Your weekly cash - how do you do it?

kijog

I wanted to see how people sort out their cash/pin money in their pocket. Martin's spreadsheet has been really good and I have now set up a separate bank account for me and my girlfriend to handle all our bills and joint food shopping. That leaves me with around £250/month for spending on everything else, i.e. lunch, parking, clothes (rarely) and the odd beer (well, two or...).

I went down the route of taking only £20 at a time from the ATM and trying to make it last long as possible. But I found myself visiting more often than I needed when I only had £1.50 in my pocket and needed to buy something for £3.

I've thought of taking out say £50 for the week and it has to last - does this work for anybody? Or do you just end up miserable when you run out short of the 7 days? My ex used to keep a diary of everything she spent - nice idea but prob don't have the habit/focus to keep that up for long!

I could even take out all £250, knowing then that I shouldn't use my bank account or debit card for anything - or is that just an impossible challenge?

If anybody has some good tips on what works for them I'd love to know!

getmore4less

The first thing to do is analyse you spends and budget each catagory more closely

Casual spends tend to be weekly based not monthly so that is the first change. plan how much you want for each week

Lunches : seperate this money out or take sandwiches.

Do you have regular weekend spends or a regular night out.

Do you ahve bigger spends like a big meal out or a concert on a less regular basis plan this seperately.

This will leave you a much smaller amount for the misc stuff.

I use a CC for as much as possible so cash lasts ages.

kijog

Are you using the CC as just a payment method - i.e. for convenience, not to borrow? I pay off mine in full - but find it hard to keep track in my head how much I have used it. That and the fact that you pay it off with the following month's income paycheque makes it more difficult to budget.

izools

kijog wrote: »

I wanted to see how people sort out their cash/pin money in their pocket. Martin's spreadsheet has been really good and I have now set up a separate bank account for me and my girlfriend to handle all our bills and joint food shopping. That leaves me with around £250/month for spending on everything else, i.e. lunch, parking, clothes (rarely) and the odd beer (well, two or...).

I went down the route of taking only £20 at a time from the ATM and trying to make it last long as possible. But I found myself visiting more often than I needed when I only had £1.50 in my pocket and needed to buy something for £3.

I've thought of taking out say £50 for the week and it has to last - does this work for anybody? Or do you just end up miserable when you run out short of the 7 days? My ex used to keep a diary of everything she spent - nice idea but prob don't have the habit/focus to keep that up for long!

I could even take out all £250, knowing then that I shouldn't use my bank account or debit card for anything - or is that just an impossible challenge?

If anybody has some good tips on what works for them I'd love to know!

My OH and I have our acconuts set up like this:

1. A personal account each into which our salaries are paid
2. A joint account for household expenses (Phone, water, energy, TV, rent, c-tax, HP for Fridge, groceries, etc)
3. A credit card with a £250 limit - which is the budget for groceries and toiletries each month - which is cleared in full each month from the joint account

I myself never carry more than £10 in my wallet unless I'm going to the pub in which case its £15.

I use my debit card for everything personal (bar bus fare) and credit card for everything household.

I have the same problem - notes turn into change, change turns into a big pile of change, and a big pile of change disappears. I have much more money at the end of the month if I avoid cash as much as possible.

LeeSouthEast

I have one rule when it comes to cash: I never carry any. Haven't done for years.

If I need something, it goes on the debit card. The receipt is kept, and my budget spreadsheet and spending diary updated that evening. I keep a mental note (or a note on my phone if it's close to the line) of how much remains in each category.

Works for me.

izools

LeeSouthEast wrote: »

I have one rule when it comes to cash: I never carry any. Haven't done for years.

If I need something, it goes on the debit card. The receipt is kept, and my budget spreadsheet and spending diary updated that evening. I keep a mental note (or a note on my phone if it's close to the line) of how much remains in each category.

Works for me.

I did that throughout 2009 and after a year or religiously updating the spreadsheet and such, it has stuck and I no longer need to budget and haven't been a penny overdrawn for a good six months or so

EDIT: I did do a budget in September when I moved back in with my OH, but I've not had to refer back to it since. It just sorta works!

A far cry from the iZools that owed £50,000 on top of his mortgage on New Years Day 2008!!!

girlypink

Just a quickie, but i have 2 seperate bank accounts (both free basic accounts) with lloyds. One my wages get paid into the other all of my direct debits come out of. i have a standing order to cover all of the bills come from one to the other on the 1st of every month (straight after payday) then what ever is in the first account is mine for the month. I also work out how much i have to spend in a week and take out half of each weeks, that way i know it has to last me till tues ish before i allow myself to take out the other half (unless its something urgent)
Hope this helps anyway

getmore4less

kijog wrote: »

Are you using the CC as just a payment method - i.e. for convenience, not to borrow? I pay off mine in full - but find it hard to keep track in my head how much I have used it. That and the fact that you pay it off with the following month's income paycheque makes it more difficult to budget.

The CC is just for cash flow, the money stays in the account till the bill is due. I don't use next months I actualy use last months since I had built up a buffer(well now actually from savings since I am not earning.)

When I was budgeting very closely, every spend was preplanned based on an annual spend for each catagory tracked and averaged out over the year.

£250pm is too large an amount for Misc spending I would break this down into smaller catagories/amounts

eg. Our meals out budget was £960py so roughly 2 £40 meals a month easy to track if we didn't go out one month we had more for the next month.

Make a list for each catagory of spend and track these in you head rather than a total.
The trick is to try to underspend each catagory rather than just track a total so far.

Allocate your £250pm and if you have say £40pw for going to the pub and it costs a £10 a time thats 4 trips if you go 5 times you have overspent.
If you have £5pd for lunches try to spend £4 or take a packed lunch a few days

It is especialy important to have budgets for the occational things. eg I had £10pm set aside for computer stuff that would only get used 1-2 times a year if something broke or I wanted a new bit.


The real trick is to get into the habit of just not spending money on anything that has not bn planned.

Try a few no spend days then see if you can plan a no spend week,
Fill the car,freezer,fridge and booze store in advance.

Another example go through your clothes and work out what you will need to buy during the next year, make a list and only buy stuff when it is cheap. Don't buy stuff not onthe list because it is cheap

rictus123

Plan ahead on say a Sunday(or a day off) and write down where you will need to spend and how much, then take this out and dont go back. If it runs out then make do without.

I use credit cards and i think itl be like that for years to come. More cash in hand = more likely to spend it on shi*e.

nicnacnoo

Have you tried the weekly spend challenge? i had a go for the first time this week and failed lol went in for £20, so took that out of the bank abd put it in my purse Monday morning, i spent over that but it made me think about what i was spending my money on. Could be worth a go for you?

TheEffect

I don't actually plan. I just buy everything on my Debit Card and keep £20 in my wallet. Oh the beauty of being on a gap year, working full time and having little expenditures.