money jars and budgeting

meritaten

Ive got two jars, one is for whatever is left in purse when I get the housekeeping money each week - can be anything from a few coppers to a few pounds - or a fiver on rare occasions! the other is the penny/found money jar. Yes, I am that woman who will pick up pennies on the street! and over the year it can amount to about £25 on average! (this includes the rare occasions when I have found a pound coin or even a tenner!). I wouldnt be without my jars!

Sweet_Pea_2

Ive got online savings "pots", jars and envelopes!
The money for the DD's gets transferred to the "other" current account that is just for DD's.
The "online saving pot money" (ie, ING accounts) gets transferred over to there, (that is for Xmas, Holidays, Car savings - when there is enough there we can afford to change the car, car insurance, tax and servicing, kids savings, my savings, emergency savings and long term savings.)
Whats left in the "main" current account is what can be spent. Once the above transfers have gone out I write the monthly budget, withdraw the cash we need and transfer it to the money tin which contains money bags from the bank with things written on them - food, petrol, "kitty" (unexpected expenses such as school trips, and the odd takeaway if theres any left,) hair, clothes - everyone in the house has a clothes envelope, haircuts, presents.
The jars are for change, each coin under 50p has its own jar, I empty my purse into it periodically and it gets used for parking and bus fares mainly, although the coppers get taken to the bank when I have a few bags.
All the online savings pots are broken down into "sub" accounts with microsoft money.

If anything happens to me my OH wont understand a word of it!

It sounds complicated but Im used to it now, and it works! I've always done it ever since I started earning my own money, more years ago than I care to remember, and by doing it we have managed to avoid any debt, (so far) excluding the mortgage.

I am a bit anal though

LameWolf

JulieGeorgiana wrote: »

I use a spreadsheet... otherwise I would need 25 jars :eek:

Same here; if we have to make the effort to go to the cashpoint to get fritter-money, we tend not to fritter!

And my jam jars are all full of HM jam!:D
If the jar/envelope method works for you though, go for it!:beer:

[Deleted User]

I have a money saving tin that i got frrom M&S for nothing when they had their Penny Bazaar last year and everyday I put my 'sistercas £1.00 a day' away and at the end of the month it goes into a small saving account that is a good bus ride away so I am never tempted to draw any out at all By Christmas I should have a goodly amount towards my Christmas pressies.I don't miss a quid a day and it mounts up so quickly.I shall be trotting off with my £31.00 at the end of this month making my total saved since Jan 1st £90.00.

mineallmine

As part of the toiletry challenge I add a quid to a sealed tin for every item I use up in my stash. Hope to have a nice treat at the end of the year (or sooner!).

GreyQueen

destroyerofdebt2011 wrote: »

Started do this over the last few weeks but also have 2 other non money jars.. one for little comments of what positive things i have found ideas that work to keep me motivated like paying off a certain debt, meeting a target, finding a new receipe i enjoyed etc and the other jar is full of the negatives so that when i feel like ive hit rock bottom i can read thru and realise how far i have come, helps me from getting depressed and overwhelmed. while the other jars are growing... hopefully!

Wandering a bit off-topic but still jar-related, I came across an idea which you could sort-of call a "Chore Jar". Write your chores on slips of paper, fold and place in the jar and pick one out at a time. This works best for chores which need to be done from time-to-time and not daily ones like washing up and which are often the victims of procrastination. Adds an element of randomness to the domestic grind.

Soapy955

I used to put money into a cash tin and keep it in a drawer. Then when big bills were due I'd put the money back into my account so they were covered.
My brother gave me a stern talking to as there was a few hundred pounds in there sometimes. He said if I got burgled the first thing to go would be my cash tin so I then just transferred the money over to a savings account online each week. That way I didn't have to go out to pay it back into my current account either; I could just transfer it back again.
I'm doing this now into an account labelled "Holiday Fund"!:T

crumblepie

When I was burgled the little oinks took my penny jar!! It was a 1litre kilner jar about half full and very heavy full of copper.

My new jar looks rather pathetic with about £2 in there at the moment.

diddly74

We have a £1 a day tin, which I am using to save for Christmas/Sales - there is £90 in there at the mo because I have got in front of myself and have paid up to the end of March.

We also have a Penny Pot - which hubby and I put our 1p 2p and 5p coins. That is up to £10.44 (it adds it up as you put the coins in).

Other than that I do the rest of my budgetting by using online jars and 3 different bank accounts.

teeni

Rummer wrote: »

I would love to use jars but my OH laughed at the idea

So did mine when i first started, thought i was mad after all banks are ther to look after our money aren't they he used to shout. Then we had an emergency faced a very large bill, i simply handed him the emergency jar and he was astonished at what was squirreled away. He no longer scoffs and has a jar of his own to save for rugby international tickets out of his pocket money.