spending diaries

witchypoo

What I've been doing for the past I don't know, 18 years maybe, is buying a cheap diary with plenty of room (I currently use A6 ones but usually A5, they are pretty cheap from pound stores or whatever) and I enter my bills so that I don't forget to deduct them as the date comes round, and a running total in my bank account that carries over from day to day. I enter in all the receipts and if I ever forget something came out I can easily slip it in cos they day's are already seperated in the diary.
I try to work on this at least once a week, but it's better if I keep it up regularly as it takes less time in the long run and I keep a better idea of how our finances are doing.
I have one diary for each bank account: our joint account and my personal account that child benefit and tax credits go into.

I also have a list in the back of all my monthly direct debits etc to refer to when filling it in. I have more tips for budgetting as well but I'll leave that all for now as you asked about spending diaries.

dollydaydream07

can someone tell me how to do a spreadsheet please, so i can input all or D-Debits, incomings, outgoings etc!

i am pretty strict(or try to be) with our grocery budget, but sometimes(oh ok most of the time:o) we do go over by around £20-£30 a month, so i want to be able to see where this is going, so i know how much money we have spare to pay off a few things and to save up some money(we don't have any money in savings yet:o:eek:)
any budgetting tips are more than welcome witchypoo, if you need any more info just ask!

floss2

dollydaydream07 wrote: »

can someone tell me how to do a spreadsheet please, so i can input all or D-Debits, incomings, outgoings etc!

Take a look at this: Linky

jinky67

floss2 wrote: »

Take a look at this: Linky

and try this as well

http://www.spendingdiary.com/

I used to use it to keep track of mine, it fairly opened my eyes:eek::eek:

its fab:T

dollydaydream07

floss2 wrote: »

Take a look at this: Linky

jinky67 wrote: »

and try this as well

http://www.spendingdiary.com/

I used to use it to keep track of mine, it fairly opened my eyes:eek::eek:

its fab:T

thanks for these both of you!

mambury

Dolly.....

I have separate accounts for everything! I have the main joint account for mortgage, bills, insurance etc. From this account I pay by standing order a set amount for xmas, car, holiday savings and housekeeping all to separate accounts. I put my desiel and food/grocery money in one account and that is the only card I carry in my purse so if I spend too much then we have to go without. It has made me much more aware of my spending.

I keep my receipts but I forget to do anything with them!

Mr Mambury and I also have our own accounts where we each have spending money to spend as we wish which comes from the main joint account, the same amount each every month. So when its gone its gone!

Its working quite well for us......

mambury

dollydaydream07

mambury wrote: »

Dolly.....

I have separate accounts for everything! I have the main joint account for mortgage, bills, insurance etc. From this account I pay by standing order a set amount for xmas, car, holiday savings and housekeeping all to separate accounts. I put my desiel and food/grocery money in one account and that is the only card I carry in my purse so if I spend too much then we have to go without. It has made me much more aware of my spending.

I keep my receipts but I forget to do anything with them!

Mr Mambury and I also have our own accounts where we each have spending money to spend as we wish which comes from the main joint account, the same amount each every month. So when its gone its gone!

Its working quite well for us......

mambury

we have our normal account, a seperate bills account which we have a standing order set up for so all bill money is transferred from current account to bills account at the last day of the month and then it can almost be anything goes with whatever is left in the current account - i do draw out £100 for our groceries for the month but tend to use all this up by the 3rd week(even with planning and lists) and then use debit card to buy for the last week of the month and because of this we end up spending loads!
we try and pay off at least £100 off DH's CC each month(got about £1500 left on it) but then we end up not saving any money for a rainy day - which we NEED to start doing!
i have an idea of how i want to work things - seperate accounts for different things - bills, groceries, car stuff, DD's ballet and money for parties she is invited to etc - but i just can't seem to get it to work for us!

witchypoo

dollydaydream07 wrote: »

any budgetting tips are more than welcome witchypoo, if you need any more info just ask!

Sorry Dolly I missed this!
All I do is keep a list of what all my bills amount to, add them all together and divide by four (weeks of the month) so that I know how much each week needs to go towards the bills, and hubby gets paid weekly so this is useful. I've been doing this for so long I do it without having to think, although recently I've been a bit lapse.
In my diary I detailed above, I keep a note which I put in brackets of how much SHOULD be in the account, allowing for an extra £100 which I call my 'safety net'. If on Tuesday a bill is coming out by direct debit, I'll write that bracketted note again for the tuesday, indicating how much SHOULD be in the account considering the amount that has just been paid OUT.

In the past it has been possible for me to save up for our family holiday: If Pay minus bills = X, We have X amount of money left for groceries and putting into savings. If I always put whats left after groceries and any expenses into savings, there's incentive to eat cheaply and the savings go up and up each week! Quite exciting really

Now I just need to put that back into practice and Bob's your uncle

Rummer

I would really love to keep a tighter track on our spending and I have successfully kept track of my spending, however it is the spending of my other half that is hard to keep track of as he refuses to keep a note. Been thinking of different ways to improve the situation.

tara747

I am quite sad but I have been recording EVERYTHING I spend for the last 14 months and it is addictive!! I have 2 spreadsheets, one is my budget (which runs to the end of Dec 2009 so I can work out my savings targets) and the other is my spends. I worked out my annual budget with the aid of the MSE budget planner, it is brilliant.

I divide spends into categories such as food, toiletries, clothes, gas, electricity etc and include irregular stuff such as Christmas gifts, holidays etc. Each category gets assigned a certain amount per month and then I record what I actually spend. I add it up every few days to see how I'm doing against the monthly budget and if I'm overspending on any one thing.

It's very flexible too e.g. I have Christmas gifts in my Dec budget but if I buy gifts throughout the year I'll add it to that month's budget and reduce the Dec budget accordingly.

It really is addictive. I keep my receipts too and update the sheet every day (if poss). It helps that I work in an office and can do this easily. If I don't get a receipt I just record it as a note on my phone and then it's there when I go to update the sheet.

It's been such an eye opener as well! If you record EVERYTHING you spend you will soon see where all the money is going. My friends always complain that they are skint (despite earning good salaries) but I know that if they kept a spending diary they would be horrified at what they spend on magazines, takeaway coffees, lunches etc.

I have been able to pare down my outgoings enormously and am on track to save £10,000 this year as a result.

As I said, I am sad!