Day to Day budgeting - your tips please!

[Deleted User]

I swear by ms money and use it at least every other day. I don`t download my bank statements as it is good for me to manually enter everything by hand as this keeps me focused and I can quickly pick up when I am overspending.

It really is essential to balance and reconcile the account with statements every month as it is oh so easy to let the spending train run away

I used a spending book constantly when my children were young and around the time the mortgage interest rate rose to 15% and it truly helped us to survive. That plus using envelopes for money

[Deleted User]

I just keep the exact amount in my current account to cover standing orders ect then transfer everything else into my High-savings account .I have regular savings taken out every month .I use a morganstanley card for everything and pay it off at the end of the month i have so far accrued nearly £60 in cashback this way which I get next March.
I rarely carry more that £10.00 in my purse as most of my spending in tesco's ect petrol is paid with my Card .I only use the odd bit of cash for a coffee at college during the week I can go almost through the month with this small amount .
Another way to save is to shop from your freezer or cupboards for at least a week a month that way you don't have too much food building up in your cupboards which doesn't get used .I also have a separate account that I put an amount in for my 'Happy Cash' This is for me to spend as I want ,either for going to the cinema (my favourite ) or outings with my grandchildren . When it mounts up in the winter when I can't get out so easily I use it sometimes for the odd birthday or christmas gift .
I start my Christmas Gift box on Jan 2nd every year, and add to it when I see bargains thoughout the year. It's surpising how things mount up over the year.
I get a cheque every year from my late husbands masonic lodge, and that is used to buy myself something that I have been after all year .It's like getting a chistmas present from my husband.
Money saving becomes second nature after awhile and its a case of re-use ,re-cycle, repair if possible in my house .

mah_jong

Another MS Money fan here.....over the years I have added categories and deleted them.... Gifts Christmas 2006 will obviously go in January..... My food one has several sub sections, including fresh fruit and veg, another being booze..... not to confused with the going out a night out section, !!!

My best move though was adding a 'purse' account, so now I 'transfer' money to there (instead of using cash withdrawal) and list what I spend as cash! Its got 3.67 listed at the mo and it will be correct!!

It gives your real understanding of your spends and thought you could decieve yourself, what is the point!!!

Oh sad person that I am!:D

BWZN93

I guess I just use my various bank accounts to do the work for me, I have my main account, which I get paid into, and out of this I pay my personal bills like credit card and next account, and is my general spends account. On pay day, I transfer my bill money into my bills account, where the various direct debits etc trickle out of during the month, and on OH payday, he does the same. That account is strictly for bills only, no withdrawals, and covers utilities, rent, and insurances. Ive also recently opened a joint bank account with OH for food spending, I transfer my portion of the food budget over into it as does he, so either or both of us can go shopping whenever necessary and use that account. I check this one regularly to see how much of the food budget is left - this account covers food, cleaning stuff, cat food and litter.

I then have two ISA's, one for 'house' saving, and one for 'general' saving. The house saving one is for saving to buy a house, or stuff for a house e.g a new TV (we havent really decided to buy a house given the cost down here so that will eventually be house purchase saving, right now its just random bits of cash to save up for house treats). The second 'general' saving account is where 'extra' money goes, like PIN money, saving up change etc and I guess is used for things like xmas, birthdays, and for emergencies (car blowing up, unexpected cat costs etc). I will eventually break these down further and have a savings account for each individual thing, like a holiday account, a xmas account, a cat account, and a car account etc. When I get organised enough ill withhold some more of his wages for his contribution to the house and general savings, but at the moment we are both trying to pay off our respective debts so saving is on the backburner, we just use our personal money to pay for things that arent essential.

I use the online banking every morning to check my accounts, to check the balances and whats gone through so I can find faults early, and also so I know how much is left.

I check the statements when they come in and file them away, then forget about that month!

I think I dont have the dedication to do spreadsheets etc and prefer to let the bank statements provide the hardcopy, as long as I know there is enough in each then I dont need to budget further.

Jo x

debtworrier

kittie wrote:

I swear by ms money and use it at least every other day. I don`t download my bank statements as it is good for me to manually enter everything by hand as this keeps me focused and I can quickly pick up when I am overspending.

It really is essential to balance and reconcile the account with statements every month as it is oh so easy to let the spending train run away

I used a spending book constantly when my children were young and around the time the mortgage interest rate rose to 15% and it truly helped us to survive. That plus using envelopes for money

I've tried to use MSMoney, but I ran into problems because I'm paid on the 26th of the month. The darn program didn't seem to be able to cope with this idea and so reported me as overdrawn for all of the following month until the 26th rolled round again. Can anyone tell me what I was doing wrong? (I went back to separate boxes with real cash in them + savings accounts.)