for the first time in my life i have checked through my bank statements and added everything up- and i am HORRIFIED

[belcantwait]

i cannot believe how much money i have WASTED this month (and presumeably every month). i ran out of cash over a week ago and had no idea HOW. its blatantly obv now.
i have wasted about £1000 , inc £750 cash withdrawals
feel such a stupid useless twunt no wonder i am always in such dire straights.
so this is the new me, checking everything and using cash for nothing. am really genuinely shocked.tbh i didnt even know how much i had going IN let alone OUT.
its been a real wake up call. if you dont do it already, i seriously urge you to!

you have done really well to actually start to look at it....good luck at harnessing your cashpoint arm! i was like this about ten yrs ago then i lived wit dp who is a checker supreme both paperwork and prices before buying......i went from several thousand od to profit and us owning our house from scratch in 6 years....who needs alvin hall?

i have been crap with money for ages, it came to a crunch moment last week when 2 of my dd's were returned unpaid (one of them twice and i got my card declined in sainsburys yet again. and i had about 2 weeks left until more money in my acct.

well done on yours pollywobble- tahts amazing!
i think we may have been on katybumpers thread together last yr.

ah, wondered if it was you....i did better with money than weght!

i am crap on both counts- no self control see?!
back on ww now tho after nearly gtting to my goal and then just completely falling off and beeing run over by the wagon. arggghhhhh! will be thin for summer.....

ahh now you see I find it's easier to set myself a budget for each week and using cash to pay for things. that way I know the money in my purse is what I have to spend (and I leave my cards at home if I'm going out to the shop or something so that I'm not tempted to get more money out). I found cards much easier to fritter money away as that extra £1 here and 50p there on top of the shopping you need soon adds up but you don't see it.

Yup. When you get your monthly statement get a big red pen and put a cross next to the outgoings that weren't really necessary (like when you go into Sainsburys for a pint of milk, realise you don't have any cash and get some extras so you can switch it... £50 later!)

I have no self control so take a coin purse with me so that I can't be tempted to 'just swich' everything.

Good idea re the cash. I take out a little at weekend and when it's gone it's gone. 'Mummy can I have an icecream' 'No I haven''t got any money'. 'Can you pick up some nice bread from the supermarket on your way home' 'No I haven't got any money and we've got bread at home'. 'Mummy can you stop at the garage and buy me some chocolate' 'No'... etc.

I just need to get hold of DH's atm card and tear it into teeny little bits now

The best advice I could give is to keep a money diary. Both you and your partner need to fill it in every night. You will soon see what crap you are spending money on.

Oh and try and pay cash for everything. Makes spending seem so much more real.

I also save money using cash, as I'm thinking more about what I'm spending, so buy less crap and I throw anything less than 20p in a money pot at home, once I've got 5 bags of coins bagged up they go into a separate current account (although soon will go into a proper savings account) for "savings". Have saved over £100 since the start of last year doing that!

Good tips, any others?

I do not know how to budget, have never done so.

I am a fritterer.

I am ashamed of how much I get through as 'pin money'.

Check if your bank charges you a fee. Ours was and we told them that we didn't want to pay a fee - so they stopped!

i am alwys being bloody charged fees but its my own fault. i vow to make next months fee my last {tis £100 quid tho boo}

MIcrosoft Money

Shows you where everything goes....and you can then see how much money you have left for the rest of the month after all your ougoings have been taken out.

DP (now DH) got me into this 6/7 years ago and I thought he was anally retentive. Safe to say I was rubbish with money, with a bit of debt. We now have no debt (apart from mortgage) and never pay fees to bank. Plus I have ISA/other long term savings etc.

Every woman needs to take control!

Dh's method is to withdraw a certain amount of cash each week and put anything else on our joint credit card which is paid off each month (usually).

Any extra cash or non-household items are paid for out of our separate current accounts (eg, I have child benefit and tax credits paid into mine and I use this for the dc's and my clothes and shoes, school or holiday activities etc)

It works for us anyway.

I actually prefer not to use cash and encourage dp to use credit card (joint) because that way I can go through receipts.

I use something called Quicken - don;t think it's sold any more but I record all bank things. I am anally retentive, but when went on maternity leave really useful for showing me that we really needed to cut down (otherwise difficult to know effect of not travelling to work against effect of less income).

When I was 18 or so I got in debt to about £200 to a clothing catalogue when I was earning next to nothing. It shocked me and I have never been in debt since (apart from mortgage!).