The Bones

[Deleted User]

Lemon_Tree wrote: »

I cleared my overdraft many moons ago, aka first LBM, I used to put money in a savings account at the start of the month, if I didn't use it at the end of the month I would transfer it back and reduce the overdraft limit, usually every time I reached £50 saved. Also I used to transfer all the money needed for bills into the bills account which would put me to the top of my overdraft the day after payday, by changing it so money was transfered at the start of each week I was able to significantly reduce the overdraft charges each month which helped with saving up to pay off lumps. Maybe you could tweak something like that and it will help clear it.

We have a separate online savings account that my money goes in to, to pay the bills each month, except the mortgage as that comes out when DH gets paid.

We did start to do something similar with the OD, at the beginning of the year we started trickling money into a pot and then once there was enough I cleared it off the OD. I may have to restart that in the new year.

I need to reassess my pots any way, although I am happy with them in general, I still think they need a tweak...or may be I'm just too fussy and I'll never be happy with them :rotfl:

[Deleted User]

Okay, I have been fiddling about with my Pots spreadsheet and have reinstated the Overdraft Pot.

Pots as follows:

Principality:

Household - This is my default pot - This will be used for anything house wise (will also pay the house insurance with this one)
Overdraft - Daft of me to delete this one - This will have money dribbled in to it for all of next year
Gas & Elec - Treating this like a bill
CC Overpayment - Once this builds up, every £300 will then go off the CC's (most likely Lloyds one)
Cars - This is used to pay for all things car related including car taxes (not car insurance (yet!))

Skipton BS (high interest):

Emergency fund - Aiming for £500 initially then will build to £1000
DD's Travel - Treating this like a bill as it has to be paid annually - two years left to pay for

HSBC (bonus saver):

Christmas - Self explanatory for the main event

I am hoping that once next year is done (I know that we aren't even there yet!) we won't need the CC Overpayment pot and I can then allocate that money elsewhere.

Now I am aware of the best laid plans and all that and this may not completely work BUT if needed I can adjust where necessary.

The main pots account doesn't earn me that much interest but that doesn't bother me much. The main ones I have in fairly high interest accounts.

Now the Sealed Pot Challenge - I will still do this but as Lloyds have decided that 10 bags is enough per customer, per day, I am going to bag up once a month and pay it in to my Christmas fund, the £2 coins I save I will leave to build up as normal.

Now just got to hope this works :rotfl:

doingitanyway

Don't apologise for pots rambling. Here is where I learnt about the joy/usefulness of pots, I did not really use them until lurking here

Lemon_Tree

I love having pots for everything, it really is a game changer, especially after the first year,

[Deleted User]

Hi,

DH seems quite settled now in his new job, which I am happy about he's only been there three days and he's been invited to the company Christmas party, the site Christmas drink up and the client Christmas party :eek::rotfl:

I'm holiday tomorrow and Friday, I am hoping to get the majority of the kids Christmas presents sorted. I am out in London tomorrow night with some ex-colleagues, from the bad company 3 years ago (that's a company that no longer exists thankfully!), so we are meeting up and getting drunk and having a good old laugh.

My plan tomorrow is to get the kids stocking bits sorted plus a few stragglers from DH's family done then back home asap, showered and to the train station to get the 4pm train.

Plus I promised DH and the kids I'd sort dinner before I go, so need to sort the slow cooker out for them.

another_casualty

Loving this last post pmo2:)
Not really much to add, except have a good time in London ..

beanielou

Enjoy your catch up

MoneysavingmadGem

Great thread, now you are definitely making me feel like I need to look at how Iv got my accounts set up.....

I do have pots for savings but I use envelopes to keep cash in as I find I think more before handing cash over when I buy things...

Naomim

Hey pmo2, glad I found your diary.

I'm interested in your pots and hopefully once I get fully sorted I can do something similar.

NaomiM

enthusiasticsaver

Good idea on pots. I use that system too using virtual envelopes.