Balancing That Budget

moggins

This has been a constant thorn in the side and I'm hoping someone has the solution. I like to use extra sums of money for big trips to the market to stock up on meat etc. but lately all the money seems to be flowing together and I can't work out why?

We get paid monthly on the 30th of every month. My maintenance gets paid weekly so I tend to use that for weekly expenses, and then CTC and CB get paid 4 weekly. Now somewhere in that considering I pay all bills by monthly DD there should be the odd extra payment of CTC and CB that doesn't get absorbed into the monthly account. But I'll be a monkeys uncle if I can find it, it just seems to get absorbed in with all the rest but I could really use that money on stocking up my cupboards if I could work out where it was going to appear and separate it before it gets swallowed up.

Does anyone else have finances like this and what do you do? My freezer is looking very empty and I would like some guilt free money to stock up with.

Linda32

I think I know what you mean.

I keep a spread sheet where by all the money is actually in "one pot" (bank account)

But these certain columns for certain items in my spread sheet.

For example say the monthly bills add up to £500.00 then I have each one listed and as that comes out of the bank I delete it. So say a Direct Debit comes out for £10.00 these now £490.00 left for bills this month.

Then I have a section for weekly spend. Which is whatever is left devided by 4 weeks and thats how much I have for the following week.

Then I have savings for holidays or trips.

All of these column then add up to the overall balance.

It must be difficult if various amounts are coming in from various places but hope this helps.

lynzpower

moggins

Do you have seperate accounts? Ie we have an account for the bills

and then we have our own spending/current accounts.

I think this makes it much easier

Have a look at the budget planner on the top of the DFW pages, that can help see where things are going etc ??

moggins

We do have separate accounts and all of the bills (bar 2 that dh set up wrong come out of the one account. We get paid into another account and I move money across on payday to cover those bills. The trouble is that the CTC and CB also get paid into the bill account (back from when we only had one account), and to be honest I am so afraid of them messing up that I haven't tried to change it. So I am never sure of what has come out and what is still to come in.

Linda I like your idea of ticking off the bills as they get paid off, I think I might do that. If I make sure that all money required is paid into the bank to cover everything at the start of this month and move everything else across as soon as it comes in then I may leave us a little short at the beginning before everything balances up but I can always use our previously redundant overdraft facility until things get straight again.

Linda32

moggins wrote:

Linda I like your idea of ticking off the bills as they get paid off, I think I might do that. If I make sure that all money required is paid into the bank to cover everything at the start of this month and move everything else across as soon as it comes in then I may leave us a little short at the beginning before everything balances up but I can always use our previously redundant overdraft facility until things get straight again.

Yes thats the idea, With us our bill month starts on the 20th of the month and goes through to the 9th of the following, abit odd I know but I've got into the system now.

Then when the 20th comes around again, thus I start again.

Spendless

I also have the tax credit and CB money going into a seperate account so it is 'extra' money and not swallowed up by the regular account. It goes into a higher interest rate savings account in my name. I don't work so I'm not a tax payer so it makes sense to put anything extra into my name.

If you are worried about the tax credit people messing up moggins why not arrange for the same amount to go out of your bank account into a seperate one for the day your CB/TC goes thru? Or you could do it yourself if you have online banking.

MATH

Money used to dissapear at Chez MATH too but no longer.

I have

Family MATH Current Account
MATH's Workaday Account
Mrs MATH's Girly Account
Save2then spend Savings Account
Ciggies Account
Rich Old Age Account

This is how I do it:

All money incoming for the month is totted up to one expected grand sum, ie money I earn, Mrs MATH's salary, child ben, tax credit and so on so i know the total expected income for the month. Everything is paid into the main account.

From this all the DD's are debited on my spreadsheet as the 1st of the month regardless of when they are actually drawn so I know what I have left to play with.

X amount is transfered to Mrs MATH's account for her petrol and personal spending.

A fixed amount to cover my petrol and grocery shopping is transfered to my work-a-day account for weekly use.

The cash I used to spend on ciggies is transfered to a saving acount to help change the family cars in due time. I did this so it didn't dissapear! (Currently £4,500:j )

All payments that appear at odd times of the year and cannot be done as monthly DD's ie Buildings/Contents Insurance, car tax & mot x 2, LPG gas bill, council tax for our holiday home, birthdays and Christmas budget etc are added up to an anual grand total and devided by 12. This figure is then transfered each month to the save2then spend account so I always have upcoming bills covered.

At the end of the month:

Any money left in the workaday account or in the save2then spend account because I have eeked the payment from my workaday money by frugal shopping is transfered to my Rich Old Age Account LOL. I also transfer immediately any unexpected windfalls to this account and it is building up nicely. Over 10k :j