nofilter ours works slightly differently
We have a joint account and our own separate accounts. We get paid into our accounts and then transfer money into the joint account to cover:
Mortgage - currently on a variable rate so at present £980 (ish) a month (was 1400 ish when we were on a fixed rate)
Nursery - £978
Storage - £156 (temporary until we buy our new place)
Petrol - £40 pcm roughly
Parking - £8 a day....
Food - £200 pcm not including dinners out which are a rarity.
Ds - £50 for nappies formula etc.
Bills - £250 (electric and phones broadband etc.
And “joint savings” - £250 goes from joint account to savings so we have money for insurances, car service and parish rates (similar to council tax I suppose).
Joint account has an overdraft of £200 so we have that buffer if necessary.
With “my” money, after the transfer to the joint account I send everything but £200 to my savings. I have separate accounts
- one regular preferential rate one which I can’t touch for a year - this gets £250 and 5% interest. And I use this to pay into my pension (as well as any bonus I get from work)
- one which gets £50 for Christmas
- the “other one” which gets the remainder.
My £200 is used for my riding lessons, beauticians and anything else I want/need.
Once we sell this place (getting closer - we had smoke detectors and heat detectors fitted on Friday and fire doors to be done on Wednesday!) we’ll move with dparents for a bit, then look to buy the forever home.
Once we have forever home and know where we stand re mortgages and bills etc we can make a proper plan.
The aim is to have mortgage paid off by the time dh is 45. I’m almost a year older than him so this gives us 13 years. We’re going to take a 20 year mortgage. And throw as much as we can at it. If we can’t do it by 45 then we’ll do it by 50.
I also have a “penny” account which I transfer the penny amounts from my current account into on a semi regular basis. At the end of the year this is transferred into my “big” saver account.
Oh and I’m saving £20 a month for ds. £10 from my account and £10 from joint account (easier than dh transferring...). Ds’ account is in my name but I can’t take any money out of of without dh also signing.
Then there’s the credit card...which we won’t discuss.
Money coming in today - £45 minimum from our works World Cup sweepstake (or if France win £100). So that’ll go to pay off my credit card once I’ve bought the team croissants or donuts.
I plan on doing some car boot sale/eBay selling once we have moved to dparents. When I pack up the apartment I’ll do a big declutter.
We’re pretty good at managing our money.
I’ve had a spendy year - £4000 on my teeth straightening (but worked out cheaper to pay upfront instead of taking out finance)
£360 training sessions (dh paid for this but I’ll do another 10 once my first 10 are used up) I’m seeing results though!
£425 gym membership. Paid upfront in December - which meant I got it at last years rate and it again works out cheaper than a monthly membership. And I’m using it.