Budget time of year

I notice, since I spent so much time iced into the house over Christmas, that pretty much everyone who blogs is more organised in their budget than I am. I used to have a budget in Excel which detailed all of my monthly outgoing and an 'aspire to' budget beside of it which showed where I wanted to get to. This was useful because I tried to reduce insurance payment at renewal time, cut down on power usage etc. Somehow it has all gotten away from me lately. I also have never budgeted for other things. I aim to spend about £60 per week on food but I don't log that, or how much I actually spend, anywhere.

Tonight all that is going to be rectified! I am downloading last months activity from my bank account. I will create a spreadsheet of the bills ( as opposed to what I wasted on Christmas) and use this as a basis for the master plan.I will then diarise to compare actual with budget (and slap myself on the hand or congratulate myself, according).

Categories are -

Income
Savings
Fixed (i.e... i have no control such as mortgage, council tax)
Variable (i.e. have control such as gas & electricity)
Optional (life insurance etc , charitable contributions)
Indirect (petrol,food, fun)


Fast forward 30 minutes. I have done this and found I should have far more money than I have. Hopefully this will be all that I need to keep me serious.

My bank, Abbey, were bought up by a Spanish bank called Santander a while back. As of yesterday they are re-launched as Santander. They invited me into the branch to see if I wanted to upgrade my account. Hmmm, is there a catch. I didn't find one. My banking is now free although I have to pay a reduced interest rate if I go over my overdraft. If I stay in credit then I get 6% interest on my balance (they must really like me). Best of all I can use my debit card free when I am overseas. To get to be the special person that deserves this account all I had to do was put more than £1000 through the account every month and hold a Santander mortgage. Finally I think I actually got something for nothing! The free access to money overseas will save a small fortune.

I hope this is the shape of 2010 to come.