Steps towards making the dream a reality...

helibob

niftythrifty33 wrote: »

Not sure if I asked you all on here previously or on the banking thread? But since moving to Santander I'm finding it difficult to keep track of our money as it's all in one place.

In our account we have our everyday money, savings of a few grand and some of the eldest two kids savings that I don't want to give them yet as they'll spend it (age 17 & 19).

Should I transfer a set amount each week into an old HSBC account and use that for normal spending? I do keep an up-to-date spreadsheet but I just struggle seeing it all in one place after years of having everything it different pots.

Thanks for any advice

I have a spreadsheet, like Gallygirl, in which I allocate the money out to different places, so there's a column for opening balance, a column for added this month, a column for spent this month, the sum of which is a closing balance. I then add up all the closing balances and use that as the figure my account must not dip below with normal spending.

So, for example, if you've got £1,500 set aside for kids' ISAs, £1,000 set aside for a holiday and £3,000 set aside for an emergency fund, your baseline is £5500 and you don't go below that (or at least you only do so in circumstances in which you would use an overdraft). £5,500 becomes the new zero.

Hope that helps.

niftythrifty33

Thanks Helibob, that's similar to what I do now on a spreadsheet. It's just slightly annoying that when you can't put it into boxes in the account as I only look at my spreadsheet every 1-2 weeks to update it.

Recent & upcoming money saving:
Free activities with friends visiting, buy wine, beer, food instead of going out - DONE
Contact HSBC & Santander re possible mortgage swap
Cook from scratch using food already in house/menu plan
Sign up for surveys
Sell on Facebook
Book facial with birthday voucher
Make some biscuits, cake & break.
Take out weeks cash for spending.

Have a good week everyone