Budgeting when on benefits

[humptydidit]

Just wondering if anybody has any ideas for budgeting while on benefits. I could manage it if I got it all in one hit but currently I get
tax credits - every week
income support - every 2 weeks
child benefit - every 4 weeks
housing benefit - every 4 weeks

but I have to pay most bills monthly and rent, as well as some weekly bills and expenses.

so far, I have a separate account where I pay my housing benefit into and pay the rent out of it direct.
then the rest, I changed all my direct debits to come out on or near to the first of the month and bascially try to make sure by the end of the month I haven't spent too much, so there's enough to pay the bills.

To be honest, I am pretty crap with money and desparately want to try to budget properly and try to save a little bit but all the budgeting programmes for the computer seem to assume that you get all your money in one hit.

The last straw for me, is that because the benefits are on a weekly cycle, you can't even programme it in for x amount on the 1st and y amount on the 7th or whatever, because there are actually 13 housing benefit paymenst in the year but only 12 lots of rent to pay.

help!!!

sorry hope that made some amount of sense to somebody who can help because I don't have a fecking clue!!!

It's your cashflow that's the issue really i.e managing the timing of money coming in vs money going out. Best thing I've found to manage cashflow is the old MS Money software which is free to download here.

Set up your two accounts using your last bank statements first then start adding your regular bills and deposits into the 'Bills' section. You can choose the frequency of the payments in or out (every week, every other week, every month etc) then hit the 'forecast cashflow' function. What you'll get is a graph of your account going up and down as money goes in and out and you'll be able to see where the problems are well in advance. If you keep the accounts up to date it should help with budgeting as well.

thank you, off to have a look

Not advice but i prefer getting my money at different times as then i know that i have money coming in constantly.

However you wont need to worry for much longer because in april it will all be one payment made monthly.

cogito thank you for pointing me in the direction of that money programme. Have downloaded it and then put in all my income and bills etc and you were right the cashflow forecast thing is ace.

Saved the day!!!

not on benefits but dp gets paid weekly, i get paid fortnightly, cb every four weeks. I have made excel spreadsheets showing income and outgoings week by week, which i make up about 3-4 months in advance and check a few times a week. Also have online banking which i have to check every day.

Someone took me up on the suggestion!!!! I've been using that software for ages, ever since the days when like you I had to be incredibly precise about money in vs money out - and especially the timings. These days my budget isn't anything like so tight but I've kept the habit going, update it daily with any transactions, and I'd feel lost without it.

does it download as a pdf file? my pc wont let me open these

am trying it now....

ssd it downloads a whole programme. took a little while to get it set up right but seems all good so far.

I like how u can try something out eg if I save 10 pounds a week will it put me overdrawn or can I afford it.

probably more technical folk than me could set it up better but I finally feel in control of my money

I've been trying to find a more modern replacement for this software recently, downloaded one or two trial packages and none of them seem to do the same things... particularly that cashflow function. They're more glorified spreadsheets just recording transactions and letting you print off reports. Good as far as it goes but I need the ability to forecast the future, not just record the past.

I tried to download it, but couldn't open it, my pc is very weird and I'm too dense to figure it out!!

Glad its helping you though op x