I am very crap with money and very disorganised..how do u all keep track of your finances

[blackheartsgirl]

Any tips.

I have no savings, every time I save something always crops up and wipes them out. We don't have a budget just wing it . The rent is always paid though with dps wages and so is the car insurance and other dds, it's just we don't seem to get a grip with what's coming in and out. We do have a regular income, it's just paid weekly, some of it monthly and my wages are never the same though.

This is what I have thought of doing

going through my bank statements and writing dds down on the calender each month
drawing cash out each week

Any other tips?

I don't have a pc so I can't do spreadsheets. I don't even know how to use one anyway and I can't get to grips with ynab or other apps.

We arent struggling for money (yet) but we have had a proper crap month as I've had to buy a car, had loads of other upset which threw our money out a bit. mum lent me the money which we have to pay back and I want to get a grip on things now before I slide further into debt

thanks

If you prefer cash then you can always do the cash in the envelope in safe drawer/cupboard somewhere?

Leave money in your account for the big bills so it accrues over time.

How's it going? Do you qualify for warm front from your energy supplier?

It's worth looking into.

Missymoo, downloaded the spending app, I like the simplicity. Thanks for the tip and it was free.

Hello, just come to update.

It's not going too well if I'm honest. I've had a bit of an upheaval here as we are having a new kitchen and bathroom done here (council house), on the third week without washing machine and cooker and the costs of trying to feed us all are mounting up, so so stressful.

But I have cleared my council tax debt, so that's up to date and my rent is paid too. I've cancelled some unessecary direct debits so that's a start

Well done. The bit between cutting back and seeing results seems like ages but it's worth it.

At least the council wont be chasing you.

It is really tricky to keep track of money when its all coming in and going out at different times.

I have printed out a calendar and Mark each thing in different coloured highlighter, eg tax credits in yellow, CHB in pink, wages blue etc. it means I can see at a glance when I next have money coming in and at the end of the month I can easily tot up what my income has been (my wages vary as I'm self employed).

I also have a graph, I just printed out some graph paper marked with 0 across the Middle and going down to minus £1000 and up to £1000 as that's about as high as it ever goes! I then mark on it every week or so, to show the ups and downs, we if there's a general trend and if it looks like it's going the wrong way I know I have to have a frugal few weeks.

As a visual person, I need these instant indications of my finances as numbers don't really mean anything to me, whereas colours and lines make sense!

Definitely scrutinise your bank statements, thanks to Ememem84 I actually spoke to DH last night about a couple of direct debits coming off the joint account, sometimes the abbreviations used don't make it easy to see exactly what they are. Turns out he had joined an audiobooks online thing for DD last year on holiday as it was 30days free trial and FORGOT ABOUT IT!!!! Took ages to cancel online as well - is american so no way was phoning, anyway £14 a month since last July!!! To say I was raging is understatement.

I get paid monthly so I know how much all my direct debits, standing orders, and 3 catalogue payments come to and mentally take that off my wage at the start, the figure that is left has to cover food, petrol, clothes and any other business for the month.

I stuck my head in the clouds for years and was always overdrawn, behind with payments and skint. I get a decent wage and if I had sorted myself out sooner I could be sitting on quite a bit of savings but now I am organised it is such a relief to know each day what is going on and exactly how much money I have at that point.