Managing our budget and learning to live on less helped us to pay off a considerable amount of (my) consumer debt, and now that it’s gone, we’re attacking the mortgage. Our mortgage is not due to finish until 2031, but we would love to have it paid off by the end of 2015, sixteen years early!

To help us do that we limit our household expenditure to less than 50% of our net income.

HOW WE MAKE OUR BUDGET:

Every month I start with our basic essential costs, and then add in any other expected costs – after that everything else goes towards our (eventual) financial freedom.

ACCOUNT SET UP:

Personal checking | Joint checking | Personal checking
Personal E-saver| Travel Fund | Personal E-saver
Gift and Mini E-Fund
Freedom Fund
Emergency Fund

NOTES:

• We each have a personal checking account, but use the joint checking for all our household expenditure.
• We each have a personal e-saver attached to our personal checking accounts – I use mine as a clothing fund.
• The travel fund and gift/mini e-funds are attached to the joint checking.
• Our long-term Emergency Fund is kept in an ISA and our Freedom Fund is kept in a separate ISA.
• From the checking account we pay the bills and fund our online savings accounts…….mainly with automatic payments.
• All our automatic bill payments (Direct Debits) are set to be paid between the 25th and 1st of every month and are, where possible, the paper free kind.
• Grocery is paid for on a cash back credit card, which is then paid in full every month

I hope that this covers everything, however if you have any questions at all then please ask me either in the comments or by email nomorespending (at) gmail (dot) com