Money Boxes/envelopes/multiple bank accounts ?

debbycatz

Hi All

I'm a newbie member and although I'm lucky enough not to owe out too much, I have racked up £1,000 on my credit card from 'living expenses'. I will be in a position to pay that off in a couple of weeks :j but I'm very determined not to rack up such an amount again just for 'living expenses'.
I have read some great advice on this site and have duly set myself a budget to follow in future. However........I'm really unsure how to store the different amounts I have set myself. For e.g. I have allowed £20 per month for Christmas savings, £6.00 a month for hair cut, £90 a month for gas and electric and so on and so forth. I'm reluctant to keep it all in my current account as I think I'll lose track of what is for what. I was wondering how other peeps store their monies? Do you have separate money boxes for different 'funds' or do you keep it all together in the bank and just keep very careful track of what your spending and what budget it is coming out off ?

Any tips and advice would be greatly appreciated. I am so anxious not to slip into any kind of debt again and really want to keep a close eye on my budget.

Many thanks

POSSETTE

well done for not letting it go any further...the best thing i can suggest is Direct Debits..i have gas,elec,ins,mort,etc all on those so i dont default on anything,then i have a saving account which i have a standing order of £150 a month to cover water,xmas,hair,birthdays,basically anything you cant DD,that is there so when the right occaision crops up,the money is there too.hope this helps...:beer:

Rad

On-line banking helps me with this. I've started moving money out of my current account as soon as I get paid, I have a rent and bills account, holiday spending money account, food and clothes account and a 'saving to pay of 0%CC' account.
I then move money back into my current account in little bits. I find that this makes me more aware of how much money is going where, as I have to look at my statements every week rather than waiting till the end of the month.

spinningtop_3

I've got an account with ING Direct and have a direct debit to it each month. I've recently discovered that you can have up to 10 accounts with them, so have opened up lots of little 'pots' - one for Christmas/birthdays, another for Household long term bills/emergencies etc etc. You can name them whatever you like and are all able to be used online.

I'm about to start on a Debt Management Plan and my budget is going to be tight. I know that I will struggle if I leave all the 'spare' money in my normal account, so I'm moving all my longer term expenses and anything that's budgeted, but not spent that month straight into my savings accounts - it's really easy to transfer it all online.

Good luck!

**purpleprincess**

I have both virtual pots and real pots for my money!! I have a number of pots with my bank which I use with my online banking, I know that ING also do this and you can name them eg Xmas fund, rainy day fund etc etc etc and I have got a couple of labelled jars which my cash goes into. One for "pocket money" each week, one for food shopping underspends, one for Christmas money (small change then gets banked later), a huge bottle for shrapnel and a piggy for my £2 coins of course!!! .................... I find this works really well for me and I know what's where and can check at a moments notice too

postingalwaysposting

i have the simplest way (for me) that seems to work well (untill i find spare money floating between acounts lol) i have two bank accounts and three ing (saving accounts) and a bank isa. I get payed into one account (same account all my direct debits go out from) then on pay day i sort out all my bills and expenses (ie stuff like bus fare, driving lessons) for that month that money is left in that account all left over goes into a second account for spending/sorting. Once all that is done i then divide the spending money ito my savings accounts, one for xmas, one for my car and one for gap year leaving me approx £30 for the month (30days) anything not used goes into one of the savings account. obviously some months not much gets but into these accounts (ie when i have dentist/unexpected payments) but in all its going well :rolleyes: ......

....but please remember we all have our own little methods

overbudget

Congratulations on clearing your debts! I have an ING account which allows you to divide up into 10 separate accounts. I use these to keep track of earmarked money e.g. I have one account for tax, one for annual payments etc. For me this is not really saving - I only put there money which is already committed - spare money goes at the debt at the moment! But I find it really handy and the interest rate (4.5%) isn't bad (though not the best anymore).

I also have a "treat sheep" piggybank in which I save £2 coins which I use for treats - and a "debt pig" piggybank for small change which will be used against my overdraft when full!

debbycatz

Thanks all for your wonderful and speedy replies :beer:

I think I will do a mixture of both, maybe keep my bills in one account but have a couple of little savings piggies for other stuff. I like the idea of being able to see it and count it and will probably be quite sad and regularly count out what is in my little piggies

BTW - I don't deserve any congrats on clearing my debt You see, I remortgaged the house this time last year to free up £6,000 for home improvements. I put £3,000 into an ISA as I knew the home improvements would be a slow process and figured that money could earn some interest while I was getting on scraping paper off etc. I spent £2,000 on immediate improvements to the house and used the other £1,000 to pay off my credit card debt. A year later and another £1,000 has accumulated on the credit card :mad: I intend to pay this off when the £3,000 from my ISA becomes available in two weeks So.......you can understand my utter annoyance at myself for having to use £2,000 of remortgage money to pay off stupidity on credit cards :mad:
I hope I have learnt my lesson since . I found this site about two months ago and I feel a lot more in control of my spending so I hope all these tips really do help me avoid going anywhere near tht credit card.

Thanks again all - you really are a great bunch :A