Spending diaries

camuk81

Doing better then me! Try feeding a family of 3 who don't eat together, childcare for child only does microwave not home cooked meals! OH eats very little due to gluten/IBS & fussy eater! Somedays it would be easier on my own sometimes!

david_hellier

..ukeuro wrote: »

Dear All

I am currently on a DMP.

I expect to be repaying my debts until 2015.

I have read alot about how spending diaries can help with budgeting money.

Please can anyone advise how spending diaries work, and how they have helped people? Is there a template I should use? I have never kept a spending diary before...but anything that might help me budget would be great....as I do struggle.

Many thanks

Plan a spending diary in 2012 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.

..ukeuro

Thanks so much for the advice and sharing your ideas!!

Started my spending diary yesterday.

Will let you know how it goes!!!

Got a feeling this is going to be a very very long month!!

Thank you!

camuk81

Think we all know that feeling, even Morrisons are advertising its going to be a long month!

lesleyvhalifax

Mich81 wrote: »

I'm putting £40 into my purse each week, marking on my spreadsheet where the money has gone. Then I can check at the end of the week that the money left over matches my balance on the spreadsheet. Any money left in my purse on a Sunday will go into my money pot, then on Monday the cycle starts afresh.

nice idea think i will do it myself

ladysparklexx

BlushingRose wrote: »

See, I think this is why we're not good at budgeting, as we haven't actually budgeted!
Not even sure how to go about it.
I is useless

Evening, I know that you are at the same stage as us dmp wise. This is our first 6 weeks of budgetting better, we have used the bugets that CCCS set out with us. Will let you know how realistic they are for us in a few months. lol

We did find that the takeaway on the way home from seeing family 100 miles away didnt have a column :rotfl:

LondonGirl252

I also use a spreadsheet and update it everyday, for me, I prefer to use cash these days so I can feel the weight of the spend by handing over physical money - cards feel like free money lol

I withdraw my budget for the week, break it down per day and any not spent moves into a savings pot of sorts to cover the more expensive days

I can account to the penny my cash thanks to my spending diary it really has helped cut down unnecessary spending

BlushingRose

ladysparklexx wrote: »

Evening, I know that you are at the same stage as us dmp wise. This is our first 6 weeks of budgetting better, we have used the bugets that CCCS set out with us. Will let you know how realistic they are for us in a few months. lol

We did find that the takeaway on the way home from seeing family 100 miles away didnt have a column :rotfl:

I think that's part of the issue. Cos we've started doing this in the middle of Dec, we've not really been able to start the month 'properly' and not taken out 'this much' for this and 'that much' for that. I'm hoping that's what we'll do next month, although we've got the MOT and Car Tax to find money for at the end of Jan, and neither of us are convinced that the car is going to pass

JanetAS

Thank you to shebangs for that great idea! I have just updated my spreadsheet and chosen colours to match my spends!
Red = definitely not necessary. Grey = one off spends. Yellow = newspapers and magazines. Green = Ok to spend (ie food, supermarket, fuel etc.)
Wish I'd thought of it! Thank you.