Budgeting? How, may seem simple to you. Please help.

eclareb

This may seem very simple or basic to you, but Im at a loss with the fundamentals of budgeting. How do I start? Feels a bit of a silly thing to say!

I have worked through the budget on here and we are in the red I have read all the articles on here regarding the piggy bank method etc, so please dont refer me back there. What I need is a very basic outline of how to manage/draw up a family budget. More importantly, HOW DO YOU KEEP TRACK OF WHAT IS BEING SPENT ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS? Do people really keep all of their supermarket receipts? Cafe receipts (I was in a cafe at the weekend and the old lady infront of me requested her receipts because 'I use it at home to cross off, you know'.... what does she do with it?

Ive kept my receipts in the past, but what do I do with them when I get them home?

Any advice at all would be very much appreciated. Even really basic advice, the more basic the better!

*Maya*

I keep a printed budget which is basically a table I drew up in Word.

It has boxes for everything we spend money on like groceries, petrol, lunches etc. I also write in the direct debits and standing orders for each month.

When I get home I put the amount on my receipts into the boxes which have my target spend in red.

At the end of the month I can see if I am going over on anything.

Hope this helps.

seraphina

Yes, I do really keep all my receits!

I use a Google spreadsheet as I can get to that from any computer and even my mobile phone. So once a day, everything I have spent goes onto the spreadsheet, which then can add up how much I have spent on petrol etc.

We put all our household spending (food etc) onto a credit card which is cleared every month - anything that is spent on that card, the receit is attached to a big clip in the kitchen with all the other receits for that month.

youngie

if keeping receipts is proving difficult try keeping a spending diary simply write down everything you spend even the odd pence on a choccie bar or paper then you can go through the lists at regular intervals using highlighters mark the essentials in one colour then you can see where money is being spent unecesssaryily

Caroline73_2

This is my first month so I have set a £10 budget per day. I know that I usually spend about £300 a month so set this as a target so I can split it up into groceries/toiletries/petrol etc in January and try and decrease from there.

I have put all mine down in a spread sheet, I'm not organised enough to keep receipts!

I also take my cash out on Saturdays and it lasts me all week. I can't go over then. I do take my card with me but I can control myself. It was just handy yesterday for example when I saw a Christmas present for someone cheaper than anywhere else so I could buy it straight away.

liz545

I use www.spendingdiary.com (and I've recommended it so often I'm starting to wish they paid me! ) and then I enter all the things I've spend money on at the end of the day. So yes, I keep my receipts, and I make myself remember the 50p for a can of coke and £2 for bus fares - if you do it daily it's not too hard. I then track it in an excel spreadsheet so I can set myself a realistic limit for the next month, based on what I spent last month, what I'm likely to need to spend, and how much I'd like to reduce it.

LameWolf

I use Excel spreadsheets; we have our money separate, so I have one for me and one for Mr LW; monthly direct debits are subtracted at the beginning of the month and all income and outgoings are listed on a day-to-day basis. I have it set up to do all the calculations for me as well; and if we spend on credit cards, the money is subtracted from the total available and moved to the credit card pages.

It sounds more complicated than it is, because I'm not very good at describing it, but it works brilliantly.

skipsmum

I keep a spending diary, but not on the computer. I scribble it all in a notepad. I keep all the reciepts. I have a budget plan so I know what goes in/comes out of the bank, and a sort of tick chart so I can write in bills owed/paid. Ive done it this way for a couple of years now and so its second nature, and I always know if we can afford going out, new top, etc etc.

mummygems

I keep all my receipts and write on a normal A4 pad what I spent, where I spent it and why (sometimes at the end of the month you look at your bank statement and wonder what you did on say the 1st - or at least I did!). At the end of the month I can see where the money went.

I keep the pad inside a large ring-binder which I have then divided into months of the year.

I have a page at the beginning of the binder showing all our direct debits and the total amount of those. Under each month I fill in the amount my DH gets paid subtract one from the other to show the money we have left after the direct debits are out and thats what I use to budget with.

If you keep track of all your spending for one month look back and work out where the money is going i.e. pretol, food, take-away etc and then try and set yourself a target a little lower than what you spent i.e. you spent £50 on take-away so reduce that amount by whatever you feel comfortable with, you spent £400 on food shopping - reduce this by £25-£50 for the next month so on and so on.

Now I have a budget (which has yet to reduce lol) I keep a tally to one side of the pad so every time I spend something out of the food budget I write the amount I have left in the side i.e. I start with £350 and spent £25 so in the side I write £325 which is what I have left. This way it helps me see how much I have left and I divide that by the amount of weeks left before pay day (then decide if we really do need the crisps that DH wants lol).

Sorry if I havent explained that very well - I know what I mean but its hard to put it into words.

Hope this helps.

eclareb

Thanks, some good advice in these replies, tho some do sound a bit complicated, I will have to re-read them to get my head around them.

That website looks really simple to use and far easier to read than the basic basic excel spreadsheet I was trying to cobble together.

I dont use credit cards for spending on a regular basis, only when necessary, ie concert tickets etc, Im just trying to juggle the cash at the moment. Withdrawing cash and keeping track of it as well as the numerous supermarket trips I make in the week. When I look at my bank statement I cant believe or understand WHY? do I go that often??

Any other advice/tips/methods gratefully received.......

Plum_Pie

http://www.spendometer.co.uk/ The spendometer is a free mobile phone application which will monitor your daily, weekly and monthly spending. You name the categories and set the budgetary limits.

(I don't work for them!!!!)