Cash envelopes

Personally I never have or use cash at all, so actual hard cash envelopes wouldn’t work for me. I’d HATE it!

However I do use a sort of virtual envelope/ saving pot system which is very helpful.

I think it’s all about finding something that works for you and that you can stick to.

When I moved and had to take control I used to withdraw money each Friday after work which was to last me for a week until I withdrew my next payment to myself.

From this money it would cover food, travel costs and bits.

If I had money left over, I would draw less out the next time.

My bills were on direct debit for the day after payday and I would always work out the following months bills on payday:

I would basically do an income and expenditure list, see how much money I have after bills, work out how much I could save and split the remaining money over however many Fridays were in the month til payday.

1p, 2p and 5p would go into a pot for dire emergencies from my change when shopping.

I did that for nearly two years whilst I gained control of my situation.

This year I mainly use my debit card as I have learnt to manage money, I draw out £10 cash and tend to have most of it left for the following week.

I also have a dedicated bank account for paying my historic debts from, so I can see how much I have for f&f offers.

I don't like to keep too much cash on my person or in my house, so I don't do it.

How about keeping a note of what you want to budget for the month and every time you spend on each category, you add it in?

E.g, say you have a budget of £80 petrol a month, £160 for food and you spend £30 on petrol and £40 on food one week you would add it to your budget like so:

Petrol :£30/£80
Food: £40/£160

You're keeping notes of your budget but not actually keeping the cash on person? Just a suggestion.

I use the Monzo app based bank account. We have a joint account which we use for our monthly grocery budget which gets transferred there on payday. Then all we use the 'savings pots' to put money aside for anything else, like kids clothes, birthdays, haircuts, holidays, car fund, home repairs. You can name them whatever you want. You can also 'lock' the pots so you don't use them until a certain date. When we need to spend from a certain pot, we just use the app to transfer money to the card and it updates instantaneously. We also each have a personal Monzo account for our own spending money.