Making sensible changes to your spending is more important than ever before. It seems harder than ever to save the pennies where you can right now. With so many of us feeling the financial pinch, saving money is a key focus for everyone. This post will explore some money saving tips and budgeting tricks that might help ease financial pressures a bit.
The cost of living continues to affect us all, but things can feel particularly tough if, like me, you’re on the self-employed end of the spectrum. When you’re not sure where your income might come from each month, you learn to adjust your spending.
That can be difficult against rapidly increasing living costs, so it’s helpful to evaluate where you can save a few pennies.
Money saving tips in the UK
Saving money is tough, there’s no denying it. I’m notoriously conscious about my finances, given that I’m self-employed and there are no guarantees when it comes to my income. It’s become a real mission in recent years to keep an eye on the pennies, especially with the cost of living skyrocketing in the UK.
Saving money, generating some side income and thrifting tips are always going to be relevant. If you’ve got any additional money saving tips to share, feel free to leave them in the comments below.
This post will look at more general money saving tips for people living in the UK. After that, I’ll focus on specific money-saving areas such as shopping, clothes and bills in the coming few posts. For me, saving and being thrifty isn’t about being mean or tight-fisted. It’s about preservation and being more sensible with our spending. I know I was wasting a lot of money on things I didn’t need before, so becoming more conscious of my spending can only be a good thing.
Simple money saving tips
These tips will hopefully give you a starting point for saving some cash. Some are more obvious than others, but with everything, exercise your judgment.
It’s also important to point out that if you’re struggling with your finances and need immediate help then you should get in touch with support services if you can. In the UK, these include the Money Advice Service, a statutory body that can assist with issues around debt and any other kind of financial hardship.
Step 1: Do an inventory
Your first action should be to evaluate your current financial status. Try to ask yourself some questions about how much you’re currently spending, and on what. Grab a pen and paper and write out a monthly inventory.
If you’ve ever had to go through the tedious process of doing a mortgage application, you can replicate something similar to that. You don’t need to go into the nuts and bolts down to the last pack of sweets you bought, but if it helps you gauge your overall monthly spending, try and round out your weekly purchases.
Once you’ve done that, examine your list. After you’ve accounted for the non-negotiables like bills, what are you regularly buying that you don’t need? There are bound to be certain things in there that could be trimmed out of the equation.
Sort those items into an inventory of ‘additional spending’ and you’ve now got a starting point for ideas of where cuts could be made.
Step 2: Define the non-negotiables
How non-negotiable are your non-negotiables? For example, your mortgage payment is definitely a non-negotiable (until renewal at least), but what about those bills? At the rate of sounding like Martin Lewis, there are usually ways you can maybe drive some of the costs of your bills down.
Phone and broadband providers hate it when you threaten to leave them, so don’t be afraid to get in touch and say you’re not happy with the amount you’re paying, and ask if there’s anything they can do to help.
You don’t even have to make up excuses either. Once, I simply told mine that I wasn’t happy paying £70 a month for my TV, broadband and a phone I don’t even use. That got them to drop my bill down to just under £40 a month and gave me an upgrade on all my services. You may need to do some haggling, but it’s worth a try.
Rinse and repeat this technique with your gas and electricity providers and remember not to be shy – you’ll never know if you don’t ask.
Step 3: Evaluate your resources
Next, you need to assess your current income. Be realistic. What have you got in the pot? How much money is regularly coming in, and how well are you using your financial resources? Log into your dreaded online banking and cancel a few Direct Debits that you could live without.
Netflix? Now TV? Phone contract? All of these things are additional luxuries, not necessities. Of course, I’m not saying you need to cut off all sources of fun in your life, but just have a look to see where you could perhaps make some sacrifices. For example, do you need a phone contract that’s squeezing £30+ a month out of you? Maybe you could haggle that down too, or at the very least, explore other options.
It’s not a modern move, I know, but I don’t have a phone contract. I ‘m a Pay As You Go
Step 4: Make a plan
Now you’ve got more of a handle on your income and expenditure, you can think more frugally. Grab a pen and paper back out and create a plan for the month ahead. If you’ve worked out what you’re spending, where you’re spending it and how you could make some savings, it’s time to plan forward.
See if you can make substitutions in your spending habits that are sustainable. By that, I mean don’t set yourself unrealistic goals that you can’t meet. Start small, by removing one of your excess expenditures and see how you get on. From there, you can always make further adjustments if you want to.
Try something achievable like one takeaway-free week to start with and see how you find it. With a plan in hand, you’ll be able to stick to things more consistently.
Step 5: See the money
You need to literally see it. Any money that you save, substitute or don’t spend, put into a jar. I’m a big believer in the power of actually seeing tangible results. If you can see the cash you would have wasted mount up in front of your eyes, you’ll have the motivation to keep going. The satisfaction of having a jar full of cash is also pretty amazing as well.
Once you’ve accumulated some cash at the end of the month, put it into a new savings account and leave it alone. Before you know it, you’ll have a small rainy day fund sitting there thanks to the thrifting efforts you’re making.
Step 6: Research alternatives
It’s important to regularly scan the market for money saving opportunities. Can you switch supermarkets to lower your weekly food spend? Are the petrol stations near you all priced similarly, or can you make savings elsewhere?
Charity shops can be a fantastic resource for clothes, household items and books – when was the last time you used one? Using a marketplace for sustainable second-hand clothing or goods can help you save more money than you’d think. Plus, you’re helping the planet.
There are lots more community-focused projects to get involved with as well, such as local food clubs that offer reduced-price food parcels. Take some time to research alternative ways of living more cost-effectively and you might be surprised at the savings you make.
Other money saving ideas
These are just the basic, most simple money saving tips to give us a starting point for a new, low-spend lifestyle. Don’t forget to share your money-saving ideas in the comments below. It’s not easy to make big changes when it comes to spending. However, small steps can add up, so it’s at least worth evaluating those creeping subscription costs from time to time.
If you’ve found this post useful then please give it a share or a pin on Pinterest. You might also enjoy this post on how to make some quick cash online if you’re in a pinch.
