Looking for an account that allows me to save 'pots' of money - what would you recommend?

EarthBoy

Moneyminded said:

MovingForwards said:

I use a spreadsheet but also have different pots for various future expenses.

The virgin current account with linked savings is unlimited pots. You transfer the money to the linked account and then distribute it to whatever pot(s) you want to top up, the interest is quarterly and it's down to you to allocate it to a pot.

It appears the minimum amount which can be moved to a pot from the linked savings is £1. You can also set goals for each pot and adjust them as required, closing them if you want to.

Thanks MovingForwards, you are the second person to mention the Virgin current account to me. Had a quick look earlier and saw that I needed 2 direct debits for that account

You only need to transfer two Direct Debits if you want the free case of wine. If you only want the account for the savings pots you can still open it without any Direct Debits, you just won't get the wine.

MovingForwards

I've no DD's set up on mine, but it was opened about 6 months ago and not done as a switch. Never had any problems in the years I've banked with them, I even have their basic account for my car related expenses.

fanheater

The pots you can open with Virgin are presented a bit differently to the ones with Starling and Monzo. With Virgin all the pots sit in the same savings account and you have to go to another tab in the app to see the pots within that savings account. It amounts to the same thing and the benefit with Virgin is the interest rate, so I'm currently using the Virgin pots ahead of Monzo or Starling for that reason. 

But psychologically I prefer the Monzo or Starling approach where the money you put in a pot is actually subtracted from your main account balance. 

IvanOpinion

Moneyminded said:

IvanOpinion said:

I agree with Colsten - use a spreadsheet (I have been doing it this way for over 20 years).  In the early days if I needed additional money then I borrowed from one column and then made sure it got paid back.  I see people with these fancy Apps and they seem to spend hours moving money between pots and checking their growing number of pots and creating fancy graphs.  I have better things to do with my time, and have my spreadsheet update down to a few minutes each week (and I can even do fancier graphs and charts if needed ... which it isn't, life is too short to waste on pie charts).

As my spreadsheet has matured I realised that the minutia that I used to think I needed to know is now irrelevant and over the years it has simplified (yet contains more relevant detail).

Thanks IvanOpinion, I do a very basic spreadsheet for longer term things like my mortgage. I'm personally not a fan of having all my money for a number of different things sitting in 1 account and having to keep track of what it is all for, personal preference. I'm glad spreadsheets work for you but I think separate accounts or pots is the way to go for me. 

I used to be the same and insisted on moving money between accounts (we didn't really have 'pots' back then).  You then realise that you are only making work for yourself.  It doesn't matter where the pot is, just as long as you have enough spread around to cover the total.  Once I came to that realisation, I found out that managing my money became so much easier and I could make my money work for me much more easily, by chasing rates and offers without worrying what the money is for.

In the early days my 'pots' included holiday, mortgage, socialising, travel, car, birthdays, christmas, insurance, utilities, media and goodness knows what else (I think I had about 8 savings accounts at one point, plus 2 current accounts).  Now my day-to-day worksheet basically only contains 3 columns: day-to-day expenditure (I realised my basic monthly expenditure did not vary that much to need further analysis), holidays, recurring annual expenses (e.g. council tax, insurance, birthdays etc.).

You are 100% correct though that you need to find what works for you - however I will put a bet on that in a few years time you will have simplified and use a spreadsheet. Good luck, whatever way you go.

Moneyminded

fanheater said:

The pots you can open with Virgin are presented a bit differently to the ones with Starling and Monzo. With Virgin all the pots sit in the same savings account and you have to go to another tab in the app to see the pots within that savings account. It amounts to the same thing and the benefit with Virgin is the interest rate, so I'm currently using the Virgin pots ahead of Monzo or Starling for that reason. 

But psychologically I prefer the Monzo or Starling approach where the money you put in a pot is actually subtracted from your main account balance. 

Thanks fanheater that is really helpful to know

pokora

Another happy Monzo user referring to the pots feature. Unless you find a good offer with a savings account + spreadsheet I will use them for sorted the amounts.

RetSol

IvanOpinion said:

Moneyminded said:

IvanOpinion said:

I agree with Colsten - use a spreadsheet (I have been doing it this way for over 20 years).  In the early days if I needed additional money then I borrowed from one column and then made sure it got paid back.  I see people with these fancy Apps and they seem to spend hours moving money between pots and checking their growing number of pots and creating fancy graphs.  I have better things to do with my time, and have my spreadsheet update down to a few minutes each week (and I can even do fancier graphs and charts if needed ... which it isn't, life is too short to waste on pie charts).

As my spreadsheet has matured I realised that the minutia that I used to think I needed to know is now irrelevant and over the years it has simplified (yet contains more relevant detail).

Thanks IvanOpinion, I do a very basic spreadsheet for longer term things like my mortgage. I'm personally not a fan of having all my money for a number of different things sitting in 1 account and having to keep track of what it is all for, personal preference. I'm glad spreadsheets work for you but I think separate accounts or pots is the way to go for me. 

I used to be the same and insisted on moving money between accounts (we didn't really have 'pots' back then).  You then realise that you are only making work for yourself.  It doesn't matter where the pot is, just as long as you have enough spread around to cover the total.  Once I came to that realisation, I found out that managing my money became so much easier and I could make my money work for me much more easily, by chasing rates and offers without worrying what the money is for.

In the early days my 'pots' included holiday, mortgage, socialising, travel, car, birthdays, christmas, insurance, utilities, media and goodness knows what else (I think I had about 8 savings accounts at one point, plus 2 current accounts).  Now my day-to-day worksheet basically only contains 3 columns: day-to-day expenditure (I realised my basic monthly expenditure did not vary that much to need further analysis), holidays, recurring annual expenses (e.g. council tax, insurance, birthdays etc.).

You are 100% correct though that you need to find what works for you - however I will put a bet on that in a few years time you will have simplified and use a spreadsheet. Good luck, whatever way you go.

I have today taken advantage of the downtime between Xmas and New Year to follow the advice and set up a spreadsheet for my pots. It has been very therapeutic and I am definitely clearer about where I stand.  As you say, @IvanOpinion, it helps to separate the designation of pots from the rate and perk chasing. 

realaledrinker

A spreadsheet with a tab for each pot is the way to go if you are anything but a complete numpty with using Excel.  I find it strangely therapeutic when it all reconciles back to the balance on the savings account.

colsten

realaledrinker said:

A spreadsheet with a tab for each pot is the way to go if you are anything but a complete numpty with using Excel.  I find it strangely therapeutic when it all reconciles back to the balance on the savings account.

You don’t even need Excel. Google Sheets are a free alternative.

RetSol

colsten said:

realaledrinker said:

A spreadsheet with a tab for each pot is the way to go if you are anything but a complete numpty with using Excel.  I find it strangely therapeutic when it all reconciles back to the balance on the savings account.

You don’t even need Excel. Google Sheets are a free alternative.

Google sheets rocks. You can also use the MSE budgeting spreadie on there now.