I want to stop drowning

enthusiasticsaver · 26 November 2017 at 9:35AM

debtaghh wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Do people physically cash the money out or have lots of different bank accounts? If I have it in one lot in the bank it just gets confusing. I think this is def an area I need to sort out as I want to be able to stick to a budget but also having some entertainment money whereas now we end using the ‘entertainment ‘ money on sch trips, ds lunch etc but then if we have something arranged like a meal out this causes a problem as we have no budget for it. Life feels very manic at the min but I need to look at all figures again as even my signature doesn’t seem to match my spreadsheet and I have no idea why. I need to look at all credit cards etc.

Take a look at clearcheckbook. You can have envelopes with different categories all within one account. One of my daughters uses that to allocate her gifts, entertainment, personal spends etc. Years ago we did it physically with cash but I think using clear checkbook is great and if we were on a tight budget I would use that now. I use it to record spends but don't use the budgeting tools like the envelopes. I have seen how my daughter allocates her money at the beginning of the month and I think it is a great system for anyone watching their spends. It is free and easier to use than ynab.

We have a joint bill/spends account and we also keep a large buffer in that for emergency savings and gifts, insurances, car and house running costs as it pays interest. A joint food and fuel credit card which gets paid off in full each month as that pays cashback on supermarket spends and petrol and a personal account each to cover hobbies, clothes, hair etc as my OH is a fritterer and I am not

We have an internet saver for holidays, car replacements and home improvement costs.

I hope you manage to find discrepancy between spreadsheet and signature. Spreadsheets are great. I use them a lot to record spending in each category to make sure our retirement income matches projected expenditure and for investment planning.

MrsSave · 26 November 2017 at 12:16PM

I'm a ynab fan (I know it's a bit like marmite but I find it very easy to use). I also have different bank accounts, I have

Nationwide - all bills go from here, holiday savings go here, Christmas, Summer hols funds, boys clubs, childcare, dinner money (I pay dinner money and childcare by cheque/so....otherwise everything is set up as a dd and I don't really touch the account, just check it throughout the month).

HSBC - wages. Both mine and Dh wages go in here throughout the month. Only touched at the end of the month when I send the money to the different accounts.

HSBC personal - Dh and I each have a private account. Our money to do with what we want (clothes or gin usually :rotfl: ).

HSBC - spends. Pretty much everything else (other than savings) goes here. On ynab I have categories for here (hair, car maintenance, NHS, supermarket delivery saver, petrol, planned spends (if we've got a meal or day out planned, I'll budget for that). Once I've done this and put what I want into savings, the rest gets split into weeks (4 or 5 depending on how many Saturdays are in the month). From this weekly money, the food shop goes out first and then whatever left is for general spends (clothes for the boys, lunch out, top up shops, takeaway if it's a good week, school trip). I split it weekly as I feel I am able to stick with it better. Often when I did it monthly, money would be stupidly tight by the end of the month. Now if money is low, we only have to wait until Saturday for the next week's budget to kick in.

This could all be planned using a spreadsheet or one of many budgeting apps, but I just really like ynab personally!

I hope that makes sense, I feel I've totally over complicated what is actually a really simple thing!!! It has taken me a few years of trialling things to reach this.

debtaghh · 26 November 2017 at 8:06PM

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Take a look at clearcheckbook. You can have envelopes with different categories all within one account. One of my daughters uses that to allocate her gifts, entertainment, personal spends etc. Years ago we did it physically with cash but I think using clear checkbook is great and if we were on a tight budget I would use that now. I use it to record spends but don't use the budgeting tools like the envelopes. I have seen how my daughter allocates her money at the beginning of the month and I think it is a great system for anyone watching their spends. It is free and easier to use than ynab.

We have a joint bill/spends account and we also keep a large buffer in that for emergency savings and gifts, insurances, car and house running costs as it pays interest. A joint food and fuel credit card which gets paid off in full each month as that pays cashback on supermarket spends and petrol and a personal account each to cover hobbies, clothes, hair etc as my OH is a fritterer and I am not We have an internet saver for holidays, car replacements and home improvement costs.

I hope you manage to find discrepancy between spreadsheet and signature. Spreadsheets are great. I use them a lot to record spending in each category to make sure our retirement income matches projected expenditure and for investment planning.

MrsSave wrote: »

I'm a ynab fan (I know it's a bit like marmite but I find it very easy to use). I also have different bank accounts, I have

Nationwide - all bills go from here, holiday savings go here, Christmas, Summer hols funds, boys clubs, childcare, dinner money (I pay dinner money and childcare by cheque/so....otherwise everything is set up as a dd and I don't really touch the account, just check it throughout the month).

HSBC - wages. Both mine and Dh wages go in here throughout the month. Only touched at the end of the month when I send the money to the different accounts.

HSBC personal - Dh and I each have a private account. Our money to do with what we want (clothes or gin usually :rotfl: ).

HSBC - spends. Pretty much everything else (other than savings) goes here. On ynab I have categories for here (hair, car maintenance, NHS, supermarket delivery saver, petrol, planned spends (if we've got a meal or day out planned, I'll budget for that). Once I've done this and put what I want into savings, the rest gets split into weeks (4 or 5 depending on how many Saturdays are in the month). From this weekly money, the food shop goes out first and then whatever left is for general spends (clothes for the boys, lunch out, top up shops, takeaway if it's a good week, school trip). I split it weekly as I feel I am able to stick with it better. Often when I did it monthly, money would be stupidly tight by the end of the month. Now if money is low, we only have to wait until Saturday for the next week's budget to kick in.

This could all be planned using a spreadsheet or one of many budgeting apps, but I just really like ynab personally!

I hope that makes sense, I feel I've totally over complicated what is actually a really simple thing!!! It has taken me a few years of trialling things to reach this.

Thank you both. I’ll have a look at clearcheckbook. I think I didn’t get on with ynab.

I’ve just made a quick spreadsheet and listed what we need to allocate monthly for and this is the biggest problem it then causes a massive deficit! I really don’t think things will improve for a long time , I’m feeling a bit deflated to be honest. I think my signature is wrong as I can’t see why my spreadsheet is wrong so debt is more than I thought ( I have cleared some since October but not as much as I thought). I’ll update it now!

enthusiasticsaver · 26 November 2017 at 8:25PM

You are battling two large obstacles. One is the high amount of debt and the second is low income because it is only your OH working or your self employed income is erratic. Ultimately though the income and outgoings must balance if you are not to fall even further into debt.

Hope you manage to find discrepancy in your debt.

debtaghh · 27 November 2017 at 8:24AM

Morning,

I’m feeling a bit more upbeat today. I’m hoping in the new year it will be easier to keep a budget. If we can get our cc debt down even by an eighth it will make our minimums be lower therefore our outgoings more manageable including the monthly ‘ entertainment ‘ money. I think rheconstantly spending lately has been stressing me out. I have no plans this week that should really cost money or if they do including the weekend it should cost around £30 at the most. Due to meals out booked over December I’m going to try and have very frugal dinner and use up what I have at home. My aim is to just buy weekly :

Fruit -£10
Bread- £2
Milk-£3
Cheese-£3.80 ( currently have 4 big blocks so can delay buying)
Toilet paper - £4

£22.80

And then what ever else we may need e.g this week we need coffee ( Lidl gold). I’m hoping £30 p/w will be enough until my Xmas shop arrives. I’m thinking of changing my Xmas shop as it currently includes a turkey crown as we get this every year but it’s very expensive so may just stick to a large whole chicken!

enthusiasticsaver · 27 November 2017 at 9:04AM

Glad to see you more upbeat today. It is a stressful time of year but remember Christmas is one day. I normally buy chicken or lamb for Christmas Day as none of us are over keen on turkey and as you say it is very expensive. Double win. Don't be cowed into doing things that you think traditionally make a perfect Christmas. Stick to your budget, pick a few luxuries you would not normally have during the year - ours is actually a proper dessert on Christmas Day although we often don't have it until the evening as we rarely have that except on the odd Sunday or when eating out and smoked salmon sandwiches on Boxing Day.

System · 27 November 2017 at 9:54AM

We have beef on Christmas Day and it is just a posh Sunday dinner with extras

I have really cut back on occasions out this Christmas as I don’t enjoy them all .
Also my birthday is in December so go out for that as well .

Never do things because you think you should !

debtaghh · 27 November 2017 at 1:08PM

Cumbria_lass wrote: »

We have beef on Christmas Day and it is just a posh Sunday dinner with extras

I have really cut back on occasions out this Christmas as I don’t enjoy them all .
Also my birthday is in December so go out for that as well .

Never do things because you think you should !

I completely agree, I don’t even particularly like turkey!

Just paid an extra £138 off my Tesco due to good sales last week. This means my Tesco cc is now at £360 and I have updated my signature.

debtaghh · 28 November 2017 at 7:39AM

Morning,

I spoke to dh and it’s agreed that I won’t cook turkey but instead will make chicken so need to amend my order.

My phone has been playing up for a while so I shopped around but for what I need and for the phone it was coming up as £28 per month. So instead I bought the phone outright that was on offer and am on sim only. I was talking to dh about cutting our monthly outgoings down. With our two month Council tax break we will use that to pay for our prescription Pre payment card, saving £20 a month.

I wanted to clear my Tesco cc by the end of the year but due to buying the phone I don’t think this will be possible.

Have a nice day.

debtaghh · 28 November 2017 at 10:09AM

I apologise in advance for the moany post.

I’m feeling really fed up and like I’m suffocating with debt. I’m starting to get really annoyed with my dh. I don’t feel he is supportive over our debt. He knows that we don’t have money so doesn’t spend but he has nothing to do with our finances. He doesn’t know how much our debt is ( has a rough idea) if I ask him for his opinion on a transfer or I discuss our debt , he just says what do you want me to say, I’m numb about it all. I just feel this is putting a lot of pressure on me. I really have had enough , we rent but I’m conatantly worried if we get given our notice that we will be in an even worse position as it would mean we would need another car, pay more rent, moving fees etc. We can’t cope as it is let alone any changes for the worse. No one knows the amount of debt we have so just feel like it’s all on me. As you can probably tell from my constant up and down posts , I have depression and I’m just sick of this debt. I really can’t see things improving for such a long time and I hate it as I feel I can’t enjoy my children. I used to love Xmas but this is the first year that I feel so negative and I think it’s purely down to the money.

Sorry for the moan but wanted to get it off my chest.

I want to stop drowning

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