counting the pennies till payday

wannabehermit

Bublin1 wrote: »

freebyfifty or anyone else, could you tell me where you found your spreadsheets or give me some idea what they looks like. I really want to start tracking every penny i spend - my problem is that my office is in the middle of a shopping high street (yep, you know the rest!) and i spend regular small amounts that i need to cut back on.
Thanks.

Cherryjack wrote: »

I would find this usefull aswell..:-)

Mine was just one that I've drawn up myself. (Did finance at college and worked in cash offices so am quite familiar with spreadsheets anyway).

I've done it on google docs so can access it anywhere at anytime. I've basically got on one side my income and on the other my outgoings. Re outgoings I have 4 colums - one for what I pay each time I pay it and then 1 each working it out for weekly, monthly and yearly.

I then work out what my surplus is each week/month/year.

HTH

Venusflytrap

Good ideas all round. What I have is:

My main current a/c
A joint a/c for all household spends
A back up a/c to hold future personal bills (CCs, gym, mobile etc)
An ISA for savings
A joint savings a/c for our projects (gear for our music studio, instruments etc)

Each month a SO transfers savings to my ISA and joint savings a/c; my share of household budget to the joint account; pending personal bills to my back up account and money left in my personal a/c is for me to spend or save some more! :T

My husband and I are on p/t incomes and though we pay a lot in rent (live in London), we somehow have enough beyond each payday. Also helps that we do not buy what we cannot afford - learnt that from my father. In hindsight, he wasn't so horrible.

hummingbird

wannabehermit wrote: »

Snap! I get quite itchy the last few days of the month waiting to add it all up!



That's one thing I love about Natwest. Payments show up immediately so there's never any surprises when you've forgotten about something only for it to show up a few days later when you've spent what was showing as being available. DH used to get caught out on his old HSBC a/c a lot like that.

That's interesting - my a/c is First Direct which is run by HSBC! Also have an account with Halifax, not sure how good they are on this. Anyway, now i've started treating each debit card payment with the same due care and attention as a cheque it won't be a problem any more:A

Bublin1

For the first time in my life i have sorted my finances into different accounts and it's the best thing i could have done. I love this board.

Below i have added the approx balance of each account to date.

Current account 1 - Wages paid into and direct debits come out of it. Everyday spending.
Current account 2 - I make deposits into it for car repairs, car tax, household repairs and hopefully will build up enough to pay off car insurance in a lump sum. £360.
Current account 3 - This is where i transfer Paypal money into and use it for days out and presents (bithdays/christmas) - this encourages me to make sure i put something up for auction every week. I divide what i make into all my accounts excluding a/c 1. £160
Saving Account 1 - long term savings. £1800
Savings Account 2 - Any big spends/holiday fund. £390
Pension
Savings tin 1 - coppers and 5p
Savings tin 2 - £2 coins and anything i sell cash on Gumtree (this is rare though)

freebyfifty

Bublin1 wrote: »

freebyfifty or anyone else, could you tell me where you found your spreadsheets or give me some idea what they looks like. I really want to start tracking every penny i spend - my problem is that my office is in the middle of a shopping high street (yep, you know the rest!) and i spend regular small amounts that i need to cut back on.
Thanks.

Cherryjack wrote: »

I would find this usefull aswell..:-)

I am so sorry I never got back to you. The thread fell of the first page and I never looked for it again.........I'm sorry

I use an Excel spreadsheet which is on my Microsoft Office package or I know Googledocs has a spreadsheet too.

Googledocs is probably better coz you can access it anywhere where you can log into your google account.
Mine is on an excel sheet saved onto my computer and basically I'm scr3w3d if my laptop craches :eek:
*rushes off to save spreadsheet to googledocs*

curlytop12

daniboy wrote: »

I check my bank account daily using nectar.com so get points for checking!!:)

could you explain this for me please?

david_hellier

freebyfifty wrote: »

I am so sorry I never got back to you. The thread fell of the first page and I never looked for it again.........I'm sorry

I use an Excel spreadsheet which is on my Microsoft Office package or I know Googledocs has a spreadsheet too.

Googledocs is probably better coz you can access it anywhere where you can log into your google account.
Mine is on an excel sheet saved onto my computer and basically I'm scr3w3d if my laptop craches :eek:
*rushes off to save spreadsheet to googledocs*

There are some free MSE type spreadsheets at www.d-an-g.co.uk

moneymakestheworldgoround

Just ordered your budget book David.

Take a look on ebay guys - for £1.99 you get the little book and details of how to do it on phone or computer.

chumbasmum

Yep...I do it as well..

What I also then do, is divide the 'amount left' by the remaining days until pay day and have an amount per day. Then if I don't spend that amount i give myself a big pat and add it back ito the pot and recalculate the next daily rate and have a great feeling as the '£.. per day' goes up. It's truly addictive...if a bit nerdy.

morganedge

vintagegirl wrote: »

If i am very careful and have no fun

This bit stood out to me.

Well done on the budgeting, but....