Resourcefulness: The budgeter's friend

Baileys_Babe

I am enjoying all the talk on saving pots. We have them for various things including annual bills (house insurance, car tax, dentist, chimney sweep, etc) as well as gifts, holidays... For many years these were in individual accounts but in the last year the majority of the money is now in one account as I could get a much better interest rate 😉 I'm managing the individual "pots" on a spreadsheet.

Later this week I plan to sit down with a cuppa and a notepad and reread the talk on budgeting and saving pots so I can revise, modify and enlarge our current setup.

This is all part of this year's aim to review our life admin, Wills, POA, savings, bills, etc

Baileys_Babe

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80029303#Comment_80029303

I used to live near Fosse Park

Makingabobor2

Baileys_Babe said:

I am enjoying all the talk on saving pots. We have them for various things including annual bills (house insurance, car tax, dentist, chimney sweep, etc) as well as gifts, holidays... For many years these were in individual accounts but in the last year the majority of the money is now in one account as I could get a much better interest rate 😉 I'm managing the individual "pots" on a spreadsheet.

Later this week I plan to sit down with a cuppa and a notepad and reread the talk on budgeting and saving pots so I can revise, modify and enlarge our current setup.

This is all part of this year's aim to review our life admin, Wills, POA, savings, bills, etc

Think that's a good idea. I often make notes of ideas I have read on here. 

foxgloves

I wish I could remember who on these forums first said 'shop from home'. It was years ago & I thought "Yes, that is exactly what we've been doing during our debt-busting", but I hadn't got a name for it. I thought "Shopping from home" really summed it up, especially as ex-spenders usually have a lot of stuff, & as you know, the expression entered my lexicon of budgetology. I regularly ask myself if items could be shopped from home, instead of parting with actual cash & they so often can. As you say, @Baileys_Babe & @Makingabobor2, there is always something useful to learn on here.
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marionmgcars

mmmm -  great discussions about the savings pots.  I have one large pot in an account at the moment which cash goes into monthly.  but because it always looks healthy I don't seem to worry about the bills, but this has made me think if I had a spreadsheet it would make me focus on the individual details more - guess what is on tomorrows jobs list .  I'm on it !

AnotherNewDay

foxgloves said:

I wish I could remember who on these forums first said 'shop from home'. It was years ago & I thought "Yes, that is exactly what we've been doing during our debt-busting", but I hadn't got a name for it. I thought "Shopping from home" really summed it up, especially as ex-spenders usually have a lot of stuff, & as you know, the expression entered my lexicon of budgetology. I regularly ask myself if items could be shopped from home, instead of parting with actual cash & they so often can. As you say, @Baileys_Babe & @Makingabobor2, there is always something useful to learn on here.
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lexicon of budgetology 😂🤣😂🤣

themadvix

Well @foxgloves I thought you were the queen of ‘shopping from home’ - I assumed it was your original phrase!

borefest

I saw Nigel Lawson once in M&S Fosse Park

2Scratters

@milann re savings pots - It has taken me 4 years to get to this point of "moving stuff over". Suggestion, as you have just paid your car insurance open a "pot" for it maybe add extra  £30 to this year's total and then divide by 12 that will be how much to put away for next year. Hopefully you will be somewhere near at the time. You could also add your car tax too when that becomes due or another time when you feel a little confident with running just one pot. I use my own abbreviations too to tell me how much is needed eg. Car ins Apr 24 690 pcm - which means car insurance due April 2024 and amount for the pot per calendar month. HTH 

Being part of the older brigade I have come to embrace the online banking system. This has been a revelation of managing our money a lot lot better. I find this a lot less stressful and cannot believe how reckless we have been with money in our spendy days too. It is easier to learn from others mistakes and not keep making your own. It makes me happy when someone has realised earlier on in life to take action to rectify their ways. I too have got to the stage of not wanting to spend money    It is so easy to tweek accounts to keep on track.
 I am now looking at using more of my Chase account to save in these pots at 3% and instant access why not, thank you very much. 

2 Scratters x

foxgloves

@2Scratters - I've been using online banking pretty much as long as it's been around & since the local branch of our bank closed, necessitating a city centre trip to do any in-person banking, it has been even more vital to be able to access our banking from home. I think one of the aspects of online banking which makes a difference is that our bank accounts are updated much more quickly. I like that I can make electronic payments & these show instantly on our current account, thus keeping the balance nicely updated & accurate. I can remember back in the Spendy Years.....well, of course I wasn't doing any budgeting then, but if I wanted to check a particular transaction had gone out, I'd have to go to a cashpoint & request a printed mini-statement. This contained about the last 3 or 4 transactions & wasn't really all that much help. Being able to access our accounts in much more detail, when we want to do so is very much more helpful for budgeting purposes, particularly when reconciling accounts mid-month to check everything is still looking OK. The huge amount of bank closures does concern me, however. Just heard recently that my Mum's old bank in our home town has closed. Mum would have got in an awful muddle trying to transfer to another bank (plus no guarantee that any of the others will remain open) & she didn't use the internet. Even if she'd wanted to use online banking, her eyesight wouldn't have been good enough. I also think that people in all age groups who are in financial difficulty or need a little additional help have an advantage if they have a local bank branch because they can pay in cash & have assistants on hand to help them with transactions. There has to be a balance between banking as a service & a business. Things have swung too far away from the service side now, I think.
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