What kind of bank account?!?!

grizzlydoris

Hi there, I'm new here and just after some quick, basic advice please.

In a nutshell - hubby and I have a few bank accounts but are still juggling money badly! we are looking to rearrange things but not sure which bank account to go for. This is our set up...

HSBC joint a/c - dh's wages go in here (I'm a SAHM) plus child benefit and child tax credits, all dd/so bills come from here.
dh's HSBC a/c - we transfer enough money into here each month to cover diesel for work and the occasional lunch
my HSBC a/c - lump sum transferred here each month to cover "everything else" which includes food, clothes, days out, school expenses, birthdays, etc. etc. etc.
Natweat a/c - we transferred money from a credit card into here as savings, currently £200 ish in there as it's dwindled. Usually this a/c isn't touched unless we get a big unexpected cost i.e; car breaks down, new washer etc.
(We also have a CC with HSBC and someone else(?!) but don't use them, just got them for initial amount IYSWIM?!)

SO...!!! I want to break my a/c down into blocks now so I can see exactly how much I have for food each week/month, birthdays, put money aside for clothes, etc. and also put a fixed amount aside regularly for annual and one off expenses.) We were thinking of opening another a/c for the groceries and leaving everything else in my a/c to start with.

Does any of this make sense?! Does it sound like a sensible way of organising home finances?! Which sort of a/c would you suggest we went for please? It would need to be a joint a/c as I get most groceries etc. but dh sometimes gets a few bits on his way home from work too. I should probably just keep some cash to give him but we've tried that and it doesn't work.

We're getting closer to sorting ourselves out and getting slowly out of debt but I feel we need help with this last organisational bit.

Thank you for getting this far!!!

Doris :O/

PS: Life would be so much simpler if I could get my Nana's old budgeting trick to work - do you remember those tins with slots for electricity, gas, milk, etc? ;O)

Tupperware_Queen

grizzlydoris wrote: »

PS: Life would be so much simpler if I could get my Nana's old budgeting trick to work - do you remember those tins with slots for electricity, gas, milk, etc? ;O)

well Hun, you can...I have a number of basic bank accounts and a credit union account (CU very hard to get cash from...so an incentive not to dip into savings). Each account is for a specific purpose - food, petrol, internet spending, pressies/luxuries, saving for annual bills (car tax etc), and emergecny money.

Same principle as seperate tins, but just in banks instead