Sometimes the best way to save money is to realise just what you're spending your cash on each month..
If you have online banking it's easy to audit your spending with free home accounting software. My online banking allows me to download each months statement into some home accounts software called Acemoney Lite.

You can then easily set up a few rules that can categorise each transaction into groups such as 'household bills','mortgage','shopping','Leisure','Gifts','loans' and so on.

After a month or so you will be able to see accurate totals of exactly where your money is going and configuring a typical spending limit budget against each category it's then easy to see whether you have gone over/under budget in any one month and reign it in if necessary.

It shocked me how much we were spending on Booze and Take-aways each month and with only a slight lifestyle change we were able to claw back about £100/month.

Also as I set the expected monthly limits on each category after a few months I noticed that SKY were sneaking a few extra quid onto their prices each year which made me realise how much we were pissing up the wall on shitty reruns. So we cancelled it and got Freesat from SKY.

The same went for grocery spending. Mrs Airman Gabber would regularly pop into Tescos for 'a few bits' and at the end of the month those few bits added up to over £300. This helped us change our shopping habits and shave even more money off the bills.

We also pay by debit card wherever convenient (bars & restaurants) as it'll make it easier to see where your money is going once it's imported into the system.

It sounds a bit anal and sometimes I get fanatical about money management but as a result similarly paid colleagues can't fathom out how I can afford the nice car, home, holiday apartment and still have a life.
( Airman Gabber Living life like a 70's BBC presenter, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 11:18, 7 replies)

I can easily tell you the results of mine: the pub.
Simple.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 11:27, closed)

Fags and booze
and WH40K
( emvee cruor deo cruoris, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 11:31, closed)

"We also pay by debit card wherever convenient (bars & restaurants) as it'll make it easier to see where your money is going once it's imported into the system."
This depends on your bank. After swiching from Lloyds Where card transactions showed up on the same day to Baraclays where it seems to take 3-4 days for the transactions to show up in the account.
(Gru being trolled since 1998, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 11:39, closed)

That drives me nuts.
They don't show up, but they're debited.

My online account always shows the statement balance, but the actual balance is that less anything I have used the card for, but hasn;t been processed.

That can be several hundred quid, and there's no way to tell what it is.
(username failed moderation, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 12:00, closed)

I agree with all this.
It always used to puzzle me that my brother, who earns about the same as me, always has his shit together, always has the means to do what he needs to do - eg, he just moved house, and immediately paid £4,000 in cash for new windows (one of his friends runs a window company).

We never used to have a pot to piss in, and had nothing more to show for it.

It's what you say. He is very aware of what they spend. He tracks his finances carefully. He reviews his insurance / TV packages etc regualarly, and shops around.

His wife does all the Christmas shopping in March.

I've already said this, but in the last couple of weeks, and with some prompting from here, I have changed insurance policies, utility bills and my Virgin subscription. That's £80/month for making 3 or 4 0800 phone calls.

I think the point is, if you can't say what you're spending your money on, you're probably wasting a lot of it.

Having said all that, one of the reasons for wanting to save money was a knackered car. We bought a new one last weekend on zero percent finance . . . so I'll still be skint.
(username failed moderation, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 11:45, closed)

0%
zero percent isn't really a great deal. You're still paying for the loan, they just don't add it up explicitly for you. Try paying cash, and you will get a nice discount.
(Simian Typewriter Supplies Pty. Ltd. is house hunting in the neighborhood of infinity, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 12:08, closed)

Seems about the
same, I negotiated it all down a bit anyway, got metalic paint thrown in, etc.

'course, you're right - no such thing as a free lunch. It just feels like a good deal.
(username failed moderation, Wed 16 Nov 2011, 12:36, closed)