2015, my year for proper grown up budgetting

Ken68

A simple analysis book from Staples is all you need. And by writing down and separating your expenses will alert you to waste. Holidays, xmas and birthday presents , some kinds of food and drink are not essential, and a good old fashioned brainstorming session with the family will let you know what you're in for. Good luck.

kathrynha

colsten wrote: »

What is the AER of that?

It's currently in a piggy bank, but will be transferring it monthly to my account that pays 3% that I never touch.

FireWyrm wrote: »

So, what method are you going to use for budgeting? I can recommend https://www.youneedabudget.com. You can try out the software for 34 days. I've been on it for a year and some people much longer. Almost everyone reports good results. I've leveraged us from -£1500 OD every month to +£6000 in a year. YNAB would seem to fit your requirements and is an updated zero budget method which is probably what your mum used combined with penny pots for different purposes.

Ken68 wrote: »

A simple analysis book from Staples is all you need. And by writing down and separating your expenses will alert you to waste. Holidays, xmas and birthday presents , some kinds of food and drink are not essential, and a good old fashioned brainstorming session with the family will let you know what you're in for. Good luck.

I'm doing an excel spreadsheet. Have downloaded one and have edited it to suit me. I'm a computer geek, so actually found it quite fun to do.
Lots of linked sheets separating the different categories. Like my mums book, but on my computer.
Challenge is going to be getting hubby totally on board

nappy501

Hi,

I would like to join you. I am in my 50's and have always been rubbish with money. I try initially and then the rest of life takes over and before I know it , there is not enough money and my debts start rising.

The saying is, 'Crazy is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results'. So I aim to put in the initial effort and change what I do.

I really want to try the piggy bank system. I am hoping in the very near future to do Martin's budget again to see where I am at, at the moment.

From reading all the threads, people do not have 14 categories like on the budget planner. So my plan is:

1. Do Martin's budget planner.
2. work out all the regular direct debits and standing orders.
3. work out all the annual payments.
4. work out an amount for Christmas, holidays, big purchases.

At the moment I have 2 current accounts, 2 saving accounts with Santander.

Normally, my income goes into one current account, and everything comes out of there, so I never know how much spare money there is, if any. The other current account is not used unless I want to write a cheque, then I tranfer the money across from the other account.

I don't really use the saving accounts as I don't save.

My hope is after the budget is done to open a basic cash current account, with no overdraft, for the things that I need with cash. so then my income will go into one account which will feed the other accounts and all the bills and standing orders will still come from there.

The only bit I can't get my head around is my income comes in in bits. Working tax credit, child benefit and my wages.

I am just trying to work out how to subscribe to this thread and I shall keep you updated with how I get on.

nappy501

Well over the past few evenings, I have done Martin's budget planner. It didn't take as long as I thought as I have done it before.

I have then gone through and pulled out all the direct debits and standing orders. I have left those in the main account. I have worked out the cash payments per week/month and annual bills and then big events.

I am just waiting for the bank current account application now.

enthusiasticsaver

How did everyone get on with their first full month of budgeting? I found it really concentrated the mind when recording every penny.


Previously I would withdraw cash and just draw out more when it had gone but this time I recorded every spend on my phone even if using cash or credit card so you can see at the end of the month how much you have actually spent overall. It enabled me to save £1k into my new investment portfolio so I was pleased with that and I had a surplus of just over £600 to go forward to February.


I got hubby onboard by just transferring a lump sum at the beginning of the month to his work expenses account and asked him not to use the joint current account. Worked a treat especially when I said that the surplus would be going towards holiday and home improvements for the year!! Also started a xmas 2015 saver account.

nappy501

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

How did everyone get on with their first full month of budgeting? I found it really concentrated the mind when recording every penny.


Previously I would withdraw cash and just draw out more when it had gone but this time I recorded every spend on my phone even if using cash or credit card so you can see at the end of the month how much you have actually spent overall. It enabled me to save £1k into my new investment portfolio so I was pleased with that and I had a surplus of just over £600 to go forward to February.


I got hubby onboard by just transferring a lump sum at the beginning of the month to his work expenses account and asked him not to use the joint current account. Worked a treat especially when I said that the surplus would be going towards holiday and home improvements for the year!! Also started a xmas 2015 saver account.

Well done!

Zerdush

That was exactly my problem, last year my wife told me to do some budgeting. We didn't know where our money went, we just spent.
As a software developer of course first thing I had to do is finding a software to easy up the task, excel didn't cut it, I looked to web sites, used good old Microsoft Money but couldn't find a feasible solution after 3 months. My wife wasn't impressed
Then I told her that I could develop an application better than all these, and worked about 9 months (weekends and evenings) and built something of course she wasn't impressed again as after a year we still didn't have budget, but now I'm using what I built for last couple of months, and it was good. I've made it public, still early stages but give it a try.
Two major features:
1. Security, app doesn't ask any personal information, when you upload statement it only gets date/description/amount and delete the rest, you can even manually remove account number before you upload statement. (I was shocked when I try to find an application and some of them asked my online banking password :O)
2. Application uses tags not categories, so it is really flexible, ok you can't to accountancy with it but you can have many different views, for example you can say how much money spend on car, and how much of that car cost is for holiday eg.

Give it a try please, it is here:
Oppps as a new user I can't put the link here so message me if you want the link I'll reply back.


Thanks

nappy501

Hi Everyone,

Just to update you on how my year has gone. I spent most of yesterday going through Martin's budget planner and checking various items on the my statements.

I am very excited to say that during the year I haven't been overdrawn once. Yeh, yeh!

All the accounts have what they should have in them apart from two. My 'major purchases' account which covered holidays, Christmas, birthdays and big home purchases, had about £45 instead of £1700.

However, my main direct debit/standing order account had about £700 over. So I am about £1000 short, but there are a few months before any money is needed from there.

Looking through the year, the money has been used when small appliances have broken, and money was used to decorated DD's new bedroom. So I think I have done really well.

To stop this happening again this year, I have opened another savings account and split into 'major purchases' and 'events' Birthdays, Christmas and holidays are going to be in 'events' and everything else in 'major purchases'.

I normally find Christmas really stressful, worry about when my money comes in to start buying food etc. This year was amazing. The cards were bought and sent beginning of December, it was so wonderful. I felt really chilled out, what a difference, knowing there is enough money.

The task I was hoping to start this year was to actually start saving money. However when I finished Martin's budget planner, I had £2.28 left per month. So I was hoping to save a lot more money, but I have set up a monthly standing order to pay £2 to our local Credit Union.

I have never been a saver, so if anyone could point me at good threads to look at. It may seem really easy to you, but I actually need the idiot's guide to saving. It needs to be laid out like the 'piggy bank' system, so I can follow it.

Kynthia

I think if I only saved what was left I wouldn't save. I transfer out an amount to save each month and then try to only spend what'd left. Then just before payday if it looks like I'm going to overspend and enter my overdraft I transfer back out enough savings to cover things. This only works if your savings account doesn't penalise you for withdrawals but I deal with this by having two savings accounts. One is for long-term savings and that rarely gets touched and has the better interest rate. The other is for short term savings which covers in year large purchases like holidays, insurance, car service plus extra savings for unknowns. At the end of the year any extra in here is used for a treat or moved into long-term savings.

nappy501

Kynthia wrote: »

I think if I only saved what was left I wouldn't save. I transfer out an amount to save each month and then try to only spend what'd left. Then just before payday if it looks like I'm going to overspend and enter my overdraft I transfer back out enough savings to cover things. This only works if your savings account doesn't penalise you for withdrawals but I deal with this by having two savings accounts. One is for long-term savings and that rarely gets touched and has the better interest rate. The other is for short term savings which covers in year large purchases like holidays, insurance, car service plus extra savings for unknowns. At the end of the year any extra in here is used for a treat or moved into long-term savings.

Thank you for that. I use a credit union account for my savings, because it is not too easy to get the money out. I shall think about opening another savings account for short term saving.

Now it is cold, I am really thinking about getting the last of my windows double glazed and my van won't last forever, so it worries me that I am not saving towards these things. I only have my mortgage as debt, for the first time in years. I don't want to take on debt for a new vehicle or for home improvements.