Managing money / outgoings etc

Pretender

Hi,

I am after some advice off other forum members regarding how they deal with their finances?

I want to be able to manage the following in the cleanest and sensible way:
Food, Fuel and other purchases
Household bills that are either direct debits or standing orders
Credit card repayments

Currently everything comes out of one account and is a mess but we have several dormant current accounts and we also have a credit card or two that could be used.

Household income comes into a Barclays Current Account but we also have a current account with Halifax and also Santander (along with a 123 credit card which will soon be cleared)

Would it be wise to have all credit card payments come out of the barclays account and transfer one lump sum to cover food budget etc so it reduces the mess in the barclays account?
Or transfer all credit card money to halifax, food and other purchases in one lump sum to santander and just have household bills coming out of barclays?

Using barclays for household direct debits and our insurance earns us extra a month with blue rewards. Santander could be used to manage fuel, food etc and earn cash back (although minimal) by stoozing...

Opinions?

Many thanks!!

pascal22p

I never work at the bank account level as I can't have a global view. So if it is a "mess" I don't really care. direct debits all over the place to comply with the requirement of each account. Most of payments are made using my amex or the joint account, so a bit of order on that side.

However, I do have everything centrally in a personal finance management software program (i am using home bank). There, everything is categorized. Supermarket, home, health, car, credit cards... I can follow each month or other period outgoings and incomes. I also have the total across bank accounts and credit cards.
Every regular payments are set up at the begin of the month so I can see what is available for the month.

grumbler

Pretender wrote: »

...
Food, Fuel and other purchases
Household bills that are either direct debits or standing orders
Credit card repayments

And what if a credit card is used for "Food, Fuel and other purchases"? Won't the amount be counted twice? What's the purpose of such accounting if not a budget?

trailingspouse

When you say it's a 'mess', what are we talking about? Going overdrawn unexpectedly? One person spending unwisely? Forgetting about big but important bills that only come around once a year?

The important thing when you are organising joint finances is to talk to each other. After that, things become reasonably simple. Set aside an afternoon, make a big pot of coffee, open a packet of biscuits, and get yourselves sorted. Hunt out a year's worth of bank statements, credit card statements, etc etc. Go through them to work out how much you spend on everything - rent/mortgage, insurances, food, fuel, utilities, the car, the dog, Christmas, holidays, council tax, mobile phones and other tech, everything. You also need to look at the amounts coming in. Your aim is to work out how much each item costs over the year, and then to get a rough idea of how that averages out per month (some things, like gas and electric, aren't the same every month, but getting a feel for the amounts will help). You also need to write down when each bill is due - eg the mortgage goes out on the 1st of the month, pay day is the 28th, car insurance is due in February. It really doesn't matter whether you record all this on some fancy software or on the back of an old envelope - the important thing is to do it.

Also, it's important to do it together. It's not fair on either of you if one of you is worrying about money and the other doesn't realise there's a problem.

Once you've done all of that you'll start to get an idea about how to organise the finances so that it works for you - some people like to have a joint account with everything coming in and going out of the same account, some people prefer to keep things separate but have a joint account for paying bills. Choose whatever works for you.

bobobski

I'd recommend attending one of the free YNAB tutorials on budgeting. I personally do use YNAB but I know a lot of people on here use other, cheaper or free, budgeting software, but whether you use any of these options or your own Excel spreadsheet, the key is - as has been said above - to work out what you're spending and where, what is coming in and when, and put it into some form of budget. The reason I recommend the tutorials is they help you get into the mindset - I was awful with my finances until just over a year ago when I started using YNAB, and it (along with MSE) has totally transformed my finances.

Good luck.

xylophone

It seems to me that for a couple, it is sensible and practical to have a joint account from which all household bills (gas/electricity/water/council tax/mortgage/ house insurance/life insurance) are paid and to use an account which will give cash back on as many as possible of such bills - examples are Natwest and Santander.

After that, consider other interest paying current accounts, cycling round etc as necessary.

Some need DDs, - where there is a shortage there is a workaround.

http://www.tescobank.com/savings/flexible/

Remember that couples can often double up on the benefits of these current accounts, for example a joint and two sole Nationwide Flex direct accounts.

No_6

Don't do joint account.
Just use another account that you both put money into,
one that pays if possible ?

ie Call it a BILLS account

simples