Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

KajiKita

You have very good ‘antennae’ for scammers I think …
Thank you for sharing the detail - we all learn something from it.

KK

Cheery_Daff

Lovely @foxgloves can I ask a question? You often talk about your Big Budget Day - am I right in thinking you do this in an actual paper book?? I am thinking of n experimental switch from software to paper, and wondering how you go about eg keeping track of savings pots on paper, core budget spending, what's in which bank account. 

Would love to hear all about it. I've read your thread since the start and can't remember if you've been this detailed, and my searches aren't helping! 

Obviously I realise it's a commitment yo write out details so please don't bother if you don't have time or inclination - I will continue trawling the archives!

foxgloves

Hi @Cheery_Daff,
Yes, I'm sure I've covered this somewhere, but this is my 2nd diary, so it may have been in the first one. 
I do all my budgeting in an A4 notebook known here at Foxgloves Manor as 'The Money Book'. I write out each monthly budget on 27th of the month - payday - or as close to that day as I can manage & that's my Big Budget Day. I also have 3 Excel spreadsheets:
1. Household bills arranged by month so that I can just take off the overall figure for each month.
2. Savings Pots. We have 10 of these so they are simply listed along with the amount currently held in each one & an informational column simply consisting of my target figure for each Pot. The total ££££ for the Savings Pots needs to balance with the savings account which only holds Savings Pots money. If it doesn't, then there's an error (a handy cross check)
3. Personal Spends. Divided vertically so we have half the spreadsheet each. Monthly Personal Spends amount entered on Big Budget Day plus any unspent funds to carry over, then we simply log any money we use so we keep within our Spends budget (obviously this is important to us as reformed but previously endebted fritterers).
So on Big Budget Day, I check all my figures are up to date, nothing outstanding & distribute any underspends from the previous month. Then down to the nitty-gritty of The Money Book:
I rule off the previous month & write in the new one. My 1st line is always "Balance of current account on 27th of the month".
Then I write in commitments as deductions, one per line, going through that month's outgoings from the bills spreadsheet, grocery budget, milkman, Personal Spends, anything I need to include that particular month i.e piano tuner, fresh fish box, or it could be anything I need to include depending on what we're doing. Then I move onto deductions for savings including the Car Fund & premium bonds, etc, plus charity donation. Ensuring I have about £230 left as a buffer zone, the remaining money is divided up between our Savings Pots - sometimes they all get a bit, mostly I prioritise according to need/specific plans. I transfer the money to the Savings Pots account then update Spreadsheet 2 with the new amounts for each pot. 
If I spend anything from the buffer zone, which I often do for small miscellaneous items where it doesn't seem worth transferring funds across from the Savings Pots, then I simply log it in the Money Book to keep my budget updated.
Actually, @Cheery_Daff, I'm going to stop.now, in case this isn't actually the information you were wanting from me. Hopefully it will be, but if not, do get back to me.
F 

foxgloves

A pretty decent day here on the whole - relaxing & companiable, cats popping in & out looking for snacks & fuss. Budget-friendly efforts:
*A no-spend day.
*Entered a competition
*Garden pickings: Courgettes, blackberries.
*Leftover BBQ will feed us tonight. I just prepped a bit of couscous & stirred in the remaining smoky charred veg which now looks like it came from an expensive deli!
*The blackberry vinegar I started earlier this week is now dripping through the trusty jellybag.
*Mr F did triage of both freezers & announced that we have lots of food for September.
*I did the gathers on the tier for my maxi-dress & managed to get it sewn on & the seams zigzagged. Next task will be slightly gathering the 3/4 length sleeves & doing the binding.
And that m'dears is my lot for today,
F x

Humdinger1

Thank you @foxgloves for the scammer details!  I agree, they are getting more sophisticated and if an unknown caller rings, I just say hello in a cold uber-English way and insist on knowing who they pretend to be before informing them that I know it's a scam.  We went through a spate of 'callers from MS' about weird signals from our Internet. I used to ask if the signals could be coming from the ironing board, as we had no Internet.  Not true,  but they all hung up in record time and without the least ceremony, not even a cheery farewell.  Always a pleasure to read about Foxglove Towers; I've been overtaken by events recently so posting less. Will update later.  Onwards and upwards love Humdinger xx 

Cheery_Daff

foxgloves said:

Hi @Cheery_Daff,
Yes, I'm sure I've covered this somewhere, but this is my 2nd diary, so it may have been in the first one. 
I do all my budgeting in an A4 notebook known here at Foxgloves Manor as 'The Money Book'. I write out each monthly budget on 27th of the month - payday - or as close to that day as I can manage & that's my Big Budget Day. I also have 3 Excel spreadsheets:
1. Household bills arranged by month so that I can just take off the overall figure for each month.
2. Savings Pots. We have 10 of these so they are simply listed along with the amount currently held in each one & an informational column simply consisting of my target figure for each Pot. The total ££££ for the Savings Pots needs to balance with the savings account which only holds Savings Pots money. If it doesn't, then there's an error (a handy cross check)
3. Personal Spends. Divided vertically so we have half the spreadsheet each. Monthly Personal Spends amount entered on Big Budget Day plus any unspent funds to carry over, then we simply log any money we use so we keep within our Spends budget (obviously this is important to us as reformed but previously endebted fritterers).
So on Big Budget Day, I check all my figures are up to date, nothing outstanding & distribute any underspends from the previous month. Then down to the nitty-gritty of The Money Book:
I rule off the previous month & write in the new one. My 1st line is always "Balance of current account on 27th of the month".
Then I write in commitments as deductions, one per line, going through that month's outgoings from the bills spreadsheet, grocery budget, milkman, Personal Spends, anything I need to include that particular month i.e piano tuner, fresh fish box, or it could be anything I need to include depending on what we're doing. Then I move onto deductions for savings including the Car Fund & premium bonds, etc, plus charity donation. Ensuring I have about £230 left as a buffer zone, the remaining money is divided up between our Savings Pots - sometimes they all get a bit, mostly I prioritise according to need/specific plans. I transfer the money to the Savings Pots account then update Spreadsheet 2 with the new amounts for each pot. 
If I spend anything from the buffer zone, which I often do for small miscellaneous items where it doesn't seem worth transferring funds across from the Savings Pots, then I simply log it in the Money Book to keep my budget updated.
Actually, @Cheery_Daff, I'm going to stop.now, in case this isn't actually the information you were wanting from me. Hopefully it will be, but if not, do get back to me.
F 

Ooh, this is exactly the type of thing I was after, thank you! That gives me a good picture 😊

So do you track your spends (eg from the groceries budget) in the money book too, or is that in the household bills spreadsheet? 

I currently use YNAB, and have done for years, but it's getting quite expensive, and I want something Mr C is more likely to at least look at, even if he doesn't fill it in. But I've got so many little categories in YNAB, because it's so easy to switch between them, that I'm thinking it might be easier to condense to a smaller number of bigger categories, so I'm interested in how others do it, and how people track categories without an app (i used to use a cash book- might dig out an old one and see how i did it back then!)

Thanks again 😊 Will do more pondering on my own diary to avoid cluttering up yours!

badmemory

I must say I never got why people would pay for YNAB.  But then I have had a computer for about 45 years & the internet wasn't a thing then so I just did spreadsheets.  Give me a minute & I could tell you what I spent in Aldi ten years ago this week & what my rates were etc etc.  The housekeeping was a separate spreadsheet because DS used to pay half the housekeeping bill once he was about 23.  He was earning more than me!  I do keep this info on a computer that is not on the internet along with a lot of financial stuff, that way it is less likely to crash & some companies try to force you to pay for stuff that has been free for years, which does tend to irritate me slightly.

Cheery_Daff

I love YNAB, and find the interface easy to use and helpful - I've found it very valuable. Not saying it suits everyone and certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone in a financial fix, but I can afford it and it's provided value. I just want something more straightforward that Mr C can/will use - he has an attitude more like yours!

foxgloves

@Cheery_Daff - Recording grocery spending is very easy. At the back of my Money Book, I have a section ruled into months. I write the monthly amount, then just log grocery spends for Weeks 1 - 4 (occasionally 1-5). Each week is totalled & the amount deducted from overall monthly sum.
I've never been tempted by YNAB. I like notebooks, pencils & nice pens, a ruler & my calculator....& plenty of decent coffee, of course.
F

PennysIntoPounds

Ugh to scammers. I told one recently that they're evil, to f off, and that they're going to hell. Pretty sure that's how my number ended up being selected as one to be spoofed so I get all the angry people calling me. They're still evil, can f off, and are going to hell though! The scammer who called me had such a nice genuine reassuring Geordie accent. I would have been completely taken in if I had a HSBC account which is what they were trying their luck on

What is the massive book you're reading? I bet you 50p it isn't massiver than mine!