This was a video that was requested many moons ago. It’s been on the back burner for a long time but because it’s not the most interesting of topics it keeps getting pushed to the side. It’s been hanging over me far too long so today is the day I am going to post about it.
We have a simple approach to our finances. Our finances are completely joint, 100% shared, regardless of who earns what. I thought this was a standard approach to living but actually after speaking to friends, I think these days it is considered quite old fashioned and that we are in the minority.
We have a joint bank account which both our wages get paid into. We then transfer an agreed amount of money to each of our personal accounts that we can spend throughout the month. We call these ‘spends’.
We have a spreadsheet which lists all our monthly outgoings and totals our expenditure. I make sure I leave just enough in our joint account to pay our bills and that is it. Any extra money over our spreadsheet total in our joint account is transferred out into a separate savings account.
We are currently saving up for our garage conversion that we hope to do later in the year. Although we do keep spending our savings on things like holidays and clothes!
You can watch a video on How We budget over on my Youtube Channel.
I hope you’ve found this interesting and useful. How do you manage your family finances? What are you currently saving for?
11 Comments
Zoe Forde
6th May 2016 at 7:55 AMI am currently really struggling with managing my budget (because I am an online impulse buyer) so I really love this post. Can't wait to watch the video now x
Sarah Cantwell
6th May 2016 at 8:55 AMAww Thank you Zoe, I hope it helps. It does make you think twice before buying as I have to transfer money in to do it x
Oh so amelia
6th May 2016 at 8:15 AMI've been trying to get better at budgeting lately. I'm a really bad impulse buyer so saving has been really hard. However I'm trying to knuckle down and save for a house deposit so budgeting is a priority right now. Great post! xx
Sarah Cantwell
6th May 2016 at 8:55 AMIt's so hard! I'm a spender too. This way I have to physically transfer money out of my savings to pay for things so I think twice about it xx
kerry norris
6th May 2016 at 9:23 AMThis is a great post. We are rubbish at budgeting etc. We're hoping to go to disneyworld next year so that's what we'll be saving for x
Sarah Cantwell
6th May 2016 at 9:55 AMTry this method Kerry I find it really helps us save xx
Vikki Holness
8th May 2016 at 6:06 PMI have been trying really hard to work towards and stick to a budget recently but i am such an impulse buyer that more often than not i just don't stick to it. Loved your video though, it's given me some great ideas to help manage the finances better so thank you! xxx
Sarah Cantwell
8th May 2016 at 7:15 PMAw I'm so pleased it was helpful Vikki. I am too but I find this does help abit because I know I have to physically transfer money out of my savings to pay for things. It makes me think more xx
Jodie Fisher
13th May 2016 at 6:54 AMMy hubby is so strict on budgeting. We follow it very very strictly too.
Sarah Cantwell
13th May 2016 at 6:58 AMYour lucky! My husband is a spender and it makes it so much harder to be good xx
Rose Maria
16th May 2016 at 2:44 PMWhat are some fun things to do with family? | Yahoo Answers
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