Anyone want to write a money diary?

The only diaries I've kept over the last number of years are fuel diaries to see what I've spent on diesel over the year.

It's amazing the difference in spend when there's a big change in the price.
 
The best book on money management I have read is "Household Accounts - Controlling your income can make it go further...''. It was published in 1988 by accountants Catherine and Dermot O'Driscoll. It's probably way out of print by now and my copy is priced in Irish Pounds (IR£ 3.50). Their basic model is first to manage your money by setting up a cash book and then a statement of income and payments summary sheet. Secondly, they recommended budgeting by providing for each item of expenditure out of income whether it is it to be paid or not, i.e. each item of expense is provided for out of income received, so when the item is due for payment the amount required is available. For example, if your LPT is X euro a year you allocate X/(frequency of pay) to LPT each time you are paid, so you have accumulated the amount of your LPT when it is due to be paid. I still use their method for budgeting for major expense items paid annually.
 
I understand that the people who contribute to this site have a good head for and an interest in managing money. But honestly the very basics of a money diary or a simple list of income and outgoings and an understanding of annual versus monthly expenses etc appears to be a novel concept to a lot of people. This is a real skills gap, as a lack of understanding of finances and needs v wants has led to a lot of misery and stress for people. It should not get to the stage where people are drowning before they seek assistance from MABs etc. This should be ingrained in them at home and in school from a very early age. My own kids are starting to get to the stage of understanding money (the fiver cards for birthdays are a great idea!) so I plan to drill into them the spend/save/donate mantra.
 
I have been keeping an excel-based diary of spending for the last 3 or 4 years. It has certainly been successful in helping us see where our money is going, but it hasn't been a great success in terms of helping us to control spending, changing habits and building wealth (now, in fairness, the last few years have seen 2 babies arrive, wedding, house etc)

But in 2019, we are taking it more seriously, and have devised a system which so far is working very well for us.

We each have a Revolut card, and we top it up every Sunday with money from our current account. Each of us can spend whatever we want (Coffee, clothes, lunches out, drinks . . . whatever) on this card and none of this money is tracked on the spreadsheet. No one has to answer to the other for any purchases they make on their Revolut card. These weekly topups appear on my budget spreadsheets as a single line called "pocket money"

Everything else - bills, groceries, petrol, spending on the kids etc - all comes from the current account and is tracked on the spreadsheet. I enter these transactions every day from the KBC app, usually when I'm in work.

We are trying to sit down at the beginning of every month to review the previous month and agree on the next month's budget.

As I say, at the moment, it's working well. Both of us have agreed that the Revolut method is making us stop and think about the money we had been throwing away on eating out, sweets, coffees etc. Because we both have things we actually want to buy for ourselves, we are therefore finding ourselves really cutting back on the rubbish.
 
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