How do you do it?

jimmy*c

I was about to post a current SOA but I thought "what's the point.. I know where I can/need to save". It makes me think.. why can't I seem to be able to stick to budgets? Must admit, alcohol is a bit of a soft spot this end

How do you guys stick to your budget? Will power? Barriers? What?

uncreative

You Need A Budget. If only there was a fantastic bit of software/app that helped you change the way you think about budgeting and spending....*

Seriously, give YNAB a try for a month. Thinking about your budget before hand, setting it, then checking you have the budget in a category before you spend is the key here.

* PS I know I am a massive fan but I am not affiliated with YNAB in any way!!

jimmy*c

I've downloaded the trial and set it all up - Like I say, I know where to cut down and it would leave me sitting pretty with prospects of a debt free date (as of today) 21/09/15. The thing I'm struggling with is actually sticking to it. I leave my card at home during the work day to make sure I don't spend, but in the end it all goes wrong once I get home.

uncreative

Can you narrow it down to oen thing or is it spending in general?

Like, do you get home and load money onto a gambling site? do you go online and buy computer stuff? clothes? gadgets?

Its down to plain old fashioned will power. I am not sure you have actually hit rock bottom yet. Everyone needs an impetus to change.

For me it was identifying where I was going really wrong. The debts I had (£38k) suddenly got too much for me and I had to do somethign about it. The check and balance of YNAB knowing that if I have budgeted £50 for entertainment or £400 for groceries and if I go over that then I need to "rob" money from something else (that is already set at a lower level) means you take a few knocks at the start, get it wrong and go over, then start to learn from your mistakes.

Fmess

I pay towards my debts on payday and then must survive on what I left myself until the next payday. I have one emergency credit card that I have a list of acceptable items I can use it for (unexpected vets bills, car repairs wtc) and then I don't deviate from that (that's the willpower bit). I focus on what I think my life will be like when I have no debt and that seems to keep me on track.

spot3

second bank account for spending? This seems to be the only thing that works for me at the moment. I pay myself my spending money weekly into that and the other card never leaves the house. It's a bit easier as if I run out of money it's only for a day a week, rather than a week at the end of the month.

YORKSHIRELASS

Hi. I often see a soa on here and wonder how accurate it is. You can't do anything with your finances until you know exactly how much comes in and where it goes. Down to the penny.

This is ultimately what stopped me spending, the realisation that I didn't actually have the money to spend in the first place and having to balance my spreadsheet made it real.

I am bad with money and I think I always will be, must be my personality. I like a challenge though and I allow myself a small treat fund ever month which I try to stretch as far as I can.

If you had, say, an alcohol budget and kept track of how much of that budget you had left would that help do you think?

enthusiasticsaver

There is a clue in you saying that leaving your card at home means that you do not spend during the work day but it all goes wrong when you get home. Is this spending online through to boredom or unhappiness maybe? I have always found that keeping to a budget is much easier when you are dealing in cash. In the old days when money was very tight for us we would work out the monthly expenditure, put all bills on direct debit (monthly if possible unless it costs more), put a certain amount in an emergency savings account, pay credit card bills and then divide the rest into 4 and draw out cash at the beginning of each week to pay for food and petrol and other miscellaneous spends. Why not try that and forget about the card altogether except on one day of the week when you draw out your cash spend? You then tend to think about what you are spending more.


Avoid internet shopping on impulse and think and research before you buy for at least a couple of days and then you may realise you either do not need it or could get it cheaper elsewhere.

FireWyrm

Willpower and utter horror at the sheer amount of waste I was pretending didnt happen every month. Once you have a structured finance system and you know to the penny what was spent and on what, you can see categorically (in the case of YNAB, I mean that quite literally) what you have been overspending on. Once you have that information, you can formulate a plan and then all you have to do is stick to it.

There is no magic. Honest.

Bublin1

I also think you're overthinking the debit card at home thing...its having the opposite effect that you'd hoped for.
Its like not eating all day at work and then coming home to scoff down 2 pizzas and a whole cheesecake. What was the point of starving yourself all day???

Categorising your spends and badly wanting to change your debt situation will curb your spending.

andyfromotley

you're right to a degree Jimmy. I am yet another YNAB convert as i have found that it suits me in that i know ALL of the time that exactly how much i have to spend. I find so far that this has given me a real focus on trying to not overspend and a proper realisation that if i overspend on x it is going to must come out of y. There is no 'extra' money. If i overspend i WILL increase my debt, it had already got to 23K and one day i would just run out of credit. It was the inevitable end game of my spending habits.

So all the smart budgeting and moneysaving in the world won't solve it unless you accept that you CANNOT spend more than you earn. To solve the problem you just have to spend less. I'm on the early part of this journey but i am determined that is how i am going to live my life now. And it really is a mental thing not a financial thing. I had many years when i earn a pretty large salary, still overspent. If id earned £1m a year i firmly believe that i would have spent £1,050,000!! I am now on a much reduced income but determined to live within it!