While I'm obsessing here...

[mousme]

Despite the fact that I'm no longer hurting for money, I get the impression that I need to be more on top of my finances than I currently am. I mean, all my bills get paid on time now, and everything gets filed away neatly, but I don't keep a close record of where my money goes: I only have a general idea.

I'm thinking of getting myself a ledger, or something. That way I could, if properly disciplined, keep track of all the money that goes in and out. I'd have to keep receipts more carefully, but it would help me to see where my money goes and identify potential spending problems (at a guess: books and DVDs, since they're my primary "leisure" expenditures). Not that I know how to use a proper accounting ledger or anything, but I bet I could learn.

So, dear flist ('cause I haven't asked enough questions lately :P), how do you manage your household finances?

Comments

[dizietsma.livejournal.com]

Only track enough of the past to make your plans for the future accurate. Plan out the next N salary periods in a spreadsheet (for your sanity, keep it to less than 3 months' worth), columns for time periods and one row each for bills and other big expenditures. Group the little annoying-to-track stuff together into blobs (e.g. "entertainment budget: $50") and budget a set amount of cash for them per time period. Later I can then reflect on why I ran out of cash or why I still have a couple of twenties left over, and adjust accordingly.

This is the theory, in practice I'm a lot more haphazard about it.

The future plan does not look smooth, but that's the whole point. I get paid every fortnight, but I pay rent and bills every month. Some salaries are completely free of bills so we use those for a big grocery/clothes shop, or for saving-up to cover for a future fortnight that's going to be tight, or squirrel some away into a savings account.