Passenger in life

Poniesatemymoney

Thanks everyone.

I had a chat with the family and told them that we needed to seriously look at where the money was going each month. I guess everyone was just used to having whatever they wanted and I liked to provide that for them (including for myself). We have an extraordinary amount of waste in our household so that is also something we need to sort out.

Budget to be done today/tomorrow. I have been running around all weekend but I have Tuesday off as well to make calls etc which is impossible to do when hectic at work! I did a sort of mini-budget for the end of this month (so like 5 days worth!) but I acyuallyvtracked ky money each day and stuck to it. It feels like such a small thing but it's motivated me to stick to this for next 7 months and I'm excited to see how we will end the year!

Anoneemoose

Another vote here for YNAB. It would mean recording each transaction but it really does make you aware. And you can get the app which means each member of the family can log in on the go.

So if your kids are allowed to spend whatever they want, it might be worth giving them an allowance for frivolities. And then they can see it coming down as they spend. It would teach them about the value of the money they're getting. I really don't think it does them any favours to just spend without awareness. I appreciate it's what you've always done and can understand you might feel uncomfortable about changing things, but it will serve them well to know they can't spend without thought.

Whichever way you look at it, you are spending more than you earn at the minute, and I get the feeling that your goold salary has sort of led you into a false sense of security feeling. The good thing though is that it sounds like it won't take much to get you sorted.

Good luck!

Poniesatemymoney

Update:

So budget not gone quite to plan. I had a couple of items that I hadn't really factored in at the start of the month as I don't normally deal with them (such as servicing car/road and tax). So I will have overspent by 10% this month which is somewhat depressing.

I am yet to do the full 12 months so hoping it will even out next month (although I think my car insurance needs renewing in June/July - another expense I haven't checked yet!)

Still feeling like I only have about 30% of the information but at least I am not completely in the dark. And I am religiously checking my bank account every day (that's a great tip by the way).

More work on the annual budget this weekend!

enthusiasticsaver

It sounds like you are doing well. The information gathering stage takes a while and you may need to rejig the budget a few times as things happen.

As someone else said if you have been spending without any sort of control and not massively in debt your income must be high enough for there to be lots of ways to make savings.

Good luck in setting a budget. I could never get on with YNAB and resent paying for it so I use spreadsheets and check bank accounts religiously but very little time needs to be spent on everything once it is all set up. My spreadsheet has all the categories we spend on and income streams and I update it every one or two days. It takes a few minutes. I also separate our expenses into essential and non essential so if say our income drops when I retire at the end of the year we know where to start on cutting expenses.

enthusiasticsaver

I also agree with anonneemouse in that this will teach your kids a valuable life lesson. Spending with abandon on goodness knows what while someone else pays the bill is not good financial practice. Even if the things they are buying are for the family everyone, regardless of their income, should be able to know what money they have coming in and going out and be sure that the income outweighs the expenses.

Poniesatemymoney

Thank you; yes it does seem a lot of time spent on information gathering which is the daunting part (and you suddenly also realise how badly you have been going wrong ��).

Hopefully I can sort this by the end of the year and I am s I g super strict this month about using and "cushion" I will deduct that straightaway from next salary.

Also discovering that I can get by quite a lot with no spending other than travel. Feels good ��

Poniesatemymoney

Gah have just been reminded of another £200 expense on Wednesday! This is so stressful I really do not want to use more cushion money ...

Will explore money making schemes over the weekend!

Pixie5740

Before you can decide how quickly you can build up a cushion and how much to add to it each month it's vital that you work out your annual financial commitments and not just what you pay each month. Then you can see what you need to cut back on or what to add to and once you've figured that out then you can make decisions about the cushion. There's no point cutting too deep too quickly if you're going to have to keep dipping into your emergency fund.

enthusiasticsaver

You need to think of all annual expenses - car services, mots, insurance premiums, boiler service or whatever and have a fund just for these. I would also build a contingency/emergency fund and keep it separate from other savings accounts.

Poniesatemymoney

Update: I have tracked down the second 0% CC which was a smaller balance of £4.2k but discovered its due in September 2017 and NOT February 2018 like I thought! So numbers need a rejig.

That coupled with the other 0% CC of £9.5k due in July 2017 means my CC debt is approximately £14k. Gulp. I did not realise it was so much! Toying with the idea of taking out another 0% and doing a balance transfer? Thoughts?

Budget needs work. I am away all week on a business trip which means I have zero time to do anything outside of work. Mortgage needs sorting by the end of the month (still not done) and yet again it is 4am and I cannot sleep. It's no wonder I am so tired all the time.