Jam Jar Accounting

MrsLWW

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone else does jam jar accounting (i.e. a bank account for each category of spending). If so, what are your categories and how much do you budget into each account?

Currently, DH and I have the following:

1 x each - current accounts (IN: wages (approx £1600 each: OUT: mobile phone bill and SO's to the following: )

- 1 x joint - bills account (currently santander 123 (£750 each), gives us cash back :j and approx £300 left after bills - £250 of which is going towards early repayment of debt)
- 1 x joint - fuel/shopping/birthdays/socialising (currently Clydesdale £300 each - however spending is a little messy so I proposed jam jarring this down further)
- 1 x each spending accounts, RBS,DH uses £150, I use £100.

I also have another account for a rental property, but that takes care of itself with a little profit each month, so I don't touch that, incase of emergency, repair, tax, vacancy etc.)

I was planning on opening another 3 joint accounts so that the fuel/shopping/birthdays and christmas/socialising each have their own spend amounts. (Obviously not all at once :eek: don't want the credit rating damaged).

So I would have:

1 x joint - fuel account - £80 each
1 x joint - shopping account - £115 each
1 x joint - christmas/birthday - £75 each
1 x joint - socialising - £40 each

Once we have paid off out debts we might open up another for holidays and use our savings account for saving up for big purchases such as cars (determined once we are debt free, it will mean debt free for everything except the mortgage).

Does anyone else do the same? Or do you have any other methods?

Cheers

MrsLWW

I should also add that most cards for these accounts are kept hidden in the safe so that we can't just spend willy nilly. If we want to use the money from the accounts then we have to physically retrieve the cards which means it takes the impulse spending (something both DH and I are guilty of, particularly DH) out of the picture.

loey93

Yes I do this as well!

I currently have 2 bank saving accounts - One is for holidays and the other is for a house deposit. Then I have two jam jar savings at home with cash in, one is for weekends away or a shopping spree.. and the other is one that I intend on keeping for as long as possible until I smash it open lol !

Each month I put in as follows,
ISA (house deposit) £100.00
Holiday Fund £100.00
Weekends away £50.00
Random savings (Any £5.00 notes or £2.00 coins) So probably equates to around £20.00

MrsLWW

Thank god other people do this too, I was begining to wonder if I was a mad woman lol!

I wish we had the ability to have cash in the house, we previously did have physical jars that we kept money in but my husband was forever siphoning off of one account into the other and I couldn't keep track of what we were spending and where!

Well done you, hope you're close to your deposit soon!

Thanks again!

loey93

Haha I'm glad someone else does this as well!

Yeah sometimes I find it quite difficult having cash in the house as I am always so tempted .. but so far so good! (mind you I have been doing it for about 3 months)..

Thank you it seems like an impossible dream of owning a house at the minute.. I have £1,000 in my ISA so far and I'm aiming for £10,000

trailingspouse

No, I don't - I have it all in a Santander account (originally having it all in the same place meant I could achieve the 3% interest rate).

However, I do this with our business accounts - we have a current account that everything goes into and comes out of, but I have three other accounts - VAT, Corporation Tax, and sub-contractors. Whenever we receive money with a VAT element, the VAT goes straight into the VAT account, whenever we pay ourselves a dividend 20% goes in to the Corporation Tax account, and whenever we take on a sub-contractor their first month's money goes in to the sub-contractor account. These accounts earn a (very) small amount of interest, and it also means that money that doesn't actually belong to us (ie it belongs to the Revenue, or to the sub-contractor) doesn't get spent by accident.

polymaff

trailingspouse wrote: »

No, I don't - I have it all in a Santander account (originally having it all in the same place meant I could achieve the 3% interest rate).

However, I do this with our business accounts - we have a current account that everything goes into and comes out of, but I have three other accounts - VAT, Corporation Tax, and sub-contractors. ...

And all these accounts are real BUSINESS accounts - or are you using personal accounts against their Terms and Conditions?

jamie_02

Yeah I do this:

1 Barclays Bank Account, salary in and two cheap DDs for cash back
1 firstdirect 1st Account, personal loan and other misc DDs out (those which won't earn cash back at NatWest). This siphons down again to a Regular saver, for big holiday, and Savings Account which is currently holding the money from scrapping my car, intended to buy a bike soon.
1 Nationwide Flexaccount for DDs paying out to my Nationwide mortgage and credit card. This then siphons down to Flexclusive Regular Saver for annual bills (e.g. Home insurance) and other savings account which hold money for credit card payment every month and other bits and bobs.
1 joint Nationwide Flexplus for joint spending and to split two-ways on account benefits, making them essentially half price each.
1 Lloyds Classic Account for DD paying off balance transfer credit card. Whilst the APR is currently 0%, I'm saving the balance in Lloyds Regular Saver.
1 NatWest Reward account for cash back on DDs to council tax, water, TV, phone, broadband, gas and electricity.
1 TSB current account for cash back on travel contactless spending.
1 Halifax current account for buy-to-let which includes rent in and bills out, and takes care of itself.
Finally 1 Monzo account for day-to-day spending.

I find it helps my budgeting and ultimately means I spend less.

TheShape

I run my finances completely differently to this. I have multiple current account and regular savers, always aiming for the highest rates. I fill the highest paying accounts to their maximum and do the majority of spending on a 0% purchase credit card. The only Debit Card spending is £100 p/m for the TSB Classic Plus Cashback. If I need cash, it is withdrawn from the lowest paying account as are any bank transfers.

If a better paying account becomes available, I empty as much as I can from lower paying accounts into it.

However, my Nationwide FlexDirect (%5) is my main account with all my regular bills paid from it. As soon as a bill is paid though, I top it up to £2500 (the highest interest bearing balance) from whichever of my accounts is currently paying the lowest rate of interest.

I never specifically budget for anything, I just buy what I need and what I want but always keeping track of how much money I have overall.

DBX

At present, I have one current account at Nationwide giving 5% interest, I also have a link Savings account there giving 5% interest. One of my investment account is maturing next month. I would have about £5,000 to re-invest. Since savings account don't pay much interest, I am considering opening two more current accounts in other banks to earn more interest.

I would appreciate if anyone can give me some help with this.

Anthorn

There is in fact no need to open several accounts for the jam jar method. There is a variation on a pre-paid account, the "Change Account" which is dubbed a "transactional account". It comes in two parts, the Debit Mastercard pre-paid card and several wallets into which income is divided and paid out by DD, SO, transfer or indeed by debit card. Faster payments. Online and mobile app. Rewards program. Payment alerts. No overdraft. No credit check. Too comprehensive to list all the account features in this post.

There is an account fee of £4.25 per month plus other fees for payments out and ATM but the convenience may be worth that to you.

Issued by the well established U.K. bank R. Raphael & Sons plc.

Home page: https://www.thechangeaccount.com/
Costs and limits: https://www.thechangeaccount.com/costs/

A similar alternative may be offered for free by your local Credit Union.
http://www.abcul.coop/home