Divide your cash into envelopes

BlushingRose

Can you do the 'little accounts' thing when you only have a basic account?

adam68

BlushingRose wrote: »

Can you do the 'little accounts' thing when you only have a basic account?

Yes, it shouldn't matter what the account type is.

Umm_jannah

I bank with halifax thats my main account and then i have opened up 5 first reserve accounts with natwest which comes with a Visa debit card. Each account has a differeng purpose

- Gas/electric account (im on pay and go meter)
- Emergency funds
- Car tax/mot/insurance
- Asda groceries (i shop online better for budgeting)
- My pocket money

Each week as soon as i get paid i have set up s/o from halifax set amount to go out and the rest of the money in my halifax account is for all my d/d that go out in different dates throughout the month.

This works really well for me and i have managed to stay in budget and pay off most of my credit card.

flippin36

Yes I do this OP. Its also what my mum used to do in the old days when my dad got paid by cash every Thursday. We work out exactly down to the penny how much we need to cover bills and dd then withdraw anything left over. This then gets allocated to various pots where cash will be needed. It means I can phsyically keep an eye on every penny, every day and know how much I have left. It has also been good for the time we have been under budget or have gone without something because we can actually see the money left over and then put that in our sealed pot (which is looking very healthy at the moment). I have been doing this for a few months now and we haven't gone over drawn once, no nasty surprises at the end of the month.

artyfartyem

Going to try the envelopes for grocery budget next month, we are trying to cut it in half. Thanks for the tip!

=booboo=

KellyKing1987 wrote: »

I need to start doing something like this. I occasionally leave my cards at home, taking only a certain amount of money to University with me.

I just need to learn to budget properly! I'm terrible at wasting money on red bull and chocolate

Off topic i know, but those redbulls add up!! started buying KX from tesco, much cheaper, practically the same taste wise.. I save a fortune!

SilverCo

I used to do the envelope thing, but the temptation to raid the following week's envelope was too much!

Having read this thread though, I went straight online and opened 6 savings accounts with my bank - all renamed as appropriate. Great tip - thank you :T

Silver x

snugglebug1

Hi

The idea is not to use any debit or credit cards just purely cash.

rising_from_the_ashes

BlushingRose wrote: »

Can you do the 'little accounts' thing when you only have a basic account?

It shouldn't matter BR as they're savings accounts - the Barclays ones are called e-savers.

SilverCo wrote: »

I used to do the envelope thing, but the temptation to raid the following week's envelope was too much!

Having read this thread though, I went straight online and opened 6 savings accounts with my bank - all renamed as appropriate. Great tip - thank you :T

Silver x

Hope it works for you too Silver - I too had the same raiding problem with cash lying around in envelopes... it was just far too easy to "borrow" £10 or £20 here and there which never got put back but I can say there has been NO raiding since I've had the pots:T so it's solved that problem for me.

Snugglebug if cash works for you then fantastic and the envelopes are fantastic if you can manage not to raid them ... unfortunately, I'm sadly lacking in willpower so use the same theory but have the cash tucked up safely in the bank where I can't get it as easily!

Zoology_Dragon

adam68 wrote: »

I do this but online.

I have separate "online named accounts" and divide my savings among these.

Same here, our account is an offset mortgage account so it helps pay off our mortgage by leaving the money in, we rarely use cash. We have various electronic pots within the main account which we use at the beginning of the month to separate out our money, eg. "Bills", "Travel", "Groceries" then the usual savings pots. It works incredibly well as we used to get paid and think "woo! We're rich!", start spending then a week later realise we have bills to pay and struggle for the rest of the month :rotfl: