Right. Basically, used to get paid monthly. Easy peasy. Direct debits out at the start of the month, what was left we had to live on. We were never in debit.
Had 2 babies, fastforward a bit, sold a house, now renting, so a lot of money gone out.
Husband gets new job. Is now paid weekly. So different dates each month. Also gets varying amounts each month. We also get some CTC's weekly too (and that can change days due to bh's etc)
I also work (evenings) but get paid cash normally. Is it all declared. Not very much, about £50 a week and we use that towards the food shop.
Anyway. I've worked out how much goes out on DD's and SO's. And I know in theory roughly how much husband is bringing in. We should be able to make ends meet. But we are literally haemorraghing money and I have no idea how!
Some days I can log on and we're £240 in credit. The next day, we're £500 in debit because say, eg the rent has gone out.
Am I being a bit thick here? Should we basically have ZERO at SOME point in the month and if that's the case, we're fine? It feels as though I need to whack £1000 into the account from savings (which I really really don't want to do) just so that we always have money in there.
We do have an overdraft, so I guess in theory it's not an issue. But I hate seeing the account constantly shifting from OD to in credit. Feels out of control.
Spent a bomb selling/moving..lots of upfront fees etc. I just don't feel things have settled down at all since then.
DD's are all over the place, different dates, different amounts so that they don't all come out on one day (that would be worse obviously, as the money wouldn't be in there to cover it)
What would people suggest I do to work out how much money (or not) we actually have??