Envelope system - multiple current accounts?

[TooExtraImmatureCheddar]

Hi, not really sure what to do. DH and I share one joint account for everything. We have zero savings and 1 credit card with about £3000 on it. I have used YNAB before but the free trial expired and DH didn't think we should pay for it. He made his own version of a spreadsheet but it's a pain to enter things into it on our phones, so it doesn't get done.

Is using more than one current account a good idea? Such as, one for direct debits/standing orders (all the fixed costs in a month), and then one for food/petrol, and another for things like entertaining the kids, clothes, nights out etc. Or will we just wind up in even more of a mess that way? I'm particularly worried that if we were broke we'd take out overdrafts on all the accounts and end up much further in debt.

the trip (wow!) would take you roughly an hour longer on average going at 60 rather than 70. Drag goes up as square of speed, the AA has some interesting figures:

www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/fuels-and-environment/drive-smart.html

obviously this depends on exactly where everyone is, but look at trains (your kids go free) or even flights.

Too I sympathise big time on the books - we are both big buyers here too. I use our public library service a lot - spend a happy evening wish-listing on Amazon and then look up everything on my list on my publib online catalogue and put in requests for anything they have. DH uses ebay because he can usually get them for £2-3. The kids love an outing to the public library (which is a free outing on a rainy day as far as I am concerned so it gets my vote too.)
Very thorough meal-planning could reduce the number of top-up shops you do - can you plan some meals around frozen fruit and veg to keep you going longer between shops? Frozen has higher levels of vitamins than food that has been sitting around for a few weeks and in stews or other dishes where they would be cooked they taste fine.
How is the diet going?

Following this thread since yesterday.
I've a major frugal fail to confess. I've bought YNAB & can't get it working successfully on my phone so gave up using it!

When I read about people clearing credit card in a short period of time with it I am more determined to get this glitch sorted. It is a dropbox issue.

Have new phone & new (company owned) laptop so will try again.

I have a joint account for monthly bills & groceries - child benefit & set amount each paid in here
This feeds into a savings account for savings for Christmas, this savings account is with an online bank and I must use a fob to transfer money from it so it doesn't happen on a whim!

Also with that savings account is a 30 day notice one which only has my few euros from coin sweeping currently
My current account receives my wages & pays my loan, feeds into online savings account for things like car tax etc, pays my mobile bill, contacts etc
There are two online savings account with that which I use to put money by for credit card payments and hairdressers etc

I keep track of it all on an excel sheet but ynab does that work for you!

Tartan, the diet is going ok atm. We only started 3 weeks ago and I have sinned a fair few times already. However, I lost 7lbs in the first fortnight, put 2 back on and have now lost one of those, so really, 6lbs in 3 weeks is spot on. Don't think DH is doing so well - he admitted to buying a Mars bar after an argument with someone at work yesterday. I want to lose a stone (I'm currently just above BMI 25, so not massively overweight, but definitely room for improvement). I spent ages doing a 4-week meal plan the other night and one issue is that we eat heaps of meat. I'm going to show DH and agree on a couple of vegetarian meals that he'll eat. If I lose another 4 or 5 lbs I'll fit into a pair of jeans that are practically brand-new (I bought them just before I got pg with DS so they were hardly worn).

Right, I am joining the library! I'll take the kids too. I am a grown-up and WILL NOT incur zillions of fines again. MIL is a librarian so DH ought to be well-trained regarding returning books. I like the idea of going to the library on rainy days, too.

Special, I think trains will be good when the kids are a bit older and our elderly dog is no longer a factor (bless his little heart!). Dog would probably whine incessantly for the entire train journey, in between standing in the aisle and getting in everyone's way. He has been on trains before but kept trying to get on the seat, which is not allowed, and he was a lot younger then, and we didn't have 2 wriggly toddlers to restrain entertain as well. He's about 12 or 13 (rescue dog so we don't know exactly).

I have messed up the envelope filling on GoodBudget. Going to try to sort it out now.

Too that's impressive weight loss! Good luck. I am doing the 5:2 at the moment (on the basis that we can afford for me to just not eat much twice a week!) but I can't say I am enjoying it...
I am hopeless with library fines (and I was a librarian for 12 years and have NO excuse) so I try to make a note on my wall planner as soon as we get back to remind myself to either get our books back on time or go online and renew all loans. Of course, if I get distracted and forget to make a note on the planner we are sunk so it's not a foolproof system.
I live in a house of carnivores and have been trying to reduce the amount of meat we eat - it's one of my Big Things To Do this year (I even blogged about it, which tells you the kind of exciting, thrift-obsessed life I am leading) . If you crack this one, please come back and tell me how it's done!