How do you track your finances?

Organgrinder

Rich1976 said:

I use a spreadsheet that records monthly essential spends, savings and then fun money/entertainment.

i find it helps to keep track of where all the money is allocated to each month although with the fun money we don’t tend to rigidly stick to a set amount. As long as all the direct debits get paid and we save quite a decent each amount, the amount of fun money tends to be more liquid so if we decide to treat ourselves to a last minute decision of a takeaway or end of week treat then I won’t lose much sleep over it.

we tried to be restrictive but it didn’t work and I get why some people are very regimented with their monthly budgets  but for me it’s more of a monitor of monthly costs and not something that dictates how we live our lives.

I'm exactly the same with regard spends on non essentials or non subscription spends. I budget X for the shopping and Y for entertainment. Sometimes they both come in under. Sometimes they both come in over. Sometimes one of each.

That said I do have a travel pot for holidays, set at £5400 currently though I'll probably increase it to £6,000 for next year.

I'm hoping an additional allowance I get in my job continues next year too as that unplanned extra would come in very handy.

Rich1976

Organgrinder said:

Rich1976 said:

I use a spreadsheet that records monthly essential spends, savings and then fun money/entertainment.

i find it helps to keep track of where all the money is allocated to each month although with the fun money we don’t tend to rigidly stick to a set amount. As long as all the direct debits get paid and we save quite a decent each amount, the amount of fun money tends to be more liquid so if we decide to treat ourselves to a last minute decision of a takeaway or end of week treat then I won’t lose much sleep over it.

we tried to be restrictive but it didn’t work and I get why some people are very regimented with their monthly budgets  but for me it’s more of a monitor of monthly costs and not something that dictates how we live our lives.

I'm exactly the same with regard spends on non essentials or non subscription spends. I budget X for the shopping and Y for entertainment. Sometimes they both come in under. Sometimes they both come in over. Sometimes one of each.

That said I do have a travel pot for holidays, set at £5400 currently though I'll probably increase it to £6,000 for next year.

I'm hoping an additional allowance I get in my job continues next year too as that unplanned extra would come in very handy.

We certainly need to get better with holiday budgeting as up until now I can guarantee whatever figure we decide to save for next years holiday is at least 25% below what it needs to be . Usually because we have no idea of how much meals out in a restaurant are or there’s extra trips we decide to do when we are there.

Same can be said for home improvements which again tend to be finger in the air estimates until we get actual quotes months later for whatever needs to be done.

Baldeagle095

I use MoneyPoint and spreadsheets.

On Moneypoint (free) I record all my transactions on a daily basis and reconcile these to my bank accounts. To date over the last 2 years, I have 1963 transactions. This build up of information can allow me to set up Income & Expense Accounts, Cash Flow Summary etc. It also lets me set budgets for the year.
Furthermore I can export any income or expense category into Excel which is useful in checking e.g Income from Savings to HMRC calculations.

On my spreadsheet, I record the balances of roughly 20 accounts.
I have a separate tab for Direct Debit & Standing Order dates and amounts which serves a useful reminder as to when I should transfer money back into my current accounts (3 in number)

The interest on all my cash, fixed term deposits, regular savers and ISA's amount to 5.61% and represents a sizeable chunk of post retirement income. - (likely to decrease in the future)

All of the above only takes 5 minutes a day.

Savvy_Sue

Just wondering, does anyone use a free anything which lets you input stuff on two different mobile phones to one account? As I said before, I have to text or email DH about anything I don't have a receipt for ... 

louby40

Baldeagle095 said:

I use MoneyPoint and spreadsheets.

On Moneypoint (free) I record all my transactions on a daily basis and reconcile these to my bank accounts. To date over the last 2 years, I have 1963 transactions. This build up of information can allow me to set up Income & Expense Accounts, Cash Flow Summary etc. It also lets me set budgets for the year.
Furthermore I can export any income or expense category into Excel which is useful in checking e.g Income from Savings to HMRC calculations.

On my spreadsheet, I record the balances of roughly 20 accounts.
I have a separate tab for Direct Debit & Standing Order dates and amounts which serves a useful reminder as to when I should transfer money back into my current accounts (3 in number)

The interest on all my cash, fixed term deposits, regular savers and ISA's amount to 5.61% and represents a sizeable chunk of post retirement income. - (likely to decrease in the future)

All of the above only takes 5 minutes a day.

Not heard of Moneypoint. I'll check it out. 

Thanks 

Organgrinder

Savvy_Sue said:

Just wondering, does anyone use a free anything which lets you input stuff on two different mobile phones to one account? As I said before, I have to text or email DH about anything I don't have a receipt for ... 

I use google sheets - anyone with edit rights to the spreadsheet can add to it.

Savvy_Sue

Organgrinder said:

Savvy_Sue said:

Just wondering, does anyone use a free anything which lets you input stuff on two different mobile phones to one account? As I said before, I have to text or email DH about anything I don't have a receipt for ... 

I use google sheets - anyone with edit rights to the spreadsheet can add to it.

Hmmm. I don't like google sheets that much at the best of times, and not going to play with it on my phone. I know DH likes being able to record on Spendee wherever he is. But thanks for the suggestion!

2childmum2

Notebooks with a page for each account, pencil and basic calculator.
At the beginning of the month money is moved into savings accounts, into columns for different bills 
Money left in the current account is split into columns for things like food and general spending. Direct debits are accounted for and taken from the total at the beginning of the month regardless of when they actually leave the account.
As things are bought and paid for on credit card the amount is moved from the relevant column into a credit card column so the money is there to pay off the credit card bill when it comes, and we know how much we have left to spend.
May be old fashioned but I've done it like this for 35 years of marriage, through lean times and times with more coming in. It's always worked!

DiamondLil

2childmum2 said:

Notebooks with a page for each account, pencil and basic calculator.
At the beginning of the month money is moved into savings accounts, into columns for different bills 
Money left in the current account is split into columns for things like food and general spending. Direct debits are accounted for and taken from the total at the beginning of the month regardless of when they actually leave the account.
As things are bought and paid for on credit card the amount is moved from the relevant column into a credit card column so the money is there to pay off the credit card bill when it comes, and we know how much we have left to spend.
May be old fashioned but I've done it like this for 35 years of marriage, through lean times and times with more coming in. It's always worked!

I did the same, until I had to learn to use a spreadsheet when treasurer of a local charity. Nowadays, it's all on excel. 

I came across some of those pen and paper notebooks when clearing out recently.....

MayDogsandCoffee

I am loving the notebook and pen idea.  It is social history really - remember seeing the ledgers of Victorian housekeepers that gave us an insight into life in those times.