Money just dissapears....

bigmaz

Hi MSE friends

Just wondering if I can get some good pointers on how to be better with our money. It just go's, we have a decent enough disposable income, about £1300/m. Thats got to cover everything after our bills, so still need to buy food, petrol, clothes etc with that. Over the past month I have been keeping track of our spending. The real tracking started at the start of the month, when I got paid. Its mental how everything just adds up. I think complacensy settles in as soon as you get paid, in my mind I know I have £1300 budget to spend over the month, which shoulds a decent enough amount, so a bit more relaxed with the spending, and before we know it its all gone. I need to train my mind just not to spend, and spend smarter. Just wondering what other ppl do to spend smarter, but still enjoy their disposable income? We do not ever go on holidays, as we never have money to save. But other ppl with less income are able to do holidays. I know its totally my fault and every month I think "ok, this time we will watch our money" but never happens :P

Scorpio33

What I do is work out how much I can spend and have a decent standard of living, and put the rest in savings when I get paid.

That way, I will never touch what goes into savings as I can't see it in my account.

It also means should any emergencies come up that need paying for, I already have the cash available...

Any

I can already see one problem - you are spending knowing you have £1300 to spend. It's the mentality. It doesn't seem you are in debt over your spending so you obviously add up in your head without realising and don't go over.

So what you need to do is to put money away as soon as you get paid for your holidays/emergencies/new car, and start a month with mentality "I have only £900 to spend".

I was like you - now I put away £200 a month, and do not even think about the money that are away, and still manage to spend all that is left - but the £200 is stashed away. It's surprising how quickly you can get used to the new mentality.. To the new number in your head.

Scorpio33

Any wrote: »

I can already see one problem - you are spending knowing you have £1300 to spend. It's the mentality. It doesn't seem you are in debt over your spending.

So what you need to do is to put money away as soon as you get paid for your hoidays/emergencies,/new car, and start a month with mentality "I hve only £900 to spend".

I was like you - now I put away £200 a month, and still manage to spend all that is left - but the £200 is stashed away. It's surprising how quickly you can get used to the new mentality..

Great minds think alike...

building_with_lego

Get your savings allocation put away the day after payday so you don't think of it as 'disposable'. Then follow my current favourite money tip, which I read somewhere on here recently: Divide your monthly disposable income by 5 and spend one lump of it each week. You will always have money left over as there are no more than four and a half weeks in each month. Then you can save that money too

PasturesNew

If you were single and on the dole, you'd be getting £70/week to pay for your bills and everything. If you say £30/week is bills, that'd leave you £40/week for everything. Why not start by trying to live on £40/week + cost of getting to work. Once you've done that for a month you'll start to realise where you're wasting money and can re-budget accordingly so you get a life -and- to save.

Sugardonut

I was quite similar, but in january i downloaded a statement and worked out how much we spent each week of the month. We were spending silly money and didn't have much to show for it:mad: Credit card debts,no holidays, frequent cries of 'i've nothing to wear'!!

I worked out a budget, giving us £100 a week each spends. That gives us money to spend at work and covers us for quiet weekends. I also now have money going away into a savings account every month. We use this if there are any big nights out of misc spends we need to account for, but for some of the year it's holiday or christmas presents funds.

I'd never go back to how i was before, i'm paying off my cc debts rather than just paying the min payments, and i actually have confidence that i can afford a holiday every year. Far too much money getting wasted on taxis, takeaways and magazines etc before- what a waste:money::money:

Sort out a budget, and give yourself some flexability so it doesn't seem like a punishment and you'll stick to it.

HeadAboveWater

I used to have the same problem as you. Best way that works for me is to work out a budget, then do everything in cash.

For example:
£1300 per month
Say £800 of that goes towards essential bills/direct debits/standing orders etc
So that's £500 left for 'stuff' including food, treats, fuel and so on
£500 divided by the number of weeks in the month (5) = £100
(I'm saying 5 because it happens every few months, and when there's only 4 weeks you'll have an extra weeks £££ )
The £100 lift in cash on say a Friday, and that is to last you for everything until the following Friday when you get your next weeks allowance.

And keep on with your spending diary. You need to see exactly where your money is going to know where you can cut back.

EDIT:
Exactly what building with lego says!!!

bigmaz

Wow, just refreshed the page and seen all these replies thank you so much for your tips. Some really good ones there, I like the idea of splitting it into 5 weeks.

We are the same Sugardonut, nothing to show for all the money we spend its not as if we go out a lot at weekends. Joys of having kids, hehe!!

I really do have to change my mentallity. I am going to work out how much we have to spend for the rest of the month, take a bit off it for savings and then split the rest into 3, and see how we get on till the end of the month, having these allowances each week.

pinkteapot

I budget using an Excel file, where I track our spending. We decided that of our disposable income, we would spend £x and put £y in savings each month. Therefore, each month, the Excel page for that month just says we've got £x to spend (not the full amount of our disposable income). As I add spending made, the total available drops.

Unlike some others I don't move the savings to savings as soon as we get paid. I tend to leave it there until later in the month, just in case there's a disaster that makes us go over budget (i.e. spend more than £x). This part depends on your mentality though - if you know that you'll spend the extra, put it away at the start of the month so you can't.

For a few months at least, record all your spending. You may be surprised at where some of your money's going, and it'll make you think more about what you're spending.

Gra76

pinkteapot wrote: »

I budget using an Excel file, where I track our spending.

This is exactly what I do for our budgeting and it works wonders. It's amazing seeing how much we spend on 'junk' every month. I've managed to cut it down significantly since doing the spreadsheet. It's really highlighted where we're spending and that makes it easier to put things into perspective.

What you think you're spending and what you're actually spending are two different things. When it's down in front of you in black and white it can be surprising to see where it all goes.