This is brilliant, I have a quiet weekend so I’ll trawl through my bank statements and see how much I’m spending and where the money’s going. Thanks so much for replying to me, I’ll have a look at youtube too! Ive just had a payrise from work and want to be better with money and dealing with it. I feel like money is sometimes a taboo subject and not many people will speak about it xThe first thing is to sit down and write down all your expenses. Review your last few months bank/credit card statements to see where your money has gone. Group them together in categories so for example I have groceries, work snacks/food (for what I buy at lunch/breakfast at work), travel, clothing, toiletries, fun (can be books, cinema, etc). When you see that your money goes to those different places, you can start looking at where you can make small changes. I put a set amount each week into a separate bank account for me to spend and use whatever I need it for.
For example I saw most of my money was being spent at work on breakfasts. God I love a Pret croissant!! So I found easy fun recipes I could bulk cook and freeze for the mornings.
I will also have a look at annual expenses such as insurance, MOT, christmas, birthdays etc. Think ahead about what you will have to spend over the pay period.
Some people swear by the 50/30/20 budget. This is where you spend 50% of your after-tax pay on needs, 30% on wants, and 20% on savings or paying off debt.
There is lots of good advice on Money Saving Expert forum. I also found a lot through youtube videos. Mamafurfur is a popular account. There are lots of money bloggers/debt free journey community on instagram too. I enjoyed following people with a similar state of mind which helps me focus putting lots more to savings.
Well done! Saving does take dedication if it doesn’t come naturally to you. I really wish I had been told from a young age how important it is to put money into savings and be intentional with your money! I’d have not wasted as much of itI used to fritter money away on crap until I left my bank statement lying around
my fella had a fit about how much money I wasted on nothing
so I stopped buying crap and set myself a budget for each day-once it’s gone it’s gone-any left over goes into my savings
ive saved £420 since Christmas which doesn’t sound loads but it’s mine and I don’t touch it
Also if you've got a savings account dont put too much in their.
For example, dont put 300 a month in if you need to dip in and take some back out. Try 230.
As soon as you start dipping into your savings it goes down hill.
I couldn’t agree with this more!Also I would like to say that I used to have 1 bank account for everything! 1 bank account for wages, spending and saving and it worked! I used to save loads before when I was at uni albeit I had less expenses back then.
So I really think that you don't need lots of accounts or saving apps to save money. You can do it all from 1 bank account. The point is to not spend. It sounds silly but it all just comes down to not spending money.
Of course if you are really good at saving and budgeting then you can have lots of accounts for different purposes and monitor them. Some people are so good at budgeting and monitoring their finances and they can keep track of all accounts each month and save money!
Unfortunately I'm not so good at maths and accounts lol so I keep it simple for myself with just 2 bank accounts now. Do what works for you! If you can keep on top of different accounts then excellent do it! If you think you'll get lost then keep your life simple, keep 1 account.
I know people who have 2 accounts as 1 for saving and 1 for spending and still dip into savings each month. I know I have done this before lol.
It takes patience and resistance to spend those £££ on payday lol and it comes with practice. Remember we are all learning haha!
Me too! Something else that helped me get used to a budget is a regular saver account. You can put a certain amount away each month usually for 12 months. It helps me look forward to a big lump sum at the endFor savings I’ve got a Marcus by Goldman Sachs account. It’s free and the interest was really good (until recently!) but it’s a no frills account that I have a standing order setup for. I really rate it!
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