How do you manage your finances?
Discussion
Sorry if this has been done before, I tried a google PH search and could only find the thread about how couples manage their finances.
My question is about what method you use? Personally I use a spreadsheet to try and manage budgets and cash flow, but it isn't great and relies on me entering information frequently. My wife is starting maternity leave soon so I could really do with a better way of managing our finances.
I know that in the US there is a great online service from mint.com and something like that would make life a lot easier. Does anyone use a similar service in the UK and are they any good?
Being PH I imagine most of you have an accountant to manage it all for you, but I'm interested to see what other people do.
My question is about what method you use? Personally I use a spreadsheet to try and manage budgets and cash flow, but it isn't great and relies on me entering information frequently. My wife is starting maternity leave soon so I could really do with a better way of managing our finances.
I know that in the US there is a great online service from mint.com and something like that would make life a lot easier. Does anyone use a similar service in the UK and are they any good?
Being PH I imagine most of you have an accountant to manage it all for you, but I'm interested to see what other people do.
I use Excel for my own monitoring of cash inflow and outflow - essentially it is a record and prediction of my main personal current account. It allows me to predict what my future current account balance will be and -
a) how much I need to chase people for payment (I'm self employed)
b) how much I need to switch from savings accounts to the current account or vice versa.
a) how much I need to chase people for payment (I'm self employed)
b) how much I need to switch from savings accounts to the current account or vice versa.
Soovy said:
Excellent.
My wife gives birth this week.
Congrats! But listen to this, more than anything:My wife gives birth this week.
anonymous said:
[redacted]
I'm not sure our son was ever in with us. Might have been for a couple of weeks, but that was it. You hear horror stories of parents with three year olds still in their rooms or even beds!! Nightmare.And yes, your wife will spend far more money than she ever did when she was at work. Cafe-tastic.
Refreshing to read that I'm on a similar wavelength to others on here.
My wife doesn't work but 'stays at home' to look after our 3 year old and a 6 month old.
I manage our money with the help of two excel sheets, a 'budget' with all incomings and outgoings on and a cash flow forecast predicting the current account balance just before next pay day.
My salary goes into an account which all the bills also come out of. In addition there are two weekly standing orders putting cash in my current account and my wife's current account (including enough to do the weekly shop). Any excess in the current account after bills is transferred to savings account.
We have a joint credit card which is for emergencies. I am on the brink of cutting this up as I'll log into the online banking and see unnecessary things on it, such as lunches out. Additionally I put diesel in the car (explaining why there is no reason why a tank (500 miles) shouldn't last two weeks. Low and behold quite often I'll have to fill it up again after a week because she's decided to take a 100 mile round trip to Costco to buy some washing powder because it was £1 cheaper than Tescos. She'll then try and explain that she was thinking about saving us money.
My wife doesn't work but 'stays at home' to look after our 3 year old and a 6 month old.
I manage our money with the help of two excel sheets, a 'budget' with all incomings and outgoings on and a cash flow forecast predicting the current account balance just before next pay day.
My salary goes into an account which all the bills also come out of. In addition there are two weekly standing orders putting cash in my current account and my wife's current account (including enough to do the weekly shop). Any excess in the current account after bills is transferred to savings account.
We have a joint credit card which is for emergencies. I am on the brink of cutting this up as I'll log into the online banking and see unnecessary things on it, such as lunches out. Additionally I put diesel in the car (explaining why there is no reason why a tank (500 miles) shouldn't last two weeks. Low and behold quite often I'll have to fill it up again after a week because she's decided to take a 100 mile round trip to Costco to buy some washing powder because it was £1 cheaper than Tescos. She'll then try and explain that she was thinking about saving us money.
anonymous said:
[redacted]
^^This.My kids didn't even spend the first night in our room. Straight into their own rooms. My nine month old daught now sleeps from 5:30pm through to 8am; bliss!!
On topic, my wife who is also on Maternity Leave has just returned from Asda to get 'bread'. Cost me £64.32!
roogi said:
I know that in the US there is a great online service from mint.com and something like that would make life a lot easier. Does anyone use a similar service in the UK and are they any good?
You might have already found this but http://www.moneydashboard.com is mentioned by people looking a UK version of Mint.mx stu said:
Low and behold quite often I'll have to fill it up again after a week because she's decided to take a 100 mile round trip to Costco to buy some washing powder because it was £1 cheaper than Tescos.
If your missus can go to Costco and only buy washing powder then that's a right result!I use a program called Money on my Mac, and a spreadsheet that shows cashflow and a few graphs. The graphs mainly show monthly income/outgoings/result over a year or so. I have been doing this for ~4yrs now and can therefore accurately predict my income/outgoings for several months in advance. It's incredibly useful!
Money breaks more couples up than anything else......try not to let it do that to you. Listening to my daughter and son-in-law arguing about money is heart breaking, and they have two small kids too.
They seem to me (old fart that I am) to spend their money on the daftest of things (like DVDs and the latest computer games), and of course on a ludicrous quantity of kids clothes and toys, and never have anything left for anything else. Hence they pass like ships in the night, working opposite shifts to be able to child mind at minimum cost, the car is always in the wrong place and the wrong time, and is always breaking down.
I am putting a stop to this before they miss out on their kids' childhoods. From next month we are going to live together (but separately - I value my sanity!) so that we can relieve them of the ludicrous cost of home ownership and can be there to share the kids growing up, the childminding and let them have some "us" time with the spare cash this will generate. It is after all my dear wife's only chance too, to share in the grandchildren's childhood.
Good luck...
They seem to me (old fart that I am) to spend their money on the daftest of things (like DVDs and the latest computer games), and of course on a ludicrous quantity of kids clothes and toys, and never have anything left for anything else. Hence they pass like ships in the night, working opposite shifts to be able to child mind at minimum cost, the car is always in the wrong place and the wrong time, and is always breaking down.
I am putting a stop to this before they miss out on their kids' childhoods. From next month we are going to live together (but separately - I value my sanity!) so that we can relieve them of the ludicrous cost of home ownership and can be there to share the kids growing up, the childminding and let them have some "us" time with the spare cash this will generate. It is after all my dear wife's only chance too, to share in the grandchildren's childhood.
Good luck...
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