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?

Thanks @coodawoodashooda you are right, a relaxed parent makes everything better and I havent been all that relaxed lately.

I don't think the bank can do a lot tbh, I do just need to sort myself out.

Any tips on saying No and not having miserable kids? Will they get used to it? I will plan times where I can say yes too.

You dont need for them to get used to it. You need to trick them so they dont realise anything is different. How old are they?

What do you think your children will expect that you are going to start saying no to?

4 and 6. I dobt kniw, we went away last week, abd I seemed to be saying no ALL the time. Seaside, we had ice creams, they went on sone rides but not all. Didn't do the fairground (rip off ) games, but they did have a LOT of rides included fir a ticket price.

You wont be at the fair again for a while. Id forget about that.

We save up for the holiday on a rolling basis so we only have what we have saved. When we are away however we also have our usual weekly money so c for food, petrol, weekend fun £.
So all that comes with us.

Really helped me get back on track to have a 'skint month' it wasn't a great month but it started a cushion off for me. I know I'm in a lucky position that I had enough surpluses be able to do this though.

I love the skint month idea. Im going to do that. Or my friend does a 'saving spree.'

Definitely having a skint month!!

I have also realised that im going to have a 'me' pot. Then once or twice a year i can get a treat too.

If you’re trying to get out of debt, the Dave Ramsay (US broadcaster) seven baby steps is motivating and has lots of youtube content (he is v. v. politically conservative so that put me off a bit but his advice is good).

He would say that you are “broke, living paycheque to paycheque” and should “not be seeing the inside of a restaurant unless you’re working there”.

He’s got a cold turkey attitude to debt so advocates no credit use apart from mortgages, and having a short intense period where you spend as little as humanly possible while you get out of debt and save up an emergency fund, and then doing ‘zero based budgeting’ (same as YNAB software mentioned above) where you allocate all your money each month so for example when in debt your budget for ‘snacks at the garage’ will be zero and you’ll alllicate that money to debt repayment, then savings. Once you’ve got emergency money saved you can then start to allocate an amount each month to garage snacks, if that’s how you want to spend it. Or something more exciting.

@Brown76 thank you, it sounds like the plan I already have but I will certainly check it out for further inspiration.

Your comment about garage snacks really make me feel pretty...embarrassed I suppose (I'm not complaining , just the way you put it really highlighted what a stupid waste it is)

@ImFree2doasiwant

4 and 6. I dobt kniw, we went away last week, abd I seemed to be saying no ALL the time. Seaside, we had ice creams, they went on sone rides but not all. Didn't do the fairground (rip off ) games, but they did have a LOT of rides included fir a ticket price.

So they had ice creams and went on some rides? That sounds like plenty. Maybe try to steer them towards free or cheaper things?

If they're busy enjoying jumping in puddles, looking at crabs in rock pools or the swings in the playpark they won't notice the expensive rides or tat shops.

Can you buy drinks, crisps and other snacks in the supermarket? If you get whatever is on offer, you'll get enough for everyone for the price of one thing in the garage or convenience store. The DC could even carry their own in a small rucksack each if you're not able to pack everything in a cool pack, if it's too heavy to carry for example.

Granted, it's harder for ice creams, but you still might be able to get a multipack in a Co-op, Tesco Metro or similar while out and about and you'll easily save well over half the cost, possibly 70/80% and the DC won't notice the difference at their age.

Glad you're open to change OP. So many people just blindly go along with things and then complain 'life is expensive' without making the easy and obvious changes that can save huge amounts of money.

You'll probably spend less time queueing at ice cream vans or attraction cafes etc too. I'm always astonished at how many people seem happy to queue for ages to pay a fortune for what is usually nasty fast food.

[quote ImFree2doasiwant]@Brown76 thank you, it sounds like the plan I already have but I will certainly check it out for further inspiration.

Your comment about garage snacks really make me feel pretty...embarrassed I suppose (I'm not complaining , just the way you put it really highlighted what a stupid waste it is)[/quote]
I felt like that too and im guilty of it in a different way, bargainous tat etc...

It is amazing how the pennys do add up. Also, at the age of your dc you can get away with not giving them full on meals. Often beans on toast is enough.

It's all mute until op looks at essential outgoings.
Essential amount she needs for petrol, mot/insurance. Looks at all bills and see where she can cut down eg moving to octopus energy.
School lunches, clothes for dc, every essential expenditure she has to make needs to be pinned down, weekly food shop. Pinned down then see where she can save esp on food as Barbara mentioned.

Then she has her left over money.

At the moment it seems she's wildy spending without knowing where its coming from or what it's robbing eg fairground rides today.. Unable to afford petrol tomorrow.

I'd strongly suggest op you take the simple route until you do monzo etc.. Do you essential outgoing and see what's left.. Draw it out in cash and put that cash into labelled envelope.

Week 1/2/3/4/5.

Week one petrol £20. Week one food £80. Week one extras unexpected £10.

Holiday £5. Xmas £5. Bdsys £5. Car £10.

Or whatever your left over money allows you.

Then when you do your selling of items you look at your envelopes and decide how to spread that 100.

Probably £70 into car fund... And £10 each into Xmas and bday etc

If you havant used your weekly petrol allowance it carries over for petrol. Same with the others.

Once you see it in cash in an envelope it steadies the ship to begin with.. Helps mentally to see and deal with cash... £80 food.. Helps to do a cleaner shop because if you have £10 left that carries over to next weeks shop.. And if you can save £40 in a month... Buy some treats or take away or put it towards one of the your other pots eg Xmas... For Xmas food treats..

It's pointless to try anything until you've divided it all up from spending first because it's going in the wind...

It needs to go into pots.

Every extra money dh and I now get in it immediately gets divide up into all our pots.
It's a way of life now.

But it's taken the worry out of day to day living because if I need a new tyre.. I'm not going into my over draft.. I just go to my car fund envelope and take what I need to break the back of the cost...
If I see toys dc want in the summer sales, I can buy them from my Xmas envelope.

We did a year of pruned back living to give the pots a start and brought yha membership, they do 25% off a few times a year so can get away, self cater and it's cheap.

But all pointless until you say we definitely have x amount each month left from essentials.. Then second essentials like dc shoes clothes school stuff..

In the early days we could afford £20 weekend fun money.
Which was quite a lot! But I knew its had to be decent otherwise the other savings would be too hard to keep up esp with young children.

I like the envelope idea @Panickingpavlova, I think I will start that on a small scale for now. I'm not at the stage of being unable to afford petrol or food, or bills. My bills are paid as soon as I get paid, its the money that is left that I need to organise really. I'm not particularly extravagant in general, but this month have bought 2 new items of clothing, had a couple of (cheap, camping) days away, a vet bill, and had a birthday. It's these things that I can't absorb, and I want to rectify that, maybe with the envelopes, so that I have the money put by. I do buy too many coffees and bottles of pop and have stopped that now, SUCH a waste of money (if you can't afford it, which I need to accept I cant atm)

I'm shopping around for car insurance because I feel sure I can reduce that.

I'm undecided about the (unused in 6 years) pet insurance for £25 a month.

My household bills are basic. Water and electricity are low. Oil is what it is, I try to buy when it's cheaper. I could set up a DD to spread the cost but that ties me to 1 company.