We have a monthly budget that covers all the monthly bills, food, fuel, etc. The thing that used to make this difficult is that not every month is the same. For example, water bills are every 6 months, car Insurance annually, etc. So now, on pay day, a chunk of money gets transferred automatically to another account, and (in a spreadsheet) is divided into notional buckets. For example, car insurance of £1200/year gets £100 per month. We have buckets for less predictable things too, like house maintenance, and for fun things, like bicycles or holidays. The number of buckets and the amount we save into each adapts over time, and it’s all quite flexible. It’s really easy to transfer some money back out if we need to spend it, but i think just having to do so makes us think a bit more carefully about what we’re spending, and the spreadsheet helps us understand where it all went. But it’s making every month the same that has really helped to make the budgeting work. Despite the rising prices of everything, we seem to have more money that we did a couple of years ago!
