Budgeting Part 4 - Paying for those essentials

OK, so it's been a while - but if you remember I was going to let you in on the secret of how I try and remain under budget for those everyday expenses. . .

. . .Would you believe a good ole spreadsheet, a note pad and a whole lotta determination tend to work for me?

I use the notepad on a daily basis to note down what I've spent. It's so easy to forget that chocolate brownie you treated yourself to, or the emergency shower gel you had to buy on your lunchbreak - but if you note it all down it's there in black and white and you can see how much you're spending and on what. Obviously just writing everything down that you spend isn't automatically going to make you spend less. You'll need to regularly go back and review the notepad and see where you're wasting money - buying lunch instead of taking a packed lunch is a biggie, as is treating yourself to a morning coffee. Keep reviewing back over each week and see where you can save some money, cut back and keep going with the notebook. At the moment my big splurge seems to be on magazines (I go through this phase every few months!) at least by noting down my spending on these I am taking stock of this splurge, which should, in reality, show me how much money I'm wasting and encourage me that I really don't need to know about Wayne and Coleen's arguments (Heat) or what the hot new accessories for next season are (Elle) or indeed about Jools Oliver (Red). I know! I am a toal magazine-a-holic!

Then I use a spreadsheet to keep a track of how that money comes out of my account. Chances are your everyday splurges are going to come out of that £5 note that's been burning a whole in your purse for oh at least ten minutes, so I use the spreadsheet to keep track of whenever I withdraw cash from a cash point, get cash back or pay for something on my card. This gives me a realistic figure of how much I'm spending on those little essentials (and a whole host of crap). And I can check this against my budget figure and tighten the purse strings if I realise things are heading towards splurge-city!

I can't stress enough that a notepad and a spreadsheet aren't the almighty saviour to save your finances and make you a millionaire. You really need to want to save to make this work - you'll need the drive and determination to succeed and the willpower to walkaway even if it is a bargain!

Anyway, that's what works for me - I've heard other stories about people who allow themselves a daily or weekly spend budget and even about a guy who can tell what girlfriend he was going out with at the time by looking back on his spending notebooks (NB: I don't keep mine - once they're full they're heading for the landfill!)

Post a comment and let me know what works for you? xx