How do you budget / run your bank account?

[NorthernGirlie]

Inspired by the "how skint are you?" thread

We have a Santaner joint account and separate accounts with different banks

-When we get paid we put x amount in the joint account for mortgage, bills, food, ds, family stuff
-We each put money in joint savings and some into ds' savings. Both within santander

My Natwest account has:
-current account
-my savings
-holiday savings (we both pay in each month)
-ds' current account (he's 11)

There are no more 'pots' available to have in either account but I'd like to allocate amounts to things (weekends away with the girls / dh birthday etc)

i'm organising a big hen do - all the money from 23 people will come to me but I've nowhere to put it that isn't mixed with my savings

We haven't got loads by the way - 2 average salaries but small mortgage and low outgoings means we can save a few quid here and there!

Is there an easy way of managing money in little pots online?

A Monzo account is brilliant. You can creat as many pots as you need. I have one for birthdays/Christmas/holiday/my little stash etc. Very simple to set up and really helps.

Chase app. Cash back on purchases, reasonable interest rates and you can have multiple savings pots. I love it.

Monzo for us, lots of pots for diffeeent things, Christmas, holiday spends etc.

I don't do pots, but instead have a day to day account and a standing order account. I try to keep a minimum amount in both accounts so there is no risk of going overdrawn.

Salary goes in to the day to day one and there is a standing order which transfers 1/12th of my annual standing orders plus 5% to the standing order account.

With what is left I work out roughly what I need for other expenditure for the next month. That covers hair cuts, transport, leisure, socialising, presents and if needed clothes.

I then move anything left to savings or take out of savings if there isn't enough there.

With monzo, can you have it for savings alongside NatWest for example?
Sorry, I'm in my twenties and out of touch with banking!

Our wages and child allowance go into one account, we then move half the child allowance to each childs bank account (it can only be paid to the parents bank account), we then move an equal amount of spending money to our own personal accounts. All household costs come out of the joint account, whats left at the end of the month goes into a joint savings account. Once a year we review the savings and move some into our childrens accounts.

Have you thought about hyper jar? There are no fees (including if you spend abroad) you can have lots of pots, you can even share pots with other people.

I use YNAB budgetting app.

It pulls ALL our accounts into one place plus credit card spending which we pay in full each month to get airmiles.

It's INCREDIBLE and well worth the £80 annual fee as it makes you allocate every single penny so any odd DD / expenses are flagged and rectified immediately

I've not heard of any of these! Thank you!

With Monzo - do you have to get your whole wages paid in? I'd rather not chew on changing my bank details with work etc

We have a house account which we both contribute equally to and all bills groceries house misc like egg bill and window cleaner and pet expenses come from that - very rarely need to top up

Then we keep rest in our own accounts to cover personal spends and our motoring expenses , I’m able to save a chunk each month usually into premium bonds then each April transfer into new ISA and start again

I have starling which I think is pretty similar as monzo and chase
. I also have a HSBC PERSONAL and Nationwide joint and a HSBC ISA

HSBC is for direct debits and standing orders to other accounts. This is where I get paid to. I do not spend from this account.

Nationwide's is for food and joint spending.

Starling is for spending and saving short term or fun savings I have 20 pots on the go! Some I spend each month (petrol and car) and others I save all year (Xmas) others as and when (dog) others never fill up. I have space for vinted money and overtime. Space for a new phone and new car deposit, holidays etc.

I have a small float in there for miscellaneous. I have a £1000 emergency fund in there too.

I spend on an Amex and Barclay card to avionics points and transfer fund from pot to pot to pay this bill.

You do not have to have a salary paid into monzo or starling. I pay £430
In per month and other bit here and there e

Another one for Monzo, it makes it so easy.

For us, wages go in the joint account, and from there into multiple pots, inc savings. Direct debits come out of the 'Bills' pot so don't need to worry about DDs coming out at different times of the month. Then also have 4 pots where we budget a set amount weekly which covers food/petrol/any other spends. I move this into the 'main pot' each week. Any left over goes towards paying off debt or into savings.

We give ourselves £200 pm spends which goes to our own accounts and gets spent on whatever we want (individual socialising, clothes etc).

I use revolut. Brilliant for travel as no fees for different currencies, and I put my fun money in there every month. When it's gone it's gone!

I use Hyper Jar. It's brilliant.

Another one for Monzo - I pay all my savings money and spending money into it from my current acount and then separate it into pots. We do as others do and have a joint account for household, joint savings, DS’s investment account and then we each have an equal amount of spending money. I look at all the accounts daily to see what we/I have left.

Another fan of Monzo here. I have a Virgin A/C that my salary is paid into, I only leave enough for my Direct Debits/Savings etc in there and move all rest into Monzo for my day to day spending with pots for things such as holidays/Christmas/Birthdays. My husband has a Starling A/C which is very similar to Monzo.

Monzo users - are you using a free or paid version please?

Monzo every time. I have a general savings pot and a pot for what I was paying in premiums from one of my animals it’s no longer worth me insuring.

The app is so easy to use and I will preach at anyone who will listen that they should switch 😁

Free @NorthernGirlie

I use Chase too - I ping over any 'unspent' money for the week that was in my budget. It's quick and easy to use!

I love Chase which I run along side my HSBC account. Get paid into HSBC, all bills come out there. I then transfer money into chase for all everyday spending.

You can create as many 'pots' as you like to save for certain things, you currently get 4.1% interest on these saving pots. All easy access so no limit to moving money in/out of them.

You also get 1% cashback on all spending (with a few exceptions). It soon builds up.

Also excellent rates for spending abroad.

I don't work for them 😆.

It's free and easy to open

We get paid into our personal current accounts and transfer to a joint account for all bills, kids clubs, school stuff etc

We loosely split the big stuff eg car / home improvement and holidays but make it sort of balance but it’s not calculated eg if I pay for a holiday he would for the next big thing..

We’ve been together years and some people find it weird that we have separate money but we have totally different spending tolerances, while both of us never spend beyond our means. So it works well as I’m not called ‘frivolous’ for buying posh moisturiser and he can be as tight as he wants 🤣

Monzo principles and always have:

Main account, into which salary is paid and from which all spending money and food money comes.

Bank 2: money to cover standing orders such as: phone, credit card, car tax is transferred plus extra for car servicing and general maintenance.

Ɓank 3: monthly transfer for big household spends when things need replacing or things for the house/garden.

Bank 4: my car money - save it up to buy a new nearly new one when necessary (usually about every 10 years).

Bank 5: Christmas and holidays.

I take great satisfaction from adding it all up.

DH pays the utilities, insurances, other big stuff

Interesting thread. Think I need a monzo account.