How do you budget?

alohahawaii

Etherelda wrote: »

Hi

I am intregued as other folks budget themselves.

I use this stragegy now, to stop me getting to the end of the month and being broke.

On my monthly pay day, I calculate all my DDs and other nessecary expenditures- e.g a gig ticket, or winter coat, train season ticket, and then subtract pay from this total.

Whats left over- I go to the bank and ask for the amount to be split 4 or 5 ways, depending on how many weeks in the month.

The cashier thinks I'm a nutcase, asking for 4 piles of £75 approx, put into little money bags.

I hide them away in the house, and only allow myself a new stash on the monday.

On the other hand, my other half, just keeps the money in his account, and uses his card as and when, and never seems to run out. He must have a really goof understanding or routine of his spending habit.



What do you do?

My OH is just like yours and I'm the same as you. He seems to think it's simple, he works out his D/D's and then the rest is his and he leaves it in his current account and uses his debit card when needs be (no credit cards)

I have to move mine to savings or spend it and end up with nothing at the end of the month.
Apart from last month where I had some left before pay day and moved it to my ISA !! But i did try hard and was checking my account everyday and made an effort not to spend.
I find myself counting down to pay day and working out how much I have a day which I hate. He gave me a tip though to work out how much i'll have to put in my savings not to spend

RWGThomas

Etherelda made a good point about working your weekly or monthly budget out. Piles of cash for seperate things is one way, but I find I also need to plan for the future - e.g. holidays, birthdays etc coming up. The budget on this site is good as it provides a snap shot of whether you solvent or not!! However, I use an online tool that asks me questions about what I spend and when (weekly / monthly etc) and even allows me to build in when I know things are going to increase (say I know the mortgage is going up in 3 months time) and then at the click of a button shows me each months cashflow (or budget) for the next 3 months at a glance or allows me to print out a full 12 month forecast (for longer planning like holidays or Christmas). This is invaluable if you're going to a bank for a short term overdraft or loan!! Have a look at www.yournutshell.com it only costs £10 a year and also reminds you when things are due for renewal (like TV licence or Car/home insurance - this is great so you can get quotes to save money before they renew without you having the chance to try elsewhere!).

What do you think? :money: