Which software do you guys use to manage your bank accounts / spending ?

[Jez]

The entire concept of budgeting is something which i find completely and utterly baffling. You need to simply have a handle on one equation and then you never need to budget again. That equation being Income>Outgoing.

To make this even easier, group your income streams to the end of the month, and group your outgoings to the start of the month.

My finances never need attention as i leave income streams sitting in source accounts and consolidate at the end of the month into a collector (main) current account, i then have all outgoing streams collected following this (credit cards, any maintenance charges, whatever).

The account surplus for that month is then siphoned from that master current account into wherever, before the next months income is collected back into it.

So simple, no apps or stupid pre paid debit cards needed

 

[p4radox]

The entire concept of budgeting is something which i find completely and utterly baffling. You need to simply have a handle on one equation and then you never need to budget again. That equation being Income>Outgoing.

To make this even easier, group your income streams to the end of the month, and group your outgoings to the start of the month.

My finances never need attention as i leave income streams sitting in source accounts and consolidate at the end of the month into a collector (main) current account, i then have all outgoing streams collected following this (credit cards, any maintenance charges, whatever).

The account surplus for that month is then siphoned from that master current account into wherever, before the next months income is collected back into it.

So simple, no apps or stupid pre paid debit cards needed

If you're interested in aggressive saving (eg 60% of your income for an early retirement at 40 or something) then budgeting can have its uses.

If you live by the usual "spend everything you earn and try not to go into the red" mentality then I agree, there's little benefit.

 

[Jez]

If you're interested in aggressive saving (eg 60% of your income for an early retirement at 40 or something) then budgeting can have its uses.

If you live by the usual "spend everything you earn and try not to go into the red" mentality then I agree, there's little benefit.

I dont agree that it makes any difference whatsoever, which is my point. I "save" (Invest) almost all of my income in percentage terms and i certainly dont budget.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

I like my 3 account standing order method, as it works automatically on the same day every month and I don't even think about it. It also forces me to review the price of each direct debit on an annual basis, which helps spot those bills which have increased more than the others and means bills don't spiral out of control.

The fact that my bills and savings are taken care of by a separate accounts means that I can check my current account any time after the SOs have gone out and know exactly what I've got to spend, without worrying if that £xxx left is needed to pay BT or car insurance.

Any app which requires me to enter/track purchases can GTFO to be honest. I'd rather spend the hour once a year than 10 minutes every few days!

 

[platypus]

I dont agree that it makes any difference whatsoever, which is my point. I "save" (Invest) almost all of my income in percentage terms and i certainly dont budget.

/shrug, works for you I guess.

We budget quite strictly, and it definitely helps us keep track of things; but then we're balancing several accounts (eg my pay in the UK is currently getting split into 4 accounts), money in two countries, and separate accounts for my wifes work. It's a lot easier (for her anyway) to keep track of spending whilst working separately, and makes doing her accounts a case of printing things off when the time comes. Different strokes..

 

[Glaucus]

To make this even easier, group your income streams to the end of the month, and group your outgoings to the start of the month.
:

and what happens when you payday changes throughout the year, grouping things to say at the start of the month become pointless, as it doesn't show or tell you anything.

 

[Jez]

What does it matter? My income streams pay throughout the month every month for example, and then get collected at the end into the main collector account (if you want to put names to each one )

When you get paid through a month makes no difference at all. Its all just money in over time > money out over time.

 

[malachi]

and what happens when you payday changes throughout the year, grouping things to say at the start of the month become pointless, as it doesn't show or tell you anything.

Just like mine, I get paid every 4 weeks so payday is always different.

Benefit from being paid 13 times a year instead of 12

 

[edscdk]

girlfriend V1, looking to upgrade to wife v1.1 soon

 

[Glaucus]

What does it matter? My income streams pay throughout the month every month for example, and then get collected at the end into the main collector account (if you want to put names to each one )

When you get paid through a month makes no difference at all

well it does because unlike people who get paid on the last day of the month, and all DD set for the 1st you cant just look at your account and see what you have left.

you then have to do some sort of budgeting of which there's different ways of doing it, keeping track of payments, or use of multiple accounts etc.

 

[Jez]

What does it matter what you have left? Its so basic to simply do the following;

1) Collect income streams into account A
2) Arrange all outgoings from account B on a set date (if you like)
3) Collect enough from account A to cover account B before the due date
4) Siphon remainder into chosen investments/savings vehicles the day after the collection from A occurred.

You can even automate all of this based on assumptions and manually reconcile account A surplus every few months if you liked.

 

[GinG]

Excel. I've tried all sorts of apps over the years, but I come back to Excel.

My wife does most of the budgeting and nothing seems to beat good old excel, who needs to see fancy graphs and pie charts anyway?!

 

[Dunks]

What does it matter what you have left? Its so basic to simply do the following;

1) Collect income streams into account A
2) Arrange all outgoings from account B on a set date (if you like)
3) Collect enough from account A to cover account B before the due date
4) Siphon remainder into chosen investments/savings vehicles the day after the collection from A occurred.

You can even automate all of this based on assumptions and manually reconcile account A surplus every few months if you liked.

So your outgoings for every month are always the same?

Surely adjusting for the amount of outgoings you're expecting to come out of account B is budgeting alone?

And then deciding how much you're going to transfer to savings/invstments to ensure you have enough for through the month expenses (i.e food and going out) is budgeting?

 

[Glaucus]

What does it matter what you have left? Its so basic to simply do the following;

1) Collect income streams into account A
2) Arrange all outgoings from account B on a set date (if you like)
3) Collect enough from account A to cover account B before the due date
4) Siphon remainder into chosen investments/savings vehicles the day after the collection from A occurred.

You can even automate all of this based on assumptions and manually reconcile account A surplus every few months if you liked.

so budgeting using multiple accounts, which im pretty sure I said in the post you quoted.

 

[Soupy]

No software used, only hardware needed is the wife, she's kept me solvent for 30 years so she must know what she's doing.

Also, I wouldn't even know how much is in our current or savings account, all I know is there's nobody knocking down my door to get paid for anything and if I need something the funds are there to buy it ... it could all be smoke and mirrors but I ain't gonna rock the boat after all this time!

If it works, it works

 

[Jez]

So your outgoings for every month are always the same?

Surely adjusting for the amount of outgoings you're expecting to come out of account B is budgeting alone?

And then deciding how much you're going to transfer to savings/invstments to ensure you have enough for through the month expenses (i.e food and going out) is budgeting?

There is no budgeting involved, you simply look at the credit statements due along with the fixed knowns. You then cover that.

Alternatively, simply use one single account and siphon from that on a fixed date.

 

[Jez]

so budgeting using multiple accounts, which im pretty sure I said in the post you quoted.

I knew this would be difficult for you to understand when i saw your username and saw mention of totally pointless products such as a monza card, but christ

The use of multiple accounts to act as collectors etc is not budgeting. It is organisation. Its not even necessary other than keeping things a little neater rather than a single sprawling account.

 

[Glaucus]

I knew this would be difficult for you to understand when i saw your username but christ

The use of multiple accounts to act as collectors etc is not budgeting. It is organisation.

I don't know how you think that, and yes it is budgeting, did you just pick a random number and divert those funds. which every way you do it requires budgeting, Some ways just more often than others.

 

[Deleted member 651465]

I don't know how you think that, and yes it is budgeting, did you just pick a random number and divert those funds. which every way you do it requires budgeting, Some ways just more often than others.

In Jez's defense, some bank accounts allow you "skim" an amount off a balance. E.g. you tell it to take anything above £100 and if your balance on 1st of the month is £147.58 then it automatically skims £47.58 to your nominated account.

This may not be what Jez is doing, but it's possible to set it up without really budgeting providing you're confident you'll have at least enough in the donor account to afford the skim.

 

[Jez]

I don't know how you think that, and yes it is budgeting, did you just pick a random number and divert those funds. which every way you do it requires budgeting, Some ways just more often than others.

I think you need to look up and understand what budgeting is, paying outgoings based on what they happen to be without consideration, and then siphoning the surplus, is certainly not budgeting