2 current accounts & weekly budgeting works for me

mendedmyways

ahhhh just googled it!
looks like its only really good for o2 mobile customers (and im Voda with 1 year to run on my contract)

MessyMare

I have two accounts (well, two current accounts). Now I've paid my debts off (apart from an interest free one to my mum) I only have two regular outgoings- that interest free monthly payment which can be halted if I'm skint, and my petrol money. I work out my work petrol money when I get my rota and put that amount in one account + £50. Any long journeys that aren't work related have to be paid out of my regular account. This way I know what is in my account is mine, and I know I will not run out of petrol money to get me to work and back (so I wont have to get it on credit). It's working well for me

sainsbo

Cool! So it seems from the replies so far that quite a few people are using two current accounts to manage their money - it certainly helps me to have separate 'pots' to manage.

I looks like some people separate out their bills or money they need to spend on certain things as soon as it comes in so they know how much they have left for spending. I do it the other way around by separating out my spending money and letting the bills come out of the main account.

Either way it seems to help us have a clear idea of how much we have to spend at any given time, rather than being tricked in to 'thinking' we have lots of money when actually we don't.

LloydsTSB are the only bank that I know who provide the Control service. Barclays do offer a debit card account without overdraft, so this might work in the same way.

zcrat41

Hi Sainsbo,

I do what you do but take it a bit further. I have the Halifax reward account so I get my extra £5 per month. ALl my mortgage and bills come out of the account I've had since I was tiny. I also save an est amount each month for house insurance so I can pay it in one go when it comes round.

In my Halifax account I save for my holiday

Then I have a couple of online web saver to save a set amount for stuff like clothes, weddings, xmas etc. (lots of friends getting married at the mo, its an expensive business i've decided to budget for this year.)

So far its working fab. I then take out £65 pw to cover all food and random social spending. What I don't spend get's saved.

misspixierocktastic

Hi Sainsbo what a detailed post i'm impressed with your set up
For me i live at home so i don't have the utlitys etc to pay however i do have three seperate accounts

1) my main bank account i pay my direct debits and rent to my mum and cccs payment with this and this is where my months wages go into

2) a bog standard natwest cash card account, using online banking i put a set amount of money in here every month to cover tax and car mot and car related expenses, i find this helps me so that every six months i don't suddenly go- blimey i haven't got £70 for tax etc i know that the money will be there i've accounted for it

3) a savings account- havent started using this yet till my debt is paid off

I do have a little left over every month that i call my spending money for going out, haircuts,clothes,presents everything else- what i find works best for me is on my excel budget spreadsheet i divide the amount i have left a month for spending into 4 so i know how much i have a week,if i make a purchase i subtract it from the amount i have for that week and i always stick to the budget
If i don't spend all my spending money for that month i make extra overpayments to my debts on top of the minimum payments and the extra payments i make currently

Budgeting is the only thing i've become very geeky about- i'm 26 i've had to shape up, so now i know when i am debt free in 2012 that i will use the same budgeting system for when i have my own place
it's held me in better stead i don't think i could ever imagine not having a budget or a close eye on where my money is- i have back the control i lost when i got into debt

Willow_K

We do something similar - we have a joint Barclays account which both lots of wages gets paid into. We then each have individual current accounts plus a savings account.

All the bills and DD's come out of the joint account and £200 each gets transfered into the individual current accounts with £100 going into the savings. The joint account then gets used for household expenses during the month such as shopping and petrol.

Any presents, entertainment etc is supposed to come out the individual accounts, but this doesn't always happen at the moment so therefore as I've recently decided that we need to save a lot more money, so we will be tightening this system up somewhat over the coming weeks and making some changes so it works better and we save more.