if you are paying any old subscriptions for things you don't really use or get good value from and cancel any that you don't really need.

Make sure you shop around for all regular bills like gas and electricity, broadband, mobile phones, insurance, TV packages. Boring but necessary and can save loads. If you don't you are letting the companies take you for a mug.

Mine is all the little "pop to the shops" trips.

Do you go in for just a pint of milk and come out with milk, crisps, chocolate and a drink?

It will be on food, I guarantee it!

Start keeping a record of everything you spend for a month then make a budget. On your income you shouldn’t be anywhere near as precarious as you are but it’s very easy to slip into that situation! You can definitely take control of it though.

Monzo, YNAB and an old fashioned spreadsheet!

That would be over £500 a week on food though!

Wow. That is a lot to be spending if you don't know what on.

You need to spend a week writing down everything you spend (cash / contactless) and then sit down and look at your bank accounts and credit card statements to see where on earth it is all going.

You fritter it away. Read one of Alvin halls books and you’ll stop.

Same here - I spend loads on food. Am constantly in the supermarket and yet my teens say there is never anything to eat because they are like a plague of locusts and seem to inhale shopping as soon as I walk through the front door

You "rent" your cars? So on a lease? How much are those per month each?

You and your partner should get a notepad each and for a couple of weeks jot down absolutely every penny that you spend.
Then go through notepads, bank statements and card statements to discover where you are spending your money.

I think I do fritter as well - 'cheap' trips to Primark with DD that regularly sees me spend ££ on false nails and hair bobbles and shit. Plus all the coffees out and little treats to cheer myself up.

I leave all the standing orders / bills / direct debits coming out of the main account, then have a DH and I have a Starling account for day to day spending which we transfer £x at the start of the month and keep an eye on, and a cash back credit card for groceries which I expect to spend £300/ month on.
It helps to know exactly how much should be coming out of the bills / groceries accounts, and Starling (similar to Monzo) has a great app for keeping track of other spends.

Use Monzo - only ever buy anything using the card, and after a month you will have all the info you need.

The way to do this is to have multiple accounts for different purposes, and stick to a budget for each area of your life.

So 1 account for mortgage and bills. Include all bills including annual and quarterly, utilities, childcare, car costs etc. Pay all bills by DD.

1 account for monthly spends - put across an agreed amount for groceries, petrol (if not being taken from bills account), day to day spending (school trips, presents for b'day parties,new clothes for kids etc) and an amount of fun money (takeaways, meals out, days out, new toy for child etc). This is around £1250 a month for our family of 4 for guidance.

1 account each adult for personal spends if wanted.

1 account for holidays and celebrations, DD across an appropriate sum - savings for an annual holiday, to cover xmas, children's birthday presents/parties etc

1 account for short term savings DD across an appropriate sum (we find £250 a month is plenty) - something you can dip in to for unexpected expenses - broken fridge, car repairs, household maintenance etc.

Rest in long term savings. Only touch if really needed or for large planned spend (home improvements etc).

It'll be the spends account that needs watching! Very easy to fritter lots away on inconsequential bits and bobs!

No app suggestions. We just use Excel. To start off with, you could just go over your bank statements for the past 3 months. It's shocking what amounts of money can be frittered away without giving you any sense of having a great lifestyle.

Try a budgeting app like Mint or YNAB. Commit to not spending anything "extra" for a month and see where you are. I'm doing that for June, because I have gotten off track, too.

First work out your weekly spends - must haves - petrol nappies food etc and put everything else on a separate account

This will make you stop and think when purchasing unnecessary things

If you go the the shop for milk - just buy milk

Say No!! To the kids

Say no to going out for a few weeks

Do not think of the lump sum at the begging of the month - spend only at the end when you need something

The way to do this is to have multiple accounts for different purposes, and stick to a budget for each area of your life.

I do this, too. I have three spending cards - the regular checking, which is where most of the money goes, and that covers bills, clothes, whatever we need during the month other than food.

I have $400 DD onto a prepaid debit card every pay period, and that's for groceries and things I get for the household like toiletries (basics, toilet paper, handsoap, etc.), cleaning supplies, and pet food.

I have $100 DD onto another prepaid card ever two weeks, and that's for eating out. We have a bad habit of eating out when we don't feel like cooking, so I do this and we can use it whenever we want, but when the $100 is gone, it's gone until next payday.

The prepaid cards that I chose have rewards built in - the grocery one is a card associated with the grocery store I use most oftent, and I get points for every $ I spend, which convert to money off my bill. The dining out one is a Starbucks one, and I earn "stars" on my Starbucks account for using it.