collie I have a bit of a faffy saving ritual....
save a basic of £350 a month that comes straight out on payday
£250 goes into an account for one offs for the year i.e Christmas, uniform, birthdays etc
£100 into the 'oh s*%t fund' saving account - Im trying to get three months wages or deposit for a house whichever way (have an amount I aiming to get to by year end)
and then (bare with me whilst I try to explain this) Two main bank accs (one where bills come out of including money for savings)(one general acc where rest of money goes)
I check my online bank regularly and everytime I access it (preferably everyday that I've purchased something from general acc) then I round the balance down to the nearest 5.00, for example if I had 428.34, I would round that down to 425.00 and transfer the 3.34 into the savings account. I don't see the balance on the savings account which means I get a nice surprise when I check it as its amazing how much these little amounts add up!!!
Apparently there are bank accounts (I believe TSB or LLoyds) that can do this automatically....they either take a purchase amount and round it up transferring the difference into savings automatically or it rounds the balance off at the end of the day and slingshots the difference into savings without needing to do anything. I get 5.00 a month for using by account so have stuck with them however going to be looking into the HSBC one
I should add I have several accounts for differnet things (savings, one offs, clothing and entertainment) I budget 400.00 for shopping and I try to snaffle any bits I can into the clothing and entertainment usually by doing ebay or if money comes in from somewhere else.
HTH