For those of you with several bank accounts (for bills, savings, general spends)

[TitsalinaBumSquash]

How do you work it all out?

I'm keen to do this in the NY, currently we have a joint current account and a savings account in my name.
I want to ditch the savings for a joint one and then open another basic joint account as well for bills.

Do you put the exact amount your monthly direct debits are on a certain day of the month or do you put a bit extra to account for any variables?
Does your bills account hold money for food shopping and fuel as well and do you stick to a strict budget for those?
I'm trying to super organise our finances so we manage them better, I need to end next year with savings as all ours have been wiped out with DS hospital stays this year (6 months of admissions unexpectedly!)

Amy tips would help greatly.

We have joint bills account, joint savings, and both have separate current accounts. We send a set amount each month to the bills, which covers all direct debits plus a bit extra... the extra builds up and pays for unexpected bills (stuff breaking down) and car insurance.

DH earns a lot more than me so he puts into the bills, I don't but I put into our savings account..varying amounts. We generally buy the food shop from his current account (as more in it) but I top up from mine. It works well for us. I do most of the banking and move money around if needed, but always tell him :)
I tend to pay for extra stuff..vet bills, house stuff as needed.

We have everything joint and I just divide everything as needed across 4 accounts.

Both DH and I have individual accounts which I put a set amount into. Ours to do with what we want.
I pay all the bills out of the main account and leave extra, and then shunt a chunk over to the savings account.

All money goes into a joint account, we then have an amount thay gets moved monthly to the bills account, where all bills come out of. Then what's left gets divided between savings, monthly spending acc (food, clothes, pet stuff etc) and we each get a small amount into our personal accounts to spend how we wish.

When I first did it I added up all bills for previous 12 months and then added 5% to allow for inflation (would be less now) then set up a standing order to transfer that amount over the day after pay day. I had £500 in that account which I treated as a zero balance. I also thought ahead to spikes in spending over the first year to make sure I had enough.

All joint accounts, one Direct Debit account, one we call a cash account and a savings account.

Both our salaries get paid into the DD account which pays all our bills by DD then we transfer the remainder into our cash account which then covers food, commuting and everything else whatever's left over at the end of the month gets split and paid into savings and overpaying our mortgage.

Do both you and your partner work? Is there a big disparity in your earnings. It makes a difference how much each contributes to household bills.

We have a joint account, which both of our monthly salaries are paid into.
It helps that we both get paid on the same date.

On payday money is set up to hit the following accounts

Bills/direct debits
Groceries and petrol
Childcare
Savings joint and individual
Children's Savings account
Children's Day to day stuff
Holidays
Christmas
Eating Out

Once everything has been allocated to the correct account for the month then what is left is divided by two and put into our individual current accounts for personal spends.

We both work but I'm not asking about who should pay in what, sorry I should have made that clear. All money that comes in is family money, we're just trying to work out how to run the finances month by month, at the moment everything comes into the current account and I transfer small amounts here and there though the month.

I want a solid system so I know the bills will be paid, the savings will transfer to the right account and then what's left is left.
Shopping is tricky though because sometimes our weekly bill is £40 some times it's £150 so I need to sort that out too.

I'm usually brilliant at micro managing but DS being do unwell this year has knocked it all out of whack and I need a good system that doesn't need monitoring a few times per day.

The account that the bills come out of is the one all the money comes into. DH pays me what I tell him his share is. I put some into a Seperate account for DS (to buy the big things when needed) and some into a Seperate account for my savings.

This is my specialised subject!

Okay. One bills joint account. All salaries paid into this and all DD out. The bank card never leaves the house.

One spending joint account. Set amount put in each month for food, household spending and eg kids clothes or general toiletries.

One personal bank account each. Set amount into it each per month (equal amount)

I then have a few saving accounts for specific things. Kids expenses, annual/non-monthly bills/personal savings

Then we have a saving account linked to our mortgage so a certain amount goes into that each month

When I set it up I went back over out spending for the previous year and averaged it out. Then added 10%. The smaller saving accounts took a while to get to the right levels as eg our house insurance goes out in Jan and is one of the bigger bills.
I get a bonus in March and generally give each account a bit of a top up as well.

If we need something one-off or have a big expense it means we need to make an active decision to take it out of the mortgage offset saving account which is a good discipline!

I have two accounts, a main bank account and a Revolut app. You can have two bank cards for the Revolut app, multiple vaults which are like little savings envelopes and you can save or spend in any currency which is really useful for going abroad.

I use an app called "budget planner" on itunes store, where you basically input all your incomings and outgoings and it gives you a big rundown of what your bank balance will be on each day for the remainder of the year. Using this it's easy to pay bills annually and then you can get a good idea of how much you can spend weekly.

So my wages go into my bank account, I then transfer one lump over to Revolut which i put into different vaults in there for savings. I then do a transfer once a week for petrol/ shopping/ clothes/ entertainment etc. I much prefer budgeting weekly because there is no end of the month tightness.

If I have to make a 1 off big purchase I can pop it into the budget planner app and make sure that it's not going to put me into negative when the years council tax comes out in April.

It sounds really complicated reading this back but it's honestly not. I love Revolut and all the little virtual savings accounts. You can also round up all those contactless purchases to the nearest £ which goes straight into my "slush fund" for treats.

We set DD1 up with 3 accounts:

1. Current account, day to day spending
2. Bills account for expected (and expected unexpected like car breakdown) bills that occur less than monthly. Though perhaps if she had direct debits they too would come out of here. This includes saving for Christmas, next year's car insurance, holidays etc.
3. Long Term Savings (for eg new car, rental deposit)

On the 1st of the month a set amount moved from account 1 to accounts 2 and 3, based on a budget. We helped her do an initial budget on a spreadsheet with a 1 year look ahead making sure the bills account never went negative.

We have joint bills (which is also joint ‘fun money’ as we each put in a set amount relative to salary on our own payday that covers joint bills plus £350 more). Separate current and savings each also. We aren’t married and have no children, but own house together. Fun money pays for dinners out, holidays etc. We pay own phone bills and alternate paying for petrol.

We each put £100 cash in the food money tin on paydays. That amount took a lot of tweaking, and we try hard to stick to it, but we eat well, mostly cooked from scratch.

I have a spreadsheet which details exact dates bills go out and general amounts they cost. It has annual bills on too like insurance and tv etc, so can keep track on where we need to calm down on spending fun money to pay annual bills. We overpay mortgage by £150 every month which gives me quite a lot of satisfaction!

I would def recommend the separate bills account and paying the whole amount that is due throughout the month on payday, plus a bit more. It means you know you’re safe, and you can do what you like with what’s left.

I do as Bugaboo does above. One main current account that salaries are paid into. All DDs come out right after pay day. I have other savings accounts that hold money for holidays, car expenses, commuting costs and mortgage overpayments and these transfers are done by standing order after pay day.

Everything is set up on MS Money, shame it's not available anymore as it's great software, so I know pretty much what is in across the multiple accounts almost to the pound.

One current account. Salary goes in.

On payday:

• All my bills go out (all my shopping and fuel etc is on reward credit cards which also get cleared every month as one of these bills)
• Plus all the standing orders for my various savings accounts (car, holiday, household etc).

A few days later, I have a few tens of pounds left in my bank , but everything is paid for. I generally sweep any remaining pounds into a savings pot on the next payday so each month starts afresh.

Coming back to this thread

Multiple accounts across a couple of banks...

I use a spreadsheet to track/plan, and tend to sit and do it on pay day along with transferring monies, and again later in the month once some DDs and SOs have come out to check I haven't made any mistakes!
I have split down ideal budgets for presents, and have further split that into 12 amounts to give me how much i need to save per month per item.

Main bank provider:

• Current account where my pay goes into. This account is used for my spending allowance for the month

• second current account with a bank card. I use this as a savings account across yearly spending; budgets are done for birthday, Christmas, car tax/mot/insurance, holidays, "other events" (mothers day, fathers day, days out), yearly club subscriptions etc. It is useful to have the bank card for it as it means i no longer have to transfer from an actual savings account when buying presents!

• regular saver. Just a monthly saver where i try to put in the maximum allowed per month. Currently coming to the end of interest term on it, so i will need to open another one when i am able to.

• overflow saver. If i have any money left in my spending allowance on my next pay day, input it in this saver.

Second bank account:

• i have really only kept this open as my Help to Buy ISA is with them and currently has a better interest rate than other banks are offering.

• i did use the current account part of my banking with them for matched betting, but have stopped this over the christmas period.
  (I also have one DD out of the current account, but only because it's for a union for work, and cannot find my customer information to change payment method/it isn't enough of an issue to sit and sort at the moment)

Currently finances are not link with DP, but as we are planning on moving this year and buying a house together, we have discussed getting a joint account, putting all bills and DDs out of there (shared ones only, not phones etc), and each having a card.
Not sure on percentages yet, but as the lower earner I want to pay my own way.. and know that if i have little for myself DP will look after me 😁

I get paid into my bills account and leave the exact amount for bills in there

I then transfer the remainder into my spending account and divide it into 4 and withdraw a week at a time