Budgeting, Payments and other fandangley things...

~evanesco~

Evening DFWers!!!

I need a bit off advice (again :rolleyes: )

I'm getting myself in a mighty kerfuffle. We've got money coming in all over the place, and going out all over the place, and I really need some help managing it all in a DFW way.

All the household bills go out by DD, expect the council tax, which I pay monthly on the 1st. They go aout at different times in the month. The rent I pay by BACS 4 weekly. Other stuff (as in debts) I pay by Bacs 5 working days before the due date. Except 2 are standing orders, weekly, and 1 door collecting agent, again, weekly.

Our income is even worse!!

Every 2 weeks we get some housing benefit, then weekly on a Tuesday we get Child benefit and maintenance payments, then on Fridays we get tax credits. Some Child Benefit goes into my account, and some into my partners. Tax credits, same again, except the amount I get goes into a different account from the one which the Child Benefit goes into. I get paid my wages on the nearest working weekday to the 28th of the month.

Is it best to try and get all DD's to go out at beginning of the month, since they all go out of my 'main' account, with the exception of my partners loan. Then I could transfer the amount she needs for her loan straight to her account, since we use that money in there exclusively for shopping, this keeps our shopping budget, on budget.

There's not alot I can do about the rent situation. I pay that when I get paid, or I get a sub from my wages if the rent is due and I'm not due to be paid for another 2 weeks.

Help?!?!

Evans. xox

milliejon

Hi! Have you got access to online banking? I'm much the same as you with money coming in and going out on different days, but I've set a spreadsheet with it all on. I check my account online every morning before I go to work so that I can spend the rest of the day not worrying about what the account looks like.

roswell

set up 2 accounts, 1 for DD`s to go out of, put money into this for the value of the DD`s then you know most of the bills are covered, if possible put anything that is paid online through thsi account as well, use the second account for cash bills and budgeting eg shopping etc.

Xbigman

Do you use any software, like MS money? Or a spreadsheet? Both can help.

If you are struggling to keep track of two accounts have you considered doing the opposite method of jusy having one joint account with everything in one place?
It might also help to cancel some direct debits. But only cancel those that don't save you money and which could be paid manually with online banking. IE The water bill doesn't give a DD discount and is paid in arrears si is pointless as a DD.
Regards


X

chocolatefish

My advice would be to choose one income source that you use as a baseline. i.e your monthly salary. You can work out the dates that you will be paid on and from that try to map all your likely income / expenditure for say, a year, going from salary to salary. Do it by pen and paper first, then try to stick it onto a spreadsheet if it's easier. When you do that you will get a clearer idea of your income / outcome patterns over the year.

Then, for each salary-to-salary period, work out how much your known expenditure is going to be in that period - all bills etc. This tells you how much of your income you need to set aside to cover these.

We have:

1 x joint salary account for all income to go into. Discretionary spending such as groceries, food etc also paid out of this.
1 x joint bills account that all direct debits are coming out of for bills etc. Each pay period we transfer enough money from the salary to the bills account to cover all direct debits for that pay period. We know roughly what we need to have in the bills account becuase we have mapped all our expenditure in advance.
1 x joint savings acount for anything left over.

Does your partner need a seperate account? I've found that joint accounts simplify things a lot and minimise the money swapping to be done. Also, MS Money helps a lot!

~evanesco~

Thank you everyone for some great advice. My partner does need her account, since that is the one we use ony for shopping, and as I said it keeps us on budget. I use online banking, and will use one account (at a seperate bank) for savings, theres about £140 a month going into that one. My main account, where the bulk of the money goes.....

I've opened a savings account online. Whenever money goes in, minus what is going out that day/the next, I plan to transfer the balance into the savings. That way, when the big bulk comes in at the end of the month, the day before, I can see what is left and move that into my other bank to save it. That way I can't get at the money in my usual, impulse way, since I've requested no card for it. I think this will help.

Evans. xox