I named the new account "Bills Only." Not clever, but I wanted the app to yell at me a little every time I opened it. It's my second checking account at the credit union I moved to in January, and as of this week, it holds $400 and has one job.
I'm moving into my studio in Evanston on June 1. Rent is $1,295 a month. For the first time in my life, I'll have a fixed bill that is almost half my take-home pay, and I don't want it sharing a balance with my grocery money.
Why two accounts
In Rogers Park, my rent and my spending came out of the same checking account. In theory I knew my rent was coming. In practice, the balance looked like money I had, and some months I spent part of the rent on takeout and covered the gap with my credit card. That's most of how I ended up with $2,350 on cards at 27.24%.
The fix isn't more willpower. It's making the rent money invisible to everyday me. With two accounts, the debit card I carry is only linked to the spending account. The bills account has no card at all. If the money is in there, it's spoken for.
Opening the second account took five minutes in the app. No credit check, no fee, same membership.
What goes where
Every bill with a fixed amount, or close to fixed, comes out of Bills Only. Here's the monthly list once I've moved:
- Rent: $1,295
- Parking spot behind the building: $50
- Student loans: $550 (down from $800 once I move)
- Car insurance on my own policy: $131
- Internet: $55
- Electric, estimated: $38
- My phone line to my parents: $35
- Renters insurance: $14
That adds up to $2,168 a month. My take-home after the March raise is $1,332 per paycheck, paid every other Friday. So I split each paycheck at the source: $1,084 goes straight to Bills Only through direct deposit, and the rest goes to my everyday account. Two paychecks a month cover the bills exactly.
The everyday account handles groceries, gas for the car, eating out, toiletries, gifts and anything I put on my card. It also gets my pet-sitting money, about $250 a month, and it sends the automatic $250 to my emergency fund each month.
Twice a year, there's a month with three paychecks. In those months I'll send the third check entirely to the everyday account. That's my breathing room for things like a car repair or holiday gifts, without touching the emergency fund.
How much buffer I keep
In Bills Only, I keep a $400 buffer that never gets spent. The electric bill will be higher in July if I end up buying a window air conditioner, and estimates are just estimates. The $400 means a high bill or a paycheck that lands a day late doesn't bounce anything.
In my everyday account, I keep a $300 floor that I treat as zero. If my balance hits $300, I stop spending for fun until the next payday. I've written it on the first page of my planner so I can't pretend I forgot.
Since everything has been on autopay since November, each bill just needs its payment method switched to Bills Only. I'm doing that over the next two weeks, one per night, and checking each one off. The first rent payment from this account will be July 1, since the first month's rent and the security deposit come out of my move fund at the lease signing.
I'm not making a separate account for every category. I tried that idea for about a day and had six accounts in the club sheet before I stopped. Two is enough. One account for things that will happen no matter what, one for things I get to decide.
Rent at $1,295 is about 45% of my take-home, which is high. I know that. I'll explain my reasons in my first apartment budget post. The short version is the location, the included heat and the fact that I'm going to be careful. This account is part of being careful.
My brother graduates next weekend. I asked Nolan if he wanted the setup instructions for when he starts his job this summer. He said "maybe," which, from a 22-year-old, is basically a yes.
