Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Blackcats

Thanks for sharing your budgeting methodology - it's really helpful to learn how "experts" approach it.
I also use pen and paper as I find I'm more likely to keep things up to date if I can just grab my folder and pen rather than logging in etc.  I know many people are really successful with budgeting software.  Now that our income comes in at different times during the month I'm working with a main monthly household bills budget and then do a weekly 'what's what" mini budget although I'm still refining this system😀

Cheery_Daff

Thanks for explaining Foxgloves, I love hearing the detail of people's budgets! I do use YNAB software, which I am quite fond of - funny really as in many other aspects of life I am very analogue. I still have a paper diary, and am never found without a notebook for plotting and scheming 😂 I just enjoy having the budget all settled nicely in the software 😂

joedenise

Another who likes YNAB - it's just easy once it's set up - that's got to the be worst part.  I've actually got about 40 categories (pots) so it's pretty well micro managed but the money is all kept in a savings account with a reasonable rate.  All spending is done on a CC and paid off at the end of the month with the money taken from the specific pot each time money is spent.

Still use paper and pen but not for budgeting!

Tescodealqueen

Another YNAB fan. When they changed from one off purchase to monthly subscription I moved to paper for a while but much preferred the app so tried others but nothing worked as well for us so bit the bullet and subscribed. Works for us. Travelling is our thing so I often have 4 or 5 pots on the go for future travels as well as the more mundane budgeting so it keeps me focused 

PennysIntoPounds

I'm not one for anything resembling a spreadsheet but the zopa banking app is great for putting money in different pots (and you get different rates of decent interest depending on how accessible you need the money to be)

foxgloves

Thanks for all your comments about budgeting methodology. It is interesting that there are so many different approaches & preferences but all of them to achieve the same goal of living within our means & being able to pay down debt (which is very much how I started off) or to build up the security of some savings, which is my main focus now. It doesn't matter how we approach creating & maintaining our budgets, as long as they work for us. I agree that it is interesting to read about how other people manage their household finances. 
@Blackcats - I am glad you put the word 'expert' in speech marks! I do not regard myself as such in any way where budgeting is concerned. I have just found a method which works for us. My early attempts at budgeting contained some really rookie errors, but as with everything else, I think we learn from our mistakes, & realising why something was doomed to fail leads to an improved system because the problem can be designed out. Weaknesses can be  understood & changed into strengths. Ah, now  as a fellow public sector professional, you can probably tell I have sat in an awful lot of meeting rooms with flip charts bearing the heading 'SWOT Analysis', lol!
F

foxgloves

Afternoon Campers!
I am glad I saved indoor tasks for today as it has been rainy. It's felt much more productive to get on with those instead of grumping about not being able to get out into the garden. Today's budget-helping bits & pieces have been as follows:
*Sorted 3 loads of clean laundry & ironed what needed it.....could hardly believe this only amounted to a shirt, 2 dresses & a tablecloth! Result! Both for the ironing-hater & electricity use.
*Transferred everything to my new 'hospital bag'. Mr F delighted to have my previous very plain one as his holiday bag, as this means he no longer needs to look for one to buy.
*Picked sufficient strawberries for 2 sundae glasses, so that feels like free dessert. 
*Zero effort on main course too, as there is sufficient of last night's hot-pot to feed us again tonight.
*Baked a wholemeal loaf.
*Made tomorrow's packed lunch & breakfast.
*Cast off my friend's sock & cast on its pair. ANY socks are quicker to knit than those destined for Mr F's size 11 feet, so I am getting through these quite well & lots of the yarn was from my surprising charity bookshop haul, so am getting a few presents sorted for a good price too.
*Did slightly belated Monday morning budget updates which involved mostly grocery budget & Personal Spends, plus a transfer from the Savings Pots account. 
*Did a couple of surveys. 
*Mr F pinged from work to say there was a big pile of tissue paper packaging going in the bin & did I want it for my recycled wrappings stash. Have said yes to that, as it is useful for padding out boxes when posting things. If I found myself needing actually to BUY tissue paper, I think I'd have to ask for the fainty customer chair in the shop & a cup of hot sweet tea!
*Shopped a new notebook from home as I needed one & remembered I'd received a couple of nice ones as a gift. A few quid saved there, anyway. Also re-stocked bathroom cabinet with items from my toiletries stash.
*Still to do......strain the rhubarb & ginger gin I made a while back. Not money saving in the sense that I had to buy the gin, but it is more than the sum of its part when decanted into attractive saved bottles, gussied up with a label & ribbon & given as gifts. I had the sugar free, as it was the big bag which, along with plenty of other items, arrived damaged from that bad online supermarket delivery a couple of months ago, for which we were refunded. We always have fresh ginger in as I like a cup of ginger tea first thing in the morning & the rhubarb is from our own triffid-like supply. 
So that's my lot for today, as I head off to find gin-straining equipment.
Your frugal diary friend,
F x

Sun_Addict

I'm glad I'm not the only one who saves tissue paper, I have quite a stash, it seems such a waste to throw it away 😆

Adding a budgeting comment, it took some time before I found a method that works for me but finally seemed to have settled on one. I found the 60/30/10 rule quite a useful guide in the beginning when I had debts to pay off. 

milann

The budgeting techniques are interesting. I don’t record but do keep a close eye these days. It hasn’t always been that way 🥴

WannabeSaver4

Hi Foxgloves, Thank you for taking the time to write a really detailed answer. ;o) We have tried using google sheets, as you can save it to the home screen on your phone. There was a time when we were really good at putting it in after each transaction but perhaps we're aren't disciplined enough for that and many doing it once a week would be fine. I have been getting to gips with home organising and learning that some ppl like to organise in different ways, eg. broader categories work better for some people. We are I suspect broad categories type of financial organisers.
In the past we had a spend a little as possible attitude, with two LO's we simply can't live that cheapy, not because we are frivolous but the cost of living is now so much higher than it used to be and for obvious reasons caring for the little ones inhibits (my) earning potential significantly. I want to be around for there childhood, while not spending the whole thing worrying about money! 
We are now also living in a much more expensive area so it seems that everyone round us has money to spend, and although it probably isn't true that we are the only one watching the pennies, it can be annoying to constantly hear ppl in such different circumstances pratting on about fancy holidays when the choice in our house, is camping to a field in England, where the sun isn't guaranteed to shine.

While this is really pot calling the kettle black. I won't say it doesn't drive me mad- we both get paid at the end of the month, while we get three separate benefit payments which we are very grateful for, but they pay four weekly! Three times a month. This really means seeing the wood for the trees, really tricky. The only way that I could get my head around this was to set up a real life income account, where all income goes into and they we pay ourselves something to live on into the spending account, being paid twice in some months really really complicates this. I wish to government would allow you to choose to align the benefit income to say something sensible such as one payment!  Fabulously detailed answer, that has really given me something to chew on. I also am a pen and paper person. The ME saving website is great though I have always found the budgeting section to be lacking in real world detail. And not very helpful because of that. Which I'm sure would be a way they could be more of a blessing to others than they already are.