Need help with budgeting

Confusedbybanks

Hi, my husband and I are having trouble budgeting. I get paid monthly but he gets paid weekly. I pay the monthly rent and most of the household bills at the start of the month which leaves me with barely any money left and then he pays me back rent money each week for the rest of the month. From the spreadsheet I use to keep track of bills we should have about £800 'spare' each month to cover food and any additional expenses so theoretically we should have some leftover for a few little luxuries like a trip to the cinema every now and then. But we are barely managing to get by each week. Can anyone recommend a budget app that would help us keep better track of things? Thanks.

Willing2Learn

I use YNAB, and it helped to turn round my life on a financial basis. From being perpetually in debt, I am now a saver with zero debt. It is very popular with MSEers.

Lots of people on MSE also use (in no particular order):
MS Money
Yolt
Emma

I just want to add that you are obviously not using your spreadsheet in a way that helps to budget. You should not have money disappearing like you do. Have you tried the MSE Budget Planner spreadsheet for Excel?

dreaming

Several years ago I set up an Excel spreadsheet which I still use - with a few tweaks along the way. But regardless of how you record your income/outgoings, it sound to me more a case of cashflow being the problem. It seems from your post that the majority of your bills are paid at the beginning of the month effectively using up most of your income, which you are then "topping up" with your partner's share each week. Could you move some of the payments further into the month, and stagger them so that it is more balance. So, for example, you pay the rent at the beginning of the month but the other bills on the 21st of the month. This would mean that you would then have more of your monthly income left, and your partner's contributions would not be so far in "arrears". Most utilities allow you to choose/change the payment date, and although it might take a little "juggling" for a month or so, this would soon settle down. If you could get ahead of your bills (so to speak) it might even be worth having a joint account for bills, into which you both pay weekly. Again, it would take a little bit of thought and probably "overpaying" for a couple of months. Hope this helps, although not sure if I have explained it very well.

molerat

It does not matter what method you use but if you are not accounting for every penny coming in and going out, which would seem to be the case here, you are going to fail. You just need to find out exactly where that "£800 spare" is going.

Willing2Learn

molerat wrote: »

It does not matter what method you use but if you are not accounting for every penny coming in and going out, which would seem to be the case here, you are going to fail. You just need to find out exactly where that "£800 spare" is going.

I don't think the OP has budget categories for all their spending (categories for groceries, luxuries and 'additional expenses')

@OP - You may find it helpful to head over to the Debt-Free Wannabe board and post up your Statement of Affairs (SOA). We may be able to help you set up proper monthly budget categories...

Mnd

I agree that you would be better off on the dfw board. This is standard fare on that board. But I will chip in my feelings, although I know other people think differently. I think you should lump all your money together and manage it as one account. You are married, and it wouldn't occur to me to pay my wife rent.

Confusedbybanks

Thank you everyone for your suggestions. The budgeting apps look really helpful and I'm hoping I can move some direct debits around so they don't all come out at the beginning of the month. It's been a very stressful, tearful day realising that I really need to make some changes to get on top of this so thank you again for your help and suggestions. I've posted on the dwf board as well so hope to get some good advice there too. Many thanks to you all.

Mnd

I don't think you have posted on the DFW board. I don't see it

Confusedbybanks

Thanks for noticing. Not sure what happened. Hopefully it's worked this time!

julicorn

Another vote for YNAB here as well, absolute game-changer. There's .a 4 month free trial as well, plenty of time to figure out if it's for you.

older_wiser

Willing2Learn wrote: »

I use YNAB, and it helped to turn round my life on a financial basis. From being perpetually in debt, I am now a saver with zero debt. It is very popular with MSEers.

Lots of people on MSE also use (in no particular order):
MS Money
Yolt
Emma

I just want to add that you are obviously not using your spreadsheet in a way that helps to budget. You should not have money disappearing like you do. Have you tried the MSE Budget Planner spreadsheet for Excel?

after reading this post i was curious about some of the apps you mentioned so i downloaded emma on ios its great i can stop logging into the numerous bank accounts to see my balances and it sends me notifications when payments are made. As i'm happy with Emma i'm debating whether to look at YNAB after reading comments praising them hmmm