Whether you’re outright stuck with no money at the end of each month, or you’re trying your best to be financially savvy, but still have no savings, I am here to help. You don’t have to have a boring life or scrimp on the things you love when you want to save money. You just have to be smart and understand that sometimes you might need finance help or tips to guide you on your way. Look, life can be expensive! But memorable experiences don’t have to be. Once you plan and budget the life you want, you can have your cake and eat it too.
I am not a financial advisor, I repeat I am not a financial advisor! I am just sharing my tips on how I’ve been able to successfully manage my money and achieve my goals. If can do it, so can you. I wasn’t born wealthy, and I didnt have a background in finance. I’ve been lucky to learn a lot along the way, and fell into a financy type career by pure chance. We all have room to grow and improve upon ourselves. Its never too late. You too can follow these finance help tips to make you better with your money starting from today.
1. Make a Budget and Follow it.
I can almost hear your eyes rolling into the back of your head, with the thoughts of setting yourself a budget! But don’t fret, it doesn’t need to be 1,000 rows long, or take you hours to make. You can do a simple budget in an excel file, split out into your Needs, Wants and Savings every month. Once you have made a plan, I really recommend you do a deep dive into what you spent your money on in the last month. Once you see how much you have actually spent, naturally you will be more conscious on how to improve upon it. You may be spending HUNDREDS each month on mediocre takeaway food when you do this small exercise, and realise that this money would be best suited in a high interest savings account, rather than just sitting in your stomach!
2.Avoid Lifestyle Inflation & Don’t keep up with the Joneses.
Most people fall into this category, as naturally when we earn more money, we tend to spend more. Nicer cars, bigger houses, more clothes, more shoes… Ask yourself, do you really need it all? Is it worth financing a new car, on a high interest rate, just to show off? Or you might just be doing it for no reason whatsoever, just subconsciously thinking that it’s what people do when they get bigger salaries. But you aren’t helping yourself. You should plan and budget to spend less than what you earn. And to save a large chunk of it for the future. Do you want to work until you’re 65? Or 75? Or would you prefer to plan ahead, and retire much much earlier. It is possible, you know. If you spend consciously now, you could have a much more comfortable life later on.
3. Make a Savings Goal for your Future Self.
You should always make a savings goal for yourself. Are you currently renting and want to buy a house one day? There’s your goal. Make it specific too. If you’re 21 for example, and want a house by 30 years old, at 10% deposit for a £200k home. You would need to save about £185 per month from now until then. See, once you make it into achievable bite size goals, it all seems so much more attainable. Help yourself by planning ahead and even imagine yourself in the future. What would you would want, and then work backwards on how to achieve it.
This works, believe me. As I was able to buy a 2 bed Cottage in the most expensive county in the UK, just by saving religiously every month and sticking to my plan. I was even able to travel to Bali, and Tokyo the same year too. Yes you read that right. I am not saying this to show off, but to highlight that it is possible with the right plan! Read my First Home Deposit Savings Tips Post here, on how you can achieve this too.
If you are seeking to buy a house in a few years, you can put these savings into a high yield interest account, or if you’re in the UK an ISA (an individuals savings account). These can often have a better interest rate than a standard savings account and it can be fixed for a few years so you can earn better Interest while you save. See this link on advice on ISAs and how they can help you get to your goal.
4. Always have a separate Rainy Day/ Emergency Fund.
We have all been there. An unfortunate car breakdown. A big vet bill. Or you need to drop a deposit for your new rental accommodation. As I said, life can be expensive, so the best finance help advice I can give is to always have an emergency fund on hand. This is a pot of money, that you can access easily, not locked into any fixed rate where you might get penalties for withdrawing it. You need to have at least 3 if not 6 months of your living expenses in this emergency savings account.
Unfortunately, we all knew someone who put on furlough or may have even lost their job lately. This is why it’s so important to have money available for these rainy days. This should always be separate from your savings pot, as mentioned above. This is purely for 100% emergencies only and not to be dipped into to fund your next holiday.
5. The 50/30/20 Rule.
You may have heard of this before, or you may have just glazed while someone mentioned it. However the 50/30/20 rule can help guide you to financial independence and freedom, so it’s worth trying it. But what does it all mean? Well, this stands for 50% of your salary to be spent on your Needs (accommodation, food, bills every month), 30% on your Wants (fun life things) and 20% on your Savings/Investments. I personally switch the last two around, and save at least 30% of my salary for my Goals. I suggest you do the same too once you get to grips with this initial rule. It will help you reach your dream home faster, or help you retire earlier. To me, that’s much better than spending an extra £50 a month on average avocado toast and coffee. But, it’s your choice.
6. Stick to a Meal Plan (Food can be expensive!)
Food. Our friend and our foe. Why do Brunches cost so much money? Don’t get me wrong, I love those bottomless brunches in London every now and again. Their hilarious and fun with the right group of people, and we shouldn’t have to cut them out completely. But, when you are ordering takeaway food at least 3 times a week, every week. Then I have to insist you STOP. Stop what you’re doing and put the phone down! You are not only harming your health at the end of the day, but you’re also harming your wallet. You should make a meal plan. Do a grocery shop, and stick to it instead. I guarantee and promise you that the food you can cook at home is ten times nicer than when we eat out.
Honestly, I’ve mastered the poached egg! And you can too. Learning how to cook isn’t as daunting as you may think, and there’s lots of free advice out there. I love this blog by a Qualified Dietician called Pick up Limes, she has great recipes and even a Youtube Account on how to make them- go check her out here.
I personally shop at Aldi, and spend about £60/week for two people for all our breakfasts, lunches and dinners. And snacks, did I mention snacks? This also includes not scrimping on fresh fruit like raspberries, cherries and even ‘fancier’ deli meats like Prosciutto and Pastrami. You can get your shop even cheaper than this if you’re just after the basics, which will really be beneficial if you are after finance help right now. If you would like to see how I meal plan on this budget, comment down below and I can take you on the journey with me in the next shop! Or you can Read my Grocery Shopping Tips Post here on how to spend Less but still have Delicious Food.
7. Pay off your Debt before Spending on your Wants.
This is a big rule to follow if you want Finance Help. Now, I am not a financial advisor, this is just my own view on how best to manage my money. But its important not to ignore your debt and don’t sit on it without making your repayments. This could be detrimental. The interest alone can sting you, and leave you with a massive amount to pay back. Firstly, if you have a lot of credit card debt, in the Thousands, consider combining onto one card with a lower interest rate. This will help you manage it better. Here is help on how you can do this.
You shouldn’t be dining out on expensive restaurants, or flying off to Costa Rica (we wish), if you are sitting on a massive credit card bill. Once you have your debt paid off in full, you can start doing these lavish things again, but only if you can afford them on your current pay in the first place.
8. Live below your Means
This finance help tip goes hand in hand with the previous one. You shouldn’t spend money on things you can’t afford. Someone Famous once said “If you can’t buy it twice, you can’t afford it.” And honestly, this pops into my head anytime I think about making a big purchase. Credit cards aren’t there to be used as free money. There are better credit cards of course such as 0% interest ones but remember even these have their faults. They are only set at 0% for a small period of time example 12 months, and after that if you don’t pay the balance off in full, you are left with a crazy high rates on top of what you borrowed. Don’t get stung! Be conscious of how you spend and only buy things you can afford.
For example, if possible buy your car with cash if you have the money rather than falling into financing it at a high rate with the dealer. Always try and live below your means though and ask yourself, do you even need a car? And if you do, try and research the best models, and buy an older version. New Cars depreciate really fast, and are often times a poor investment as they lose money quickly when you go to resell them.
Another example is if you want to buy something online spontaneously, like Clothes or Homeware bits, think about it for 24 hours before you buy it. This is a great rule I use, and honestly 9/10 times I never go back to buy it as I realize I don’t actually need or want it.
9. Pay into your Retirement Plan.
Pensions. Retirement Plans. Yawn. They can be dull, yes, I give you that. But that’s only because you may be thinking wrongly about it all. Such as “Why should I lose that money now, when I need it for living today!”. Yes I hear you, you will always want more money now. But what about when you’re 60, do you not think you will need it more then? The Answer is yes. Of course you will. Saving just a small amount every month now isn’t going to make a dent in your current lifestyle. Its just a drop in the ocean to help your future self. Often times your employer will match your pension contributions every month, which is FREE MONEY! Do you not like FREE MONEY?!! For a full breakdown of how this works, visit Martin Lewis’s Pension Insights page.
With the auto-enrolment in the UK, you will automatically be paying into your pension. Which is ,of course, brilliant, so why is this included in my finance help tips? That’s because you should check the maximum % your Employer can match. As you might have been automatically enrolled onto the lower end, rather than taking advantage of their max matching. One to look into with your Employer, the HR team can readily give you this info, no questions asked.
10. Do a Deep Clean of your Current Spending Habits.
You may have been paying £10 a month every month for the last 2 years, on that subscription service you never use. Or how about your other Direct Debits? Do you know exactly what you’re paying and are you on the best deal. Read my recent post here on How to easily save Hundreds on your Home Bills. For example, Life Insurance, you can renew this every year and find better rates. Same with Car Insurance, your No Claims Bonus or having a little dash cam can reduce your insurance costs substantially.
Do a deep dive! See what you’re spending your money on, and haggle or use comparison websites to get the same deal for less. This finance help tip will automatically find you more money each month to save or invest away instead. Opening your internet banking app now, to check your direct debits will literally take you 2 minutes. You might still have that Donkey Charity donation set up, that someone guilted you into getting a few years back…
These are the Top 10 Finance Help Tips I believe everyone should live by to make the most of their money and their lifestyle habits. If you have any other finance tips, add them into the comments section below- how do you save your money every month?
Thanks for reading,
The Spend & Save