Saving Tips & Budgeting | Finance

Savings and budgeting are important to ensure that you do not find yourself in financial difficulties, here are some things to consider;

  1. Write down a list of all your income and expenditure and list the times of the month that they come into and out of your account. Look as previous months figures to gain a fuller understanding of your activity (it is possible to forget about social spend)
  2. Add into this budget a contingency for unexpected costs (eg. Car repairs) and seasonal costs (holidays, birthdays, Christmas), and plan to save an amount of money each month too.
  3. Look at the result, are you spending more than you receive, then its time to look at your budget for saving opportunities. Continuing to overspend will in time create financial pressures.
  4. Continually track your expenditure, are you spending too much on eating out, clothes shopping; only when you look at expenditure as whole do you really see the full impact.

How can you reduce expenditure;

  1. List your expenditure items from highest to lowest and start at the top
  2. Review any expenditure that has interest applied (store cards), clear these first with any disposable income.
  3. Look at price comparison sites for costs of insurances, utilities, mortgages (if you are not already in a fixed term deal)
  4. Do you really need all those subscription services, are you really getting value for money?
  5. Speak to your provider to see if there are better deals available
  6. Shop around, buy from charity shops, don’t be focussed on brands.
  7. Use the Web – there is host of great advice (www.moneysavingexpert.com)
  8. Use online budget calculators or create your own (Excel), there is nothing like a visual representation of your finances to focus the mind.
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