[Sabrina]

Question. How many accounts (checking savings) do you have and categories for use I’m looking at ways to budget better.

Maybe have bill money in one account for bills and one for spending?

[Kathy]

I have probably 9 or 10 savings, car insurance, home insurance, taxes, vacation, emergency and 1 extra right now it’s for tires

[Chelsea]

That’s pretty much our set up too. 2 Checking and 1 Savings. One checking is for income and monthly bills we have set to autopay like mortgage, utilities, insurances, phones etc.

Every paycheck I transfer our set budget into the 2nd checking to be used for groceries, household supplies and extras.

It helps have a separated account to manage expenses.

When our main checking gets over a certain amount or if we were under budget, we transfer those funds to savings.

Been working great for us.

[Sarah]

This is what I do:
1. Bill Account checking – car, house, utilities, phone.

2. Allowance checking – groceries and any spending money

3. Mad Money savings – any mileage checks from work, three paycheck months, or other miscellaneous income I receive.

Since I get paid mileage when driving for work, gas and tolls come from this account

4. No Touch Fund savings – set amount each paycheck goes here. Tax refund also goes here.

Both savings accounts are in a HYSA.
This really works for me and I’ve been doing this for about a decade.
Side note: I use a credit card for everything I can and then pay it off weekly.

I just make a couple of separate payments from the different accounts. One credit card is used ONLY for bills and my son’s college expenses.

Costco Visa for gas because 5% back adds up. One credit card used for the rest.

I realize this is not for everyone, but it works for me.

[Kimberly]

Right now 1 checking and 3 savings. My paychecks go into savings and gets used to pay all the bills. Hubbies paychecks go into savings and then get split 4 ways.

One account is for the mortgage and car payment. one account for vacations and one account is the emergency fund.

Do whatever makes it easiest for you to keep track of.

[Lauren]

I have 3 checking accounts at 3 different banks, and two savings.
Main checking where the bulk of my check gets deposited, it has a savings account attached to it that I keep a minimum buffer in just in case I math wrong or my check is short (I’m a commissioned sales rep, so numbers are kinda flexible in my world)

Main savings account, with a checking account attached. A set amount goes into this savings account each check, and if I need to use it for something specific, I transfer the money to the savings.

I use this for sinking fund categories (vet car, car care, car insurance) and for emergency stuff.

Weird checking account that I only signed up for because I wanted the welcome bonus.

I discovered that it helps me grocery budget to have the money sent to a specific account just for that, so a set amount goes to the grocery account.

Whatever doesn’t get used up during the month just sets there until I need to do a big Costco trip or whatnot.

[Mindy]

In our household, we each have our own checking/savings account. However, I am aware that most couples don’t do their finances this way.

It’s worked out great.

[Helen]

Three checking accounts plus MM; my retirement and SS go into one checking account; my husband’s SS into another account; we’ve managed with this system for 58 years!

I keep track of each account daily; farm expenses and income are in one checking account.

Hope everyone with multiple accounts do not pay fees; I haven’t paid account fees in decades.

[Donna]

I have three accounts but I’m recast to close one. One I pay all expenses for a condo I rent to my daughter.

[Karen]

*We have a checking account to pay monthly bills, buy groceries, gas, gifts etc

*A MM account for our annual bills, like insurance, taxes, HOA fees and household repairs. (we both deposit into this account monthly)
*we each have an account tied to our debit account, with our own spending $$

*A regular saving account that interest and tax refunds are deposited into.

*A few CDS
*401 K
*HSA

[Jodi]

My husband and I each have our own checking account (one each, our finances are separate). We have multiple savings accounts each.

We pay everything on credit cards and pay them off at the end of the statement period.

[Sheila]

We have a checking account and a savings account. I take out my grocery funds once a month in cash, and have a small, separate wallet for those funds and the loyalty cards.

Whatever doesn’t get spent on groceries gets rolled over for those stock up shopping times.

By paying cash, we’re more mindful of what we are spending. Bills are paid from the checking account.

We each take a predetermined amount for personal spending in cash once a month.

[Kirsten]

Look for high yield savings accounts – I actually found 1 with Amex. I have a regular checking & savings with a local credit union, and I direct deposit 10% of my pay to the HYSA every paycheck.

I consider that my “backup emergency savings” account.

The other savings doesnt have much in it, unfortunately, just to help w overdrafts or a big purchase now n then.

Then otherwise just a Roth IRA.

[Alena]

Yup. This is what I do. Two banks, each has a checking and savings. 75% of my paycheck deposited into bills account, 25% into daily spending account.

I know how much my monthly recurring bills are so at the end of the month I make sure that amount is in there for the next month’s bills.

Anything left over goes into savings for emergencies. Every 2 weeks, when my pay is deposited into the spending account I move whatever is leftover from the last deposit into savings as a travel fund.

I also move all of my cash back rewards into the travel fund since I don’t have miles/points cards.

I use my cards for everything and every couple of days pay off whatever charges have cleared from the spending account.

I work commission so my paycheck varies which is why it’s a percentage not a dollar amount.

Having 2 different banks makes it that much more difficult to move money from the bills account to the spending account.

I still can but it takes days to clear, so I just don’t.

[Sarah]

I have a personal checking, bills checking, holiday gift savings, puppy savings foe vet, car savings foe emergencies, a emergency savings and a travel savings.

My credit union doesn’t charge foe accounts so it helped to move all my different sinking funds around into separate accounts

[Melissa]

I have a checking, and two savings accounts. One is true savings that aren’t to be touched except for car taxes and paying our accountant.

The other gets the rewards dumped into it and is tied to the checking account for overdrafts and is used monthly to cover unexpected bills.

I have a Christmas sinking fund and a car repair sinking fund that doesn’t have any money in it unfortunately.

[Tiffany]

I do my own spin on Frederic Lehrman’s 5 bank accounts method.
1. Income account. I get confused when things are coming in and out of one account at different times.

I also don’t have a job so my income is always different and I get deposits from several online businesses.

This helps me see exactly how much I have coming in.

I don’t hold money here, it’s moved at the end of each month.

2. Check account. This is for paying bills only.

I know exactly how much my bills are and move that amount at the end of each month so when the new month starts it’s fully funded.

3. Cash. This is how much I need to live that isn’t a set bill. Groceries, gas, stuff like that. It’s fully funded at the beginning of each month.

I could use a debit card or credit card for this amount and pay it off each month. But I prefer to take out cash weekly. I can’t go over.

4. Large purchases or sinking funds.

5. Financial independence. This is where I work towards 6 months, 12 months of expenses and then investments.

It’s not really an emergency fund because I’m not supposed to take from it, but it’s there.

[Carol]

I have a checking account which automatically takes out all the bills, what is left is mine, because I also put $100 each into three different accounts every month.

One of those accounts is for health, my prescriptions and any other medical expense else I might incur. Sometimes I have to add money to that account.

It helps me with taxes because all my medical expenses are in one place and I have the money when I need it.

One savings account is just because I want a good savings account and the other one is for vacation or maybe unexpected expenses.

I usually have money left in my main checking account, and I just let it add up for oil changes, dog grooming, and things like that so I don’t have to get into any other account.

[Nadine]

I dont recommend having accounts for each category of expenses. I had a friend do this method and it was always a mess.

I tried helping her sort it out because she was always shuffling money and getting lost with where she needed to fix the shuffling.

I guess that won’t happen to everyone but I found it really confusing, too many steps to understand where the money is actually going, etc.

Personally I have all bills set on auto pay through my bank app (so I have total control), and I use a basic budget app that simply gives you a full picture of income vs expenses, helps you track as you spend, and not forget about bills.

[Jody]

We have 2. One for bill paying. We use a credit card to pay all bills so I write one check from this account monthly to pay this in full.

Our second account we keep a small amount in and use for on line shopping.

[Virginia]

Checking and savings in one bank for bill paying and emergencies, savings in another bank to earn more interest.

[Author]

Posts