Six Steps to getting a grip on your household budget

I hope you had an enjoyable festive season and a good New Year. However, it is probably time to get the finances back under control after the splurge.

Here are some tips on how to budget money in 6 easy steps:

1. Login to your Money Dashboard account to check all of your UK balances and get a full view of your cash position. You can add current, savings and credit card accounts to Money Dashboard, as well as view your total balances and how much cash you have in the bank.
2. Update any transactions that haven't been automatically tagged for you. There is a “show only untagged” tickbox on the Tag Transactions screen which makes this easier for you.
3. Bring your budgets up to date. This should include your monthly income and predicted spending for each group. Also, take care to include any additional credit or interest you may have taken on.
4. If relevant, think about moving your money around to pay off higher interest credit quickest. As Money Dashboard is a read-only service, you will need to log into your bank or credit card provider's website to do this.
5. Enable account Alerts, so Money Dashboard can notify you of the changes to your account that concern you most.
6. Regularly check your monthly spending using our newly improved ‘Track Spending' feature. It is, without a doubt, the coolest thing yet added to the service.

And that's it! Enjoy...

by Gavin Littlejohn, Chief Executive Officer