Bank account savings 'pots'.

[ImFree2doasiwant]

I'm trying to sort out my finances, which are in a bit of a dire state. I think I'd really benefit from an account or facility where I can direct money each month for things like birthdays, holidays, car maintainance etc. At the moment I'm very much "spend as you go".

I need to reduce my overdraft as a priority, but once that's done, would like to plan a little bit ahead by saving for different things.

Any recommendations? I currently have a lloyds and a natwest account.

Any other tips for saving?

Monzo bank

Amazing, all money in one account so to speak but you can create 'pots' for different things. You can 'lock' the pots until a certain date (this can be overridden)

Monzo Monzo Monzo Monzo ... I really can’t say it enough ... MONZOOOOO

@EnglishScot

Monzo Monzo Monzo Monzo ... I really can’t say it enough ... MONZOOOOO

This 100%

@EnglishScot

Monzo Monzo Monzo Monzo ... I really can’t say it enough ... MONZOOOOO

This 100%

TSB Spend and Save

Yeah as others have said .. monzo!

Op I came up with my own pot system years ago via those tins you can't open until tin opener comes into play.
I had a bday tin, holiday tin, Xmas tin etc.

I was saving nominal amounts, £2 here and there but it made such a difference to have an excellent base to put towards those events.

Then we up graded to literal envelopes, for the above but also added in a car fund to help towards tax, mot etc.. And general savings then two pots for the dc, one for school stuff and one for other extras.

We also had petrol allowance and weekend mnney, each month all withdrawn and goes straight into envelopes, because each pot covers its own thing there is no danger for instance of needing to rob bday money but because every thing is covered including holidays... Now dh does a spreadsheet with our pots we have some in a different bank account as well.

It's a really good way to steady yourself to begin with to force yourself into good habits by drawing out cash.
We hid it in various places.

Another one for Monzo!

Monzo is what I miss the most after leaving the UK. So handy.

Starling bank...

Savings accounts at the moment don't have good interest rates. I think the best one we found was 1%.

I know it sounds simple but I found working on driving down my spending helped in the first instance. I wrote down my monthly outgoings and identified which bills I could reduce by changing supplier or shopping elsewhere.

I'd recommend setting up a standing order into a savings account every month. It'll be gone before you can spend it if you set it for the week after pay day.

I was in your position about 5 years ago and wanted to consolidate my debt so I spoke to my bank and they offered me a loan with a low interest rate to pay everything off. It helped me look forward and pay everything off but put a little aside each month.

But I've heard monzo is excellent 🤣

Sometimes the easiest way to save is to use an account that you can't access on a whim. A building society account with a passbook that you have to go into a branch to withdraw from gives you the benefit of 'out of sight, out of mind'. Also you'll usually get a better rate of interest, particularly in regular savers that you pay a limited amount in to every month for a fixed term eg 12 months.

Starling because of the debacle of how monzo and starling began! I have both and they work the same but Starling allegedly treat female staff better too.

Starling is better than Monzo imo (I have both) with a much much nicer interface & agree with @jendifer to support Starling over Monzo given how they were both started.

I use Revolut- you can set up saving 'vaults'

Starling for me.

And the owner is a woman.

Starling! Its great, the app let's you direct funds to the right pot, set targets etc. Love it!

I have pots in the bottom of my wardrobe. Im old fashioned

Print off a years worth of bank statements/credit card bills to see where your money goes. How much do you actually spend on food when you add up grocery, too up shops etc? That will help you work out what your monthly costs actually are.

Keep a special eye out for what you spend on Christmas, home repairs etc and average that out by dividing a years worth of these expenses by 12 and putting away that amount each month. Eg if you want to spend £600 on holidays put £50 a month into that pot (provided you can afford that).

A big moment for me was saving up a months worth of takehome pay, so instead of having zero in the bank at the end of the month I had a month ‘in hand’. From there I was able to do things like pay for car servicing up front and get a discount or pay a years insurance up front so I got that cheaper, so that helped build savings up.

Starling.

I use chip. 1.25% interest and I don't really notice the money going out of my main account

Brown same, we did almost nothing for a year to build up that inital pot to get the momentum going.

Mentally more than anything else it was amazing because we felt in control for a change and could also relax when out and about knowing exactly how much we could spend or not spend.

A big moment for me was saving up a months worth of takehome pay, so instead of having zero in the bank at the end of the month I had a month ‘in hand’. From there I was able to do things like pay for car servicing up front and get a discount or pay a years insurance up front so I got that cheaper, so that helped build savings up.

Agree. I've just managed that after using chip for 11 months, it's a good feeling

You can have multiple savings accounts with Lloyds & give them all nicknames. I've got loads for Christmas, holidays, emergency etc