We have always been incredibly lucky and have always had more income than expenses so I haven't had to worry about it before but our circumstances have changed and I need to budget and watch our money. I've written up a basic budget of monthly bills but I don't seem to be sticking to it or I haven't allowed enough money. I am also thinking of becoming a cash family.
Please don't laugh but I have no idea how to be a cash family. I have always used my credit card for all bills etc and pay it off each month. Well that was the way it was but over the last 18 months I have just gone crazy and I can't pay the balance off so it's gotten out of control. I have had a shopping problem in the past and I can see me ending up in the same debt problems again.
I have written up a budget but I never end up with any cash (my budgeting savings) left over as I can't even pay off all my CC balance. I also have all my direct debits set up to come off my CC too.
How do you do your groceries? I just write my list and whatever it comes to I just put on my card.
How do you plan for unexpected things like home repairs/car services/kids clothes?
I am just so sick of chasing my tail. Any help/tips/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Getting us sorted financially is going to be my NY resolution.
Firstly, get rid of the CC if you don't feel you can live without it. We have one, but it's for emergencies only. Can't remember the last time it got used.
Groceries - start with a reasonable budget, and to stick to it. If you need to, take a calculator with you so you know your running total, or do it online. If at the end it's more expensive than what you budgetted for, take something out that isn't necessary.
bills - set up direct debits from your access account, not your credit card. Have all your money go in there, and dispese accordingly.
emergency repairs etc - this can get tricky depending on what it is. Clothing etc, then we just make do until we can allow for it in the budget. If an emergency home repair was to come and you didn't have the money, then you'd need to re-do your budget. Get an extension on a bill due date, borrow from a friend etc.
Grocery shopping - budget realistically, meal plan to ensure you don't need to pick up extras. I always buy way more than necessary when I go to get one item. For the basics I generally buy homebrand and try to do that as much as possible. Bake as much as possible for snacks etc as it is much cheaper.
I don't buy stuff we don't need and try to get as much on sale as possible. Definitely takes a while to get ahead too. Good luck!
With us for all our main quarterly bills we put x amount towards them each fortnight that comes straight out of bank account automatically when the bill arrives they are usually in or close to credit. I have never had a CC in my life. I have always been a firm believer if "we don't have the money then we don't get it" I do now however have a visa debit but that is using your own money anyway. I make sure our account always has a minimum of $1000 in it. So I if I see my bank account with $1500 then I think "right we have $500". The $1000 is for emergencies. Came in handy when our deep freezer died a week before Christmas last year.
As for shopping I now do it all online. It adds it up for you as you add to the trolley. I always felt stupid carrying a calculator around the shops. If you only have $250 for shopping one week and you go over then you can have a good look at your list and see if there is something that you can do without to the following week. It is also easy to avoid temptation.
My husband doesn't earn a great deal per week and we border on low income, but I just can't be bothered doing the paperwork for it to submit to centrelink. We survive. The kids are fed, dressed and the bills get paid. That is the main things.
We started on being more of a 'cash' family a couple of years ago.
We have a budget, but it is a fairly loose one. Our budget is in two parts; bills and living.
For the bills part I have an excel spreadsheet listing all the bills we get (rates, elec, gas, rego, mortgage, etc) and approx how much they are per year or month etc. I then work out what this equates to fortnightly for each one, add up the total and but this aside as 'bills' money each fortnight when we get paid.
The living part is a bit looser I guess. I have worked out approx how much we spend on petrol and food each fortnight and then we give ourselves a few hundred extra for 'extras' (e.g. haircuts, clothes, dinners out, buying random things at the shops......). We take this money out of our account at the beginning of each fortnight. This way we know exactly how much we have 'left' and we can make educated decisions about what we want to buy or do with our money based on how much we have left.
Each fortnight I also have a 'potential savings' part (income minus bills and living expenses). TBH a lot of this ends up going towards the credit card each fortnight (well, at least lately anyway as we have just built a new house and are doing gardens and stuff) as we use it for any extra things we want or for car servicing or emergencies or stuff like that. That being said, unless I make a payment onto it late (by accident) we never pay any interest on it, so we are not over-using it if you know what I mean..... We also do have a set minimum amount that we save each fortnight and we also pay extra into our loan....
Choppity chop chop the credit card. You'll be amazed at what you don't really "need" to buy when you know you won't have the cash for it or would prefer to use your cash for something else.
We follow a similar plan to astrolady. Works great. I can't remember the last time we got a bill.
I only ever use cash for everything, other than bills which are direct debited from my account each fortnight.
These are the things which are debiting from my account each week:
Car payment
Car insurance
Electricity
Gas
Rent
I pay my phone bill at the post office with cash, I always have cash in my purse to pay for everything else.
For grocery shopping, I write a list and meal plan. I use the calculator on my phone to keep track of how much I am spending while Im filling up the trolley, so I dont get embarassed when I go through the check out.
Come join the cash club! We've recently gone back to being a cash family! We;ve got a fairly relaxed budget. What we do is, each fortnight when I get paid, we divy up the money (online obviosuly). We send however much we need to keep aside for bills and we send it to the savings account thats not linked to a card.
When we work out the budget, we work out how much our bills will come to each fortnight. So we pay rent fortnightly, get a monthly Telstra bill (internet, phones, foxtel), a quarterly electricity bill, yearly rego etc, and we work out how much it all comes to fortnightly, and we send that much to savings so that when each bill comes either fortnightly, monthly, quarterly or yearly, we can just pull it straight from the savings without stress, knowing that the money is there. Just remember it has a place to go, and don't spend it in the meantime!
We then work out how much we want to leave ourselves for groceries and fortnightly incidentals, and we send the rest to a savings account as actual savings. next time we go to the shops we get out the cash, we only buy whats on the list and keep track of what everything costs, and if it's too much we put non-essentials back, and if we have some left over we might treat ourselves. We also keep some 'pocket money' for if we want to buy something for ourselves, or if we don't we just save it at the end of the fortnight (so we get out less next fortnight and put more into the savings account).
We don't leave anything in the account linked to the card so we can't overspend, but we do have the money in savings for emergencies (our fridge just died so we needed to buy a bar fridge in the meantime, so we bought it cheap at the boxing day sales from our savings). So at the supermarket, if it comes to too much we just put things back. We do take into account if its goig to be a big shop week, like if we need washing powder or dishwashing tablets or coffee or dog food, and add more to our weekly shopping budget, but we've worked out our average and with cash we make sure we aren't spending more than we need to on food.
It isn't hard once you're established.
(I shoulnd't lie. we do use our credit card for TTC costs, but cash for everything else...)
Last edited by Indadhanu; December 30th, 2010 at 06:49 PM.
With the CC, I had a huge debt on it and knew all the numbers off by heart - so I ordered a new card, and froze it into a block of ice and kept it in the back of the freezer. Meant I really had to make an effort if I wanted / needed it to use!!!!!!
As you use your CC for everything now, doing up a budget should be fairly easy in that you can see how much your bills have been for the last year. Do up a spreadsheet with the total spend of everything over the past year - that will tell you what you're currently spending. Now divide each item into how ever often you get paid - for me, it was 26 cause I get paid fortnightly. I then put that amount into an account separate from everything else, and set up all my bills to direct debit to that account only. Include your CC on that list and make the minimum payment on your budget - that will cover the interest and you won't increase the debt. It will allow you some breathing space if needed.
For groceries, read your local junk mail and stock up on basics when they are on special. My DH wanted to go and see how much money we could save on groceries. We just did a fortnightly shop at 3 stores - NQR (not quite right), Aldi & woolies. We bought around 75% of the stuff at NQR and it cost us $38 - it's good for basics and tinned / jarred stuff where short-dates don't mean much. Stuff like cream you can freeze. I did some more of the shop at Aldi but didn't find it had what I was after, which was weird, but I did get meat there a lot cheaper than Woolies. . And the balance at Woolies came to close on $120. All up our shop for the fortnight cost $200 instead of $270. Menu planning is key though, and cooking from scratch saves so much money - stir-through jars cost a lot, as do packet things like mexican meals. Don't be afraid to ask for a sub-total when shopping, and when you're at the big shops that have the subtotal displayed as it scans, put the expensive must-haves at the front of your shop for scanning and keep an eye on the scanner. That way you can adjust your other items and remove any luxuries if $$$ are tight.
I've found it very difficult to budget, and when I started I had a good friend come round every fortnight and help me plan for the fortnight ahead, she really taught me a lot.
I need to do this too Dan. DH is so anti it. He uses the card for work. But we only get reimbursed every few months. We never had a CC until he decided he needed one for work. Biggest mistake EVER! I want them gone. I have a plan. I have a budget. But I also have DH. Who can't follow a straight line painted in front of him let alone a financial plan or budget. Harsh? Yes... but if you saw our finances you'd agree!
Cash all the way hear too, if we can't afford it we don't buy it. If we really want something we save, like our holiday next year, it makes it more exciting!
We take our cash out on pay day and try our *hardest* to stick to the budget. DP and I have pocket money each(a small amount) so If Im out I can buy lunch and not feel like Im over-spending. Meal planning makes food shopping easier and If I get to the checkout and am short Ill leave something behind instead of eftpos'ing. HTH
Get rid of you're CC.,.....horrible thigns they are....i do have one but i dont use it...unless there is a need.
Groceries: hmmm tough one...start with the basics's i think and bulk buy thigns such as means loo roll etc. i have to as we get paid monthly so buying in bulk is a must. but i say do it on line less likely to buy thigns you dont need.
As for emergencies...hmmm tough on. car services have to budgeted in along time in advance in my house and kids clothing lay bys....
for bills i know are the same each month direct debt.....with water,gas and electricity.....do a payment system were you put so much on a fortnight/month that helps.
I have to agree on getting rid of the credit card. We used to be fine till we got one and then it seemed we never had enough to put away for savings. I recently cut mine up. DH still has his as we are going to build our house and he needs it for that. But we can't use it for anything else. We do have a debit card for online things etc but we can't over spend from that as it is our own money.
Oh, I meant to say, that when you put your bills money into a seperate account, you may need to top it up for a couple of months, but generally within about 3-4 months it gets in front and provides a buffer for big expenses / emergencies if needed. It's also worth chasing up your banks to ensure you have the best low-fee accounts possible - even if this means changing banks.
Our gas and electricity companies over here do 'bill smoothing' - they take your average 12 month usage and split it up over 12 monthly equal payments and DD it from your account. You pay the difference at each meter reading if there is one, or you can end up in credit
Also helps you to keep an eye on how much your usage is fluctuating.
Emergencies - well this is what your savings a for We are like Kathryn, there is a minimum balance kept in the account, so I can whinge I have no money, but there is $1500 in the bank for those emergencies - next week for example, there is an $1200 car repair and service.
Oh, we don't have a CC at all either, so there is never "a need" to use it. Get rid of it, you do not need it, and you will not need it if you don't have it.
We have a visa debit that I use for online etc.
We have a bills account and all the money for the mortgage etc gets transferred into it on DHs pay day as per the budget.
Also now doing the shopping online, avoiding impulse spending, avoiding issues with the 3 year old and also the heat, crowds and hassle of being 9 months preg and trekking to the supermarket. Plus it is much easier to keep track of spending and add/remove items as necessary if I go over the budget.
The slow cooker is your friend, as are farmers markets etc - I NEVER buy fruit and veg from the supermarket, it is never as fresh and always 5 times the price. There is a co-op thing over here that deliver a box of organic veg to your door every weeks etc, cheap as. But your local markets should do nicely.
How do you become a cash family?
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We also keep some 'pocket money' for if we want to buy something for ourselves, or if we don't we just save it at the end of the fortnight (so we get out less next fortnight and put more into the savings account). 
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