Bills can bite

Mark and Judith have just had their second baby. Judith hasn’t been working for a couple of years now. Since they’ve been on one income, things have been tighter. Neither of them really enjoys the work involved with managing their money – they don’t really keep a track of where their money’s going, and they haven’t got much of an idea of how much they spend on household items each week. They keep getting ‘thrown’ by big bills that seem to arrive unexpectedly. Last week the council rates bill arrived. To pay the bill they’ve had to cancel their plan to visit Judith’s sister next month. They decide its time to get sorted.

They use the Sorted budget calculator to work out where their money’s going. They realise that a lot of their “unexpected” big bills are actually completely predictable. They decide to rearrange the way some of the big bills are paid. Previously they paid with a cheque when there was enough money in the account. Now they're going to get a smaller, regular amount paid automatically direct from their bank account. They also decide to set up a ‘spending’ account - where they put what’s left over each week after the bills are paid. Life is going to be simpler and less stressful now – because whatever is in the spending account is all they have to spend.