control

continualdiamond

How do you control spending??? ie budget.

Just updated my own copy of our spending (saved on pc) and can't believe what we've over spent on.

Basically we had a nice surprise on Fri, a cheq for £176 from our solicitors from when we moved house and then last night i won £49 (work lotto, 48 bonus ball is my #). So we were coming up with ideas on what to use it on, ie laminate floor for house, fix car up etc, just thinking of ideas really.

Though 5 mins ago those ideas went out the window when i updated our budget and discovered we've already spent the money. So when the cheq clears and i put my lotto win into the bank it puts the budget at level again.

Where so annoyed with ourselves. I know what we did wrong, as soon as we got the cheq we treated ourselves to a take away and took out some cash and i bought some craft things (i make cards).

Though we totally had no idea we'd spent so much money so quickly, i note down everything we spend and we've both looked back and shook our heads on what the money has gone on.

We did so well for 3 weeks, very tight budget and when just a little bit more money came in, we blew it

Any tips, so it doesn't happen again, where gutted

GirlRacer_2

My biggest mistake is paying for things with my debit card. As I'm not actually handing the money over it's like I've not spent it. I've started using cash for everything, even grovery shopping and I only visit the supermarket once a week.

There were so many debit transactions for Asda for the odd £10 or £20 that it shocked me.

onedayiwill

Agree with GirlRacer. Pay cash only.
Set yourself an amount you are are allowed, take that out of the bank at the beginning of month. When it's gone, it's gone.
Leave your debit card at home all month except for that one trip to the bank.
Works for me.

continualdiamond

Hmmm yes i think that has been our problem when i looked back over my spending diary. £7.51 at morrisons, did we really need what we bought, probably not.

Cash here we come.

postingalwaysposting

i agree with everyone else, use cash, when i used to spend on my debit card i could spend loads, but now i know that the £x in my purse is all i have and when its gone its gone then i tend to spend less

Dee123_2

The others are right about taking cash. Cards are too easy to overspend on.

I find Egg money manager very useful. Before internet accounts I never had a clue what I had/owed from one week to the next. Now I can check them (probably TOO often )and nip overspending in the bud before I end up with nothing to last me for the last few weeks of the month.

In supermarkets, once I've been round and get to the till, I look through the trolley and ask myself if there is anything there I didnt really need. There's always something I tell the person on the till that I've changed my mind about.

If you do need to use your cards regularly, perhaps you could ask to get the limits reduced? I use one with a limit of a few hundred so I cant go too far astray.