How do you organise your finances on a day to day basis?

[Glassofwine]

DH have got ourselves in a mess recently and I'm trying to sort it all out. He is a typical creative person and just not organised, I'm much more organised, but have some sort of fear of money, so put my head in the sand. So whats happened is that when we've got money, we spend it without any thought to what direct debits might need to be paid or if there's enough to see us through to the end of the month.

I've decided I've got the meet my fears and although I'm finding it emotionally very hard am sorting it all out. I've done a monthly budget and things are tight, but just about doable.

I wonder how everyone else does it? We have ajoint account and then an account each, but how do we monitor what's going on ie. the big picture without nagging each other or getting into a domestic? What does everyone else do and what does and doesn't work. I realy need help.

we have one account that everything comes out of what is left gets put into the kids savings this pays for holidays and the credit card balance is always £0 we have it just in case something breaks or we have an emergency etc, use online banking it is so much easier than waiting for statements

yes we use on line banking too, its great because you can see exactly what you have got anytime of anyday. If you are really struggling there are a few things you can do to limit spending. Make a menu for each week and take it shopping with you, you only need to buy what you need for each days meals and you will find you spend or/waste alot less on stuff you never went for. give yourself a budget of £5 for treats and try and stick to it.
also arange direct debits to all come out on one day so that after that day you know what you have left is what you have left

We have an account that all the direct debits, mortgage etc go from and we put in enough at the beginning of the month to cover it, then forget about it. Also food and petrol from this account.

Dh has some money put into an account for him to spend on himself - I get the leftovers (getting a better deal than him generally). This is for me and for incidentals like nights out and stuff. The child benefit and tax credit go into a savings account and they're used for birthdays, christmas and holidays and to clear the credit card when there's been a lot going on, like this month with school uniform and stuff.

I'm the one that keeps track on it generally - dh is happy just to have his pocket money to spend

You all sound really organised. I'm worrying about having to curb DH he doesn't like being told what to do, so I have to tread v carefully. Will try online banking and had forgotten about making a menu for the week - have done it before and it does work well. I've budgeted £90 for food & supermarket stuff per week, we have three children, does that sound ok?

Very similar to saggarmbk

As well as online banking, we use Microsoft money which means that we can both go and have a look at what's going on whenever we feel we need to!

The easiest way is to write it all down on paper, making sure the incomings are more than the outgoings...then direct debit everything that you can. Leave that in the bank and a £100 float Just In Case.
Take the rest out in cash, divide it into 4, you now know whats left for things that couldnt be paid by direct debit, food and bits.
Budget accordingly and dont spent what you havent got.

For a month write down everything you spend
Then work out your fixed costs (ie stuff you have to pay - mge tv lic, car tax & ins etc)
Have all of those of DD out of 1 account
Put your money into a 2nd account and transfer over the fixed amount each month
What is left is for spending & savings

All very good advice. There is an excellent non profit making website that I am very impressed by - www.moneysavingexpert.com (sorry don't know how to do the link) - which has some really excellent advice/ chat forums etc which may help.

Luckily dh does all our finances and he does this on a spreadsheet. He's meant to do it at the ned of each month but it doesn't always work out that way. It's the only way he can keep track of everything. We recently had to ask in-laws for some cash as the credit card bill was too big to manage

i read the title as

how do you organise your fiances on a day to day basis?

I like the cash idea, its amazing how putting £20 on switch feels like peanuts, but a £20 note feels like a lot. Thank you ladies.

We got ourselves in a real mess before and we have learnt from it. We are now super organised with our money and I check our online account every day to make sure nothing is wrong.

We have 2 accounts. One is set up with every direct debit each month and the other is our spending account. We work our what is left over for a month and divide it by the weeks it has to last us. Then we transfer the money into our spending account each Friday.

I have a spread sheet of all out outgoings and check them off when they have cleared so I know we haven't forgotten anything.

We also try not to have any credit - if we can't afford to pay cash for something we don't buy it.

Good luck - it's a real job getting used to it but it's fab to know you don't owe a penny!

i have three children and i budget between £90 and £100 a week for food so that will be fine martins money tips www.moneysavingexpert is a great site sign up for the weekly email with the latest deals