Housekeeping money - am I stuck in a time warp ?

luvchocolate

I always draw a set amount out on Monday for food/leisure..if any left it gives me more to play with the following week. 
My Dad had to give Mum housekeeping daily..she was hopeless with money 

marycanary

From leaving home in the 1980s  until covid struck I always used a cash housekeeping purse.  At times it was the only money I had to feed the family, at other times it was a way to control costs to prevent overspending and help pay off debt.  I still walk around the supermarket adding up the cost of each item in my head so I know what the total will be at the till.  My mother has tins in the cupboard into which she placed cash for the household bills including coal and food plus other things I can't now remember. I think I must have learnt from her. 

I now use cards on my phone and a budgeting app that does the same job as the tins. I have thought about going back to cash as I have a vague dislike of giving away data. Although I don't know who would care that I have spent £19.43 in ALDI

MovingForwards

When I split from my ex and started over I used a cash budget, drew my money out for the week each Friday.

If I spent it all in a day, tough; I never did. Paying cash I spent less as I didn't like parting with it.

The following Friday I would see how much I had left in my purse, only taking out enough to top up to the figure I'd budgeted. The surplus I hadn't spent was moved to savings.

LunaCatty

We use a very similar system, albeit using an account with digital jars instead of physical money, for housekeeping, fuel and social spending. As we live very rurally it makes sense to have shopping delivered (fuel costs far higher than delivery) and I find I spend less online grocery shopping as I always do so after I've eaten and with a full list - less impulse purchases for us - which is why we use the app/card not cash ( a lot of bank accounts offering this now, for free). Each Friday we send the weekly budget over from the joint account which gets sorted into respective pots; once gone it is gone until the following Friday or any surplus at the end of the week gets popped into savings for bulk purchases.

ariarnia

TheBanker said:

She really struggled when my dad decided to take advantage of this new fangled invention called a Direct Debit, she just couldn't keep track of how money was being spent and lived in fear of a larger than expected bill emptying the bank account. 

im the same! we've got it set up so all the debits and payments into our savings etc come out as close to the first of the month as possible and when theres been one that's had to be middle of the month ive always checked the account religiously until its gone out. not logical at all but i don't like to do even a food shop until all the dd's have gone and i know whats left. 

poppy811

combination of rural living and il health means most of my shopping is done on line and therefore paid by debit card.  A lot to be said for using cash if you can, somehow more visible when it leaves your purse!

joedenise

If working with cash helps you manage then that is obviously the best way for you.  It really doesn't matter what others think it's your life.

I do everything with cards and by DDs.  I buy everything on a credit card and pay it off each month.  I use YNAB so that keeps track of how much I have in each "pot" and when I spend on the CC it gets taken off the balance for the corresponding pot.  It helps that I'm working a month in hand so to speak, ie everything I get in August goes into pots for September.  I only use cash for small amounts, for example if we go out for a coffee.  We probably don't use more than about £10-£20 a month in cash.

KxMx

ariarnia said:

TheBanker said:

She really struggled when my dad decided to take advantage of this new fangled invention called a Direct Debit, she just couldn't keep track of how money was being spent and lived in fear of a larger than expected bill emptying the bank account. 

im the same! we've got it set up so all the debits and payments into our savings etc come out as close to the first of the month as possible and when theres been one that's had to be middle of the month ive always checked the account religiously until its gone out. not logical at all but i don't like to do even a food shop until all the dd's have gone and i know whats left. 

I use a spreadsheet for budgeting, I list everything expected to come out and subtract it from my expected income.
The amount left I know I can spend as I wish, and at any point I know my positions for everything.

Floss

KxMx said:

ariarnia said:

TheBanker said:

She really struggled when my dad decided to take advantage of this new fangled invention called a Direct Debit, she just couldn't keep track of how money was being spent and lived in fear of a larger than expected bill emptying the bank account. 

im the same! we've got it set up so all the debits and payments into our savings etc come out as close to the first of the month as possible and when theres been one that's had to be middle of the month ive always checked the account religiously until its gone out. not logical at all but i don't like to do even a food shop until all the dd's have gone and i know whats left. 

I use a spreadsheet for budgeting, I list everything expected to come out and subtract it from my expected income.
The amount left I know I can spend as I wish, and at any point I know my positions for everything.

I do this too, and transfer my "housekeeping" monies to my Monzo account from the bills account my salary goes into.

ariarnia

KxMx said:

ariarnia said:

TheBanker said:

She really struggled when my dad decided to take advantage of this new fangled invention called a Direct Debit, she just couldn't keep track of how money was being spent and lived in fear of a larger than expected bill emptying the bank account. 

im the same! we've got it set up so all the debits and payments into our savings etc come out as close to the first of the month as possible and when theres been one that's had to be middle of the month ive always checked the account religiously until its gone out. not logical at all but i don't like to do even a food shop until all the dd's have gone and i know whats left. 

I use a spreadsheet for budgeting, I list everything expected to come out and subtract it from my expected income.
The amount left I know I can spend as I wish, and at any point I know my positions for everything.

ive got a spreadsheet where we track our long term (pensions and investments), medium term (mostly renovations atm) and monthly ins and outs. and we've got YNAB to track things on our phones when out about. but i still worry that a dd isn't going to go out or is going to be more than expected so still don't like to make any non essential spend until all the bills have gone out and i can see whats left/that it matches what i predicted. like i said. not logical.