Welcome to No More Spending; how we manage our budget as we attempt to pay off our mortgage early, move abroad, and reach Financial Freedom by 2020. You can read more about this site here and subscribe to get all the latest updates sent to you by email or RSS feed here.  Thank you for visiting!

6 May 2009

A Brand New Budget

I've been playing around with my spreadsheets this week, sad I know, but this is a sure sign that I'm getting my focus back.

I've worked out a much simpler way of doing my finances, yes, after four years I've finally simplified them, and I'm hoping that this will give me an easier way to debt freedom.

My new simple plan; withdraw £400 cash on the 1st of every month. Ground breaking I know! but because I get paid 4 weekly and most things are monthly, my finances have never been really simple. With my new plan, they should be as simple as they get. I've worked out, that if I just withdraw this amount every month, for the next seven months, there should be enough money left over to pay down my debt.

The £400 budget:

£200 Grocery
£60 Fuel
£100 Daughter expenses
£40 Misc/Birthdays etc

I have tried using cash before and it didn't work very well, but I'm willing to give it another go; I see me using cash in the future, not debit or credit cards, so I might as well get used to it now.

Daily Spending: Day 5 and 6

£18.96 Grocery

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12 comments:

  1. If playing with spreadsheets is sad then I'm pathetic! I love tweeking numbers and seeing how different scenarios work out for my goals. Good luck with the cash system, it works for many people (though not me).
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  2. I am glad that you have found a method that will hopefully work best for you.

    When I revised mine last month... I have no more need to revise the spreadsheets except to decrease the amound of debt owed. ;) Its rather on auto pilot now that I miss the drama. lol! But, it works real well for me. Cash would fall thru my fingers.
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  3. I'm with you and Miss M. I love spreadsheets.

    And I don't like cash. Credit cards work better for me just because of points and the fact that I keep receipts, enter them into my spreadsheet and just pay it off online, right then and there.
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  4. Hi Miss M, I really need to give the cash system one more go, if it doesn't work, I'll be back with my debit card :)

    hi christine, i may be missing the drama as well, thats why I keep messing around with the spreadsheets :)
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  5. Hi FB, I'm sure I could use cc's now, and not abuse them, I'm just not giving myself the option.

    I do have one though, for work expenses and emergencies.
    ReplyDelete
  6. I was in cc debt and became a cash girl after reading The Automatic Millionaire by David bach.For the first year it was very difficult, however I stuck with it and it worked extremely well for me. It is impossible to spend more money than you have on you, and impulse buys are kept in check because you have denied yourself the option! (If you really want it, you can go back later and buy it). Cash definitely works best for me, and I say go for it and stick with it for the rest of the year in spite of the difficulties. You've done brilliantly well, by the way!
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  7. Cash really works for me, much better than I ever thought it could. I actually get to the point of not wanting to spend it.. and at a glance, I can see exactly how much I have left for the month. I can go over a week now without spending anything...

    Hope this works for you.
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  8. Sounds great! I think we all have to tweak as we find systems that work for us!
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  9. I'm of the "love the spreadsheet, hate the cash" camp. I use my debit card for darn near everything. Keep us in the loop how this works - I would love to hear how it goes for you! Like you, I might be willing to give cash another try.
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  10. This is essentially what I did. I take out $100/week at the ATM for food purchases and only ever buy things when I absolutely need to. It works well because it's static. Good luck!
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  11. I just started using cash seriously as I completely overspent in April. So far, so good. I intend on doing it the rest of the summer (at least).
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  12. I'm also a huge fan of spreadsheets! I could never do the cash only thing. I can't be trusted to not spend cash in the wrong categories :)

    Good luck with your new budget!
    ReplyDelete

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