This episode of the Your Recipe for Financial Success podcast was published on 30th July 2020. You can listen again by heading to our Episodes page, or on your favourite podcast player.

In this episode, the team slice up and share their favourite budgeting tips, sprinkled with an anecdote or two. Which ideas are you going to pour into your mixing bowl?

Episode Highlights

Top 5 Budgeting Tips

1. Put money into your savings account on the day you are paid, or just after.
2. Putting money aside at the beginning of the month means you can’t accidentally spend the money you were supposed to save!
3. Look back over your bank statements to see exactly where your money goes.
4. What do all your transactions relate to and did you really need to make them all?
5. Check your direct debits.
6. If you have money going out monthly but you don’t know what it’s for, or if you are paying a subscription for something you no longer use, cancel them!
7.  Set up a separate account for your bills.
8. This is especially handy if you are living with your partner. You can both put money in for bills, rent and food whilst keeping your own money for personal bills and spending separate. Pay into your joint account when you get paid so you know the monthly outgoings are covered.
9. Check to see if your bank account has a ‘save the change’ feature.
10. Some accounts will allow you to round up your transactions to the nearest whole pound by saving the extra pennies.

So, money bakers, hopefully our 5 top tips for budgeting have given you a little food for thought. There could be an ingredient in there which you will take away and put into practice, or maybe you already put in to practice some of our ideas, in which case – good for you!

Bonus Tips

• Take on the penny challenge.
• On day one you save 1p, on day two you save 2p on day three its 3p, day four is 4p, and so on, so forth. By the last day of the year you will save £3.65. If you stick to this pattern every day you should have £667.95 saved up – not bad, hey?
• Don’t pay full price.
• If you are looking to buy yourself something new, try to avoid paying full price. Check for discount codes and use cashback websites when ordering online.
• Save your coins.
• Fill a good old fashioned money box with coins and see how much it can hold.
• Download apps like Emma, Yolt and Money Dashboard to keep track of your money.
• They are really useful for keeping tabs on your cash by seeing all of your accounts in one place, keeping on track with your savings and avoiding overdrafts, for example.

If you have any other tips or tricks for budgeting and saving you would like to share, why not head to our Facebook page and join the discussion?

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