How to make Budgeting work??

Raquela

I am trying to do the envelope thing, but it is difficult as at the moment as I get my money at irregular intervals sometimes I can't take the money out of the bank to put it in the envelopes because I need the money in there for regular payments. But I still write the amount that should be in the envelopes which helps. And hopefully next month I'll manage to actually get the money in there instead of using debit card.

moz86

Im a big believer in the cash system. If you watch your cash physically go, you certainly think about it much more carefully! Its worked for me this month.

If I can make it through to sunday without spending more than the cash in my wallet, it'll be the first time I haven't used my credit card at the end of a month in over 2 years. So fingers crossed!

determined_new_ms

I think its a process that gets better with practice. I write my budget up before I get paid for the month, when I was in debt I paid what I had budgeted I could afford to bills & debt on payday so there wasn't anymore than I could afford left to spend. It wasn't easy to start with but the more I did it the easier it became. I kept a running total of what I had spent & what was left in my spending money. Towards the end of the month I had to make sacrifices - if I had bought an item of clothing at the start and then was invited out towards the end if I didn't have enough left then I'd have to say no. I write a meal plan & a shopping list for food, use mysupermarket.com to find the best deals and then if I find out there is an ingredient missing for a meal then its either substituted or omitted. All I can say is it gets better with practice.

Also I have months when I have a "spending diet" and try to spend as little as possible - nothing even (although I'm not that good at it!) apart from bills & essentials. Good luck

shellstar

The best way is to take a long, hard, and honest look at yourself, your lifestyle and your spending habits. It can take a little while but a spending diary may help.

Unlike others, for me, cash is my nemesis. If I have cash, I spend it. If I don't have cash, I'm incredibly disciplined, so I avoid cash payments and withdrawing money as much as possible. I keep a budget every month that I update just before pay day (and I keep a note during the month of things I'm committed to so I don't forget to budget, like evenings out, car tax etc.) and then it's a question of will, sticking to it. Things do crop up, but if I have to spend more on something I adjust the budget (e.g. petrol has cost me more, so I'll go out less, or I've spent more on a night out, so I'll make lunches for the rest of the month). Slip-ups happen, but you have to deal with them rather than say 'sod it'.

I started my budget 7 years ago and now have no debts and am well on my way to saving up for the things I need/want in the future.

Discipline is the key though, and not blaming anyone but yourself if things go wrong.

bikerman_2

I think the secret is to find out what works for you personally as then you're more likely to stick to it.

For me I have as much on direct debit as possible and then I can forget all about the bills. Whats left (excluding a small amount I save towards presents/Xmas/etc) covers food, clothes, going out and other regular spends - this amounts to ten pounds a day so I simply take out a tenner each day and try make it last - any surplus goes into a pot and its suprising how quickly it adds up and means I can go out, buy an item or clothing or go for a curry pretty much every weekend. Granted I don't have children to take into account but I guess my system would work in principal whatever your circumstances.

The beauty is that by withdrawing a tenner every day I know I can spend it all cos theres more coming tomorrow - if I took out £70 at the start of the week I'd end up spending most of it early on and then having to scrimp as the week went on and make myself feel miserable, this way I can actually save during the week knowing I can spend £40 on a curry on Saturday without feeling guilty and then it all starts again the following week!

Raquela

oh, the other thing I do is I don't have a set budget, I literally write a new budget for every month - partly because of my money coming in regularly. But it definitely helps to see how I did the previous month, and can tailor things accordingly to the new month.

dudley3012

it is so hard and I found that nothing worked for me until we truly had nothing and had to start.
Then it became addicitve.
We draw out cash at the beginning on the month and put it inot the drawer. It is in £100 bundles. The idea that each of these bundles is food, petrol, gas/ elec and sundries for the week. All change goes into that drawer if it is notes and another for £ coins, £2 coins go inot my sealed pot. This has worked for us. My OH and I will alwys think before taking out of the drawer nad it means that sometime we have money for a takeway or put more on the fuel pre payment for cold times, and if we have a good chunk left at the end of the month it goes inot the holiday pot or clearing a smaller debt.
So far we have chipped away a tall but two of the smaller niglly debts, cleared the gas and nearly the elec arrears and council tax arrears.
The bigger debts ar enearly all on a personally agreed DMP and on SO, we have other things on DD, like insurance and tunnel fees so they aren't to be worried about.
I am the only one working, my OH is self employed and money fomr him is sporadic.
It is amazing how quickly you adapt nad soon spending can seem very alien. I also became addicted ot Freecycle and selling on ebay.

SuziQ1962

Hi This is the post I was going to post (if you know what I mean) I have just started trying to manage my money-first month ,have sorted out 3 bank accounts one for all direct debits/standing orders,one for food shopping and debit card payments,and a saving account that I put a monthly amount in to cover annual memberships,road tax,birthdays,haircuts,xmas,clothing etc-this one has had a bit of a bashing with xmas present buying but should make up for it over the next few months.It helps me to see where my money is and I am able to move money from one account to another if necessary I have done a spending diary and am finding it a little difficult to keep within my budget for food shopping -so its on to old style moneysaving I think and hopefully will get better with practice.I do menu plan but sometimes due to lack of time we have to have a takeaway,but will try to plan better in future. We have had to add on 15000 onto our mortgage as we had run up debts on credit cards and overdraft,still paying off the £16000 loan we took out for the last lot of credit cards but now am going to put them all in a tub of water in the freezer so we can't get at them (can't believe I didn't learn from last time but hadn't discovered this brilliant site)
Hopefully it will work out and eventually we may even be able to start overpaying our mortgage to reduce the time and interest.Have started the sealed pot challenge and when thats opened will take my family out for a treat.
Other things I am doing-stopped kids having school food and they take packups-healthier for them and cheaper for me,getting our haircut every 8 weeks instead of 6 is going to save me £187.50 a year.
Am now going to try some of the advice offered and put monthly money in envelopes for shopping etc as when I use my card it is all too easy to overspend and when checking bank account it becomes very depressing :-(

mrsb83_2

I pay for everything possible with my debit card so that I can track what's being spent where.

I also write a brand new budget for each month as I get paid weekly so our joint monthly income is not the same every month. It also allows me to cater for things specific to that month e.g this month I reduced the overspend on our debts to pay for Christmas - we're still meeting our minimums, not getting in any more debt, and I have a set amount to spend. I also put less in the home maintenance pot so we'd have extra grocery money.

I keep a record of everything I spend but DH is rubbish at it. He's going to get 'pocket money' from next month so he's not withdrawing the odd £20 here and there with no idea what it's being spent on.

Also, when I'm halfway through the month I look again at the budget and see where we are. If we've overspent, I know about it and I can adjust the allowances or not piggybank certain things to make sure we don't break the bank.

Binky111

have your own account and do not put all your money in a joint account i think. and it is easy to throw food away because it has gone off but now when you go to buy food have in your mind what meal it is for and then you buy what you know you will want and not stuff that looks nice so you buy it but something else in your fridge does not get eaten and you throw it away and waste your money!!!