Constantly going overdrawn

simplyswede

Thank you all for replying. Out of the £650, £50 usually goes straight into my savings account. Travel is £8.50 a week for my bus pass, but I usually get the tram over to my bf once a week, which is £4.40 return.

I realise I probably shouldn't have any trouble surviving on that amount of money...the problem is I tend to buy things to cheer myself up when I feel low. So if I budget all month because I'm skint, I then buy myself something (or a few things) when I finally get paid, get some nice food etc etc, and before I know it I'm skint again.

BitterAndTwisted - I've downloaded an app for tracking my spending, and so far it seems like most of it goes on food...I tend to top up a lot during the week.

Oh, and I live in Manchester

zippychick

As this has dropped down the OS board, I've moved this to Budgeting and bank accounts.


Hi, we move threads if we think they’ll get more help elsewhere (please read the forum rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com"]forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].


Zip

grumbler

simplyswede wrote: »

Out of the £650, £50 usually goes straight into my savings account.

It's a far too expensive way of 'saving' if you keep going overdrawn.
Do it at the end of the month instead if you manage not to get overdrawn.

martinnathalie9

It is very frustrating when you keep getting bank charges for things you thought you had sorted isn't it, and you are right to try and get on top of it as soon as you can.

There have been some very good suggestions to help you out. Something that really helped me, that I believe has been suggested, is to budget your monthly spending money as opposed to budgeting basics and necessities. I use a prepaid debit card to do this, I take out the money from my main account and pay onto this card only the amount I want to spend on things such as going out, food, shopping, leisure and so on. The card works like a credit card, except it is your own money you are spending, not credit. This means that the only money left in my bank account is to pay bills, and I account for any excesses before I transfer the money onto my prepaid debit card.
(Sorry I am not able to post links, but it is mycashplus.co.uk if you wanted to take a look for yourself)

This may really help you just until you get onto your feet with all of the charges and things, and it takes your attention (and therefore stress) off all of your bills as you instead focus on the much more manageable budgeting of your spare cash for the month!

I hope this helps and good luck!
Nat

eskbanker

Is the Nationwide account one of their FlexDirects (or can it be upgraded to be one)? Since it's often promoted on here as one of the most generous (paying 5% interest), it would be worth getting all of your money into the place that pays the most interest, an extra few quid a month might help make a difference!