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We have too many things, too big a mortgage and too many bad spending habits.
I don’t mean in a “Spend, Spend, Spend“, Imelda Marcos’ shoe wardrobe kind of way. We just don’t seem to exercise any kind of consistent budgetary control. So if I have any kind of credible New Year’s Resolution, it’s to really rein in things like grocery shopping (which tends towards the highly improvised), look at our electricity and gas providers, turn lights off, agree household budgets with supermum (we’re as bad as each other) and give up decaff cappucinos during the working day (you don’t want to know how much that can cost). And pay off the mortgage! We got on the property ladder about eight to ten years behind our peers and I’m starting to feel it.
Of course, this all relates to becoming a father for the second time. There’s four of us now and two of us aren’t bringing in a whole lot of income. Six counting the cats, who eat a ridiculous amount but are getting too old to be told to go off and catch their own dinner.
I suppose I’ve not so much a love/hate as a head-under-the-blankets relationship with money. Dealing with my own accounts leave me feeling like a bunny rabbit facing a rattlesnake. Curiously, this has absolutely no bearing on how I manage finances professionally where I’ll pore over budgets for hours, quibble about tiny amounts, ask nasty, detailed and relevant questions every time someone wants to spend anything significant and generally take care of business in a calm, rational, adult manner. Definitely an area where my home and work personalities could do with overlapping a little in a constructive way (the issue of different personalities at home and work is a whole other post).
So does anyone use any home budgeting software? Or do you do it by hand? Or are you as feckless as I am?
Filed under: family, money | Tagged: budgets, expenses, family, household, money, personal
I used to use microsoft money and found it very useful, but since i switched to mac i haven’t used anything.
We had a bit of a financial crisis on our hands in December, but due to an incremental pay rise each and Kerry getting promoted things seem to have settled down now. It’s nursery fees that kill us, at £60 a day it ends up costing more than our morgage, and we only put them in 3 days a week. However I plan to go part time to just two days a week if my work will let me so we’re going to have to do all sorts of financial calculations again.
Pah, money.
£60! Our childminder was costing us £40, though that’s an expense we’ve lost as supermum is currently at home with dudelette and dudelet is fulltime at the local primary nursery class (pre-reception). On the other hand, maternity pay is a bit of blow.
I wonder what the online alternatives are like? Must have a look…
We use this software http://www.saasu.com/, which is really for businesses, but it works for us. It’s quite Australian based, though, so I don’t know if there’s anything like it in the UK.
I found just the process of updating our accounts every month made us both more careful with spending money. That lasted a couple of years after we went to one income. Now we seem to be back to our old habits, so we’ll have to think of another strategy.
We got on the property ladder back when we were DINKs and my husband was making relatively large chunks of money in the film industry. Then we made the huge mistake (with hindsight) of selling out at a loss to relocate. We should have rented it out! Now we’ve been renting for the last 10 years and have nothing saved to buy another home, plus now two kids about to go to private school. Waaaah!
In the past we used Quicken, which I have no idea has a UK version. The one thing that helped with was identifying where money was going…like your lattes. I haven’t done any tracking like that in a long time though.
Right now we’re just discovering that we just plain don’t make enough money. I think there are ways we could conserve a little, but really it’s coming down to me making more money freelancing.
So now I’m going to quit blogging and go back to that editing project due in 8 days!
PS: If you figure out a way for your cats to make a living, please let me know. I’ve got two fuzzy loafers here too.
£60 is for two kids, £30 each a day. although I am being slightly melodramatic as we do get government vouchers for some of Amy’s fees as she would be eligible to be in nursery at a school if our local one actually had one.
When I really need to keep track to see what’s sucking my money, keeping a ledger helps. Writing it down somehow seemed more ‘in your face’ than using an electronic spreadsheet. But I haven’t done that for awhile, just relying on Excel. Spouse loves pivot tables, but I find it depressing to see how our heating bills have increased over the years.
I use Quicken and bring the full force of my OCD tendencies to it. A couple of years ago, I realized that somewhere deep down inside of me I was hoping some knight in shining armor was going to come and take care of the money for my husband and I. NOT. In regards to money, it seems to me that ignorance does not breed bliss, only anxiety. Once I let go of my little rescue fantasy, I got serious about learning about money and no longer worry about it. Regarding online money management options, I have heard good things about Mint (I think it is at http://www.mint.com)
Thanks for the responses!
Mint seems to be getting a lot of great press. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be available in the UK. I should really just set a spreadsheet up but I wrestle with so many of them at work, I’m not sure I could bear it! Quicken does now have a Mac version – I’ve just been going through Mac bits of personal finance software on downloads.com so I’ll try it out and see.
The main take-out (which I know perfectly well but need to be told!) is that I really have got to start writing this down in some form…
I use Quicken for Mac and combine it (not sure if you can do that in the UK) with Quicken Bill Pay. Very handy. Definitely give Quicken for Mac a try. I try to create reports monthly so I am forced to see where the money is going, going, gone.
Hi Anna – I’ve just been looking at Quicken – in the UK, it’s Quickbooks or nothing, unfortunately. So I’ve resorted to dumping some online statements into a spreadsheet. And the initial results are HORRIFYING!
Coffee can ‘keel’ you, for sure. I broke down and bought a ‘Senseo” and I have to say, I like it. It has save me over $100 a month…but now I’m kicking the habit down even more. I always have enough to pay the bills, but I was laid off on Jan 1(Happy New Year). I think for me it’s the impulse buys…getting a few new dvd’s for SF and things like that that kill me and make me a check to check kind of girl. Time to straighten up and fly right I suppose.
We’re all in the same boat, it seems. Once you realize that you can run, but you cannot hide from a budget, things will improve. AT least that’s what I’m hoping!
I am steadily working on our family budget and learning to cut-back and down-size wherever we can.
I’m feckless. I tend to begin sentences with: “When I’m fabulously wealthy…” That hasn’t happened yet.