Jam Jar Accounting

MrsLWW

Hi,

Thought I'd try asking you lovely lot this; 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 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 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.

LameWolf

I'd struggle to keep tabs on that many separate accounts; my DH and I each have our own account which our respective money gets paid into; the way we split expenses is he pays the monthly direct debits plus petrol, and I pay any annual D/Ds plus I buy the groceries. We reckon doing that works out roughly even.

I do apportion money out and earmark it on spreadsheets, though; and I keep one month ahead of our actual needs - so April's money was earmarked at the end of February, iyswim, and it's allocated to specific expenses, eg council tax, gas and electric, water, etc. For variable things, like mobile phones, I allocate over what I know it will be, and "claw back" the excess after the bill has arrived.

It works for us.

MrsLWW

We had a similar set up when we first got together, but we ended up with either nothing or overdrawn at the end of the month (I am infuriated at that as our outgoings now are so much higher than when we first met).

Originally we had physical jars at home (obviously not for the bills accounts) but DH (thinking he was being sensible/helpful) would siphon from one jar to another when they were looking low - which meant I could never work out where our money was actually going.

I have a pretty good going xl doc with my debt plans (trying to pay off 2 loans and a CC in the next year as opposed to 5 years time) which is when I started to work on a wage dispertion and savings plan - and realised I rarely had money aside for people's birthdays or for DH and I to socialise. Also fuel spending is quite predictable and i want to trim a bit off of the grocery spend.

I keep track quite easily, all our bills are DD and we do SO's into the various bank accounts so generally we know how much is where. I'm planning on keeping the fuel spending cards in each of the cars and as a rule of thumb, when we go out, we only ever take our own spend cards (and if needs be the socialisation card), which should mean everything else should just mount up, until it's time to buy someone a birthday present or do the christmas shopping). Generally we do a large shop at the beginning of the month and only every really need to top up with milk (which I get 2 for £1.80 at FF and tend to buy 4 and freeze 3).

But I think you're right LWolf, I maybe should use my dymo to label each of the cards lol!

LameWolf

Ah yes, a "helpful" DH can definitely put a spanner in the works; we have an agreement that I look after all the finances, and Mr LW consults me before he does a major spend.;)
At least it's not like my mother hasd to put up with though; she used to put physical money in jars - and my father would come along and swipe it. :mad:

We don't have presents to buy (we stopped doing presents at all when Mr LW was out of work for 11 months in 2002/3 and have carefully never re-started) and we don't socialise much.

It's really finding a way that works for you, and running with it.

joedenise

I use YNAB and have 3 accounts but it's not really necessary as YNAB works well with just 1 account.

One account has my state pension going into and that's for holidays. Another one has DH's state pension going into and that covers most bills; the 3rd has my works pension paid into it and that one provides breakdown cover, mobile phone cover & holiday insurance which is the only reason we still keep that one.

Denise

caronc

I have one current account, an ISA account and wee instant saver. The current account has all my DD etc. Any money earmarked for savings, pressies, annual costing items goes in the ISA. There is a cash reward system linked to paying certain utilities from my current account. The "rewards" go into the Instant saver account and fund my periodic online butcher delivery. I manage my money like "virtual jam jars" via an Excell spreadsheet as I didn't get on with YNAB