household budgeting...

[GilesM]

Big spreadsheet which I project out to 15 years in the future, the point at which we would hope that we're finished supporting from an education viewpoint. There's a fair amount of guesswork involved in the longer range stuff and it's more a generic guide to try and minimise surprises. It does include a depreciation table for the bigger replaceables from cars through white goods and electricals to windows, doors, heating, decor, fencing, driveway, etc....doesn't include bikes though, I just sort of offset that by not replacing my car This is only broken down into quarterly values.

I also run a month by month one that goes out for 5 years and lists every outgoing including a surplus pot to offset against replaceables under the depreciation table. The outgoings only detail the bills etc, but does include the likes of travel, kids lunch money, pocket money and factors in holidays, birthdays and Xmas. Shopping wise we have a large one delivered monthly by whichever supermarket is in favour with Jane, I think Sainsburys is the current but we've used Tesco, Asda and Waitrose as well.

We don't use credit unless unavoidable and have no debts so are rather lucky all round.

I'm no sure if that is impressive planning, or just another way of saying you have OCD, I think life is wee bit too short for spread sheets in the home.

 

[MacB]

I'm no sure if that is impressive planning, or just another way of saying you have OCD, I think life is wee bit too short for spread sheets in the home.

It's probably a bit of both but it's actually very little work, certainly less onerous than the days when we used to note down spend details on cheque stubs etc. I reckon it took me about an hour to create each one using existing templates I had for work. Maintenance probably takes up about 10 minutes per month.

 

[GilesM]

It's probably a bit of both but it's actually very little work, certainly less onerous than the days when we used to note down spend details on cheque stubs etc. I reckon it took me about an hour to create each one using existing templates I had for work. Maintenance probably takes up about 10 minutes per month.

I am sure it is actually very simple, but I think the only thing that excel can be used for outside work is gear tables.

 

[Silver Fox]

I keep an A4 sized book divided into columns of Credit / Debit / Balance / Remarks. In addition I keep a paper record of all my direct debits and other items I save up for during the year, ie car insurance, Christmas so I can plan for large financial expeditures without being hit for a lump sum all in one go.

Rarely does the amount in my paper accounts fail to coincide with my bank statement.

 

[ianrauk]

I am very lucky... I have a Mrs Ian who looks after everything household budget wise. Shopping, Mortgage, Insurance, Utility Bills, School Fees, Household, bank savings etc etc... she looks after it all. She's happy to do that and enjoys doing it and I am happy to let her as I don't. At the beginning of the year we work out how much everything will come to per month. We then pay half each into a joint account once a month. If there is anything over at the end of the year we throw it onto the mortgage.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Big spreadsheet which I project out to 15 years in the future, the point at which we would hope that we're finished supporting from an education viewpoint. There's a fair amount of guesswork involved in the longer range stuff and it's more a generic guide to try and minimise surprises. It does include a depreciation table for the bigger replaceables from cars through white goods and electricals to windows, doors, heating, decor, fencing, driveway, etc....doesn't include bikes though, I just sort of offset that by not replacing my car This is only broken down into quarterly values.

I also run a month by month one that goes out for 5 years and lists every outgoing including a surplus pot to offset against replaceables under the depreciation table. The outgoings only detail the bills etc, but does include the likes of travel, kids lunch money, pocket money and factors in holidays, birthdays and Xmas. Shopping wise we have a large one delivered monthly by whichever supermarket is in favour with Jane, I think Sainsburys is the current but we've used Tesco, Asda and Waitrose as well.

We don't use credit unless unavoidable and have no debts so are rather lucky all round.

Very similar here although we only project out our asset balance to 10 years and complete our annual budget for the year ahead each December.

Despite being on relatively low incomes compared to our career peaks some time ago we do manage to save a fair amount of money each year.

We are by no means slaves to our budget but it does help us to focus on what we can or cannot spend on.

We have no debt whatsoever, our house is ours and we have decent savings. We worked very hard to achieve this and are convinced that our budgeting and financial management helped us get to this point.

 

[deanE]

Started doing a spreadsheet, on paper, more than 30 years ago, before the kids arrived. Still doing it, but now on my Mac.

 

[BigonaBianchi]

I find the trick is to keep tabs on the ad hoc cash purchases ..the regular bills tend to be stuck in my head...but the money always seems to disappear....simply adding each cash purchase intoa spread sheet each night takes about 10 seconds and suddenly its clear where it all goes....it still goes..but it is clear where it goes....theres a difference...I am in control.

 

[rodgy-dodge]

When the boys where living at home I shopped in Tesco I found it cheaper than Aldi at the time, the offers of three for two and bogof offers are great for family's. However, now there are just the two of us at home Tesco and other supermarkets don't cater for us in cheaper deals so its Aldi and the local independant shops for us right now. I don't ever go shopping without a list either and only buy what I go out for. I'm probably spending at least two thirds less than I used to at Tesco.

 

[007fair]

Monthly Spreadsheet budgeting for me. Everything possible is on a monthly payment plan (Utility, Car Ins, Tel etc). For everything else money is set aside each month (Holidays, Christmas, Birthdays, Car maint) and if no money is spent on that category in the month the balance is carried forward. So when xmas or a car MOT comes along there is money in the bank to pay for it. We Holiday based on what we have saved.

I reconcile to the bank once a week.

I find it quite interesting how far you can make money go if you are careful. I am sure people who earn £20k+ more a year than us are no better off because they are not so careful - its eye opening how much you can waste on food especially if you do lunches and regular coffees out.

We are the lowest paid reasonably comfortable (financially!) people we know!

 

[Col5632]

Never seen this thread first time around.

I also have a spreadsheet which has a seperate tab for each month and i only ever do it over the year, i have two jobs one being cash in hand so its far easier to see what i make by having a spreadsheet, sadly my second job requires me to use my car so petrol is still high on the outgoings but have cut this down by cycling to my main job 4 days a week.

I'm saving for a house with the other half which is the main reason i started the speadsheet at the beginning of last year and helped me to see how much i could save on a montly basis, only downside is 2 years ago i was stupid and sold a car to buy another car which meant i had a loan on top of a loan, loan was with bank of scotland and only just noticed the interest rate was rubbish so im now getting that debt paid 1.5 years quicker and much less interest with Tesco Bank