I’ve mentioned how I manage my money many times and I’m sure people are getting bored of me talking about it
My salary enters account A and my bills come out of that account as usual. I have standing orders set weekly to automatically move money from account A to account B (Monzo in this case) for my spending and monthly to account C for my savings account. I should have an account D for yearly debits like @garete has (see below).
When I run out of money in account B I have to wait until the next ‘weekly payday’. I could cheat, yes, but it physiologically helps better spread my payments as I only ever look at the balance of account B. I never look at the balance in account A, I treat it as if it isn’t there as any spare money is swept into my savings before payday and I get warning texts if it somehow is about to run out of money (which I designed the account to run a surplus).
With this method of conducting my finances I have saved over £21,000 in 2.5 years from a £30k salary and never use my overdraft anymore. Essentially, I try to imitate https://squirrel.me/ without actually paying for their service.
I’ve tried to use services like YNAB but I find its not worth the hassle when I can live within a fixed budget instead each week without thinking about bills at all because of making sure my main account is always in a surplus. I am thinking of moving to a daily budget instead in the future. @garete made an excellent illustration of his similar setup.