To not budget

[Matilda762]

I know AIBU but how do people monitor the expenses? Do you have to keep an eye on every penny you spend? Thinking of money all the time? Do you use an app of just excel?

We are not massive expenders in terms of clothes, eating out, take aways but alwayd ended expending more

Many people would HATE the way I do it but I really enjoy it so have made it a bit of a task! I have a spreadsheet that has probably more than 10 sheets. The main sheet shows the monthly ingoings and outgoings up to Dec 2024, separate sheets have more specific detail on savings, bills, credit card transactions and they link up to feed the front page. I have sheets for holidays, how savings are spent, Christmas, projected income for up to 3-4 years (this has been incredibly useful with mortgage interest rates).

The thing that sorted out our spending was tracking every transaction we spent and ensuring it was in a pot, it sounds mental I know, it takes me 1 minute a day to populate the day before, but it got us out of the habit of spending mindlessly.

We have been strapped for cash in the past, to very comfortable as we are today, and this oversight is what has always enabled me to sleep. As I say I enjoy it so it's not arduous, but I know people will read this and think WTF....

Same here. We're fortunate that we earn more than we spend, although nowhere near high earners by MN standards.

Variations in expenditure over the year are generally coped with by things being spread out, so insurance at one time of year, tax at another, holidays another time. Everything except DDs is paid for on a cashback credit card and the bill paid off in full every month, like any other bill.

Savings just naturally build up. I concentrate on getting the best price for anything where a deal can be found - broadband etc, use discount codes, savings in the best interest paying account etc and do things to pick up extra bits of money here and there, eg switching bank accounts for the introductory bonus. I suppose it is 'look after the pennies and the pounds look after themselves' in action.

Have a budget for everything: food, holidays, petrol, utilities, charitable donations…
we track it though the program ‘money’ have been using it for years. This provides reports on spend against budget, income v expenditure etc. dh has also set up various excel sheets too. We can see exactly where our money goes.
dh is a retired finance director and the budgeting is one of his ‘hobbies’.

Same here, it's a game changer.

The easiest way to budget is to have everything on a direct debit to come out of your account the day after you get paid. Savings / investment / pension should also come out then automatically.

Then you have £x left in your bank. You divide that by the number of weeks until next payday.

Boom. Done.

That’s a very simplified version to start with. Wa

We don't budget as such, as we're lucky enough that we don't need to really watch what we spend, but we manage our finances this way. Our salaries are paid into our own personal accounts and then we each put x- amount into the joint account to cover bills/family expenditure - we put more in than necessary every month to build up a buffer for one off things (such as holidays/insurances/car repairs). Every 6 months or so, we'll review the amount we put in and amend it if needed.

The rest of our pay we each stick a chunk in savings and keep the rest for individual spending (commute, seeing friends on our own etc). Neither of us are particularly big spenders though.

I track.

I budget less than i used to because i earn a lot. But also I'm not very extravagant, i don't spend that much relative to my income

I don’t budget but just try not to go too overboard.

All income goes into one account. This is the 'bills' account where , as the name suggests all bills are paid from, including a set amount on savings.

A set amount from the 'bills' account goes into a 'spending' account which is used for anything we use cash or bank cards for: food, petrol, travel costs, going out, clothes, etc.

I have spent many years trying all sorts of different ways, and this for us is the easiest. The spending money is separated from the bills money.

I budget the amount that goes into the 'spending' account. But I don't have a budget for each thing paid for by that IYSWIM.

I check my bank accounts every morning before I get out of bed to make sure the balances are where I expect them to be.

The other thing I do is only put half of the 'spending' budget into that account at the start of the month, and the other half halfway through. This is to stop us overspending at the start of the month.

Other than that, the look after your pennies saying comes in. I think twice about the small spends (coffees etc) and plan ahead to some extent. Ie, We are going away for the night in 2 weeks, so we didn't go out this weekend. I also look for discounts etc.

Finally getting a grip on what I was spending was huge for me. Accounting for annual spend, car maintenance, Christmas, birthdays, holidays, insurance in a monthly budget was my eureka moment of why I never had enough money….

went through my bank account, found stuff I’d forgotten about, cancelled direct debits I didn’t need, set up a transfer to savings, and tracked everything on an app for a year. Toshl lets you put n planned expenses.

I now have, substantial savings.

I'm a single parent so everything is down to me. I keep a rough budget in my head for monthly essentials and check my banking apps regularly.

I also think about future payments like annual car insurance, tax, ground rent, insurance etc (all those annual payments) and transfer a lump out each month into a separate pot to cover them.

I've tried various apps but always come back to pen and notebook.

I just write down every single penny that I spend.

I have also put it into the notes section on my phone. It has helped me so much.

Excel spreadsheet for working out monthly budgets and a little notepad for keeping track of day to day spending - I have pretty much always done it this way and it helps keep track of things. We don't have a huge budget to start with so keeping it fairly well in order allows for us to 'plan in' treats, holidays and that sort of thing. I think even if you have a lot more to 'play with', as I have in the past, it's still good practice to keep a budget/plan a bit.

I don't budget, but I'm not a big spender and have a decent income. All my spending goes on my credit card, gets paid off by DD the day before pay day, and anything left goes to savings.

I don't budget, I am also a SAHW (soon to me SAHM) so I don't have my own income.

I just spend what I need to and consult DH about any larger purchases. It works well for us because he trusts me and I dont feel controlled.

I don't. If I feel my income isn't matching my lifestyle, I think of ways to increase my income.

I'm so shocked by the amount of people who don't budget! We are are high income household that don't need to worry about money perse, but still find budgeting really important to maximise our earnings and meet our goals.

I use excel and go through all transactions every Sunday night

I think part of it is a personality thing— if you're the kind of low conscientiousness person who risks running into problems frittering away money then you're going to need to find a strategy to make sure that you can save and you're not broke all the time— but that strategy is very unlikely to look like counting every penny, keeping up with spreadsheets, or writing out things in columns every week as people with these kinds of personalities will struggle to maintain that kind of meticulous detail-oriented approach.

I don’t micro-manage my spending. However, once a year, I’ll go through a couple of months bank statements and consider how much I spend on food etc and consider expenses such as Christmas, holidays, etc.

Then I will set up a direct debit to a second account to cover these one-offs, plus extra for unexpected expenses. Eg car stuff, new washing machine. So you have the money there if you need it.

I don’t budget, but I do track the coming and goings of all accounts using excel. I’m in the fortunate position of not needing to budget, but tracking money was what my parents did (despite being comfortable financially) so I do it too.

I've just bought a budget book from Amazon, I want to start overpaying on my mortgage so plan to track and control spending. It's so easy to waste money here and there throughout the month and have nothing to show for it whereas this money could make a real difference over the months/years.

I have automatic standing orders that transfer a set amount every month into funds: Christmas, holidays, treats. Then I'll have Alerts about the DD that comes out and track everything at the end of each month.

Anything left over as of the day before payday is transferred into a rainy day saving pot. So every month I start effectively on 0. If I need more money for whatever reason, I'll need to manually transfer it. Doing that action in itself has helped me budget "oh, I've only got £60 left and I need to still do a shop so I won't go out for lunch/order a takeaway etc".

I've also found online shopping rather than going to a physical shop has helped me as I'm not tempted to add "extras".

I don’t track our budget, even though I’m an accountant. Every once in a while I will list our outgoings and see if we’ve got enough going into the joint account. We’re not spenders by nature so as long as we keep in realistic parameters for the food shop, treats etc, the joint account is fine. We both keep an eye of what’s going in and out so we’d pick up any anomalies.
Years ago when I only had £110 free money once a month I wrote it all out in a little notebook.

I don't keep a strict budget. If I see the money getting low, I don't buy coffee, clothes, anything unnecessary until next pay day. I also move à bit into accessible saving account at the beginning of the month for émergences like house repairs and to save for summer holiday. I also set monthly direct débits for things like gas/electrics, mortgage at the beginning of the month, so I know how much i have left to spend.