Day to Day budgeting - your tips please!

calleyw

I use the spreadsheet part of open office which is free to download.

And it works and looks just like excel.

http://www.openoffice.org/

Yours

Calley

Nix143

I did a quick search today for a freeware version of a budgeting tool and found quite a few - but like all freeware/shareware who knows what to go for?

So, has anyone used software that ISN'T MSMoney that is any good?

Oh, and keep the day to day tips coming - somehow I managed to spend £2.37 yesterday which I had absolutely no need to! GRRRR!

Mrs_Thrift

Nix143 wrote:

Oh, and keep the day to day tips coming - somehow I managed to spend £2.37 yesterday which I had absolutely no need to! GRRRR!

What did you spend it on? Hey, at least you now know you didn't need to! It might be a little late to realise it now, but only for THIS occassion! Next time you're tempted by the same thing, try and remember how you feel today about spending that money, and hopefully it'll put you off!

Mental-Saver!!

Hello

This is my 1st post!! I have been reading with interest the past few weeks and have cut back on groceries, switched gas and electric etc, and have saved nearly £250 in past 2 months alone :eek:

Anyway, I use Quicken Premier for my finances, and have all my income entered on dates received, all dd's listed etc, so I know exactly what I have to the penny whenever I look into my accounts. I have just sorted this for the rest of the year, will all income and expenses added for future dates. Any excess grocery funds I have left is moved to a saving pot and am managing to save at least £50 a month into a high saver account. We live entirely on benefits as Im disabled and hubby full time carer, daughter also disabled. So every penny counts! We have money owing on credit cards which should be paid by the end of the year as I have switched to a low APR.

Thanks and hope you are all well this evening.

Mental-Saver!!

Justin_Credit

I recently bought MS Money 2000 Financial Suite online at e-Bay. It cost me £4.20 inc p&p, what a bargain! It works very well for me, I pay all of my household bills by monthly direct debit and have all these entered into the Bills section of Money, I then post them to the current account register a month in advance so that I can see exactly how much there will be in the bank for the coming month. Any spare is swept into my e-savings account.

For actual day to day spending I try to get a receipt for as much as possible but if not I make a note of it into a notebook for the purpose. I then enter this cash spending into my Cash account in Money on the same day as it occurs.

JC

Janeryan

Welcome Mental Saver & well done on the savings so far-I'm sure you will find even more good ideas on these boards to help you save even more money!!

Queenie

:beer: Welcome Mental-Saver!!£250 saved in 2 months is a fantastic start!!! Well done.

carpool72

I just use an excel workbook with a different sheet for each month and an overall budget based on the one Martin has for downloading. I am always refining it slightly, but I'm definitely more in control of my money since I've been using it. I've got a starting balance and current balance at the top, then a column for income and columns splitting expenditure into different budget items (ie food, car, clothes etc). There's a running total at the bottom and I've just added a budget and variance to budget line so I can see how I'm doing at a glance. I've entered all the money I know will come out every month. I don't use cards as I'm of the 'plastic money isn't real'variety - DH is paid cash so I split off the grocery money each week and pay the rest into the back to cover direct debits, then I keep all receipts and enter it in once a week. If no receipt, then I put it in my notebook or enter it straight away before I forget.

hth - it works for me anyway!

juliew6

Here are my tips on how to save on shopping expenditure:-

1)Check what's in your pantry.If you have enough baking ingredients to make pastry or cakes,you have enough to make Sunday lunch puddings,pies,quiches,pasties,cakes for in the week,etc. If you have lots of tins of vegetables,plus rice,you can make a homemade curry and rice.So don't buy shop bought products that you can make at home!
2)Buy big packs of toilet roll,like 9or12rolls,so they last months rather weeks.
3)keep small bags and bread bags for wrapping packed lunches,thus saving on sandwich bags from the shops.
4)invest 10p in a supermarket bag for life-if it rips you can take it back to the supermaket and have it replaced free of charge.Thus saving on buying tote bags.
5)Buy anything else you regularly purchase in bulk as much as possible,then you won't have to buy it for several weeks,or even months.
6)When you have too many eggs,milkand bread,make a bread and butter pudding with it.It can be frozen,if cooked in advance.
7)Buy your alchoholic goods from cheap places like kwik save-their stores might not be the prettiest,but you will find some canny bargains!
8) utilise any toiletries you've had as gifts-then you won't have to buy them for a while!
9)Utilise loyalty cards as much as possible.I have enough points on my Boots card to buy next Christmas's gift shopping!
10)Buy fruit and veg from your local outdoor market.If this isn't a viable option,go to supermarkets at around 5pm,where they do all the "reduced to clear" on the fresh food.


So there you have it-some of you will probably do some of that already,but that is my way of being shrewd with my shopping.I hope my tips come in useful to somebody.

exessexmum

We bank with the Halifax. If you bank online they will allow you to open up to 10 web saver accounts linked to your current account. I have 10, they are all named individually, "groceries", "fuel", "christmas", "birthdays", "holidays" , "car" etc.
Every payday I transfer the allocated amounts into those accounts, then as I spend on the current account, say £60 on groceries, I transfer £60 out of the grocery account back into the current account. Some of those accounts have cash cards, for example the fuel one.
We find it works for us, feels safer than having actual purses in the house with cash in,yet easier to see in literal terms than by using a spreadsheet IYKWIM? It's also nice to see the holiday and christmas balances go up through the year :-)

Amanda