Normally I’m rather curmudgeonly over things like new year. This of course changed three years ago in the early hours when Ned was born. Now it’s something to look forward to and even now, glancing over my shoulder, I can see him building an implausible car out of Duplo.
Lots of people try to start the new year with the best intentions at heart, me included. Back in 2012 I wrote a post called How to Budget. This post has had to date a little over 66,000 views, so I thought it was time to revisit it and expand on it.
Over on my other Blog, Do It Anyway, I’ve updated and expanded it into what will be a 6 part series of blog posts that run through what I think is the best way to start managing your home finances.
So far it covers:
- Why understanding your finances is vital;
- Building up a simple cashbook from bank statements using Google Documents;
- Analysing the cashbook to understand what money is spent on and when it goes out of the bank account;
- Considering annual expenses/one off costs in the context of a cashbook and how best to budget for them.
And will be completed once I’ve finished writing
- Basic cashflow management techniques you can employ;
- Savings, efficiencies, tips and tricks.
Every post assumes no financial knowledge and I talk you through how to use Google Spreadsheets in idiot proof language (hopefully). I have a background in accountancy but it’s something I almost fell into by accident almost 18 years ago after doing a humanities degree at university, but I do have the knowledge and experience and if I can help one person, consider it my gift :)
You can find the posts here