Please tell me I am not the only one

[inanidealworld]

I have such a head in the sand approach to money. I'm not overly extravagant and I love bargains but I just hate the details like statements and budgets. Please tell me I'm not alone.

me too. I am total bubble head where finances are concerned. I just spend the stuff and let DH clear up the mess afterwards!

I mean the details are just so, well, boring aren't they?

soooo boring yes, and there are far more pressing matters at hand!!!! like MNing!!!!

sorry .. love budgeting and financial control. It would totally freak me out if I didn't know how much money we had for a rainy day and whether we're overspending or keeping our heads above water on a month by month basis

I find it rather challenging

and if you think love finding a bargain in the shop, what's the difference with finding a bargain with your house insurance or similar (I've so far saved £280 by shopping around this morning)

I'm right with you
The easiest thing to do is assume you don't have any.
Thus you always look for bargains and special offers, don't buy uneccesary shoes, impulse buys, magazines etc and means you only have to look at your statements once a year and see how much you've saved .
This served me well throughtout my student days and still seems to be working...

I'm the same.... twiglett, will you come and live with us and organise our finances?

happy to help .. but quite like my house

cat me if you want a spreadsheet or 2

Umm, that approach doesn;t seem to work for me, MrsB

No matter how much / little money I have, impulse buys, magazines and unecessary shoes are regularly found in my boot after a trip to town

nah, if I kept track of things like money, I would never be able to justify buying new lawnmowers, brand new quinny zapps and having my car fixed

Would rather live on in ignorance, I think

[throws up hands in horror]

Ah Squonk and Donnie, I am in good company.

Twiglett

I am your twin, I have always been able to tell you to the nearest tenner how much I have in my current account.

well I'm not quite that geeky LGJ

ROFL

We have never had a formal budget. I just know what needs to go out every month does as it's set up as a direct debit the day after pay day, a little goes into savings and the rest we spend, but never go silly with.
I don't even look at our bank statements to be honest as it just depresses me.

Your not the only one, but im like twiglett, I like knowing that the £20 im going to spend is truely spendable and not going to cause me a headache when its needed for the phone bill!

twig I never have a clue to the nearest name-whatever-figure-you-want what is going on in my life financially

do you have a sort of template spreadsheet you could send me?

I'd like to organise my life a bit more and stop wasting cash on things for no reason
eg I am apparently paying carphone warehouse £35 pm for two seperate phones, even though I thought I'd cancelled one a year ago

I need to do a spring clean of everything and then give myself a rough shake by the neck as it were

another thing is - I rarely have cash about my person, as it were. Usually I have around 12 pence, sometimes a bit more as I just don't get around to getting myself any.

We budget and track our finances scrupulously. We use Quicken to enter every transaction (standing orders and direct debits are set up on there, so that just happens automatically), so we know what is really 'free' money.

We also put money aside every month for things like Christmas, holidays, kids' activities, car spending, all those bills that hit you termly or yearly or whatever.

We might not have a lot left, but we know it is left over and that everything else is covered. It also means we can track our spending and see just where the money goes!

PPH start with the budget planner on moneysavingexpert.com .. its at the bottom of the left-hand menu under money savings tools - budgeting

I have never been much of a one for budgeting, predominantly because for the last 10 years I have been freelance, which means having even less money than you budget for (becasue by the time the company has lost your invoice once, forgotten to post the cheque out to you twice or sent it to you unsigned so you have to send it back and get a new one, you've generally lost more in bank charges for bounced direct debits than you actually earned...)

thanks twig