how are you organising yourself for 2011

alfiecat

hi everyone
just wondering how you are all going to organise your budgets for the year ahead.
i have read numerous tips on here but get a bit confused on how i physically manage my money. For example i know how much i spend each month on say car expenses and haircuts, but how do i organise my money so that i keep it seperate from other spends. do you all have lots and lots of accounts or do you have a savings account and perhaps keep a written account of what the money has to cover. I am notoriously bad at managing my cash flow and have got myself into numerous scrapes at not planning for spends such as mot.
any tips would be welcome...

pinkarsenalprincess

I organise myself by...

1. Having an account that is solely for house bills
2. My own personal account for spends (including petrol/mobile)
3. An ISA to build up a little savings pot for annual spends (e.g. car insurance/MOT)
4. I keep a spreadsheet with all spending and debt repayments

This year I am intending to...

1. Use one of my numerous notebooks to record all the money going in and out of the joint account (as well as continuing with spreadsheet)
2. Withdraw my spending money each week and stick to this (something I keep trying to do and failing miserably at!) :rotfl:

shebrett

Hey Alfiecat, if you are OK at managing the day to day money then maybe it would be a good idea just to have one extra account for the big bills. Sit down and work out how much you need throughout the year for each of them and then put that much money in a separate account if you have it. Or work out how much it is each month (total cost of bills for the year divided by 12) and then transfer that much into the account on payday before you spend any of your wages on anything else. Then just pay the bills as they come up using only the money in the new account.

If you're not sure how much some things will be then take your worst case scenario estimate and use that so that you'll definately be covered.

Lemon_Tree

hi, i seem to have accounts for allsorts, mostly the one off bills by type eg insurance etc are saved together, and car costs are in another and such stuff. All the household bills go out of one account so we just make sure there's enough in there and 'forget' about and then what's left is mine to spend, all £20 or so of it
i feel that if i hadn't got different accounts for everything and saved monthly i would never have survived this DF lark

BOGOF_Queen

I just have one current account, however I keep a spreadsheet of all my income and expense for each month. I know what I will spend on the mortgage/insurance/food/credit card bill etc for that month (OH pays some of the other bills) - what is left over gets transferred to my savings account on payday - try to put away 10 to 20% of my income. Then when I know I will have a biggish bill to pay, for example a car service, I will have the money set aside for it. This works for me ( I do the income and expense spreadsheet for 12 monthsi nto the future so can see what is going out when for the next year) but everyone has their own way of budgeting - hope this helps someone.

Kellyjelly27

I have an account for 'fun' which covers spends, mobile phone and petrol, one for bills, one for nursery costs, and a separate one where at the end of each month, the balance from the fun account goes in. This works, but I could do with a way of managing those larger costs - perhaps another account.

alfiecat

thanks everyone for your tips - have a couple of accounts at the moment but i think i need to be tougher on what goes in them and what that money should be used for. i bought a nice shiney new diary today in which i am going to follow the getting organised for 2011 thread where i plan where my mot is due etc so that there should be no unpleasant suprises!

Mozette

Work out your bills and spends as an annual figure, then divide by 52/12 or however you are paid; put that amount (and if you can round up for emergencies) into a seperate account and use that account to pay your bills, and not for anything else.

Quenastoise

I have a spreadsheet that lists all our income and expenditure on a month by month basis.

I also have various bank accounts:

- the main account for the current payments
- account no. 2 for long-term expenditure (like a new car)
- account no. 3 for utilities bill (gas/electric is paid by DD but water is quarterly)
- account no. 4 for annual bills - car and house insurance as well as AA and car tax all fall due in September so I put a bit towards that every month
- account no. 5 for Christmas and hols
- account no. 6 for my personal spend

I try to transfer a bit every month from account 1 to numbers 3 to 6, no. 2 is made up of two years of annual bonuses and any savings that we manage

david_hellier

The real function of a budget and spending diary is to prevent overspend. The encouragement of overspending by the banks is the main problem with the economy, and they will look for ways to perpetuate this, for example by the introduction of contactless cards. The complete elimination of paper money is their long term aim so we as consumers must pay hawkish attention to exactly how much is available to spend.

One of the best ways to tackle this is to use the weekly subtraction method. Firstly work out all your income. If your income is monthly then divide this by 4.33, this will give you your weekly income. Note it.

Then work out your monthly essential outgoings, but exclude food (more later). Divide this by 4.33 to give you your weekly out goings. Note it.

Take the outgoing figure from the incoming figure. This is the weekly Start amount available to spend on anything else including food.

Get any little notebook ( a spending diary) and write the Start figure in it at the start of the week. As you spend or withdraw cash deduct it as you go. Try to get to the end of the week with some left in it and carry this forward to the next week and add it to the new Start figure.

Using this method ensures you do not overspend. I suggest you include food in the Start figure because the amount we spend on it can vary widely. My personal experience shows allowing a specific amount for food is impractical, however, it's up to you.

This method also requires you to effectively ignore your bank balance, because it is meaningless on a day to day basis. What you should see is it increasing steadily.

Also remember to include any OD charges, interest or other fees in the essential outgoing list, otherwise overspending will continue.

Other top tips: stop using credit cards for further spending and make FIXED repayments, never the minimum.

I have an excel spreadsheet which can work out the Start figure if you PM me with an email address.

Wishing you all a happy new, prosperous, debt free New Year.

Dave