Right, I've written down my outgoings and am trying to reduce them. The bit I'm getting stuck on is...

[elliott]

how do you actually implement/stick to a new budget?
What I'm after is systems for managing my money so that I can stick to my limits for certain items/categories.

I have identified various weak points - big intermittent expenses like house/car insurance, quarterly bills and car repairs often catch me on the hop and I often end up paying for them out of savings. I don't want to do monthly dd as you normally have to pay extra for this. Does anyone have a good system for putting aside enough money for all the basic expenses? We used to have two current accounts which allowed some division into basics and other expenses but now its all going into one pot.

The other weak point is shopping online using the credit card. I do this for most clothes and presents. How can I practically set a budget for this? I oftne manage to run up quite a lot of expenses on the credit card without really realising it. So, how do I set a realistic budget for e.g. kids and adults clothes, and then stick to it? Similarly for leisure spending, which I am sure is another area where money just gets frittered away.

Ok, I know the basic answer is to just stop spending, but it would be nice to be a bit more controlled about it - basically I want to feel like I have made conscious choices about my priorities, rather than just put the brakes on half way through the month!

It is better to use a credit card than a debit card online because of the consumer protection you get. Just more of a faff to keep track of unfortunately.

I have a tabbed spreadsheet with the total DD/SOs for the month (and some of these are savings) on the front tab, plus total income for the month - so that is my salary (varies because of being on call), DH's salary and child benefit. Then there is a bit where I take off the DD/SOs from the total income leaving a figure to spend.

I then budget this down subtracting off amounts for each item, starting off with food and petrol, then house (includes window cleaner, other odd bits required), garden, then anything else that needs paying that month (eg a child's birthday party, car tax, swimming lessons etc), then gifts (and I will alter this up or down dependent on whether it is one of the children's birthdays coming up or nearly Christmas), I also have a budget for "days out" which increases at school holiday time, then the remainder is divided between the four of us as discretionary spends. Out of this I pay for the children's clothes, any treats etc. And DH and I pay for any nights out we have alone, clothes, hair etc.

Then each item on this budget has its own worksheet with the total written at the top and each individual expenditure knocked off that.

We also have an online savings acount which I keep a spreadsheet for. We save a certain amount of money each month for DH's golf club fees, towards a holiday, sometimes another item we are saving for, and also a bit extra which is rainy day money but is also used for household items if it builds up. So recently it bought a new oven when ours unexpectedly went kaput, but has also paid for decorating DD's bedroom, a few bits for DS's new bedroom and a new desk etc.