New Year New Money

<collaborative post> Now when it comes to New Year resolutions I am not great fan. It’s a bit of a fad isn’t it. Peoples new years resolutions are normally predictable such as start back to the gym, loose weight, stop smoking or heaven forbid stop eating cake (whoever would?!).

But one resolution I am making an aim for this year is saving more or spending less. Whatever happens easier.

Whether you’re saving money for a new car, a new house or simply to pay off some debt you already have most of the principles stay the same.

Some of my best tips are:

1. Knowledge is power. Write every regular spending down or create a spreadsheet of all your regular payments and direct debits. Work out your cost of living per month from this. Your mortgage, rates, bills, food costs etc. How much disposable income does this leave you? You then need to save a portion of this. There are lots of websites that offer budgeting templates for excel such as this one.
2. Are you still left with extra money at the end of the month the day before pay day? If you’re lucky enough that you are move every pound of that into a savings account. Don’t splurge it on something just because it is left over. Roll any unspent money straight into your savings account. It soon adds up even if you only have a few months like this a year.
3. Am I paying for something I don’t even use? You’d be surprised at how many couples BOTH have an Amazon Prime account etc paying double on what they could if only one of them had it.
4. Move credit card debt to 0% balance transfer credit cards. There’s always offers on. Look for the longest deal at the lowest fee to move the money. You’ll need to work this out smartly as it might cost a little more to move the money on one but the 0% rate could be double as long. Think smart. If you have loans etc you might want to look at debt consolidation services. You can view more here.
5. Cook extra food at dinner time and box it up for lunch the next day. Stop buying lunches at work, save that treat to Fridays and try and do it only once or twice a week instead of every day. Those £5 and £10 add up in the course of a month it can be over £100 for some people! But the extra food from the dinner before is essentially free as you were cooking it anyway.
6. Haggle Haggle Haggle. Ring your internet or tv provider and ask them for a deal, threaten to leave or move to another provider. If they wont reduce your bill actually do look at moving. Some providers offer far better deals if you haven’t changed your deal in a long time you might be surprised at how cheap deals for new customers are!
7. Save those pennies. If you get something on offer or save money on something put the difference away into your savings account. If you were going to buy it at the original price anyway then the savings you’ve made on it are free money you wouldn’t have had anyway. Save it away!
8. Money Saving Expert website is your friend. It is alwsys updated with new advise and offers lots of templates and guides on how to save money. You can find their budget planning section here.

Title image – Photo by Pixabay from Pexels