Set up a spreadsheet that totals your savings accounts at the top.
Next, set up a column that lists each month, and along the top row, lists each of your savings areas & how much per month you need to save for each of them.

Then, every month, update your savings accounts balances, and increase your different savings areas by the appropriate amounts. The total of your accounts and the total of all your savings areas should match (you’ll need a “slush fund” for the months when you can save more or less than you need to save). Say you want to spend $1100 every Christmas – every month add $100 to the Christmas column (and put that money in a savings account!), then in January, transfer $1100 out of your savings account to your chequing to pay off the VISA, and put a $-1100 entry in the Christmas column.

You don’t have to feel bad about spending your savings because this was your plan. Also, this is great for “borrowing” from your savings. Say you saved $2000 for new furniture, but actually spent $2500. You can borrow from other savings areas by showing your furniture saving balance as -$500, and keep increasing the other amounts as normal. Once you pay off that $-500 debt, your other savings amounts will still be where they should have been.

Don’t forget columns for emergency cash, vehicle insurance deposit, property taxes (if you pay those directly), RRSP savings, etc.

I only spend, on average, about $40 a month in cash. All my other purchases I put on my one main credit card (for airmiles and to make tracking my spending simple.) I pay the credit card off in full each month. I have a second credit card which is used strictly for online purchases and not often. My car loan is on my line of credit so I like to make two pmts on it each month but when I make the pmts varies from month to month so I don’t want to set up an auto pmt for it.

Internet, cell phone, gym membership, long distance, etc. automatically charge my credit card, and I get 1% cash back.

Credit cards automatically pull the full balance payment from my HELOC (which always has a credit balance so I never pay interest).

All of my insurances, condo fees, electricity, property taxes, emergency fund, planned spending, RRSPs, etc. automatically pull from my HELOC (which again, is always in credit balance so I never pay interest).

My paycheque is autodeposited onto that same HELOC to perpetually maintain the credit balance (so I never pay interest – noticing a pattern? LOL).

I could never look at my accounts, and as long as I am working and tracking my spending, everything gets paid on time 100% of the time without paying interest. LOVES IT!!

PS – my planned spending is in a high interest savings account with Ally which is nearly a 1% higher than ING – anyone else switch to them?

Now that I’m trying to get myself out of debt, I really enjoy moving the money around myself. I’m actually a little obsessed about planning where the money is going and seeing the balances go up (in savings) and down (in debt), haha.

Now, the only things that are automatically deducted are my car insurance, RRSP, LOC payment, and bank fees. I got them all moved to the day after my paydays (1st and 16th) so that the money is always there and I know exactly when it’s coming out.

I’m a bookkeeper by nature (and profession), so I rather enjoy paying my bills manually. I also keep track of every cent in Quicken, and keep a running Excel budget. It’s fun!

I also write post-dated cheques for my daughter’s daycare and my church donations. It’s not exactly automatic, but it does save me having to think about it each month. I sit down and write them all up once, and then I’m good for the year.