Money - practical. How do *you* do it?
I am fantastic with money at work (luckily). Not so much in my homelife. I am a sort of work hard/play hard and like to treat myself and my family. If we've been working hard in the house, a takeaway or meal out, or if we've not done much together for a while, rent a movie and buy a big gooey dessert. For the first time in my life I live in a house I love and enjoy picking up little bargains here and there.
Then there's stuff that comes up unexpectedly like car repairs, school trips etc. I tend to forget to tighten spend in one area as something else crops up.
Consequently my beautifully prepared budget spreadsheets fall by the wayside as 'life' happens and I end up behind on things or not where I planned to be. When I was on my own I kept a spending diary on my 'phone and that was a daily conscience check and I always knew where I was. Now there's 2 of us and a lot going on it's not so easy. We've just had the heating problem which was 1.8k of unplanned spend. So I really need to crack this, especially with hubby taking unpaid leave at work soon.
I am even tempted to draw out all funds (not needed for DDs and SOs etc) and allocate it in to envelopes at home (petrol/shopping/house etc) and when it's gone, it's gone. Seems a bit extreme though. And not sure how practical it is.
Any suggestions? What do you do? How do you make sure you don't overspend or waste money on unplanned purchases? Help me out 
Replies
I've no idea why I even opened this. If I see something I want I buy it if I have the cash. If not I ask my H for the cash. If he doesn't have the cash he'll do a job and earn the cash. We spunk money like you wouldn't believe. The weekend just gone we spent about £300 - food shop, takeaway Friday night, my nails and L barbers Saturday, then lunch out for the 4 of us, then drinks. Sunday river trip to London, then a meal out. It's easily done. I get freaked out by the amount we spend.
check money saving expert forum. they have loads of good threads for how to budget.
I have a seperate bill account so all bills go out of that. then i pay debts, then i put money in to savings. and then iknow what money is in my account is mine to spend. If i have an event i have to save for...ill pop that money in to savings too so i dont spend it. i have a rough budget in my head for my weekly spends which includes any treats.
I managed to save up £5k to cover my mat leave by just being frugile but as you arent doing it to save, you're just doing it to make you money cover everything, the envelope way may be a good way...like you say, once its gone its gone
You sound like me! H & I were terrible with money - spending it on plenty of luxuries including all of those you have mentioned! When H left his job, it meant a massive reduction in income. Its amazing how you survive when you have to! Its true what they say - you spend what you have. We've had to swap regular cinema trips for watching movies on TV, takeaways and meals out for nice dinners in, and really stop our 'nipping to the shops to pick up X Y Z' attitude. I've also in the first time in my life got a list of things I want, when before I'd just buy it. I keep on top of it by checking our bank account regularly and checking it against the budget spreadsheet to make sure there is enough left. Somehow - I'm also putting money away for when baby is here. How this has happened I have no idea - as like I say, with H's salary too we had no money 'saved'! But now, on just my own, we do.... Bizarre!
Belle - that made me laugh, sorry. I call it 'spunking money' too.
Twink - I love MSE. I can budget! I know what our outgoings are, I just don't physically limit us (except when sh*t hits fan, lol) and I want to be good at managing it in the better as well as bad times. You seem to have done really well!! We need to get a log burner in the house before next winter and I just know we won't stick to the budgets.
Pep - when I get stressed (which is a fair amount in my job) I just want to relax and do nice things to balance it up. And you do spend to your capacity, it is true! I've been really broke in the past, and did manage, but in a way it's sort of 'easier'. If you have no means to pay, you don't buy it. And I don't want to be the Cash Police at home. I don't want to be asking hubby what he's spent to keep an eye on progress through the month....
I dunno!
If you're going to have less income, albeit for a shorter period, you'll have to pull the reigns in. Because what is worse? Doing that, or getting into debt which will then impact your future life as you pay it off? I don't see it as you having to keep tabs on hubby, he should kind of do that himself and I'd imagine he will. You are both aware how much less income you will have over that period, so maybe either save to cover it now, or accept that during that period you will have to be a bit more frugal. I completely agree RE stress and money though - thats me & H! Bad week? Oh lets get a takeaway, do something lovely tomorrow, oh and the next day! Have to say though - its just as lovely snuggling up on the sofa as it is at the cinema etc
ETA - Can totally relate with having budgets but not sticking to them - but only until we had to. Something will just flick - you will just decide that the takeaway(s) aren't worth being short of £100 with the next 'normal' pay packet. You'll look forward to having your normal pay back and I'm sure you'll all manage to restrain yourselves until you are back in that position. How long are you going to have 'less' money for?
Oh, and if I'm honest - I'd save a little pot that can be used when you just can't say no to the treats. I've got our savings which I have had to dip into every now and then to cover overspend from the joint account - ultimately that overspend has been on treats that we could have done without, but haven't! Still, its a lot less than it use to be so thats good enough for me!
I am a little bit like twink but I do an account sweep the day before pay day and put whatever is left into savings which are for things such as holidays/cars/emergencies. I save every month for the children, my OH Football season ticket. I pay all the bills on the 1st of the month and we have a budget (although not a tight one) for shoppnig and fuel. I am realistic and for instance we brought our eldest her prom dress at the weekend and some of the accessories to go with it and we have done that from our normal monthly money, this means not a lot of savings this month but at least I know why. We limit ourselves now to one meal out or takeaway a week.
We both earn good money, plus OH has a second "cash" job and does all the overtime he wants, generally every saturday which helps. I cannot stand the thought of having no money to fall back onto if one of us got made redundent or sick and couldn't work which gives me the incentive not to "spunk" our money. I don't just buy myself things willy nilly, I tend to think all purchases through and buy things that will last longer than five minute "fashion" purchases but then I am not fashionable as such. I buy the girls what they need - sometimes just because they want it - and I like to be in the position to do this.
You're so right, we'll be much more careful when we have to be. But I want to be doing more in the way of saving (our cars are the same age and may well die at the same time for example) when we're doing alright. I set us spend limits, which we review and agree to, and it all seems more than reasonable. Then something happens and we say 'oh f*** it, let's go here/do this/buy that' and if there's cash, it's hard not to, ha ha.
We transfer money to the savings account every month, that is then used for the redecorating etc (which is almost done), but always - without fail - some gets transferred back because we've just spent more than we intended.
We have less money right from now as it happens, due to the boiler issue of last week. But if we are more careful from now it'll make June and July (hubby is off) even easier to deal with. And us both having time to do things together (me part-time, him off) is the one time I don't want to stop spending altogether, we want long walks, stop for coffee and cake, that kind of thing. So nothing huge, but it would taint it a bit if we felt really broke, IYSWIM.
And after that we need to save for the log burner, so really, I anticipate us having to be moderate and clever with our spending all this year. Which is unlike us!!
I also find it hard with Harry. I don't want his life to change TOO much just because *we've* decided to have a baby. That's not his problem, so I don't want to stop all the social stuff we do with him. Part of the reason I chose to have a career is for the extras for him, so if there's no extras it sort of defeats the object, for me. Not sure if that makes sense to anyone but me.
Ultimately I guess I need help on how to stick to budgets when you don't HAVE to....
i have no idea why i opened this either im useless
we did however just remortgage to clear all debt and decrease our mortgage payment
iv changed my phone contract from 35pm to a sim only for 12pm and didnt take the upgrade,
i downgraded my car etc and im still petrified about how we will live
at the moment we totally spunk money whether we have it or not and we have far too many holidays, i know this is having to change
but what i do have is a payments account, every single DD comes out of one account, so on payday i move the exact amount to that account and forget about it, then whatever is left in my main account is what i live on,.
We haven't saved anything since we moved house in the summer and I started my MA as I have to pay tuition fees. We just had to have a new boiler in and slowly we are making changes to the house. We hope to knock a few walls down this year, but it depends on the money. H needs a new car as well as his is really starting to struggle so fingers crossed we can get him something this year. Our income covers our outgoings but moving, uni and the renovations/car plans really meant we had/have to tighten our belts. We didn't go away at new year like we normally do and we won't be doing a big holiday this summer, though we do have some smaller holidays planned. But we still have the odd meal out or takeaway so it's not all bad.
All our household bills are paid through direct debit and go out within a week of our income going into the account. This is the same for my personal bills (not sure what H does!) Which means that after that first week I can assume most of my regular outgoing are done with. I don't really spend money on clothes, and never buy CDs, DVDs etc. I buy in sales, and begrudge paying full price for anything. But I do love holidays, weekends away and so on, so this is where my money goes. I have a buffer in my personal account as I hate the thought of going overdrawn. I just put a few things on ebay so hopefully that will bring some money in. I also shop around for insurance etc to get the best deal.
ETA - I just renewed my car insurance and saved £87 by spending an hour shopping around!
I try to restrict my spending by remembering that buying "things" don't necessarily make me happy. We save each month and have a good financial cushion. I would hate to be in the position of not having any money or debts knowing that we'd frittered a load away on nothing.
We try to plan ahead and know what the big expenditures are going to be and save for them as we go along.
If it was me I'd be thinking we can still do long walks when both off work but could take our own picnic to save money. I stopped buying lunch at work when I realised how much I was spending. Its nice to buy lunch but I can save up enough for a treat day out or something instead.
How much do you need for the log burner? Set up a separate online account and a standing order to come out on the day your salary gets paid in to take out a proportion each month.
Another idea I saw is to out away £1 a week, then each week increase it by £1 - week 1, save £1, week 2 save £2, week 52 save £52. At the end of the year you'll have saved over £1k without really having noticed.
I too am pretty useless unless there's a goal I really want, like in this case time off for both me and the OH an a holiday after the babies born. That is probably the only saving plan I've ever stuck to in my life though. I am a true impulse buyer and even bought my 1st house on a whim when I was 19 (in the days of 100% mortgages)
As for emergencies they're one of those things if it cropped up now I'd have my maternity fund to dip into and it would mean less time off for us. If it happened at the end of our period off work when our savings were drying up, we'd be stuffed and have to start earning sharpish.
Having read some of your other posts about your ebay purchases for the baby etc.. I think you're doing the right thing saving on your outgoings. Have you ever sorted out with your ex the back payments he owes for H CSA? It sounds like this would come in useful if her started paying it now and you could save it.
Also and I'm working a bit on guessing from what you've said in the past, I think your situation is a bit like mine, in that your the highest earner in the family, which means maternity leave or part time hours have a huge impact on the total household income. Will working part time next year drop your earnings under the Child Benefit threshold in 14/15 financial year? If so get put straight back in for child benefit for H from April, and claim for your new baby when they're born. Even if it's just for the year it'll help make up the gap in income.
I did cash in envelopes for a while and it did work well.
It felt much worse spending £100 cash than it did £100 on a card and made me think much more. Secondly if the cash was not there I could'nt spend it and not option to transfer it from a different account. At the end of the month I would through the envelopes to see if there was any cash left and I would save that additionally. It worked well for me and as I often left my bank card at home and I couldn't be tempted.
I knew if 'borrowed' from another envelope it would leave short for what I had allocated it for so not really an option to do it.
I know it is otfor everyone but it worked well for me.
I'm similar to this. I may buy things I want as opposed to need (for house/me), but I will have done a LOT of research and will be getting good value for money, I rarely impulse buy anything of value (although we spent £300 on a coffee table last month, we knew we needed one, but were going to build something to do it cheaper, then saw one that matched our oak range and went for it. Hhmmm. Not very restrained!)
I know what you mean about wanting to get things for the kids, because you can. I feel the same.
I honestly don't know, the simple answer is to save more than you've got going out - I transfer £50 more a month than's needed to pay bills. When a big bill hits there is usually a pool I can draw from. I also put away money in an account I have to phone then fax/email to withdraw from. I can't actually work out how to get the money out so it'll probably sit there forever!
I'm terrible for impulse buys too, so I am heading more and more in the direction of withdrawing x amount for the week and hiding the cards so this doesn't happen. But Paypal is just too easy...click, password, click. Boom!
You're on the ball, BLL! Yes, I think we've been fairly moderate with the baby stuff overall, and that's generally my approach to buying things. I am not a 'brand' kind of a person and like to feel I'm getting a bargain
I too bought my first house at 19, equity is the only form of savings I seem to understand, lol!!
I'm getting no back payments as such from my ex. It was a horrible meeting to be honest. He pleads poverty, I say nothing, and repeat. We agreed £100/mth (less than what he was paying and less than his assessment) and an extra £20/mth for arrears. He has only 18 more payments to make due to Harry's age so I will get £360 for arrears of about 1.1k. Then he said he couldn't give anything for 6 weeks. Then I hear they're cutting his premium rates at work so our son comes home and tells me his dad will be £150/mth worse off. Which I am guessing means I am not going to get what we agreed, though this hasn't been mentioned. I have done our latest budgets (due to the boiler etc) without it in in case I never receive anything.
it's a good point you make about CB, but I am not actually going part-time as such, I have saved leave, and will be spreading my allocation (plus an extra week I talked the boss in to giving me) across the April-October period so that I work every week, but less days, as opposed to taking a week's leave here and a week's leave there. I shouldn't lose any money at all except the 10% for 6 weeks. it's hubby's additional leave he's taking (to enable me to stay working) that will cost us. Because his work have messed him about it's mostly leave he's taking and just 5 weeks unpaid. But we now don't have those savings to cover it. we won't feel that until last day or June and last day of July, but I would like to mitigate the impact by starting now
Hell yeah!
I'm so very glad you say it worked!! I am good with keeping my household outgoings low, getting best value for phones and things like that, but we both work ruddy hard and like to enjoy an easy life as a result. And we always find we've withdrawn money and aren't sure where it all went, or we go for an 'extra' meal out, or spend more on the food shopping than we need to, to treat ourselves and it adds up. it's the mechanism I'm missing to prevent that from happening and when i was a teen (15/160 I had pots for 'taxi', 'clothes', 'going out' etc and I knew once it was gone, it was gone. The problem I have now is that when my allowance is gone there is still some money in the bank, spoken for, but it's there, even if it's in another account.
I think I might talk to hubby again about the envelope thing. if we started now it might be a great habit for when we do have time off together and have to pace ourselves as to how much we spend each day
Prior to having kids we did the champagne lifestyle on lemonaid money. The money we got through was unreal. But it landed us in 5h1t street so we now have a more methodical approach.
Like you I have a monthly spreadsheet where I track all outgoings against the bank balance, all the direct debits are on there so I know roughly how much I can allocate for food each week. Also allocated is petrol and train costs for h to get to work and the top up fees for c's preschool. All this money is withdrawn from bank on pay day and put in envelopes so it's "spent" correctly.
We rarely have anything left after week two of payday, but as we have already got the petrol and food money that's doable.
We have a banger of a car and like NB I can't buy willy nilly, all purchases have to be on a need basis. Honestly that's depressing sometimes but it's the way it needs to be. I don't work so I can stay at home with the kids and that luxury comes with sacrifices.
If there is anything left the day before payday, which has only happened a few times it gets put into savings. These are then used for unexpected spends like car repairs, clothes for the boys when they need it, treats such as a colour and cut for me or a night out for H with his mates.
If we know something is coming up then we put away very month leading up to it.
H does loads of overtime and when he is off he does jobs for his brother's company to earn extra.
It sounds to me like you have some good ideas I guess it's more a case of sticking to the budgets and disciplining yourself more xxx