Are you on top of your finances? If so, how do you organise your financial life?

[SpeedyGonzalez]

I am trying to teach myself how to better manage money, having never learned this in the 30+ years I've been on earth. So now I need your help!

I would value ANY tips you can give, whether it's how you manage your accounts, how you budget (and stick to your budget), how pensions work (haven't paid into mine since giving birth several years ago), and just about ANYTHING else that will help a financial beginner to sort herself out.

TIA!

Do the budget planner on Money saving expert, here. Sit down with bills and last month's bank statement (easier if you have online banking, but you should be able to find a paper statement if you don't), DON'T guesstimate, and then work out how much money you've got left after all the essentials are paid. Take a good couple of hours to do this the first time.

If you need to educate yourself on how to spend 'properly', start using an envelope system for a few months - as soon as you get paid, pay any outstanding bills, put money into a savings account for annual bills, then take out in cash money for:

1. Food
2. Petrol
3. Travel, if you do it day by day rather than season ticket etc
4. 'Fun' money (clothes etc)
5. Family days out
6. Anything else you spend on little and often throughout the month.

Watch the envelopes empty with alarming speed.

Learn how to do it better next month.

It probably took me at least 3 months of doing this before I was even remotely good at sticking to the amount of money I had - I was constantly robbing peter to pay paul, but eventually you get better at it, at being careful at the beginning of the month so you can afford food at the end of it etc.

Redo budgets every few months, sitting down with most recent statements/bills to make sure you are, for example, putting enough electricity money by for the more expensive winter months.

Here endeth today's lesson.

Hopefully, that sounds a brilliant way to teach myself. At first when I read your first paragraph I went "Retreat! Retreat!" but then I calmed myself down and decided that it is achievable.

I'm about to start online shopping so will have to work out a system (like using Monopoly money) to enable me to do the envelope thing, but everything else you've said sounds like a good idea. I can see how we'd be able to save money using your system because we must currently make a lot of unnecessary purchases by not being in control at the mo.

Riven - re bills! I have this ridiculous personality trait of leaving bills till the last minute, so I think I have to get wise about direct debit. Good tip.

Speedy glad I didn't scare you away too much! Doing the budget the first time is crap diddly crap, but it really does make all the difference.

Re: doing online shopping, I have a spreadsheet which I put the amounts on at the beginning of the month (e.g. £95 petrol money, £168 food money, £50 'fun' money) and every time I spend part of it I reduce the totals on the spreadsheet. It means I know exactly how much I've spent.

Online banking makes it much easier to do things like that, as you don't have to keep receipts, just go through your recent transactions every couple of days.

I am also crap with bills, so have everything direct debit except gas and electricity because I get so f**king pissed off with them taking exactly how much they want and not giving it back when i tell them I'm perfectly capable of budgeting for higher winter costs without their help.

If you have a couple of hours spare get your insurances, utility bills, phone tariffs etc and sit at the computer and see if you can get them all cheaper.

Obviously put the amount you save into your 'fun' money account.

Reesie, now there's a good way of motivating me to do a mind-numbing job! Top marks!

Hopefully - I think you're scaring me with spreadsheets, now!

This book helped me become a (nearly) reformed character in financial matters.

We have a joint account for bills, food etc. I work out an annual budget for bills based on what we've spent before, rounded up for contingency, and divide it by 12. The amount left over is available for food, things for DS/the house, etc. Before I did this we were having lavish months when there were no bills then going overdrawn in certain months when several arrive at once - silly really as it's fairly easy to predict when bills will arrive and roughly how much they'll be. I do have to keep track of how much we spend from the food/etc part of the budget - I just keep a note in the back of my diary - as although it looks generous on paper it seems to disappear very quickly!

For my personal account I kind of do it the other way round - I've worked out an amount for the day-to-day spending (including train/petrol), then put the rest into savings to cover car costs, holidays, other 'big' things.

It took a bit of trial and error to work out a system that worked for me. I've tried having budgets for everything but found it too complex. You may find you have to try a few different systems to find one that suits you.

BTW I'm with hopefully on the subject of utilities - I don't need the extra work of working out whether I'm in debit or credit and adjusting direct debits, I'd rather just pay for what I use when I use it.

I have a excel (I haveashampoo not word etc) type program I made myself and you can on excel.

Across the top are the months of the years and down the side (leave a few gaps) are the income, wages, child benifit, any interest etc you may get.

Then add these up using excel

then drop a couple of lines and start the list of monthly outgoings. Council tax, hair cuts, birthday presents, car tax etc

Then fill in the amounts in each month across the page.

Add up each colume for each month and then take the final figures for each month across and add them up.

Then average the figure by 12 and that is the amount you need to put inot a seprate bank account for all you bills each month.

I do not include food or petrol - as this I have to buy with the spare money each month.

So your wages go into one account and from that a standing order goes into your bills account - which you dont have a debit card for. The bills account all your dd and ss come out of and when you want to buy a christmas present or birthday presnet the set amount you transfer into your normal account.

This way only the money you can actually spend each month is left in your account and it will be about the same amount each month and that that on the money spending

Then fo through all your insurances and make sure you are getting the best price you can, I saved £120 per year by changing my life insurance last year ( I never realised you could change your provder!) I have changed my broadband and got ride of my landline as my mobile was a new contract and covered the number of total calls I needed - saving me £204 per year - so a total of £324 last year

Yes it is time consuming to set up a really good budget paln initialy but once it is done then if things change you can alter the figures and if you have set it all up correctly it will change all the figures.

if you already have an account with all the bills on standing order thnk about setting up another account and getting weekly standng order put across for you pocket money each week - so you don't over spend and you only have a weekly amount menas you don't run out near the end of the month.

The other important bit is also if you have debt, excluding your mortgage (worth looking at separately if you have one).

Be completely honest and write down every chunk of money you owe, who to (credit card, car loan, HP, family) and interest rates. Then make the minimum payment on each and overpay the debt with the highest interest first. For example, if you have a car loan at 6.7% and a store card at 24.9%, focus on overpaying the store card first and as much as you can - every £5-10 will make a difference.

Make a calendar with the debt marked out and put a big cross through everymonth's debt payment so you can have the satisfaction of seeing it paid off. The important flipside is that you must buy absolutely nothing on credit until all your debt is paid off - this is achievable...

I am tediously organised with my finances so can bore at length on the subject. Pen and paper is just as good as a spreadsheet if you're finding it overwhelming. Just do three things a day, every day and you'll get there.

Online banking is a new revelation to me, previously I was a "too scared to look at my statements, cross my fingers and pray at the cashpoint" kind of person.
Now I check my accounts every few days, it is an eye opener, but I am in control.
Also online food shop, same principle, you can chop and change until you have the food you want at the price you want to pay.

no, we have a reckless attitude to the whole thing . however, as mentioned above, i make sure i am absolutely happy with my online grocery basket (changing it several times before delivery). i keep an eye on DDs esp the greedy utility companies, i check my bank statement every two weeks (mainly to spot any fraud), use ebay a lot - that's it really.

other tips -

pensions (for me) have always been about paying a chunk of your salary into a scheme set up by HR and taking it all out again as a nice lumpsum to spend on clothes and holidays when you leave!
however, if i do return to work, i want to start taking the whole thing seriously.

tesco vouchers (converted into deals) are good for days out and restaurants

embrace frugal living at least part-time - get a secondhand breadmaker and slow cooker, visit the supermarkets near closing time for reduced fruit and veg - buy in bulk from markets to make jam, stewed fruit, grow some things yourself. NCT sales are fab for kids toys and clothes.

i could NEVER do the whole spreadsheet budgeting /writing down everything. dh would hate it even more.

never get a credit card

What are your financial goals (say top 3?) Do you have debt to pay off, do you have a mortgage that you want to reduce, are you trying to save for a deposit, save for school fees/IVF/honeymoon, are you single or if not, do you have joint or separate finances, what do you (think) you spend too much money on?

forgot - you could also keep hens for a steady supply of eggs - we had a couple during our childhood. it is also poss to buy a share in a cow or sheep if you negotiate with your local(est!!!) farmer

All the bills are going out direct debit from my account. Initially I summed up all these direct debits in a spreadsheet to get an overview of what regular outgoings would HAVE to be covered every month, be it gas, nursery, electricity, council tax, tv licence, telephone, creditcard, etc.

I set aside money mentally every month, and know I should not use more.

£20 per child into childs savings account.

Now and then, if I realize we have surplus, I add a chunk to credit card repayment.

We will start taking £100 per month for pension, as we think it is necessary. Though I am aware it may not be enough to give a great old age, it is better than nothing.

All our money goes into one account monthly. I have a spreadsheet with all the monthly costs on. For food it is split into four lots of £100 and that is taken out weekly in cash as we find that works well. It also covers things like clothes, dentist, Christmas, birthday, car expenses so money gradually builds up over the months and is there for when the MOT needs doing or to book a birthday party.

I then check the bank account online every few days and delete items on the spreadsheet or adjust total. The column is added up in excel so the figure at the bottom matches the account total and I know what that figure is split over.

It does take a good few months to get a system working properly and you need to find one that you feel comfortable with.

Wow, all great advice, MNers! Am going to have to read through all these posts one-by-one and veeeery sloooooowly!