I love this thread! So interesting.
We piggy bank too, like a lot of people on this thread. Didn't realise that there was a name for it though until recently. We have an account for Christmas, one for vet bills, one for holidays, one general saving that can be used for anything without me feeling bad.
We are both on v low wages but do it by having a separate bills account, a current account for me and a joint current account. My wages go into my current account and DH goes into bills as his had to be physically paid in so couldn't guarantee the date and it was hard to buy food etc. when it went into joint current. The bills account has about 2 months worth of bills at any given time so we don't have to stress about charges. Have a spreadsheet adjusted each year.
My current account is a holding account. On payday money leaves to bills and savings accounts and then every Monday a fixed amount goes to our joint current account. This pays for food, fuel and everything else and weekly ensures we're not stuck at the end of the month. Child benefit goes directly into the joint current and we have it as two separate payments as that helps us out more (big CB is an Iceland stock up, small CB covers a full tank of petrol). We rarely physically spend from bills or my current, only direct debits. We set the weekly amount based on my main job. Any other work or overtime tends to go into savings if there's nothing else I need it for on payday.
During lockdown our current account has gained nowt as we spent more on food with the kids at home all day. Our bills account saved on travel passes and breakfast club, but that was counterbalanced by DH 80% furlough pay and loss of money from working events which couldn't happen this year. I also gave up my third job as I was too busy. Our planned holiday was on clubcard vouchers and points so only £200 saved there (plus a Eurotunnel ticket to rebook at some point).
Still with a tax rebate we saved £4200 in our general savings account this year which I'm pretty chuffed with.
What's it for? Oh so many things, different ones take priority each week. I'd love a loft conversion but that's so unobtainable I need to forget about it so as not to feel unsatisfied. More realistically we need a new bathroom, some great big holes in our walls filled, the whole place decorated, new carpets and new windows. But there are so many places we want to go:- Japan, Ethiopia, Namibia, Peru, Costa Rica, Mexico, Cyprus, Croatia, France, Romania. I think if travel opens up again in 2021 we will go for the whole "life is short, you can't predict the future" premise and go somewhere nice with it. If it doesn't by the summer then we will invest in a shower that visitors can use without a 2hr induction. Visitors. Remember them? They were nice.