It’s hard to keep watch of your monthly budget. There are always nights out to be had, birthdays to buy for and shopping to be done. All of which makes it hard to keep within your budget each month.
Feeling the pinch? Then these money tips might just be what you need to rescue your bank balance.
1. Ditch the expensive lunches!
It might be nice to nip to Pret for lunch everyday but you’ll waste the guts of £7 a day on your lunch. Which is enough to buy the ingredients for an entire week of packed lunches.
2. Use cash not card.
One great way to save your budget is to use cash for purchases. When we put purchases on your card you tend to spend more because you don’t really feel like you’re spending money.
3. Want to buy something? Wait a few days.
That new pair of shoes you’ll simply die without? Well think of your budget. Wait a few days as a ‘cooling off’ period. It’s likely you’ll realise that you don’t really need those shoes after-all.
4. Cancel that TV package.
It’s shocking to think that people can pay around £80-£100 on their TV package every month. Do you really need that much television? Your budget would certainly appreciate you cancelling. If you can’t cancel it entirely at least try to reduce your package and monthly bill.
5. Lower your heating.
So many of us keep our homes much warmer than they actually need to be. Or, worse, leave the heating on when they’re outside the house. Try to be sensible with your heating and you’ll see your bill going down.
6. Get rid of those vices.
How much of your monthly budget do you spend on vices like smoking or gambling? Things like smoking really add-up over the months. You might just find that you’re spending around £2000 a year on cigarettes. That could be the price of a holiday.
7. Use a budgeting app.
If you have a smartphone it’s very easy to get a budget app that will let you keep an eye on where all your money goes. This is is very useful as you might not realise you’re spending too much money on one area i.e. food shopping. Once you know the problem then you can attempt to fix it.
8. Keep an eye on your back account.
It’s amazing the amount of charges you can still be getting without realising. In particular look out for phone insurance direct debits that you thought you had cancelled months ago.
