Jess* found managing her finances a nightmare for years until she discovered the money hack she now swears by. It has helped her save more than $12,000 in two years.

"It's the only thing that's worked for me," she told Mamamia. "I have always been so sh*t with money, had credit card debt and all sorts of stuff."

Then about two years ago, Jess switched up her payday routine. As someone who experiences ADHD, she says it's been a game-changer. 

"Once I changed it up… I actually got savings for the first time in my life," she said.

Jess says she used to always find it difficult to make sure she allocated enough money for all the expenses that came her way which, as a business owner and a single mum of three, were a lot.

Now, she knows exactly how much money she has to spend on every single category of spending because, well, she's set it up that way.

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Every week when Jess gets paid, she splits her money up into 15 different accounts meaning every possible expense is accounted for.

By doing so, Jess says she's been able to save over $12,000 for things like Christmas presents and holidays over the past two years – money that in the past would have been spent on random unnecessary expenses.

"I need to do this because of my ADHD. Otherwise, I'll spend it all" Jess says.

Jess makes the majority of her money from her stationery business. She also works as a wedding and funeral celebrant, does support work and receives parenting support payments which bring in some extra cash.

Every week she pays herself a weekly pay check of $1500 from her business account, which gets divided between her 15 accounts, her mortgage and an investment account. Here is exactly what that looks like at the moment.

Jess' payday breakdown:

Mortgage: "My minimum mortgage payment is $295 a week and I transfer $340, so I'm automatically putting extra onto that," Jess, who lives in Hobart, Tasmania, told Mamamia. "Sometimes I transfer another $65 onto the mortgage, so I'm paying more than I have to."

Bills: "Around $400 a week goes straight into bills and that covers my power bill, my water bill, subscriptions, gym and rates. The kids' pocket money also comes out of this account."

Groceries: "I put $300 a week into the groceries account. But I've really noticed lately that that's actually not enough. I have two teenagers and a 10-year-old boy, and they just eat constantly and groceries have gone up so much so I budget 300 a week but I am probably dipping into my own money a bit to top that up."

Petrol: "$100 a week." (This amount has recently gone up $60 due to current fuel prices.)

Christmas: "$20 a week."

Kids' Birthdays: "$10 a week goes into this fund for the kids' birthday presents."

Gifts: "$15 a week, which covers friends' birthdays, my partner's birthdays etc. For example, if I want to send someone a bunch of flowers or for my mum on Mother's Day."

Emergency: "I transfer $32 a week here and this goes onto the mortgage as extra emergency funds. For example, I had a flood a few years ago and the insurance excess was $1000."

Adventures: "$30 a week. This fund is for taking the kids out for dinner or if we go to play mini-golf or something like that."

Beauty & hair: "$28 a week. I worked out that that's exactly how much I spent on my waxing and haircuts.

Kids clothes and school: "$15 a week. I'm lucky that, as a single mum with a healthcare card, our public school fees are free, so it's more like uniforms and things like that."

Firewood: "Around $5 a week. I only need to buy firewood every couple of years, but I just randomly transfer money into that if I feel like I've got extra money. It's currently got about $200 in it."

Holiday account: "$40 a week. We're going to try and go to Thailand, but this is the five-year goal."

One account for each child (three in total): "$2 a week, each. The kids have each got an account, which is their savings account that they get their pocket money into. But then I've also got an account for each of them, which has like $2 a week going into that and that's for if they want to save up for something big."

Fun money: "About $150 a week. This covers coffees, a glass of wine with my friends and things like that. But I feel like it is quite a lot, so I try to transfer around $50 a week from my fun money into my Squirrel account."

Squirrel account: "Around $50 a week (give or take) for rainy day expenses. This is funded from my fun money account. The last time I emptied it was for a new armchair that was like $500."

Investments: Jess puts $10 a week into micro-investments.

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Organising her money this way has helped Jess keep on top of her finances and work towards bigger savings goals.

"I'm much more financially confident," Jess told Mamamia. 

"Obviously, being a single mum and self-employed is stressful because if the business goes badly I'm kind of screwed and I'm not on a huge income.

"But, I'm lucky because my mortgage is so low that I'm reasonably comfortable."

Feature image: Getty. Stock image used for illustrative purposes.

*Surname has been omitted for privacy reasons.