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

I use my cc to budget. After bills I have 1200 to pay food/ petrol/ fun stuff. That sounds a lot but food petrol is £600+ I try and keep cc balance to under 1k and save what’s Left for car mot/ Christmas

I use starling too and it's so easy. My wage comes in, I pay mortgage and credit card first. Then the spaces for each topic top up to the level I've set them to or add the amount I've set (varies based on monthly spends like childcare or yearly spends like car tax). The direct debits come out of the relevant space. Spending money stays in the main bit so I know how much I have, or goes to my cashback card so I get money back for spending. I keep an eye on spending through the little pie chats that monitor how much you've spent.

It's a faff to set up but so handy knowing how much you've spent. If you're on it you can categorise every spend and watch how it's going to tweak as you go. I managed to budget a recent big holiday to within 1% of the budget using it a couple of months ago which I was pretty proud of, and that includes the little bits and bobs like holiday clothes bought months in advance.

Downside is you become the kind of person who can write this much about their budgeting 😂

People who don't actively watch their finances are always almost shocked on how much money goes out on things they don't really think about - a coffee here, a lunch there etc.

Even if you just download your bank statement each month and add up all the ins and out that's a start.

Downside is you become the kind of person who can write this much about their budgeting 😂

I hear you 😀

Thank you all, good to hear how other people do it. I think the problem is that we don’t have different pots so we do not know where the money is spent at the end.

We have a join account for groceries, bills, general stuff but sometimes we use it for holidays, replace stuff in the house and then either DJ and I top it up.

Thank you everyone. I finally read the whole thread; I definitely need to get more organised but I feel I don’t have the time. I don’t have credit cards or debts apart from the mortgage. I will start by creating separate pots/bank accounts. Will check out the app too