To want to know how do you organise your household budget?

[shivawn]

I really love setting a budget and I change up how I do it every so often! I'd love to hear how other households do it and see if I can get any new ideas! 💡

Our current system is working really well for my husband and I, we have a few different accounts with different categories assigned to them and transfer money to each account once a week.

We have a main joint bank account that we both get paid in to and all monthly fixed bills and mortgage come out of this, these total 1050 a month.

We each have our own Monese accounts that we transfer 100 each in to every Thursday for personal spends. My husband always does the grocery shopping so he also transfers an extra 100 a week in to his Monese account to cover this.

We also have a Revolut account for shared household stuff, repairs, socialising and other miscellaneous expenses. I transfer 250 a week into this. This account funds our date nights, extra groceries, we can both use it if we run out of personal money etc. We try not to spend everything in this account every week so money will roll over and build up over time but then an expensive repair or big social event will inevitably wipe it out.

At the end of every month, I transfer an extra 200 to our Revolut account and put it straight in to a Vault labelled Yearly Expenses. This is to cover things like car insurance and tax, campervan insurance and tax, house insurance, professional fees....any big expenses that only pop up once a year.

And then finally, at the end of every month I transfer whats left in our main account into savings. This should be our wages minus bills, mortgage and the 550 I transfer out every week and it usually is.

We use Google pay on our phones to pay for everything and we both have all the cards to every account on there, with our own Monese accounts set to default, but we can switch between any of them as needed!

Pre-pandemic we used to always operate in cash so had to adjust when cash suddenly became unpopular overnight! Having the different accounts and vaults really helps us keep things organising so we know what money is for what.

What way do you do yours?

We have a joint account, don't have 'personal spends' just buy what we need when we want from that account.

Then have joint long term savings that we don't touch, short term savings (holidays, car insurance etc) and also a savings account for the children for university or house deposit - it's in our names though.

You seem to have a good grip on your spending / saving but it does seem to involve a awful lot of shifting £ around , it is like musical chairs for money .

When Dh was alive and still now , wages paid into our joint account all of the bills came out of this account , 4 days later a quarter was put into a second account . a week or so before the next pay day about half of what was left was put into a long term saving account .
Both of our wages could vary quite a lot so the second account was used to pay bills if we had both had a slow month.

We always made sure that we over paid the rent , and had enough credit on the gas and electric to last a month and a full fridge / freezer / cupboard / bus pass and a full tank of fuel

I remember on month we earnt just £300 between us , we were so glad that we had enough food / gas / elec / and rent already paid .

This sounds really complicated! We worked out how much stuff came to and pay half each. He pays childcare seperately just because he sorted it out at the time and hasn't changed it.

Without being boasty, because we both have more than we want to spend and are both naturally savers not spenders and we have the same life goals (pay off mortgage as soon as we can and save for the dream house) we don't really care who pays or saves what.

So yeah, joint account 50/50 and he pays childcare.

We have a complicated system. The mortgage goes out from my DP's account. All other DDs from mine. I transfer a set amount each month to him to make up for the difference.

We don't have a joint account (My DP is against this) and so every month I will add up what each of us has spent on joint purchases (groceries, meals out, anything for the children, the cleaner, childcare etc) and then work out if one of us 'owes' the other some money. We both earn roughly the same so everything is split 50:50.

I also have 2 savings accounts linked to my bank account . I also use the budgeting app 'Good Budget' to keep a track on my spending and work out how much I can transfer to savings at start of month.

Good lord that sounds complicated.

We both get paid into the joint account, which all the regular bills come out of.

We use the credit card for all spends, food, petrol, anything else. I have a budget for this that is reasonably generous so it rarely goes over. I have a direct debit set up to pay this off every month.

After all bills and cc are paid there is money left in the bank and this is our contingency money. No point putting it in a different account until it’s a bigger pot as the interest would be tiny.

I'm far too lazy to do what you do.

We both have separate accounts, ISAs and savings, no joint account.

We have direct debits set up from our accounts proportionate to earnings, whatever's left is ours to save or spend as we please.

Joint account for 'fixed' bills - we overpay 25% of the bill cost into the account so end up saving by default. We pay equally into this as it includes the mortgage.

Joint Monzo for monthly food and misc spends. I put more in as I earn more.

Each of us then have our own current accounts, savings, ISAs and Monzo. It works for us at where we are in life (no children).

Jesus Christ - I couldn't keep up with all that.

That sounds exhausting! We have a joint account and transfer money in there to cover every bill and shopping. Anything left at the end of the month is moved to joint savings and we both have our own savings accounts.

Joint account - all joint bills, food petrol comes out of this.
We each have our own account which personal bills such as phones, car insurance etc comes out of.
Then I move my ‘fun money’ to an everyday saver so I can keep tabs on it. This mainly goes on clothes and days out.
ISA for savings.

Ours is quite simple really
Both wages go in on 25/26th,
Savings goes out on 27th
Bills out on 1st
The rest is ours to sort into food, petrol etc.

Joint current account. Both salaries go in to that. All bills paid from that. Money transferred to savings. We don’t keep track of personal spending- I buy what I want and so does my dh.

We just have a joint account and saving get put into premium bonds but savings have been wiped out as just bought a house!
Everything comes out of joint account, we both have credit cards that we use when necessary eg buying something we need protection for, car needs new brakes 2 days before pay day, buying presents we don’t want the other one to see being purchased from which shop etc.
If we want to buy something expensive we mention it to the other one, DH checks with more more often for purchases as o know what’s we have going in and put, what kids need new school shoes next week, what activities need paying for this month etc.

Super chaotic here. We have a mortgage. I'm self employed and husband is a student.

We get x3 student loan payments a year and my income is very up and down. We basically just put all expenses on the credit card and pray we can pay it off.

Roll on husband qualifying

Spreadsheet, monthly income at the top, it then deducts all bills, an amount for savings long and short term, DC spending, DC saving, groceries, household spends whatever is left is split in half for our personal monthly spends. We have several accounts, different savings pots and DS has a regular saver, ISA (because the regular saver is capped for deposits) and a standard saver we use for his month to month expenses, he also has what we call a birthday money account where we put any money he gets for Christmas and birthdays (both in December) and is used for bigger fun things he wants. I am aware of every penny we have. I grew up without much money but my parents made sure we didn't go without, we're comfortable now but old habits die hard.

Two joint accounts. His salary into one, my salary into the other. All direct debits come out of one, with the residual amount rolling over each month. All day to day spends come out of the other, with the leftovers just building up if they are there.

We chuck it all in one joint account. Everything comes out of that. We trust each other to not spend too much, big decisions we make together. I run an accounts package to keep track of spending and cash flow projection.

I have a MONZO account that I put £250 into every month to allow me to spend on coffees and general crap that is paid for by contactless so I don't have to think about it. When it's gone, it's gone.

Separate accounts. Big bills out of his.
Food, TV licence, clothes and school stuff for daughter out of mine
I'm not a big spender, got a 13 year old car that I love. I just don't need much stuff I've got loads from before children.
Because of this I have over 1 years salary saved. I work pt so it's not a huge amount.

I transfer money into different savings accounts. On payday, 50 into an account with 3% rate (this is the max I am allowed to input to attract the 3%). Anything over is the usual paltry rate 0.1 or suchlike.
If I've got over 1k in my current ac nearing payday, I'll move 200 to 500 into a mediocre savings account.

Joint current account and a business account
My employed work goes into the current account and everything comes out, I check it around twice a week. Most things are set up to come out the first week of the month so after that I know it’s all available to spend if we want. Set amounts are paid to The Isas and savings account each month
Any Freelance earnings I get and the stuff that DH invoices for goes into the business account and I transfer the same amount into the joint account each month.
I then chuck it all at the accountant each April
That’s it, not very complicated

You have £400 each a month for spending money? and then can take more out of an account if you need it?? Blimey!

We have a spreadsheet. On it is every regular monthly bill we pay, from lottery to car insurance, we also divide up stuff that is yearly, so (eg) car insurance - we pay yearly but put aside x amount monthly. Salary's go on and we take off everything we spend in the month. Once it is set up it's a doddle. We have £15 a month into our own accounts (we aren't remotely materialistic and have very similar spending habits) but clothes etc come out of the joint account. Any money we get in (birthday or Christmas) is 'ours'. We have savings and what is left over goes into that for new cars, holidays etc. Usually about a grand a month.

Salary into individual accounts. At start of month we both put in money into a joint account where all bills go out from (relative to our salaries but were pretty equal) and both put money into individual investments. Groceries are paid by whoever goes shopping and other bills the same. End of year we look back on the year and see how money has been spent.
But then we both earn similar, earn enough to be quite comfy and none of us are spenders so that helps a lot! When I was a student I had a big spreadsheet of every single thing I paid out Daily down to the few p tip.

I maintain a cashflow forecast on excel. A sheet for each month and on each sheet it's divided into weeks. Two columns per week. One planned, one actual.
Each row is a specific expense. Added up each week with surplus / deficit carried forward to the next week.

I get paid on the 27th, transfer out savings straight away bills come out on the 1st. I transfer childcare money into a different account and pay that bill straight away monthly.
What's left is spends.

I am a single mum so everything (my wages and child benefit) goes into my bank account. All the direct debits go out and any spending. I also use a credit card for some spending which I pay off in full each month.

I use e-savings accounts with the same bank for various 'pots' like Xmas and Birthdays, Holidays, Car, House, DS etc. I transfer fixed sums each month into these accounts but I do occasionally dip in and out of them if I need to.

My DS (14) does not have his own bank account yet, we were just on the verge of going to set this up at a branch when covid hit. I transfer a fixed amount into the 'DS' pot each month to cover spending money £40 and clothing budget £50. We manage this using Rooser Money which is a virtual bank account and every time he buys something we take it off there and then a couple of times a month I balance up in my bank account by transferring in/out of his savings pot.

I don't set myself a fixed amount of spending money, just keep a general eye on how things are going.