Does anyone know of any decent website that gives ideas about budgeting/planning etc? Need to seriously save this year

[notnowbernard]

Need to save in order to upsize...

Am in a position to save (low mortgage payment) but to move requires a bit of a cash injection. DP and myself not great at budgeting or 'keeping an eye' on what we spend (not in debt, btw)

Any ideas much appreciated!

Oh, and Happy New Year

[inmysparetime]

Money saving expert
Motley fool
I think Windows do a budgeting tool, it might be on an old version of Windows though.
I made an excel spreadsheet and each month I put in each item from the bank statement, to see where all the money goes

[notnowbernard]

thanks

have been browsing Moneysavingexpert

[ivykaty44]

Set up standing orders and direct debits for all your bills for the whole year/s - so multiply each bill by 12 or divide by three or four or water 8 or council tax 10 and multiply by 12 then when you have a total divide by 12 and that is the amount to send to your bills account each month.

One of the standing orders need to be for pocket money and shopping money each month to a pocket money account.

The most important standing order is to a savings account in your names - treat this as a bill and over save, the standing order needs to come out of your bank account on the day you get paid. Probably the best for tax free is an ISA each as you can save 10460 between you tax free - which is 871 per month. You have 4 month left of this tax year to get in and then start again on 5 April with a new ISA

every month your current account should be empty, until payday

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

I recommend downloading a free copy of Microsoft Money. It's no longer supported by Microsoft (hence the 'sunset' tag) but it is a very good, simple bit of software that helps you budget, track spending, forecast cashflow and set savings targets, amongst other things.

I've used it for years and it really helps you make the most of your cash. It might take you an afternoon to set it up initially with your bank statements and direct debits but, once set up, it takes 5 -10 minutes a day to update it with receipts.

[notnowbernard]

Great advice and tips, thanks

Will be setting up a payday SO to go direct into ISA tomorrow!

[Jojay]

If you do online banking with Lloyds TSB they have a Money Manager tool that is useful - quite an eye opener to see where your money goes.

Other banks may have something similar.