(First post, long) I need budgeting advice, please help!

Pompey_fan

Hi everyone.

I am a young father of one with two other kids from my girlfriends last relationship. My girlfriend and I are 30 - 29 and our 3 kids are 1, 7, and 9, and we have 3 cats. We just moved into a lovely new 3-bed rented home, the first home we have had together as a proper family. Previously we were living in rented shared accommodation so its a huge thing for us to have our own place now. We love it!

I'm having trouble with money though. Heres the situation: Last Christmas I lost a very good job, in fact the best job I've ever had. I was working for a big multi-national company earning over £23'000 per year. We had our first child together and decided it was time to get our own place as space was tight in the shared house. We found it difficult to move due to the excessive rent deposits in our area and generally high rental prices. Losing my job had a kind of silver lining as it enabled us to get help with moving from our local district council (rent deposit scheme, HB, etc). (I've had no luck finding a good enough job and now plan to go back to College to retrain in electronics)

Our benefits add up to a reasonable amount, enough that we should be able to get by without much trouble. OK, we cant afford many luxuries but at least we have enough to pay the bills and keep ourselves fed. The trouble is I've always been a bit rubbish with money, and now even though I'm 30 - and should have learn't my lesson by now - things are no different. My girlfriend isn't much better either. Neither of us have good credit.

The fact that we have no financial plan or budget is one thing, but another that gets me(us) in trouble is this: Late bank charges. I have an account with Barcalys and just this month we have ran into trouble due to card payments coming out late... I went to the bank to check my balance knowing I had spent around £25 in the last week to find that my account balance "As of 15th June" was £738. But my "Current cleared funds" as of 16th June were only £463. That meant I had £275 seemingly unaccounted for... So I went to the bank and was shown a up-to date itemized statement. I noticed that when I had used my card to pay for some food shopping a whole week earlier, that these debits were only charged to my account on the 16th!! This leaves me in a difficult situation as its eaten into my housing benefit so now we cant afford to pay all of this months rent. This type of situation is a regualr problem for us.

Furthermore, all our various benefits are paid at different times, some fortnightly and some every 4 weeks, and not per calendar month. This bugs the hell out of me when the rest of the world operates by the calendar month yet the government pay benefits every 4 weeks. Do they do that just to be awkward or what! It confuses the hell out of me and makes trying to organize my money really difficult.
(With our rent we overcame the problem but getting agreement with our landlords to pay every 4 weeks rather than by the calendar).

I just need help desperately to stop these problems from occurring. I'm stuck and I don't know how to sort this out. I need some advice to get in control of my money and prevent this from happening again, its confusing.

So basically my questions are:

- How can I avoid losing track of my actual bank account balance?

- How do I organize my fiances with all this irregular income?

Any advice or help will be very appreciated.

M.

nobby24

I would get a bank account with internet banking then you can check your balance every hour if you want to.

dc110

pompey Fan? finance not your only problem then? :rotfl: sorry

there was a thread about a month ago within someone who had same issues with 4 weekly pay which had some good ideas on it .... ill try to find it.....

Pompey_fan

I would get a bank account with internet banking then you can check your balance every hour if you want to.

I do have that facility with my Barclay's account, but I don't check it so often. Besides, it doesn't it show 'pending' charges. For example the balance might show £500 but the £125 I spent on my card earlier might not show for up to a week later. So I can look at my balance and be like 'Oh, I have £500 to spend' when in actual fact I have £325 because there is £125 which wont actually go out till a later date, but the balance dos not show this.

Do you see what I mean? Should I bin the Barclay's account and go elsewhere or is this a normal thing with all Debit card accounts?

I was thinking of getting a 'cash card' only account to stop me using the debits as a way to prevent this. The thing is I like to have the use of a debit card, its handy for doing the food shopping online.

Why do the banks take so long to debit your account and why do they not show you an accurate balance as soon as a card payment is made? Are they trying to hang on to your cash for interest reasons? If I spend £50 on my debit card I want my balance to reflect that immediately, not 7 days later!!!

Sorry, this annoys me a little. In OK now

Pompey_fan

dc110 wrote: »

pompey Fan? finance not your only problem then? :rotfl: sorry

there was a thread about a month ago within someone who had same issues with 4 weekly pay which had some good ideas on it .... ill try to find it.....

LOL! :rotfl: Your not a scummer (saints fan) are you? hehehe... Latest news is PFC are being bought out buy an Arabian billionaire, Pompey are soon to be the second richest club in England. Maybe he can lend me a couple of mil!

Shame about Newcastle though....

Thanks for finding that thread, I look forward to reading it.

M

dc110

Yeah its normal and its not the banks fault.

When you use your debit card the retailer will check for authorisation - this will then show as pending on your bank account - but only for 3 days.

If the retailer does not collect the payment after 3 working days the authorisation 'disappears' (cant think of a better way to word it) but the retailer can and will still debit your account at any point after this.

Just something you need to be aware of

Pompey_fan

dc110 wrote: »

Yeah its normal and its not the banks fault.

When you use your debit card the retailer will check for authorisation - this will then show as pending on your bank account - but only for 3 days.

If the retailer does not collect the payment after 3 working days the authorisation 'disappears' (cant think of a better way to word it) but the retailer can and will still debit your account at any point after this.

Just something you need to be aware of

OK, so the bank dosen't know I have used my debit card until the retailer asks for the money.

What about Paypal then? I use eBay alot and notice a similar problem there, in fact it can take even longer for the money to leave my account sometimes. Is there an easy trick I can use to keep track of my actual balance?

dc110

Well ..... (this could get a bit longwinded now)

assuming the retailer does check with your bank for sufficient funds (because they dont always) then your bank will know about it, in the sense that it will show as a pending transaction but as i said the pending transaction only lasts for 3 working days.

if the retailer doesnt check for authorisation ...

(maybe if its a small amount of money - eg £2 in the newsagent might not be checked but £500 in the travel agents will be)

then the bank will not know about it until the retailer asks for payment - at which point the bank cannot refuse to pay as you have already had the goods/services (and you may go overdrawn)

this is how people get bank charges!

LOL! :rotfl: Your not a scummer (saints fan) are you?

:rotfl: no i was just in a funny mood. I support Kilmarnock (stop laughing at the back there!) although I was born in Pompey

Pompey_fan

this is how people get bank charges!

I know about that!!!! lol.

Thanks for the info.

dc110

try this one
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1712695&highlight=week

glider3560

I use a program called Microsoft Money to keep track of my balances. There are some free alternatives if you want something easier to use.

The key to doing this is making sure you log EVERY transaction, as soon as possible. You then get a more realistic picture of what you actually have left in your account.

I even keep a record of every one of my cash transactions using Microsoft Money. This gives me an idea of what I'm spending my money on. I always get a receipt when I'm in shops (even when paying cash) which I shove in my wallet and then enter into the program when I get home.

And good choice on the football team