keeping track of spending

clareb2010

Hi all,

Just wondered how you track your spending? We are on a dmp with CCCS and I would like to make sure that we are not spending to much on food etc. We are not OD and are managing well with money so far!

Is a spreadhseet the best way and anyone got a template?

Yes i am being lazy but you lot are great at helping

need to get DH to tell me his spends every day as he seems to be "giving up" smoking every day but still manages to stink like one ha ha!

Tixy

Some people just use a notebook they can carry with them. A lot use spreadsheets - eager learner has a couple they have made available to people - see here https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/238575 and https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/391856. Other people use things like www.spendingdiary.com (think thats the right address) or apps on their smart phones etc.

Decluttering

I write my spending into a Diary each day, along with a note of how much I have available to spend. Depending on the budget, I reset the total at different points and keep a note in brackets of when I will have a new budget as such. It looks a bit like this;

Clothing - £40 / £50 (1/4/2011)
Travel - £26.60 / £30 (26/2/2011)
Miscellaneous - £3 / £10 (26/2/2011)

I hope that makes sense! It works better for me than a spreadsheet that I forget to update

david_hellier

Plan a spending diary 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.

orchid2010

I do a combination of spreadsheet and carry around a book in my handbag in which I write down all our other spending i.e food etc. I then have a good look at the end of the week to check that unnecssary spending has not crept in.

On my spreadsheet I list all our DD's & Standing Order for each month (including our debt repayments) and then I can see how much we have left for food etc.

Clarie_2

I have different accounts for different things: wages go in to the main account.

Then out of that goes a lump sum for house stuff to the house account (rent, tax, bills come out of this by DD a few days later, food comes out through the month).
2nd lump goes to the debt account (standing orders to credit cards and loans come out of here, and over payments)
3rd lump goes to annual savings account (for things like car tax, MOT, which come round once a year)
4th lump goes to specific saving things, emergency fund - like holidays etc. Not that this has happened much since the debt crisis!

what's left in the main account is then used for petrol and general living - all budgeted! Anything left over in this at the end of the month goes into debt account for overpayments.

This way I can always check my main account and I know what is in there is for spending. And if it's not in there, I can't spend it. And it's the only card I carry on me, so I can't accidently use money from the other accounts.