this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2025
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Open an account for rent and other known monthly expenses put 25% of that total from each check(or 50% if paid 2x a month). For utilities that are variable use an average of the 5 highest bills you gotten for each account. direct deposit some amount into a account for emergency savings. And the rest to your main account. NEVER steal from your bills account. You can add an amount for fun money as well.
That would be a great idea if I had any discernable savings. I expect I need at least half a month of money in my bills account to balance everything out, for those weeks that I am paid less than what I need to pay for bills.
That's the point of setting up the bills account. If you deposit directly to it each check the amount you need based on how many checks you get. You won't have to worry about finding your bills money when they are due and you'll know how much you have to spend on other stuff because bills are already accounted for. If paid weekly put 25% of your total bills(rent, phone, Internet, gas, electric water ect.). For easy math let's say total bills are $1600 a month you'd but $400 each pay check into the account ideally using direct deposit so it's automatic. If paid every 2 weeks $800 a check. For usage based bills (water electric ect put enough for worst case bills in each month) over time you'll build up extra money but leave it alone until you have at least 3 months extra in the account ( it could save your ass some day).
Let's say your take home is $580 a week $400 to bill which leaves you with $180 a week for food and gas and fun. Seems pretty shitty and I'd recommend finding a cheaper place to live or get a roommate if possible in this scenario but at least you can clearly see how much you can actually spend while your bills are already accounted for. Is still recommend taking another $30 out leaving $150 for food and gas and put it directly into a savings account. Or split it $20(emergency fund) $10(fun stuff).
Don't buy fun stuff (games, drugs, alcohol, movies, eating out) unless you can cover it from fun stuff account.
Emergency fund is for car repairs medical bills loss of income not a new TV or vacation.
If you get a raise 90% of the new take home should go to 80/20 split emergency/ fun stuff. If you can get at least 3 months of income (6 months would be better) saved in your emergency fund you can re-allocate some of it to food /gas day to day account and fun stuff account but only do that if you need to save your sanity, because in my experience every time you feel like you're making progress some big bill will come along and wipe it out.
This all sounds great until you realize that you need time to run up to this, or a modicum of savings in order to make it happen.
Your numbers are optimistic at best. My bills vary and they're more than 70% of my income (roughly).
It's more efficient to deposit my money into a bill payment account, then take out what I can spend from that.
Guess what I already do?
Guess how much "spend" I have, per week, that needs to cover all of my gas, food, and everything else? I'm not even saving a dollar, and my available money per week is around $200.
That seems great until you realize that I'm Canadian and it's Canadian dollars, and $200 CAD is around $150 USD.
I'm employed, full time, in a specialized field, and I can spend $100 USD a week on food because I need the extra $50 for incidentals and gas.
I don't need a budget. I have a budget. I need a raise.
Ask for a raise. One thing that might help you stretch your money a bit further is utilizing a food pantry or food bank. Not sure if they are as common in Canada.
I was only off by $30 in my scenario compared to your situation. Having multiple accounts and using direct deposit to help divide your budget upfront just makes it easier.
I'm lucky that money isn't a major concern for me at this point in my life, but earlier in my career when my ex-gf had a significant amount of credit card debt doing our budget this way really helped and got her to be debt free.
I'm not sure why you think my scenario requires savings to start, If you're already paying all your bills. This is just a tool to help manage your budget.