How I Got Rid Of 5 Bank Accounts But Can Still Separate My Money

I’ve harped on and on about how I love to have all of my money separated out into different places. It means I know exactly how much money I have for certain things. And it stops me being tempted to spend any of it when I shouldn’t. Previously I had 2 bank accounts with Natwest, about 7 with Halifax alongside my Monzo account (and credit cards). Every separate account had a purpose. One was for mine and Luke’s weekly food shop, another was for bills, another was for saving towards my taxes next year and the list goes on.

Why I needed to change my bank account opening habits

For me, I find it so much easier to visualise how much I have for everything by seeing it like that. But I got to a point where it just felt too much, I had too many accounts. And as we’re going to be applying for a mortgage next year I thought it best to have a clear out.

I’m sure it doesn’t look good for someones credit if they have loads of different accounts. Even if there’s no overdraft; which for most of mine there aren’t as they’re savings accounts.

Now everyone’s online it’s so easy to click a few buttons and have a new account but there’s been one way that I’ve managed to curb this.

How I got rid of 5 bank accounts

The simple explanation is Monzo! It’s likely you’ll know about my love for Monzo but if you don’t here’s why I love my Monzo account. One of the great things about Monzo is you can have pots of money. What this means is the money is stored in the same physical account but it’s separated out. So for example when you go and look at your balance it will only show you your spendable balance and not the balance including what’s in your pots.

The other great thing is you can have any number of pots to really separate out your spending. This is great as it means not only can you create small pots to save up for big things like a new car, but you can also set up small pots with goals for a hen party you might have coming up or something similar.

My Monzo pots

Each month I transfer out my disposable money to my Monzo account as it means I know what I’ve got to spend for the month ahead. And it means the money in my account I get paid into can stay for all the bills to come out over the month. If you think this all sounds too organised here’s how you too can plan your personal budget.

Alongside my general spending account, I currently have 4 separate pots. Before I made the change each of these pots was a completely separate bank account. But no more. I have an account where I am saving up for new tyres on my car. For this account, I set up a goal and Monzo then shows me what percentage of my goal I have achieved. I love this function as it helps you know where you stand. Mine’s currently at 62% which isn’t too bad.

I also have a separate pot for other car savings. So each month I put aside £50 so when I come to renew my car insurance I have £600 from the year set aside to put towards it. Therefore each time I get paid I pop another £50 in there to save for next year.

Pots helping me save for all my expenses

I also have a pot for tax money. Whenever I make any money through blogging, freelance writing or side hustles I try and put some aside so when it comes to having to pay my taxes I have a chunk to put towards it. For this pot I just add to it as and when I can. And having this pot means I won’t be tempted to dip into it at any point.

Then the final pot I have is for our storage unit. We were lucky enough to pay off our hire of the storage unit in full thanks to some help from my nan. So each week some money goes in here so I can pay her off in chunks. I hate being in debt with people and owing money so this helps me know I’ll have it cleared off soon.

My Monzo round-ups

I have one final pot on my Monzo account which is for round-ups. Anything I spend in the main account is rounded up to the nearest pound and it’s deposited into a pot. I love this function, and what I love even more is it’s instant. On the day I wrote this post I spent £2.40 in Wilko but £3 came out of my account. So 60p went straight into my roundups. I don’t notice the odd few pence coming out and it helps keep my account full of clean numbers.

So there you go that’s how I managed to get rid of so many accounts, yet still be able to separate out and save my money.

Do you have separate accounts for your savings?

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