To ask do you track your spending weekly, monthly or at all??

[biibbiibobby]

Posting here for traffic...(money matters is very quiet!
I tracked my money this week. And in total I spent about 370. It's a bit more than normal I think and more than I planned but anyway...I will aim to reduce next week I think!
250 of the weekly spend was my electricity bill of 110, fuel for my car 55 (which is still half full) and my bin charges 26.50 and food shopping for the week. (Had some bits at home already so it wasn't a full food shop!) although I have only bought milk and bread to top up.
So I spent 120 on random purchases , including a Chinese, lunches in work, two movies for the dc that weren't available on Netflix (8.99 each), 35 on a HUGE bag of kitty litter...etc so most of it was justifiable I suppose.

I thought it was a good activity to do and I might do it again next week. Do you do this? What's your average weekly spend? Do you track your spending?

Oh and forgot to say, big 6 monthly expenses are spread out throughout the year in an attempt to feel like each month is roughly the same. I buy my contact lenses (special prescription, eye-wateringly expensive) February and August. Transport ticket March and September. I will bulk buy presents in June (for most birthdays) and December (Christmas).

What I have no control over is flights and hotels (well, before corona anyway) as I need to buy those as and when required. The amount spent on holidays is microscopical compared to work travel, so I don’t budget for that, it just comes out. I have two fixed 3-4 weeks touring periods at work each year (April-May and Oct-Nov) which are my other 6-monthly expenses.

Exact same here and also working in Finance

I don't excessively track what's going where, my online banking does that for me. My parents use a money program to do exactly what their online banking does and it blows my mind.

I've set up direct debits to go to different savings accounts on payday so I know a percentage is always being put aside for designated reasons and I have regular bills on my calendar so I know when to expect my bank account to dip but other than that, no

Ah yes as PP said, I also had a 'float' in the Bill's account. the float would be reviewed every 3 months, so if overtime or small bonuses had gone in, I'd then take out any excess, leaving the set amount of float, and the excess would then go into one of the savings, or we'd treat ourselves.

I have a spreadsheet with lists all regular expenses and then space to add upcoming expenditure that’s one off but expected (birthdays etc) plus savings.

I feed in my closing bank balance, fill in the expenditure details plus savings and that tells me how much the joint account needs. We put that in in such a way that we both have the same surplus.

Any other spending comes from our personal accounts (my fabric/yarn/makeup etc and whatever he buys).

We also have a car account which we put around £160 a month into which covers fuel and the rest accumulates so we can pay tax, insurance and servicing and MOT in a lump.

Also calculates the monthly childcare bill and how much goes into the tax free childcare account.

I’ve been thinking about getting a separate ‘food’ account which might be a way of tracking food expenses better. Or a reward credit card.

I think I’ll read through this thread and see what others do 🤔

Yes I have to. Every penny is accounted for

Not really, no
I look at the bank account a couple of times a week to see how much money I have and that nothing unexpected has come out but other than that I don’t do and budgeting or similar

No I dont track much. I check the bank account every few weeks and at the end of the month. If the amount at the end of the month is about the same as the end of last month, I'm happy. Sometimes its higher, sometimes a little lower if we have had a big expense like a car bill, but we have enough buffer to cover that.

Yes, I log everything I spend, bills etc, on an App where everything can be categorised and tracked monthly. I'm low income and it really helps me manage my expenses, see where I may need to cut down e.g. on food, 'extras' etc. I wish I'd done it years ago when I had a much higher income - seeing where I was 'wasting' money would have made me save more and I could have been in a better position now.

Yes I do. I work on a zero based budget and do a written budget for every month. I also use the cash envelope system. I account for everything including bank charges and save money every month. I also check my online banking and investment funds every couple of days.

I actually enjoy it

@Merryoldgoat

I’ve been thinking about getting a separate ‘food’ account which might be a way of tracking food expenses better. Or a reward credit card.

I think I’ll read through this thread and see what others do 🤔

I do this and it's worked a treat. I have my shopping account which also tells me which categories I'm spending in - supermarket, Boots, restaurants etc. I shop mainly at Lidl and use the Lidl Plus app (not sure what the equivalent in the UK is called? I know there is one), and I can access my receipts in there and group them by month. I used to go to whatever supermarket was on the way to/from work or had a particular brand I fancied. By going to Lidl only I can have it all in one place and accumulate a lot of discounts and vouchers. So far this month I've saved €7 on shopping thanks to Lidl Plus.

I track everything on an app called Toshl. I like it because it tracks my savings too which is incentivising.

A couple of years ago we had a Rocky financial patch and saved loads by keeping an eye on the monthly and annual big spends and Christmas, holiday, birthdays etc.

I stopped mindlessly buying stuff and thought about did I have stuff that would do.

At the start of every month I write down in date order all my direct debits and all of my incomes (self employed with regular payments made on different days). Then I work out what's left to spend on food/clothes/life and divide it by 4, so I'm mindful of how much I can use each week.

Yes I have a yearly spreadsheet tracker with my income vs outgoings and a breakdown of all my savings- I have 3 different savings accounts so easier to track them all onto 1 spreadsheet

Helps to plan for birthdays, Christmas, MOTs etc. Before I did a spreadsheet I didn't really have much of a handle on how much I was savings vs spending, I have doubled my monthly savings since creating the spreadsheet

I even go as far as categorising budgets e.g. takeaways, general shopping, food shopping etc.

Yes i track all my spending. I put all my outgoings in sheet including a budget for food and then anything left is my spends. I also have standing orders to savings account for holiday fund etc.

@Sprockerdilerock

Yes I have an enormous spreadsheet where I track and categorise all my expenditure as well as forecast future months

I get quite excited when I update it. In my defence I work in finance

Me too, and I check bank account online and update the spreadsheet every few days (average twice a week).

I used to work for HMRC so I suppose that's where I get it from

I overspent a bit at Christmas so I have been doing so since January. On course to clear everything by next payday.

But I'll stick with it. I've been trying to stick to £100 per week for all food, fuel and treats and mostly succeeding. If I keep it up I've calculated that I could save the thick end of a grand each month.

Makes me think what the eff was I spending that grand on that meant I had nothing left at the end of the month.

I have a spreadsheet which has all my bills on it, I then transfer an amount into savings then I budget a “spends” amount - at the moment it’s around £500 a month - this is for groceries, weekly takeaways and small treats/takeaway coffees.
If I have a bigger purchase like clothes for me and the dc/holiday down payment ect I’ll transfer the amount out of the savings account.

I don’t track my spending . I like to have a certain figure in my current account and will cut back on spending to keep it above that . I move money into savings when I get paid .

Yes - budget and track everything.

Just to add, I find by having to transfer the money from my savings into my current account means I definitely think more carefully about purchases than I would if the money was sitting in my current account!
I also have a John Lewis credit card that I put all purchases on then I pay it straight away so I get the points and JL vouchers

No, not really. But I do make a note of how much I have left over at the end of the month, which gives me a good idea of spending. We're in the fortunate position that we don't really have to worry too much about spending. But we pay a certain amount each into our joint account and then everything else if for personal spending. What's left at the end goes into my savings. I truly don't have much in the way of personal spending though, sometimes some food treats, occasional clothes, used to spend a lot on parking and commuting (but not at the moment), petrol and car things.

No, but I have the banking app and I get an alert whenever anything goes through the current account.
That said I put all spending in shops/online/petrol etc on a credit card that gives me John Lewis vouchers every quarter as a % of spend, and pay it off in full every month, and I do keep receipts and go through the bill very carefully to check I recognise every purchase.