Budgeting help please!!

wigwam

Hi,
Well Im trying my best ( or almost my best ) to keep on the DFW pathway but again I've spent more this month than I planned.Firstly I've cut down but still have the odd splurge moment - nothing to extreme but I've learned that cards or cash are both difficult for me to manage. And I've done some extra work but the money has been swallowed up by my current account... or maybe it was me

So I'm looking for some advice from you lovely experts on keeping my money seperate so I see it differently in my mind - if that makes sense!!

So I'm thinking of moving my bank accounts around:
currently have 3 bank accounts:
Main account with visa debit: salary and extra work payments made into this account and most dd's out of account
Savings account with cash card: child benefit, maintenance paid directly to this account - generally withdraw as cash or have to move to account 1 if short as cannot do direct debits.

Extra current account with visa debit: No income but 2 direct debits for rent and mortgage, I move funds across every month to this account but as it is santander not as good at taking faster payments so got caught out a couple of times and would prefer not to use this accout for bills or salary.

The initial idea was to have all dd's from one account and have a cash account seperately but I kept miscounting and getting 2 o/d charges a month from both accounts when I had money in the other account :mad:


So - my thoughts:

Account 1: Main Income and all DD'S
Current account 2: Other income and perhaps should move these Savings account: Other income to move to current account 2

dd's to main account make one extra income only and therefore will not see this as "money" but as debt repayment fund...

I'm really stuck - does anyone have any ideas on how to best manage this?

Thanks

bargainbetty

I use two current accounts - one for 'operational costs' and the other for fun. I also have a savings account. My salary goes into one account, and all the bills, DDs etc come out of it, including a direct payment to the savings account. I know how much disposable income I have, so I transfer a chunk of that, plus my food money, into my fun account.

When the fun money is gone, it's gone. The money for the bills doesn't get touched, nor do my savings, unless there is an emergency.

Good luck

goodgirl80

I have two current accounts and two savings accounts - all with the same bank, all managed online.

Current Account 1: My salary - personal expenses only.
Current Account 2: Transfer lump sum every month from CA 1 to cover all bills. All household DDs, etc.

I use my savings accounts to put aside monthly amounts for car tax, christmas, etc.

Second Savings account - any 'extra' money on top of my normal salary to go to debt overpayments

As they are all with the same bank, I get pretty much all income paid into the first one, then I can transfer money around as I please!

wigwam

Thanks guys,
Both seem useable ideas, I'll have a play around over the weekend to see what I can do!

cloudcuckooland_3

I have two accounts - one for operational costs as bargainbetty says - these are all the DD's to keep the house and car going. I work part time and my working tax credit goes in and covers these. All my other income goes into another account (part time work, child benefit etc) which covers debt repayments and discretionary living expenses - I write the last lot down and keep track of them month by month. I've worked out a limit for each category (eg food expenses) that I can't afford to go over ( I believe this is called a budget!!). I had some help with focussing on this by going to whatsthecost.com which helps you put all your expenses into spreadsheets and adds up all your outgoings for you. I then try and downsize on what discretionary spending I am doing - looking on these forums really helps, eg going for a number of No Spend Days during the month and joining other DFW's who are doing that online.
Good luck - it's difficult to recommend what bank accounts will work best for you but i personally can't get my head round more than two!!

wigwam

cloudcuckooland wrote: »

I had some help with focussing on this by going to whatsthecost.com which helps you put all your expenses into spreadsheets and adds up all your outgoings for you.

Thanks - heading that way now to do some budgetting ahead of payday - I will stick to it!!

CH27

Pay everything into one account & have all the DDs going out of it.

Work out what you have left for the month & transfer it to the other account.
That way you can only spend what you have available.

Pee

If you have online banking, can you have several linked accounts - effectively one account but you can see the separate "pots"?

[Deleted User]

Do you know what it is/which bill/s it is that is/are causing you to miss calculate? Knowing this might help you to identify what needs to be changed/re-ordered. Take a look at all your DD's and other "expenses", and compare these with what you expected - check the amounts paid, as well as the billing date, and make sure these are both what you expected. Also, if you have been trying this method of having several bank accounts for a few months already then you should be getting a clearer idea of how long it takes to transfer cash from one account to another (and when the cash will be cleared in your account), although you expect banks to be fairly quick - some do take longer than others.

I find "fixed" bills are very easy to account for and keep track of and "variable" bills less so, and therefore have all DD's for fixed bills coming out of one account (Rent, gas and electric, TV lisence, etc), and all the variable ones, that can go up or down depending on usage (although I try to keep them as static as possible - but they do vary from time to time (water, mobile, home phone and internet, groceries etc) from another account.

I also found that making a list of when all DD's and any other payments are due - and check them off monthly on online banking (this is probably not necessary to do every month, but I have gotten into the habit of it now - but I imagine it's quite valuable when setting up a new budgeting routine)

Hope you manage to figure out a system that suits,

D9

wigwam

Thanks all - your advice is much appreciated - I will be debt free this time!
I think I need a better second account - Alliance & Leicester (now santander) freezes me out regularly and I've been offline for a month or so whilst waiting for new pins etc so not user friendly.

Good news - have been browsing and just found the budgeting and bank account forum - never knew it existed, so thats where I'll be for the next hour or so!!

rising_from_the_ashes

Pee wrote: »

If you have online banking, can you have several linked accounts - effectively one account but you can see the separate "pots"?

That's what I've got - a main account which my salary goes into & money is then transferred into account 2 which all my payments come out of & several "pots" for budgeting (car, pets, hols, savings etc). Is working well so far & haven't raided any of the pots (I try to think of them as any other payment and once the money's moved over, it's gone)!