Hey all 
Just an open question to bring us into the weekend…
We’re curious to know how Monzo has changed your spending/saving habits. So please, go ahead. We’re all ears 
How has Monzo changed how you manage your money?
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I’m more aware of what I have, rather than checking my balance once a week on my old bank’s (terrible) website… so if I’m tempted by the latest gadget I can easily see whether I can afford it. It’s made me quite frugal… I’ve paid off a bunch of loans since getting monzo.
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Before Monzo I would check my balance maybe a couple times a year and I did practically nothing to save my 
. Monzo has let me be much more aware, made this fun and motivated me to start getting some savings and investments in order
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The majority of my day-to-day spending has been through Monzo for many months now.
Around the start of the month I transfer across my ‘spending money’ for the month, as it were. In an ideal world that would be my only transfer, but I usually end up with at least one more, for one reason or another.
Previous to Monzo it was very easy to whack day-to-day spending onto one of my credit cards, which was almost ‘invisible’ spending for most of the month and would sometimes lead to me having a very nasty shock at the end of the month when the bill came. The situtation has reversed so much now that I have to go out of my way to make sure I manage to use my cards a few times each month in order to keep up a credit record.
I’m on Android, so I don’t have access to targets (really disappointing, still 
), but the spending tab categorisations give me a rough idea of where I am and if I see I’ve spend £x in shopping by week 2 then I know I need to try and spend less over the following weeks.
I pay for almost nothing with cash now.
Indeed; where now I transfer money to Monzo, previously I was withdrawing cash to budget for the month. And when I ran out of cash I couldn’t always tell why, so was probably making further ‘unncessary’ withdrawals (due to accidental overspending). Coupled with above-mentioned credit card spending.
In short: Monzo has replaced my cash spending. Being able to track my spending has reduced my opportunity for accidental overspending; but I’d really like targets in order to make the latter work even better for me.
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Before Monzo, I used to spend all my wage almost instantly and perpetually lived in my overdraft. In November 2016 I decided to save up for a house so I wanted to live more on a specific budget, live outside my overdraft and save.
I liked the idea of squirrel.me but wasn’t a fan of paying for it. Therefore I set up my legacy account as an incoming salary/billing account. I then sent to Monzo £100 per week to spend daily and then the remaining balance in my legacy account (after paying all my bills) is split into a First Direct 5% Regular Saver, Premium Bonds (which I use to top up a Lifetime ISA) and Nutmeg.com share investments.
Over the last 14 months I have saved over £10,000 and not used an overdraft for the last 11 months.
I’m just waiting for multiple Monzo accounts… please Monzo, do this soon…
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It’s revolutionised money management for me and my fiancee.
Firstly it’s given us great visibility into the impact of lots of small purchases (coffee, snacks etc) and how that really impacts the bottom line…and that’s even without targets as we both use android. Eg I have now managed to half my Eating Out spend by just cutting frivolous purchases without actually going to restaurants less.
Secondly, now we have pots we can easily manage multiple little accounts for various wedding payments to keep everything sorted and ordered.
Absolute life saver. 
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Awesome question @cookywook
When I initially used the prepaid I would transfer only the amount I wanted to spend at the beginning of the month. Which meant towards the end of each month I knew exactly how much i could spend without having to calculate any remaining Direct Debits or ring fenced money cos I’d already spent it.
It’s so much better to see you definitely have X amount.
While pots weren’t on Monzo (I switched at preview and salary moved straight away) I had to revert a tiny bit to previously. HOWEVER I had clear defined categories (which I can’t wait until there’s more 
) knowing if I was going out of the fun categories. ie not bills 
this helped me control it better than my legacy bank.
Now I have pots I’m backing to saving 
I’ve managed to save over £1000 in around 8 months which two years ago was nigh on impossible. That was on a strict budget. Now I’ll have a little more disposable working remotely but that’s all going to savings so I can eventually own my own home 
Not a goal I envisioned I’d be on its path a year ago, at all.
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I’m much more aware of how much money I actually have.
In the past I would check my bank account, see how much money I had, and spend accordingly. But I would often forget about things I had purchased where the money hadn’t yet been taken from the account.
Don’t have this problem with Monzo
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Only in a very basic way - I dump petty cash on it and that has to last the month - it’s easier seperated out from my ‘actual’ account.
I’ve noticed that I don’t read any of the analytics at all.
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It hasn’t and it won’t until joint accounts are introduced. I am not going back to separate accounts after 37 years of marriage and 1 of engagement. The idea of his and hers money doesn’t rest easy with me.
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I’ve just about competed my first month as a Monzo customer. Using pots and being more aware of where/how I am spending has helped me enormously. Usually at this point before payday I am counting the pennies despite a well paid job, but this month, I am still in credit of around £400 with a reduced balance on the credit card.
Thanks Monzo!
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I am more aware of what I do with the money I don’t spend every month now. I give myself a spending limit, transferred over to my Monzo, and then at the end of the month what is left over now goes into a Pot instead of just being added to the next month’s spending money.
I do check the analytics, but only make note of big anomalies (for example, too much spend on eating out or entertainment (which I put all drinking activities into)).
Absolutely. It works beautifully for my needs and I’m definitely more aware of my spending and have been adjusting accordingly. My Natwest account has been a source of frustration for many years and I only wish Monzo existed 10 years ago! But everything in its own time. Looking forward to more features and services like Joint accounts etc.
It hasn’t because it still lacks second accounts so it’s just used for topping up disposable spending. And it’s has less of that since starling arrived.
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I still don’t use Monzo to it’s full potential as I’m currently getting rewards on Amex, but when I do use it I realise how much I spend on low cost items such as coffee and sandwiches etc.
These all add up quickly and when using the Amex card I don’t notice it adding up in the same way as the data isn’t as easy to view.
It would be interesting if Monzo could be proactive and randomly enlighten you with reports in your feed as to “What % of your expenditure is on items under a certain value”.
I plan to eventually use Monzo as my main account and switch away from Lloyds once CASS is live, along with sorting out a few other niggles such as Monzo automatically re-attempting to pay Direct Debits.
@cookywook Just out of interest are we any closer to a system of being able to pay cash into Monzo? Not that it’s a dealbreaker for me, as I generally try to stay away from it! But always handy. I know it was previously talked about.
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Hi Jack! Cash deposits aren’t currently on our roadmap, but we’re aware that it’s something to consider as the current account fully launches.
We’ve been discussing various options here.
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Somehow I don’t think monzo’s twitter people have linked to the best part of the thread (from Monzo’s persepecitve):
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Just seen this! My bad (getting used to how Discouse linking works).
I’ll leave it up, in the spirit of transparency.
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Know I’m speaking as a Monzo employee here, but I was a customer for a year before I joined the company in October 2017 
The instant notifications forced me to face my bad spending habits head on. I used to ignore my bank statements and then cringe when I finally checked my balance - nothing’s made more difference than the visibility Monzo’s given to me.
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I know this is my own thread, but I thought I’d share one of my own observations.
I’ve been persistent enough to get a solid number of my friends onto Monzo, which is great for just sending money for the odd coffee and that. But it really shines when it comes to splitting the bill at restaurants.
BEFORE:
Everyone figures out what they owe. Awkward maths ensues. Poor waiter has to accept seven credit cards being thrust at them. Everyone has a bad time.
NOW:
Everyone figures out what they owe. Everyone pings it over to a designated bill-payer. Bill payer gets the money and pays for everyone. Everyone is happy.
It’s a small thing, but as someone who gets anxious with the whole bill-paying process, it’s made my life significantly happier
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