Where does it go?

meritaten

yes - did this with son and his OH who have a fairly decent income - yet dont seem to have any money left.
The key is knowing exactly how much is coming in and when! arranging direct debits etc so that they go out after the money comes in - (son was incurring charges when a dd was denied because it was set up for the day the money came in - but bank kept saying the money wasnt in! that was sorted by re-arranging the dd for two days after money came in.
then its keeping track of the money going out!
sorting out how much cash is needed for the week and taking only that amount out! (not trying to be too good here - be honest - include the occasional choc bar or mag.)
then yes - writing down EVERY PURCHASE for at least a week! and NOT cheating!
when working out the budget - allow for things like birthday pressies - cards etc - amazing how that can eat into your budget!
If you have kids - how much on average does your kids school demand from you? not talking school meals, bus fare etc - but the HIDDEN costs! The fancy dress day? £1? children in need? £1 - school photos? a lot of ££££££££££££s! they all add up!
Pets - not just the food is it? treats, unexpected trips to the vet? groomers?
You getting the picture hun? when setting your budget - its the little things you dont think about which trip you up! you only need an appliance to go kaput - and your budget is shot! especialy if you havent built in a continency fund!

Lunar_Eclipse

Seanymph wrote: »

I don't know if I'm in the right place - but I have worked out our standing orders and income, and really we should have money left over, but never seem to.

I need to know the next step to get it under control please?

Could it be 'irregular' items? I imagine you don't have standing orders for buying birthday presents, a trip to the vet or dentist etc. I would say these types of items (including food, petrol etc) total twice our regular standing orders bills on a monthly basis!

I suggest a monthly (family) budget, which includes *everything*. You'll soon see whether you really do have an excess of income v expenses, or if you need to cut back on spending.

I break ours down into house bills incl food & insurances, grooming (eyes, hair, clothes, shoes), transport (car, train, monthly amount put into virtual car maintenance pot for new tyres, MOT etc), activities/leisure & holidays, savings (incl Xmas, birthdays etc) & pocket money. If your assessment of your situation is correct, you include everything you should and stick to the budget, you will have money left over.

You could keep track of everything you spend, but you don't need to if you stick to your budget. For instance, if I ever want to see where I am on our food budget, I just look at my online credit card statement. Same for petrol etc.

BitterAndTwisted

In my own experience a proper worked out budget wasn't the main issue: I knew to the penny what needed to be paid bills-wise and when. For me, it was the drawing out of £50 in cash from the ATM and having none of it left two days later and not really understanding properly how that happened. Just a £5 lunch every day is over £100 a month, then count in the £2-odd fancy coffees, the magazine, the odd bag of crisps, a chocolate bar. And the essentials aka treats at Boots or Superdrug, and that's not counting the food-shopping and impulse buys which lingered in the fridge for a bit and then went in the bin. I shudder to think how much I wasted and I was no happier than I am now, and I have practically nothing to live on these days. The difference is I know where every single penny goes and I still have treats, just not all of the same ones.

charlies-aunt

Its a chore but writing it all down is the key to solving the riddle of how money just disappears.

Lots of great ideas and tips on the OS thread but self-awareness is crucial . . . keeping a price book, meal planning around what is already in your cupboards and what is on special offer this week can really help you bring down the cost of your food bill.

Pre-planning can help too - taking a snack, sandwich and drink from home is much more economical than buying readymade from sandwich shops.

Try to tackle one area at a time and gradually add in other suggestions and I'm sure that you will find a big difference at the end of the month

sunflower76

I'm a speadsheet fan so I use Excel to track our spends. I have dates going down the left hand side and my headers across the top are:

1. Homeware
2. Petrol
3. Hair & Beauty
4. Gifts
5. Clothes
6. Food
7. Cleaning & Laundry
8. Toiletries
9. Take Away Food
10. Pets
11. Entertainmnt
12. Misc

Each day totals itself up and has a range of colours to show me how good I was - red is BAD, Green is GOOD!

It's probably a bit OTT for a spreadsheet but Excel is what I did in my old job so I can produce pretty things (as well as pretty useless things! :rotfl:). At an instant I can tell what my overall spend for Jan was, how much was spent on petrol, how much on food and how many NSDs I had. I can also tell whether I am within the weekly and monthly budgets that I set for myself.

I don't include any Direct Debits or bills in this as that's recorded elsewhere and the only bit's I record to do with MrS are petrol and any cash he takes out are labelled Misc.

rolo-polo1965

I started a spread sheet at the begining of the year with lots of collums so i can allocate what each thing was ie groceries, pets, presents, petrol, entertainment

I am sure you get the picture. I then log all reciepts for everything brought with the date. I also have a colum for woopsies and then another for their full price so i can see what i spent s well as what i have saved. I plann on ading it up at the end of each month with a subtotal to see how much i spent. Oh i also have acolum for coupons so i can see how much i am saving

sunflower76

OH NO ROLO!!!!

Please don't encouage me to add more columns!!

FrugalLina

Hee-hee, I love other Excel geeks! I made one last night, very similar with the columns etc and I am looking forward to seeing how mine totals up at the end of the month.

One tip: if you want to access it at different places, you can keep it in Google Documents. I can now add to it at lunchtime at work now.

whiteguineapig

i see it from the other side lol
it never fails to amaze me how much money people spend on magazines/small bottles of coke or pop/chocolate bars /newspapers etc
(i work in a shop)

rolo-polo1965

sunflower76 wrote: »

OH NO ROLO!!!!

Please don't encouage me to add more columns!!

Lol

I find this works for me and is interesting.

I do it at work each morning whilst i am waiting for kettle to boil as i can't start work till i have had my first cup of coffee!!!