Budget calculator

[Newgolddream70]

I am after some help with monthly budgeting. I have four sources of income that arrive at different days in the month: 12th, 21st and 1st. The fourth is child benefit which gets paid every 4 weeks.

I have a spreadsheet which lists all my monthly expenditure and bills, including a small amount I’d like to save. Is there a calculator I can use where I can plug in all the figures and it works out how to budget evenly across the month? I hope this makes sense! Some of my direct debits go out on 22nd and some on the 1st. It’s really hard to keep track.

I don't know about a calcuator but I found this difficult when I became disabled - esa fortnightly, pip,cb 4 weekly and ill health pension, universal credit monthly.
How I do it is, have everything paid into one bank account leave in there enough to cover bills (in my case i leave my pension as that covers it) this helps with knowingtheres enough to cover the bills that come out randomly through the month. Then I move across everything else as it come in. Then I divide this up into savings account and spending account. It took me a couple of months to get on top of it but now it's easier. Also I never count the 13th payment of the year (for 4 weekly payments) and then I use that as a bonus to treat the children (it falls just before the summer holidays presently).

Why don’t you have all direct debits come out at the same time each month e.g. 1st to the 3rd?

I would run multiple accounts. Might take a bit of time to set up, but use one account for direct debits only and don't spend from the account. Aim to feed the account with a regular monthly amount to cover all DDs. You can then leave it to run itself.

Then set up other accounts for spending, saving etc again feeding monthly or weekly from an account that's only really used to accept your various sources of income. If you only spend from the appropriate account for that type of expenditure you naturally stick to a budget as you know you have £x per week/month available.

Could also possibly use a credit card for day to day spending, groceries, petrol etc as this turns multiple transactions into one single direct debit that delays the money leaving your account by 3 to 7 weeks, which can aid cash flow.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I definitely think at least more than one account is the way to go so I shall do that. I also like the sound of feeding the account that has the direct debits and using other accounts for savings and expenditure.

I set the direct debits up with those dates so they leave my account just after money has gone in. It’s not possible to move the 22nd ones to the 1st as it’ll be deemed a missed payment that month but if I bring it forward, it’ll mean paying twice out of one month’s income, at least initially, if that makes sense! I appreciate it would be a lot easier to have them coming out on the same date though!

I'm like this with salary, UC, child benefit and weekly CMS payments.
Really struggled until I got the Snoop app, which has been life-changing.
Tracks and predicts everything, including when bills have increased/decreased. Recognises regular payments eg beauty treatment, and works that in if you'd like it to. Updates daily so is really accurate.

Hi @Minxy78 not heard of Snoop, sounds good. Will take a look. Thank you!

Hope you like it! I just have the free version and find it does everything I need it to.

I use this one : www.toolsonfire.com/en/BudgetTracker