planning bills and money management?

Tink_04

Hi,

I've been a member for a while and with this site have managed some great things, stopping spending on credit, paying off my debt and aiming to be debt free in 2013! But im trying to manage my money and bills better and be more prepared for bills coming up and hopefully start to pay them yearly instread of monthly. I'm hopeless with Excel and things like that but have bought a diary and a calendar but was wondering how everyone else plans the bill year?

quintwins

my bills are a nightmare because my phone/internet bill is quarterly and my elec is 6 weekly or so, my t.v lisence is annual, the only way for me to manage mine is to keep a buffer in my account i do have a good idea of when they come out anyway and the only bill over my £200 buffer is my rent taht comes out of the 8th of every month

rising_from_the_ashes

Hi Tink - the best advice I've ever got was to separate things out, I now have:

• main bank account - my wages go into this and I've a couple of "personal" direct debits that come out of it. My cc bill is paid via this each month & I use it for cash withdrawals (not very many as I pay everything on the CC and clear in full each month)
• household account - set amount transferred to this each payday & all the household bills come out of it (don't ever need to worry about having enough money to cover them as it's all done on payday IYSWIM)
• "pots" set up (eg car, house insurance, pets, emergency savings etc etc) - transfer a set amount to each on payday

When the cc bill arrives, I check through and transfer money back from the relevant pot to my main account to go towards the bill (eg if I've spent £25 on pets and £20 on the car, I'd move these from each pot).

I didn't even realise my bank offered these (wish I'd known sooner!)

This is the 1st time I've ever tried to budget properly as I've always struggled to pay all my debts (with little left) and it was a panic when a big bill (eg car service) arrived that then set me back several months again ....it seems to be working so far!:)

Hopefully next year will be easier as I only cleared my debts towards the end of this year and some big bills are due early next year so a) I'll be a bit short still (although in a lot better position than I would've been without anything put aside) / b) I've been trying to put a bit extra into them each month than I should need to once I'm able to divide it out by 12.

Even if you're still clearing debts, I'd say it's a good way to make help with putting away things on your SOA that maybe only need paid annually as it's so easy to use the money for something else if it's sitting in your main account.
HTH:)

missladyannie

I also do a similar thing, I have 3 bank accounts, my wages go into my 'main' account and a few DD come out the day after payday, I then transfer money into a second account for 'out of synch' DD, like my car insurance and mobile phone and nursery bill, I then have a third account where my child benefit and wages from my second job go into! That way I know the money in my 'main' account is my own and I don't have to worry about any suprises!

determined_new_ms

rising_from_the_ashes wrote: »

Hi Tink - the best advice I've ever got was to separate things out, I now have:

• main bank account - my wages go into this and I've a couple of "personal" direct debits that come out of it. My cc bill is paid via this each month & I use it for cash withdrawals (not very many as I pay everything on the CC and clear in full each month)
• household account - set amount transferred to this each payday & all the household bills come out of it (don't ever need to worry about having enough money to cover them as it's all done on payday IYSWIM)
• "pots" set up (eg car, house insurance, pets, emergency savings etc etc) - transfer a set amount to each on payday

When the cc bill arrives, I check through and transfer money back from the relevant pot to my main account to go towards the bill (eg if I've spent £25 on pets and £20 on the car, I'd move these from each pot).

I didn't even realise my bank offered these (wish I'd known sooner!)

This is the 1st time I've ever tried to budget properly as I've always struggled to pay all my debts (with little left) and it was a panic when a big bill (eg car service) arrived that then set me back several months again ....it seems to be working so far!:)

Hopefully next year will be easier as I only cleared my debts towards the end of this year and some big bills are due early next year so a) I'll be a bit short still (although in a lot better position than I would've been without anything put aside) / b) I've been trying to put a bit extra into them each month than I should need to once I'm able to divide it out by 12.

Even if you're still clearing debts, I'd say it's a good way to make help with putting away things on your SOA that maybe only need paid annually as it's so easy to use the money for something else if it's sitting in your main account.
HTH:)

I do it very similar to this, although I just have 1 savings account where all my different savings go into each month on pay day but have a spreadsheet so I know what is in each *pot*. I save for xmas, birthdays, car & emergencies.

I would say that learning to be frugal and budget well has been something that I've got better at and improved on but it has taken me a while to get there. While I still had debts I was living hand to mouth and just throwing my money at the debt

with household outgoings I work out what we spend each month and this gets split between me & oh and we both transfer into this each month. I do the reconciling of accounts, looking for better deals, keeping our spending as frugal as possible. We're both happy with this arrangement as I'm better at it and enjoy doing it

rising_from_the_ashes

determined_new_ms wrote: »

I do it very similar to this, although I just have 1 savings account where all my different savings go into each month on pay day but have a spreadsheet so I know what is in each *pot*. I save for xmas, birthdays, car & emergencies.

I hope to get to this one day .... I was having trouble keeping track of what amount belonged to each budget (and had "raiding" problems:o:o when it was one larger amount, rather than several smaller ones:eek:)

I'm still very much a "work in progress" & learning to budget:) - hoping it'll mean I'm never in debt again!

Wellyboots6

Hey Tink,

I am wondering how to work it all out too. So far I only have one bank account, but I have worked out what will come out as direct debit each month for all my bills, and then whatever is left over I divide up into the number of weeks in the month and try and live off that per week. I withdraw it as cash and put it in to seperate weekly envelopes and save my receipts.

I am similar to you though as I have random bills turning up out of the blue and currently have no buffer and so I end up in a mess again.

Its very difficult to know at what point in the month to start the budget, or after paying which bill etc.

I am hoping practice makes perfect!

Good luck!

Miss_Poohs

I've been thinking along the same lines.

In 2011 I was fortunate enough to be able to clear lots of debts but unless I start to budge effectively I'm going to end up back to square so I'm intending to use the "pot" idea to run alongside my main current account.

I'm going to have to sit down and work it all out but it'll be worth it.

Good luck everyone.

Miss P

Wellyboots6

So is there something the banks that provide that can be used as 'pots' alongside your current account?

I am a bit more careful about withdrawing money from a bank as it feels more 'official', whereas if I try and set money aside at home it is too easy for me to dip in to

mi_jardin

I work with 2 current accounts, as previous posters, one for bills and one for everything else. I also have a slip of paper in my purse with my food budget on, and each spend is knocked off and I know where I am, anything left over is fair game or goes towards debt.

Miss_Poohs

I'm told the Halifax run an online saver account which you open with a £1. You can open as many as you like and rename each one for whatever purpose you intend. Once you get it set up you shuffle the money from your main account to which ever "pot" you want or vice versa.

I'm goin to give it a try - wish me luck and I'll let you know how I get on.

Mss P