how do u organise savings ? grocerys etc

Bella79

we have a main saving acc but im thinking of having some more like one for car one for xmas then the main one

how much do u think i should save everymonth for car savings for a mot and service once a year i pay insurance monthly

also how much do u put in xmas savings ?

do u have a seperate acc for grocery spends ? if so do u draw the cash out weekly ?

just wonderd how everyone else went about this ?

thankyou lisa x

hilstep2000

I save £45 a month for Xmas and other things. £25 is for repairs, and £20 is for Xmas.
I have also opened a "Save the change" account with my bank Lloydstsb. What they do is, every time you use yur debit card, they round it up to the nearest pound, and transfer that amount from my current account to the savings account. Sonmetimes it's only 2p, sometimes 95p. It's amazing how quickly it ads up. I started mine in August with £20, but you can start with £1 and I now have £43!
I also collect £2 coins and when I have £20 worth that gies into my Xmas/holiday savings. You don't need a lot of money to save, just make it regular!

findinghappiness

Hiya Lisa

I organise my money like this every month:

Debit card one - This is my bills account. My salary etc goes in to here and I don't carry this card around because all my bills comes out by direct debit. I leave the exact amount for my bills in here and have written 'Bills' on the card to keep from getting confused!

Debit card 2 - This is my food/household shopping account. I transfer my food shopping money in to this account from my bills account on the 1st of every month. I then draw out the cash or use the card when needed. Again have written 'food' on the top of it so I always use the right card.

Debit card 3 - This is my spending money and diesel card. I transfer whatever is left (if any!!) in to here. It has 'Spending' written on it.

Then I have several online saver accounts which I use for other things:

1. Xmas and birthdays - I put £50 a month in here via standing order
2. Acoount for haircuts/school uniform etc - £30 a month via standing order
3. Emergency Savings - Have been made redundant so nothing going in here at the moment - only coming out!!
4. This I use as a specific savings account ie, we wanted an electric shower put in so this was the electric shower fund! Its nothing at the moment tho..
5. Car savings - I pay my insurance monthly like you and then put £50 a month in here to save for tax/MOT/Service. This would also hopefully cover any repairs etc.

I bank with Lloyds and they will let you give all your accounts a 'nickname' online so its really easy to keep track of everything. And I'm always opening and closing online saver accounts depending on whats going on in my life!! Hoping one day to have a holiday fund!!!!

I'm probably a little obsessive about it! But I hope this helps!!:D

Penelope_Penguin

owens3116 wrote: »

we have a main saving acc but im thinking of having some more like one for car one for xmas then the main one

how much do u think i should save everymonth for car savings for a mot and service once a year i pay insurance monthly

also how much do u put in xmas savings ?

do u have a seperate acc for grocery spends ? if so do u draw the cash out weekly ?

just wonderd how everyone else went about this ?

thankyou lisa x

As this isn't really Old Style, I'll move it to the Budgeting Board

Penny. x

Lokolo

How about savings board? Theres always a duplicate on their by the same person though lol

Scubabe

I have a Christmas account, we put £10 each, so £20 per month into this account. That cash pays for Christmas tree, food, small gifts etc at Xmas time.

We have an account that all the bills & direct debits come out of every month. We put in exactly enough to cover all the bills each month.

Then we each withdraw £200 in cash, so £400 total. (This used to be £300 per month, but it was getting very tight with paying for the wood in winter, so we've upped it to £400 over the winter and it will go back to £300 in the spring)
That cash goes into a seperate purse/wallet I have. It pays for absolutely everything which is not a bill, but is household-related. So, it pays for all the Tesco shopping, the farmshop fruit & veg, the meat from the butchers, the dog food, the chicken food, any little "items" we might need, and then also we usually buy something house-related every month or so - new sheets, or a new kitchen item, or whatever. Once that purse is empty, it's empty, so we can't overspend.

Budgeting for your car is a bit hard to give a guideline - it depends on how much driving you do and how old you car is and also what make it is, as to cost of repairs etc. I usually work off £50 for an MOT, £100 for a full service, and £300 for misc repairs each year, but of course if something big happens, that's what credit cards are for...

I really like FindingHappiness's plan, so I may copy some parts of that!!

Ness

piglet39

owens3116 wrote: »

we have a main saving acc but im thinking of having some more like one for car one for xmas then the main one

how much do u think i should save everymonth for car savings for a mot and service once a year i pay insurance monthly

I added my annual expenditure for tax, MOT, servicing (based on previous years spend) and divide by 12 and have that go into an e-savings account that I can quickly transfer back over to main a/c when I need to pay the bill.

also how much do u put in xmas savings ?

Again I add up my annual spend on Christmas/Birthday and any other gifts (such as when the kids get invited to b'day parties etc, divide by 12 and put into another e-savings a/c for transferring back over when necessary. We save £100 per month but we have 5 kids between us and a large family. Maybe you need to work out what your budget is per person for b'day /Christmas etc and then multiply up and divide by 12

do u have a seperate acc for grocery spends ? if so do u draw the cash out weekly ?

No - I withdraw £80 cash each week - generally need to spend all of that but anything over will go into my sealed pot for the challenge on DFW board.

just wonderd how everyone else went about this ?

thankyou lisa x

HTH

I bank with NatWest and you can set up e-savings accounts along with your bank account and these act as piggy banks which you can rename on-line which makes life nice and easy for me. But I am sure you can do this with most other bank accounts.

Piglet

ShelfStacker_3

owens3116 wrote: »

do u have a seperate acc for grocery spends ? if so do u draw the cash out weekly ?

I have a second account with the same bank, which gets a set amount put into each month. The card is a Solo so I can't go over the limit, and having the money in a seperate account stops me from just reducing the amount of money I've earmarked for groceries so I can spend it.

Kavanne

ShelfStacker wrote: »

I have a second account with the same bank, which gets a set amount put into each month. The card is a Solo so I can't go over the limit, and having the money in a seperate account stops me from just reducing the amount of money I've earmarked for groceries so I can spend it.

I wouldn't rely on this!! Have managed to go OD on a childrens account that had a Solo before.....

Anyway I pay whatever I have left from my pay after I have calculated my credit card bills into a 'cash' account.

ShelfStacker_3

Kavanne wrote: »

I wouldn't rely on this!! Have managed to go OD on a childrens account that had a Solo before.....

As have I. I was 16, and NatWest !!!!!!!s charged me £35 when my weekly income was £30 of EMA. Don't trust it, but then I also rely on myself to check my balance... that's the other benefit of a second account, actually, what you have in your available balance = what you can spend, no exceptions. Saves so much hassle. I'm planning on setting up a third account just for spending, if I can't get a cashback card of some description.

waynedance

i like the idea of more than one account with the same bank with nicknames for each. Nice to see all accounts in the same place.

Did not know you could do this or can't you?

I bank with the A&L, could I have three current accounts, one which the wages are paid into and enough money left in for bills, one for house spending and one for car spending.

I guess the last 2 accounts would have to be standard accounts which do not require a min £500 deposit per month.

Hope the above makes sense.