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It’s soo, so easy to spend money. In fact, it’s probably one of the easiest (and enjoyable) things to do. But spending too much can easily land you in a lot of trouble and leave your finances in less than ideal shape.
Thankfully, there’s some great techniques to help you rein in your spending. Here’s our favourite tips to help you cut back;
Work out the cost of something in hours
This is something that is quick to calculate and can really help you work out whether something is essential or just a nice to have. If you get paid £10 per hour and you want to buy something that costs £100, that’s over a day’s work, before taxes!
Do food shopping online
It’s all to easy to overspend at a supermarket, however, if you shop online, not only do you get a running total of the cost, but you can review your list before checking out and take off anything that you don’t really need. You could also set a routine of shopping once a week and nothing more; stick to this and you’ll be on your way!
Leave the plastic at home
If you don’t take out the means to buy something, then you can’t buy it! If you really want something you can always find it online at a later date, where it’ll probably be cheaper!
Only buy new things after selling old
This is one of our favourite ideas. Instead of going out and buying things willy nilly, sell things and then only allow yourself to buy new things with the money made from selling old things! It’s simple, means you don’t actually spend any ‘real money’ and it stops your house from getting cluttered.
Lists!
Use a shopping list whenever you go out to the shops and stick to it!
Rethink Your Debts
People tend to think that the money on their credit card is their money. It’s not! By thinking of your credit card as a debt card, it could change the way you use it dramatically.
Pay Yourself a ‘Spending Wage’
As soon as you get paid, arrange for your bank to sweep a set amount of money to a separate account with a separate debit card (You can open new accounts at your bank normally very easily). Allow yourself to then only spend money from this new account and keep your main account for bills and other expenditure. If you allow enough cash to remain in your main account so that there’s still some left after the bills have been paid, you’ll be amazed at how quickly this adds up. You could then use this cash to pay down some debts.
Have Budget Nights
It can actually be quite fun to challenge yourself and set a low budget for a night or event. For example, if you’re going down the pub, only take say £10 (and no cards!) and see if you can make it last the evening!
Packed Lunches
Cheap and healthy!.. Lunches down the pub or in the local cafe can soon become expensive. Save them for a treat perhaps once a week. Even shop bought sandwiches can soon add up – you might be surprised how much you can save by making your own.
Set a Daily Budget
You could set yourself a budget per day that you have to stick to. If you manage to spend less than your budget in a given day, then you can carry it over and have more to spend the next day or at the end of the week. This is another form of challenging yourself that can actually make you want to save more rather than spend, spend, spend!
Sleep on it Before Buying
Before buying anything of significant value that isn’t absolutely essential, go to bed and sleep on it. You may find you have a completely different outlook the next day… Or you’ll find you still want it, in which case, you can buy it Image may be NSFW.
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