Budgeting advice - 'subaccounts'

cerebus

cerebus

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In the quixotic, incessant quest to shore up against inflation, rising cost of living and other budgetary challenges I came to a realisation about the ideal way I'd like to manage my money on a monthly basis.

I'm quite strict to spreadsheet and account every month, so I've got a pretty good eye on what goes out. But some expenses - say once yearly car fixing, or saving up for holiday, or beginning of school year purchases - which are pretty big sums - would be ideally drawn out across the whole year's finances but placed into some kind of silos on my personal bank account or in some other place, so that the final amounts wouldn't end up impacting us and we'd spread the pain like butter over the toast of our financial lives.

Does anybody have an idea of how to do this? Do you even know what I'm talking about? Am I a lone sparrow on a rooftop, a voice crying out in the wilderness? Tx!
 
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Create a savings account linked to your cheque account.
You can even set it up to automatically debit R??? to the account every month.

Who do you bank with?
 
The most common advise I see is that you should have at least 3 months salary in a easily accessible account.
That way you can buy what is needed and then replenish your balance over a few months.

Anything extra then gets invested in higher yield investments.

I only have about 2 months worth in a "deposit" account and the rest goes into Satrix which is also fairly easy to access but might be more risky to cash out in emergencies depending on what the market looks like.
 
Capitec gives you 1 savings account and 4 extra pockets which you can access at any time but won't take from the pockets if you say swipe your card. I use this and it works like a dream.
 
googoodoll said:
Capitec gives you 1 savings account and 4 extra pockets which you can access at any time but won't take from the pockets if you say swipe your card. I use this and it works like a dream.
Click to expand...

This! That's precisely what I'm looking for. Does FNB offer a similar facility?
 
I have a 32 day notice account. That way the temptation to use the money for impromptu purchases is less :p
 
I use a normal cheque account but track about 20 sub accounts using MS Money. I don't buy stuff based on what my bank balance says but rather on what my sub accounts in MS Money say. So for instance I put aside a little money each month for clothing for me. It may just be R200 pm. Most months I don't buy a thing but every now and then (perhaps once a year) I will go out and spend over R1000 restocking the clothing cupboard. I do the same for gifts (Christmas needs to be saved for when my family is that big), car expenses, school fees, etc. Its a great discipline to get into as when disaster strikes and you have 3-4 unexpected large expenses all converge you laugh about it and don't worry unlike people who have no budgeting and savings who have to borrow to just get through that month.

My parents in law would always get worried when we had to fix the car, buy new tires, and replace an appliance all in one month and would keep asking my wife if we where OK for the month. It took a while to explain but now they realize just how little stuff like that affects us where for most its a mini financial disaster when that kind of thing happens.
 
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