How do you manage your finances?

Gloomendoom

TrickyWicky wrote: »

Simple answer is that I don't manage my finances at all.

I have £0 income and health thats so screwed up I am unable to find work. I have at least 5 operations ahead of me which will require recovery time etc. Nobody in their right mind will give me a chance so there we go.

You'd be right if you said i was out of control!

Bummer! You have my sympathy... not that that is much practical help.

PenguinJim

My partner pays for almost everything. I just have to worry about having cash to pay for petrol and supermarket shopping (although she'll use her credit card if she's come with me).

I thoroughly recommend having your partner pay for everything, too.

marvin

bargainbetty wrote: »

I find it easier to have two accounts. My salary goes into one, and I have all my direct debits set up to go from it. I have another, which is used for my disposable income. I transfer the amount I have to play with into that, so I cannot accidentally spend allocated money (includng savings towards annual costs). If I have any left on payday, that sum is transferred into savings, and has built up a nice pot.

I know my household bills are safe, my savings are growing, and my fun money is mine. I've done this for 18 years, and it makes life very easy.

I have done this but the other way around I keep all outgoings (as best I can because it now goes into a club I need to DD's to get the interest) in different accounts (I have 3 others 4 in total at the moment to get all the benefits going )

So I have to move the money out of the incoming account to cover them elsewhere. This way if I have a disaster I have some safe money away from the payments. All the other accounts have OD's available on them so will not miss payments at least for one month while I work out the recovery plan

Gives me breathing space.

pollyanna24

I rely on my spreadsheets for me to know how much money I've got to play with.

I get paid different amounts each month depending on if I've done any overtime or if it happens to be a four or five week month when the boss asks me for my hours (I get paid by the hour and he still pays me by cheque).

These spreadsheets have all the normal DD on them, but also the big annual ones in the month where they are due to come out, so I always know how much I'll have (if I stick to my personal budgets that is - I have four categories where there is scope for to overrun my budget, me (this includes dinners out/alcohol/general frivolousness), my children, groceries and petrol).

I currently have spreadsheets done up to the end of 2015 with my regular hours on them. These can of course change if I do any overtime or I get a raise in December (which I am planning on asking for!).

amycool

I have always used a spreadsheet since I had my first job to track how much I spend.

Currently, my OH and I have £70 a month for spends (gifts to each other, nights out, coffees etc) and everything else goes into the 123 account. At the end of each month I work out the "profit". 50% of this goes into the savings and 50% to mortgage overpayments.

We have 6 months wages saved, which is never touched (meant for redundancy/illness/future maternity) and then the savings are mostly used for house stuff.

Every 6 months or so I work out the yearly average for each category and sub-category (e.g. Car and then petrol, mot, maintenance etc) so I can see how much saving potential we have.

The spreadsheet is updated at least once a week, including things on the credit card, as we use this as a debit card.

I've never actually budgeted anything, probably because I naturally spend as little as possible on everything!:)

Daisy-May*

one thing I have always found helpful is saving a set amount a month for example:

general savings (for car tax/fixing car etc) £80
Xmas savings £40
ISA £10

I have all of these savings set up to go out of my account at the beginning of the month as a standing order so i have no choice and know I will save.

For me saving e.g. £80 a month for my car tax etc is good as this total doesn't all go on my car so I end up with some extra savings as well.

I also do the following - I've renewed my car insurance and its £5 or £10 cheaper a month - this extra money Im saving every month goes straight into savings, as I didn't have it in the beginning so don't need it now

Hope that makes sense and helps a little.

Gavin83

From a practical viewpoint I have a spreadsheet I created to manage my finances. Each month I put my expected income on there (salary, left over money, ebay sales) and then list all my outgoings and make sure it balances up. This allows me to know what I can afford to save and pay off on credit cards. Naturally I give myself a weekly allowance and a general contingency fund for those unexpected costs. Has worked for me for the last 8 years.

I also have 3 bank accounts:

1) My main account. My salary goes in here along with my outgoings
2) My joint bill account. Me and my girlfriend pay equal amounts in here each month for fixed bills, such as rent, energy, council tax, etc. We have a bit extra in here just in case.
3) My joint dynamic bills account. Again, me and my girlfriend pay equal amounts in here and we use it primarily for food shopping.

Everyone does it differently but it works for us. We also earn similar amounts and have no children otherwise we'd need a different setup.

System

Regarding spreadsheets, i am absolutely clueless as to how to use them, though think it might be useful (currently i just have all my incomings and outcomings written down on a sheet of paper ), if anyone can point me in the direction of explaining how to use them i'd be most grateful

tealady

I don't have a clothing budget as such but what I do is have all bills as monthly DD. I have a small emergency saving pot (paid into monthly) as well. However with food I allocate a set amount each month, divide by 5 (rounding down) then live on that amount each week. That means for eight months out of twelve I have a weeks food money left over which I can use however I like (whether it is spent on stocking up, treats, or presents)

AnnaBeth

I have one account for salary and direct debits.
Have about 4 months net savings for emergencies.
Save monthly for annual bills, clothes, christmas, car repairs.
Have monthly fuel, food budget.
Keep decreasing budget for bills that I over Allocate funds for and the. At end of month transfer excess to a bill fund which I build up for unexpected bills or Bill increases
Have savings for maternity leave as well as a fund set up pre baby arrival.
Try to overpay mortgage where poss.
Have a fun account considering ditching in case it encourages spending.
Use a word document to keep track not up to speed with spreadsheets and like flexibility it gives.