J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

How do you manage your books at home, I use a spreadsheet and the Natwest online banking system, seems to work ok and it gives me an idea of what the wife is spending, I like to mention things like "What books did you get from Waterstones" as by the time I have got home they are put away so I am none the wiser, keeps her on her toes, I dont really mind but my account is the joint account, to hers I have no access !

Are you any good with money, do you get it massively wrong, spend it twice, forget things still to go out ?

SunnySideUp

I use my brain ........ I have £X coming in each month and have £Y going out - as long as X is bigger than Y I am a happy man.

OH, and I do not allow the wife to spend money unless first cleared by me

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

Free template budget planner from Dunfermline Building Society

Bob's Budget Planner - Free Home and Household Budget Planner

Fill Yer Boots as SSU would say.

5t.

edit deleted the x at the end. link fixed.

njkmrs

lol .!!!

At SSUP.

Matteeboy

Very similar to me!

Dieseldog

Spreadsheet, breaking down both income and expenditure. Identifying the big areas of expenditure (like 'Income Tax', for example), enables me to prioritise my efforts reducing them.

Same for small items like 'Coffee' in Starbucks. When it's written down and tallied up, and you realise you're spending £40/month on a cup of coffee for the train, it just makes me think "**** that, I'll get up 5 mins earlier and have a coffee at home"

stilover

I used to keep a note of everything I spent. Had a lot of outgoing's every month. If I wasn't careful I'd spend more than I earned.

Keeping records just proved how much.

Circumstances have now changed, so don't bother.

Matteeboy

Used 1200 litres of oil in under three months. £200 a month.
OUCH.
Could do with this cold snap ending soon before we end up broke!!

Jamescsti

Have a book that I record my monthly pay in, then i deduct all my regular outgoings straight away i.e mortgage, gas electric, council tax etc, then I know how much cash I have left for savings and general spending, it's worked for the last 10 years

+Doc+

I separate a little each week into columns to cover most spends, works ok, keeps me out of the red.

j4ckos mate

i have a wage coming in, all the bills go out and i divide the left over by 5, in theory i can either spend it or save it,


never go overdrawn ever.

dont have any loans or cards

wifey buys food i pay bills and mortgage.

Matteeboy

I've only ever done that sort of stuff when things have been really tight.
Which wasn't too long ago!

Devildog

LOL Pete.

Something similar here, although Mrs DD generally asks if its ok before spending anything over and above general day to day living expenses.

Clearly mine is better trained than yours

We also operate three accounts. At the start of every month I clear the credit card, pay into one of them an amount to cover all the recurring monthly direct debit outgoings (and an amount to acrue for quarterly bills). Into the second goes whatever is feasable from a savings perspective (although this is likely to be reviewed for a host of obvious reasons in the current climate). What's left in the current account is, effectively, our day to day living fund and spending money.

On on line, and all done in about 10 minutes a month.

Can't be arsed with all this accounting for every penny lark, although it can be frightening how much gets spent on the aforementioned starbucks, etc..

mart360

For years, id never really bothered,

get paid, spend, get paid, spend, loan, get paid, spend etc..


Then this year i thought ive had enough of this, so i downloaded the spread sheet from moneysaving expert, & whats the cost

according to the former i earn more than we spend, but according

to the bank we spend more than i earn

So i did a daily spreadsheet.... every item spent logged and added

EEK, do i really spend £40 a week on meals at work, according to the

spreadsheet i do..


No more!!!!!!

So far in one month ive managed to save near on £350 .. just by not impulse

shopping, and the "oh i need a few things from the shops" scenario


Mart DFD 2011

eggy790

iTrader: (20)

hey this is exactly what i need!

anyone got a similar spreadhseet to the one posted above from scottish building society? that i can amend and add stuff as thats locked.. unless u know the pssword?

also does anyone have one that can help me with my work travel expenditure? we travel for a maximum of 2 weeks so just need to record everything we spend daily..

any ideas? will be a big life saver if anyone has these

EddScott

For a long time I've had a little sheet which totals up my monthly outgoings which includes just about everything. As with most, I know whats coming out and I know whats going in.

Funnily enough, I've got more disposable income now than I ever have had yet I'm spending alot less than I used to.

Before we were usually quite strapped for cash yet I had my Impreza, we ate out a few times a month and we used to buy all manner of tat.

Now I just don't buy anything anymore. We eat out very rarely and I haven't got an expensive car so no big bills there.

The only 2 things I'm thinking of buying (other than saving for another Impreza) is a new watch because I broke mine and a coffee machine.



Your debt free date?

Not including mortgage I am hoping to clear £15K within 24 months. If things in the pipeline come off I'll have about £5K within a couple of months and this has been saved by selling my Jeep, lower mortgage payments and saving my christmas bonus (which was 50% down).

If I can just hold off temptation to blow the money on another Impreza once my debt is paid off I can use that money to obtain another loan and purchase another Impreza.

I don't mind having a debt in the form of a car as long as I have the car to show for it. Currently paying £15K for a car I sold 18 months ago isn't muhc fun.

eggy790

iTrader: (20)

im debt free allready

just £200 of overdraft to pay off which i aint doing lol as its interest free till end of next year

Dieseldog

Spreadsheets can take over, mind. I saw a telly in the Sales after Christmas, but waited until Jan 1st to buy it as it would have spoiled my 2008 End-of-year 'Savings Piechart'

jasey

Been using microsoft money for as long as I can remember (Since the psion series 3a died ) .

Works pretty well and keeps you on top of all your money.

Apparently there's a section where you can put all your savings - not found it yet !

edit: While I think about - MS Money is the only piece of microsoft software I've come across that isn't a complete pile of pooh - they must have bought it from someone

Deep Singh

Don't use anything. I know how much I earn and roughly what my outgoings are. I make sure I spend less than I earn, and my wife 'wastes' far less money than me.

In the few months leading up to income tax time I start to stash a little extra aside and avoid any big ticket purchases.

I'm not going to start wrighting down how much I spend on small items like sandwiches/drinks etc every month, life is too short. I never did that even when I didn't have a pot to **** in.

Dedrater

Yeah I use MS Money aswell, great piece of software, Ive got mine working out how much tax & NI I should be paying, amount of interest I will earn in my savings account for the year, alerts when big bills are coming up (car insurance, gas+electric etc)

Highly recommend it.

Leslie

I arrange things so that I can save some money every month, worth having if some emergency crops up.

Les

eggy790

iTrader: (20)

where can i get a copy of MS Money from?

austinwrx

well I get paid 13 times a yr- easy really- just work out yr outgoings each month- well in the 4 wk period.

I automatically pay into various savings things I've got going on- the rest is food, hols, gizmos etc.

you have to put money away for emergencies- its mental not to do.

eggy790

iTrader: (20)

thats true.. i always have money aside for emergencies