Budget management 'tool' recommendations

[Snowandtinsel]

Hi all,
I need to get my finances untangled, I wondered if anyone has any suggestions of some kind of app that would also work on a laptop that might help please?

I get paid every other week, so it makes it hard to set up direct debits due to varying pay dates. I've missed dates before as I've been paying bills directly.

I've got some smallish debts I want to actively pay off and need to start some small savings pots for my future. I currently live month to month. I live on my own so all the bills are mine alone.

Any recommendations gratefully received. 🙏🏻

Ynab is brilliant. It's a paid app but worth every penny. And there's a free trial to see if it's right for you.
Basically you create every line of your budget, input the amount needed to pay and when it's due. For example car insurance might be £120 a year (I wish!) due in 6 months. The app would tell you every month to put £20 away for it. You don't actually move the money you just allocate it on the app.
The app links with all your accounts so when the car insurance comes out the app tells you and you allocate it to the car insurance category and the £120 that's sat there waiting to you.
If you miss allocating the £20 one month the app recalculates what you need to set aside for the rest of the months before the bill is due
It's honestly changed my life

Another vote for YNAB. Sounds exactly what you need as it’s great with irregular pay periods as it’s an envelope system and works differently to other budgeting apps.

YNAB!

I don't see the point of YNAB as it doesn't do anything you can do yourself for free.

But it looks like you need to build in a bit of a buffer so you can pay your bills with last month's money not month to month.

Ways to do this:

Transfer your current account for the free money
Have a really frugal few weeks where you spend nothing except bills and essential groceries, costing as little as possible - use up any food you have in plus any loyalty points etc.
Do you have anything you can sell?

Consider doing all your day to day spending on a credit card, paid off in full every month so it delays your spending coming out of your account.

Have you transferred your debts to 0% deals so the money you pay reduces the debt not going on interest?

Review all your bills to make sure they're as low as possible so you have more disposable income.

Aim to partition your money into different pots/accounts and save for annual and irregular expenses and whatever you have left to spend on non essentials. Once you're out of debt you can do this by standing order and it will all run itself.

Have a look at:

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/money-help/

Going to second the many YNAB shouts here. Also heard good things about Emma.

You mentioned smallish debts, are these on credit cards? If so, Incredible is good at managing paying off credit cards. Debts can be a real pain if they're spread out across a few cards.

I refuse to pay to budget. Cant beat an excel spreadsheet, I've honed it over the years, it's a thing of beauty and does everything I need it to do.

I used the money saving expert spreadsheet and for the first time ever, I’m fully in control of my finances. I also bank with Starling which helps me save in the saving pots.

Absolutely life changing.

Another vote for ynab.

I love a good spreadsheet as much as the next nerd but ynab is a lot more than that.

You can get a months free trial to decide before you have to pay for it.