[creepydata]

This is where different accounts with automatic direct deposit really shines. My paycheck is directed several different ways - I have a household bills account, a savings account, and a daily spend account. My paycheck gets allocated to each account automatically. No thinking required, if it's in my daily spend account it's been allocated for spending.

Once the money is in my savings account I do choose to reallocate the extra (beyond emergency fund) to long term investments.

[jakubgarfield]

Nice approach – we don't separate between the that many accounts and it is harder to automatically track the spendings afterwards.

[creepydata]

The other thing is if you put all your bill money in a separate account automatically you don't even really feel like you're paying bills psychologically, you just get used to the money in your spending account being the only money you have. This is especially good with larger less frequent bills, just amortized them per paycheck. For example, I usually use around three tanks of oil a year. The oil bill comes frequently in the winter but only once in the summer (my water is heated with oil). the oil is amortized to ~$60 a paycheck. That $60 goes directly from my paycheck into the "bills account" every pay and I never worry about the oil bill, when it comes I pay it from the already allocated bills account.

It's also impossible to go over budget without noticing, you'd have to take the difference out of the savings account. If your budget is wrong you'll notice immediately.

That's just my approach though, and it works for me. Other people may have different methods that work for them.