I’m not sure I’ve posted this in the correct category but here goes.
Do you keep track of your household spending? I’m thinking in terms of ALL outgoings. And then balance it every week/moth/year/whenever suit you?
I’m thinking of doing this, my income is relatively small and therefore budget planning is probably more important than if I was a Euromillions winner or a retired City financial wizard.
If you do - how do you do it? In a notebook, on an Excel spreadsheet or using some other software?
On your phone? Tablet? PC?
I’m trying to settle on a simple system that’s easy to use - which means it WILL be used
Once a year I do a simple calculation to work out what we actually spend over a year - money in current account on 1st Jan versus money in account 31 Dec and then add up all the money that went into the account over the year (actual income goes into savings account and is drip fed to current account)
And the occasionally (maybe once a year) I have a detailed month where we keep track of daily spending on food and basic household items using a high tech system of asking for receipts in throwing them in a pot when we get home, to add up later.
Which is shocking in the amount it has increased in last few years!
I just write everything. down in a daily diary so I can keep note of what comes in and what goes out so I know if I have to be careful. You can’t predict what you will be spending in any given future so I just live within my means and try and save what I can as I never go out socially, try and walk to the shop to save petrol and. things like clothes and shoes only bought when necessary. At least by putting all prélévéments down when they are due and having no debts or finance owing, I can sleep at night. My young neighbours must be upto their ears in debt with the property mortgages, flash new cars on finance and socialising here and there, I know I couldn’t live like it.
I track expenditure by spreadsheet to see where we’re spending money but it doesn’t amount to a budget… yet. We’re naturally conservative in our spending so no need for restraints but I can see that changing.
I have seen a couple of times recently young families come to pay at the Leclerc till using their mobile phones and having to take items out of their trolley. I think it’s more difficult to get into debt in France because there really isn’t a credit card market here.
OH does spreadsheet too for all standing orders, the major expenditure that goes through his account. I pay for food, dog, household stuff. I don’t budget but we live within our means. Long gone are the days of eating out once a week. Don’t miss it really. Money will go on a vet’s bill rather than a new item of clothing.
Mind you, we supplemented our pensions for years with rental income - flat in London and gite here in France. Without doubt those two properties have given us headroom over the years (eg emergency car repairs etc)
I definitely budget for the year ahead (and experienced a eureka moment 5 years ago when I realised through doing it that we could afford to quit my job, retire and move to France). I use the Ma Banque app of CA to categorise all our spending and once a quarter do a rough check with that information to reassure myself that we are not too far adrift. I then do a very simple outgoings account once a year just to help me estimate how much we might need for the following year. We really try to live within our income means, and not spend capital, though my wife is constantly telling me it’s ok to spend the latter…
I tend to cut my shirt to fit my cloth. Feeding a family is scary expensive. I probably spend at least 200€ a week on food. Really need to start a/ getting through the food in the freezer and b/ start menu planning and batch cooking to try to reduce costs. We have no loans of any sort but just all the bills come to I think 600€ / month. And don’t talk to me about fuel, I put 150€ in the car this week and I do maybe 1500km a month minimum in term time. I went to the bank in the holidays to ask for a loan to get an electric 2nd hand car and was not allowed as only have a CDD. Ffs we own our home outright, have no debt, wouldn’t be asking for more to pay back than what we spend on fuel
What about finance with the car dealership? Twenty odd years ago, OH bought a second works van for an employee to use and did it through Citroen finance which was cheaper than the CMB. My son and DIL went to see a Courtier last week to see what they could borrow to buy a bigger house, they got an answer immediately but it was less than they expected ( DIL is now full time again after 80% for the past three years with having a second child so they thought her extra salary would up the borrowing allowance),possibly due to the current economic climate and of course in France, mortgage repayments cannot be more than two thirds of joint monthly income as you still have to live, work and pay other bills
Yes, we haven’t quite worked out what the impact of selling will be - we are currently using proceeds of sale to fund renovation. Which may well bankrupt us the way it’s going!
No. We’ve always tended to run lean, generally buying no more than necessary, and while we do sometimes add up outgoings (as I did recently to calculate income we would need when we retire) I don’t believe it would be particularly helpful to do it continuously.
I keep track of everything paid for other than cash, and I pay in cash almost never, only the bread shop and the coffee shop/bar. I use a speadsheet on the PC for all the different accounts. Very useful at this time of year as I can go back with relative ease and check on everything for the annual taxfest.
Back-along, when RBS was cock of the London EC3 walk and John Major said “If it isn’t hurting it’s not working” I was told that a] I could not have an o/d facility and b] that I had to operate my business on cleared funds only. Who does that? I did, for several years.
“If you deposit a cheque for £10k and write a cheque for £100 when your balance is £0.00, the debit trumps the credit and we will foreclose your mortgage.”
Here’s a slice of a spreadsheet which I check against the bank statement first thing every morning - and then again later in the day for debits that are late.
You see that this is a bank rec for May. I operate at least two months - current and next. The DDs in pink are transferred to the bank rec for the month following current month. There are also two final payments of purchases made by x3 installments. I use Klarna and Cofidis for these. Ebay and AMZ both offer this payment option.
Here’s a slice of current action. I note the method of payment. Payments that have not yet been debited by the bank are in bold/italic. Once the bank has taken the money, they go plain text. Obviously I ask for every till receipt. That goes onto the s/sheet as soon a I get in from that shopping.
What I have not done is to get this spreadsheet working on my phone. MS Excel did but this is Apache Open Office. I’m sure it will but I haven’t got round to investigating/installing.
Me too, simple. I do not have the energy or desire to be as organised as many others seem to. I spend it if I want it and have the means, that is, after all the essentials have been taken care of. If the money ain’t there then it is another way of telling me I don’t need it.
