Help me be less crap with money

[LingDiLong]

Is anyone else like this?

Me and my DH are a bit rubbish with money. Not terrible, we don't buy expensive clothes or gadgets, we don't go out much but somehow money seems to slip through our fingers like water. We make a budget but somehow always go over it. We come into a bit of money or save some up and then we dip into it and it goes. We're not in loads of debt, a small overdraft and a car loan but no credit cards.

I'm already good at doing cheap food shopping and buy clothes off ebay (paying for them by selling old clothes).

Does anyone have any good budgeting tips - the best way to do them, how to stick to them. What's best, weekly/monthly/yearly? All 3?

I'm sick of feeling permanently skint when, on paper, we should be ok.

Marking my place as I would like to hear some good tips

Join the club - I feel exactl the same. Here's what I've been doing.

SHopping - I take out say, £200 food shopping money in cash for the month and seperate it into £50 each week. I do try and not go over this, but it does make me think twice before I do.

Personal money - I give myself £100 a month. £10 a week for 'purse' money e.g. a magazine, a drink etc and the £60 for treats. If I save my 'purse' money, it can go towards my treats (as an incentive). I put the money in a little pot and take out £10 a week, so I have money left at the end of the month.

Budget - I keep a little notepad in my bag and every time I spend, I write down what I spend it on. Again, it makes me think twice before I spend and I can see where my money has gone.

Little spends - I limit my trips to the shopping centre to once a month, because I have to pay to park there. I also ensure that I eat before I go out, so I don't spend money on snacks. DS is under two, so hasn't reached that 'I want' stage yet, but I will try and limit buying for him when out.

Lunch - I bring in lunch to work where possible, by eating yesterdays leftovers.

Saving my £2 coins - we have about £400 and its going towards our holiday next year.

Get a hobby - I've started to find things to do with what little free time I have to keep me from going to the shops and spending.

Its not the big things that cost, its the little things that add up. I guarantee you if you start to write down every time you spend and add it up at the end of the month, you will kick yourself when you see you've spent £20 a month on parking or that you've spend £30 and have nothing to show for it.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not great with money either, but I am trying and it is slowly working.

Write everything down that you send and look to see where the extra money is going. (which is what I am going to do)

OK, I'm going to start the write-everything-down method. We don't buy a lot of "stuff" but with 2 DDs (3 and 5), we obviously need to buy clothes and shoes as they're always growing! The DDs get invited to loads of birthday parties so that's an expence. Other then that, we don't spend a lot on clothes or gadgets either. We do spend a bit on going out, (like I might pop to the pub with the girls one night and DH plays footie with the boys once a week and has a pint afterwards), doesn't seem a lot at the time but it must add up!

I am desperate to get back on track. My DH is self employed so his income is uncertain from one week to the next. and I am unable to get work. I feel so fed up at the beginning of each month when we often struggle to pay the bills.

It's harder to budget with uncertain income, you could work out what your bare minimum costs are (council tax, water, mortgage, gas & electricity, food etc) and any month your DP earns above that, save it in a separate account. Months he earns below that you will have a fund to draw on.
Packed lunch for work, and a flask of coffee instead of a coffee shop visit will save a surprising amount.
Get packs of books from the book people for birthday presents, they usually work out at just over £1 a book, but look like a £5-£6 gift.
Switch stuff off when you're not using it, that saves a lot over time.
When the bank statement comes in, enter every item on it into a spreadsheet so you focus on where your money is going each month and can account for it.
Walk instead of driving when the journey is less than about a mile (it's free and burns calories)
Visit free stuff with the DCs, like libraries or museums.
Bring your own food to the cinema, and go to the Saturday matinee showings as they're often much cheaper.

We have an uncertain income aswell and it is so difficult. Book People for sets of books cheaply which you can brak up and give as presents are good. We only buy new clothes really for DD (she is a huge tomboy) so DS at the moment is mostly living in cast offs.

Thanks everyone. I will start writing it down and start giving myself a cash amount every week too. I keep nagging dh to take sandwiches but he never gets round to it. Does anyone have any good budget tips, are there any good free ones online?

The motley fool and money saving expert are good websites for budgeting

This changed our whole way of living. I now have a Lloyds jt current account, we each have sole Lloyds accounts and I have numerous savings pots.

Now we have:

Salary plus benefits (I'm on long term sick) into the joint a/c
£200 into food shopping savings account
£35 into car account (for MOT and tax)
£5 into cat injections savings

Then each week £25 spending money goes into DH's sole account and £15 into mine (as I'm at home I have no travel costs). All DD's come out at the beginning of the pay month so we know where we are and there are no shocks when we have run out of money. In theory this means that we don't have any issues although now I have been off such a long time it is more tricky as ESA is 2 weekly and our income has dropped significantly.

Thanks for that link Benten. I have had a quick read through and will be filling in the budget plan in the next few days. I had a dreadful day today mainly due to money worries. I never want another day like it! I will be making a concerted effort to sort my life out in the new year. I don't want to be in this situation nextChristmas again.

I've been there Jezabelle - several times :( I have learnt from bitter experience that theonly way to do it for me is to make sure the money is away in the pots. Sorry I forgot to say that I have also just started a [http://www.lloydstsb.com/savings/save_the_change.asp Save the Change account with Lloyds where they round up any debit card payment ie £2.99 they save the penny or if I spent £3.01, they save the 99p into a Save the Change account automatically which I have renamed "Save the Change for Christmas 2012" so it stops me from touching it as I see the name. A lot of it is just in my mind seeing the different names as I can move the money instantly but it reminds me to leave it be. Hope you managed to get some sleep x

Sorry www.lloydstsb.com/savings/save_the_change.asp

Thanks OntheBen, that looks perfect. I think we look at our monthly income and see we're ok but actually, over the course of a year we don't really have enough money coming in. A yearly budget will be really useful.

I love the look of the 'save the change account' - what a great idea.

Oh..thank goodness...its not just me feeling this way.

I have to sort my finance out big time, I am spending far too much on clothes, nothing amazing trips to Primark, 2 trips to a shopping centre a week because I like to be ontop of things that I need

I am now roughly 3k in debt...and I hate this feeling soooo much

I will be keeping a look at this thread too

I recommend to anyone that they get hold of a free download of 'Microsoft Money' It's out of date now and not supported any more but I haven't found a good personal finance software package to replace it yet.

Enter the details of your last bank statement, keep it up to date every time you or your DH write a cheque, take money out of the cash machine or pay a direct debit and it's an eye opener. Do the same with your last credit-card statement, keep that account up to date every time you use the card, and you will quickly see where the money really goes. Once set up it takes 15 minutes to take the receipts out of your purse and add them to the account list every night.

Yes, I was going to recommend Microsoft Money as well - I'm not using it cos I'm a Mac user now - but I used to use it for years and it is excellent.

I'm getting back on top of things just using a simple spreadsheet to start off with - we were completely wrecked by an unexpected need to buy a new electric wheelchair 2 months ago and I need to budget for the fact that my DH will probably lose his disability living allowance at the start of next year (god only knows how we'll manage without a Motability vehicle, but that's another story). It's very, very easy for the money to slip out like water, I find, so I'm planning to:

• use the NHS Cashback card where I can
• have a Cashminder account for my day-to-day 'pocket money'
• be more disciplined about food shopping (I'm about to go through the fridge and make a list of all the use-by dates before the big Christmas shop arrives tomorrow!)
• cut out non-essentials where I can.

I really, really don't want to get caught out like that again - once I put it all into spreadsheets I could see it was going to take several months for us to get straight again when I thought we were okay, because a few things (car service, new winter coat for DH) had gone on to credit cards and thus wouldn't clear for some time. I pay all my cards off monthly so an overspend can hit quite hard, but at least it can't build up and build up.

The part about 'thinking' you're OK is so true. What I particularly like about MS Money is that, one you've set up the DDs and other regular payments you can run the cashflow function and see really quickly that on a particular date you need to have £xxx in your account to cover everything. Also, for the CC payments, you can see the total building up so, when the bill comes, it's not a surprise. I must have saved hundreds just by avoiding those accidental overdrawn days.

Thanks Cogito, that looks well worth a look. I've been terrible for going over my overdraft and incurring charges (just by £10 or so) but have managed to sort that by setting up text alerts so that I get a weekly balance texted to me and a warning when I'm near my limit. That has really, really helped.

We were also unlucky because our tenants missed the payment date for the rent in November (they are self-employed by very conscientious about missed payments, they took it in cash to the agency but it missed the pay run for that month). I could have asked for the money to be sent on anyway, but didn't and so ended up having to extend my overdraft for the first time in many years.

20 quid well spent for a wake-up call to tell me what I already knew: the rent needs to be treated as a 'nice to have' rather than an essential bit of the monthly income and budget accordingly.

You just have to get in the habit of being tight.

We have no financial worries at all, but we live in a smaller place than we could afford, we never buy meat unless it's reduced (we have a chest freezer that has paid for itself over and over again), and it simply wouldn't occur to me to buy anything except shoes and underwear new rather than secondhand. I think anyone who takes out a loan for a new car or new furniture is an idiot. We don't shop recreationally (although I admit I do enjoy a good poke around a flea market or charity shop), we take drinks and snacks when we go out, pack lunches for work etc etc etc.

It's all habit - no point saying your DH "doesn't get around" to taking packed lunches, then wondering why you haven't got any money. That's why! I usually stop at the supermarket on the way to work on Monday and get avocadoes, tomatoes, spinach leaves and some roast chicken, which I leave in a tupperware container in the fridge. My employer supplies bread every day, so that's lunch done.

There's no secret beyond developing rigidly frugal habits.

Your employer supplies bread, ninedragons? How bizarre, or is it a bakery?

My biggest tip would be to have a seperate account for direct debits/standing orders. I used to transfer money into this account on the 1st of a month to cover all the payments. I then knew how much cash I had left for the other things.
I agree about taking out cash for food shopping each week. I was well able to feed us on £50 a week.
I also agree that your dh must take a packed lunch with him. That'll save at least £15 a week to start off with. And just drink water - keep refilling an empty bottle.
Little expenses all add up to debt but little savings here and there can really help.

An employee eating at their desk makes better economic sense for them than one buggering off to Starbucks. Bread, cereal, toasters, sandwich press, tea, coffee, soft drinks and booze on Fridays. I love my company!

I need to sort myself out too. Have been ultra-stressed, miserable and busy the last few months and been frittering money away a little too much. No real damage done financially, I just need to tighten my belt from now on.

I do save money into a 'car account' every month. It's good to know there's a few ££££ sitting there for MOT's / servicing etc.

And taking out a wodge of cash for the grocery shop has worked in the past. Will start again next week.