I mostly just have two accounts: a private and a shared account.
The shared account is very simple: Every month me and my boyfriend tops it up to 5000 USD, we have a debit card to it each, and all shared expenses including rent come out of this account. By topping it off to a high number like this, we ensure we wont run out within a month, and we just use the debit card for things we need.
For my private stuff I have a credit card that I pay everything with, and I've set it up to be automatically paid off at the end of each month.
Every so often I write the expenses we've had into gnucash so I can see how much we're spending, but I don't budget in advance.
I also have a savings account with some emergency money, but I'm a poor student so I don't really have money to invest or for long term savings.
5000 USD seems high to me as well for a student and you don't know what his girlfiend does. It does not really matter how high that amount as long it can cover unexpected expenses.
When I was a student, I made sure I always had at least 1000 EUR on my account, basically treating the 1000 as 0. I cannot remember ever running into debt this way.
The shared account is very simple: Every month me and my boyfriend tops it up to 5000 USD, we have a debit card to it each, and all shared expenses including rent come out of this account. By topping it off to a high number like this, we ensure we wont run out within a month, and we just use the debit card for things we need.
For my private stuff I have a credit card that I pay everything with, and I've set it up to be automatically paid off at the end of each month.
Every so often I write the expenses we've had into gnucash so I can see how much we're spending, but I don't budget in advance.
I also have a savings account with some emergency money, but I'm a poor student so I don't really have money to invest or for long term savings.