Just curious to hear from folks around here how you guys strategise your savings?
I’ve gotten out of the habit of saving and really need to get back on it. I’m hoping a discussion can help reignite the bug and help get me back in the mindset!
Hoping this might incidenlty be useful to others too! 
Recently juggled mine around
Got some in Monzo, some in Chase (as a back up current account incase Monzo start to hate me), some in Chip, and a bit in premium bonds.
I’m thinking of taking advantage of “friction” savings for myself. The Atom Rewards and Nationwide accounts appeal for that
Atom for the bulk as thats more harsh when it comes to taking the money out. Then thinking of using the Nationwide one as that retains the savings rate as long as you only take money out a maximum of 3 times in the year
TL;DR Think of every non essential purchase as stopping your future self from having financial independence.
I used to do it differently. Each month putting everything into a monzo pot, leaving 20 quid in the main account and bills in bills.
The physical effort of having to transfer money out of the pot into the account each and every time stopped me from impulse spending.
Now, each and every month I put a fixed amount on payday into my investments, SIPP and savings account. In my mind, it’s already “spent” and therefore I can’t spend it again.
This sounds like a really good strategy. Although for me I think it would be better to put the money away in an entirely different bank. The mess/hassle of transferring between banks would be a huge friction for me!
Although you have reminded me that since moving back to Monzo I haven’t actually used the pots/salary sorted at all…
Possibly missing a trick there
No hassle. The SIPP is a standing order, as is the Investment. The saving is with my main bank, so that’s a two second transfer.
Good luck with the saving, once you start it becomes enjoyable saving as much as you can.
Sorry I missed the quotation of the first part of your reply. The bit about moving everything out of the main account and into a pot so that you have a limited budget and topping up requires effort
Pay off your debts first. I’ll get to savings another day…
This flips. Think of prioritising your future as denying your current self from having any sort of fun or stability.
That’s kind of the point. It really helped me think “do I really need this”.
I think having the spending account be a separate account to the one where the bulk of bills, salary etc sits would be great way of forcing myself into thinking about what is a want and what is a need
This is counter to what I need to be doing if I’m going to buy a flat anytime soon especially as I chose the non-lucrative field of academia… 
Thinking back through the last few years one of the best set ups I had was when V-gin was the top game in town for savings. Everything savings related was in there and day-to-day/bills was in NatWest with a little bit of savings in a digital regular saver.
Which is what I’m hoping to acheive with a Monzo, nationwide, Atom set up now
I think that’s key, finding what works for you. Cool to see how others do it though. I used to also split accounts and have one for bills, one for day to day.
Now it all goes in the same pot and I spend within reason. What’s better, that Starbucks each day or home made coffee and money in savings? I know what I’d personally do.
Costa
Seriously though, if you’re with Octopus Energy, and quick enough at the start of the week, you can claim a free coffee from Caffe Nero or Greggs.
Use homemade coffee rest of the week 
In a previous job I used to get a free coffee perk. Each time I’d go to collect I’d present the loyalty QR code first which meant after six free coffees I’d get a seventh one also for free.
Worked pretty well till the shop clocked what I was doing and made me scan the free coffee perk first before refusing to let me claim that on the loyalty app.
I have stopped thinking about using credit cards as “borrowing money from a bank/lender” and now think of it as “borrowing money from myself in the future”
I have split across accounts, and I always send across slightly more than I need so for example if I need £120 to pay my subscriptions I transfer £150 so at the end of the month I have £30 left which I then put into a saving account.
I use different banks to replace Monzo pots and the friction of having to move money between accounts is real.
All my direct debits are set to come out on the 1st, this includes money in to my S&S ISA.
I work out the total for all my yearly bills, add on 3% for inflation then split that in to 12 monthly payments (rounded up to nearest pound) and set up a standing order in to a regular saver.
At the start of the next year I move that in to a savings account (highest interest with instant/easy access) to pay off that years bills and open a new regular saver for the next years.
It keeps my monthly outgoings pretty much the same instead of having some months with nothing and some with multiple large bills.
Then whatever is left over goes in to somewhere like Starling easy saver, all other unplanned spending goes on a credit card and at the end of the month after I pay off the credit card I split whatever is left between saving for larger purchases (holidays, new phone etc), extra payment to S&S ISA and overpay the mortgage.
I already have a 6 month emergency fund in a cash ISA, while I was building that up the leftover money at the end of the month went there instead of the S&S ISA and mortgage over payments.