Post in association with Tesco Bank

money saving hacks

 

A little while ago Tesco Bank asked me to put together some of my best budgeting hacks for their website. I came up with 10 really simple ways to save money – I was quite proud of myself. You can read them here, so please do go and have a look.

In the process of writing that piece though, I realised that I’m a bit of a natural in the old money saving department. Perhaps that first class economics degree really is good for something?? I thought I’d put together a few more ideas for you here.

Have a read and let me know if you have tried any of these and if they’ve made a difference to your household finances. I’d love to hear about any other tips you have too! View Post

Follow:

I’ve spent a lot of money over the last few months. Partly it has been the classic ‘I’m sad about breaking up so I’m going to buy some pretty wine glasses’ type of spending, but also there has been a fair amount of eating out because I don’t want to cook and trips to the cinema because I want to entertain Belle but also want to sit quietly in the dark for two hours.

Budgeting as a single parent generally is tricky on several levels.

Firstly there is the fact that you only have one income. Dur, obviously that’s tricky. You have to basically spend the same as if you were a two-parent family though, because you have to live in a proper house and have a TV licence and pay bills and what not.

Secondly, and the bit I actually find hardest, is that you end up solely responsible for entertainment. You can’t tag team the amusements so that one of you can have a nice lie down with a book while the other one attempts wholesome craft activities, and it all ends up feeling a bit intense. As a result, I often resort to the aforementioned cinema trips and other outings that dilute the feelings of responsibility a little but that inevitably cost money.

Thirdly, you basically have no time to do anything and the fact there is no one to research car insurance prices for you makes you cry, and then you have to play patience on your phone for a little while to calm down, get distracted and forget to pay the credit card bill. (This last bit could just be me.) View Post

Follow:

I was having a disagreement with Boyfriend the other day.

It all started because I have been taking part this month in the Great British Budget challenge and have been using Money Hub in the new YourWealth app to get my finances in order. If you are the sort of person that likes lists and charts then you’ll love Money Hub. You can test out all sorts of different scenarios to see the impact of certain financial decisions on your future wealth, as well as budgeting for the day to day stuff.

For example, based on my current earnings and level of spending it is projecting my net worth at retirement to be -£173,962.

*whistles casually* View Post

Follow:

Have you ever thought about how being in a relationship can save you money?

I’ve been taking part in the Great British Budget challenge this month, so have been forced to think a lot about cashflow, and it has struck me how unfair life can be to single people sometimes, especially single parents.

When you’re young and child free it’s a bit different; you can simply share a house with friends, split the cost of all the beer and takeaway and generally have lots of fun. (I’ve never been an adult without children, but I’ve been led to believe this is how it works.) As a single parent though, it’s not as easy as simply finding a room mate – you need the same space and privacy as any two parent family, and yet somehow you have to find the money to pay for all the bills, toys and gin yourself. There is always the option of sending the kids up chimneys, but this does tend to be frowned upon nowadays.

Of course you could argue that a partner often just adds to your costs, insisting on meat with every meal rather than cereals and making you feel like you should do things in the evening other than just watch back-to-back Jonathan Creek, but overall surely the financial impact of a partner should be a positive one? (I say this with an air of hopeful optimism, having been in a relationship in the past that somehow always left me with less money than when I started.)

What are your top tips for saving money as a single parent? Are there any things that you find are actually cheaper when you’re single?

Find out more about cheap electricity suppliers.

Disclosure: this is a sponsored post.

Follow:

How is your cash flow looking this month? A little peaky after all that Christmas extravagance?

There’s a lot of talk in January about losing weight, getting fit and doing wholesome yet sometimes tedious things like spending Quality Family Time together, (yawn), but how many of use are brave enough to get the credit card bills out from behind the bread bin and take on the challenge of tackling our finances?

If you want to get your pennies in order, why not join me during February for the Great British Budget campaign?

Great British Budget View Post

Follow:

Last month I was asked to take part in a spending challenge. I got quite excited initially, imaging a Supermarket Sweep style dash around the shops, sweeping make-up and sweeties into a trolley.

No such luck.

The challenge was actually to reduce the amount of money I spent as part of a project by Voucher Codes called Small Change/Big Difference. The challenge asks you to think about the little amounts of money you fritter away of things like coffees and cake, and to commit to cutting back.

First off you can calculate just how much money you spend on things like this in a year with their special calculator – you put in what you have a week and it calculates your annual expenditure. I felt pretty smug filling it out, as I don’t smoke and don’t drink much, but was quite taken aback by how much I spend essentially just on snacks:

"spending calculator"

Goodness me. It seems like such a lot when you look at it like that doesn’t it? I work from home, so quite often pop to the café round the corner to work for a few hours for a change of scene. Seems like that could be an expensive habit.

Once I had shocked myself into action, I then had to spend two weeks trying as hard as possible to cut back on all those little extras that add up over the course of a year. There were quite a few obvious areas of weakness for me, so here’s how I got on:

Cafes
I do love a nice café. It’s silly, because I know I could just make a cup of tea at home for about two pence, but there is something so much lovelier about having someone else make it for you and enjoying it surrounded by people chatting and laughing. It’s just nice.

For two weeks though, I didn’t go to my local café once. I reckon I saved about £15 altogether, but I’m not entirely convinced this one is worth it for me. Working from home can be pretty lonely, and getting out of the house and being around other people for a couple of hours can make all the difference. £30 a month seems a small price to pay for my sanity.

"Pretty hot chocolate"

Magazines and newspapers
This is definitely a weakness for me. It wouldn’t be so bad if I actually read them, but all that happens normally is that I end up with about four weeks’ worth of Guardian Weekend magazines in a pile, unread. I don’t go out of my way to buy anything, but if I’m at the station or in a supermarket (which doesn’t happen often as Boyfriend doesn’t trust me to do the shopping), I’m quite often tempted to just pick something up as a treat.

For two weeks then I didn’t buy anything. So that’s two Saturday Guardians and probably one or two magazines – £10 or so altogether? Also, because I didn’t buy a magazine, I wasn’t drawn in to one of the ‘subscribe now for 68% of the usual cover price and get a free soap worth £37’ offers. Bargain.

Other miscellaneous nonsense
I tend quite often to shop, much like I eat, out of boredom. This is a risky strategy as I get bored easily. In early January for instance, bored of updating Facebook statuses and writing about goodness knows what, I went online and bought a bone china tea set hand painted with robins.

"robin teaset"

I think you get the point.

For two weeks though I tried my very best not to do this. It was tough, as I was in London a couple of times during the fortnight, each time with a couple of hours to kill in the middle of the day. During my first visit, it didn’t go so well, and I ended up with three miniature mounted photographs of London landmarks. Oopps.

On my second trip though, I did better. I even tested myself with a visit to the V&A museum shop, but resisted the urge to buy anything at all, not even a postcard, although I really quite wanted to buy a lion necklace that was in the sale. I did like this card, but satisfied myself by just taking a picture rather than buying it.

"Jerome K Jerome Quote"

What a good girl I am.

The lion necklace was £45, so I consider this £45 saved.

What are your bad money habits? How much do you think you could save if you cut out just one small pleasure?

Produced in association with VoucherCodes.co.uk

Follow:

A little while ago I ran a competition, where I asked you what topics you’d like to see covered on the blog. Funnily enough, (anyone would think we were in a recession or that it was budget weekend or something), lots of you said you’d like to read about money. Or, more specifically, how to save it.

To prove that I take you all terribly seriously, I decided to have a bit of a finance themed weekend. I spoke to Scottish Friendly, who specialise in child and family investments, to find out how you can make the most of your money with a Junior Individual Savings Account, junior ISA or ‘JISA’.

The JISA, which replaced the Child Trust Fund when it was discontinued in November last year, is basically a tax effective way to save or invest for your kids, whether you’re looking just to put aside a little something, or wanting to save or invest towards something specific, like university.*

If you are thinking about getting a JISA on behalf of your child, you’ll need to know exactly how it works if you want to get the very best value for money, so here’s a run down of the basics:

  • Savings or investment: The JISA is available in two types: ‘Cash’ or ‘Stocks and Shares’. A Cash JISA works like a regular savings account: money put in is secure and generates interest. A ‘Stocks and Shares’ JISA is an investment account – money contributed is invested in the stock market. Bear in mind, like any investment product, the value of shares can rise and fall on a daily basis and your original investment is not guaranteed. It’s a bit more exciting though isn’t it? You can wear red braces and read the FT and make thoughtful noises, like you know what it all means. A child may hold both a Cash and Stocks and Shares JISA at the same time, up to the current annual limit of £3,600.
  • Tax protection: This is the best bit. Returns generated by interest or investment in both the Cash and Stocks and Shares JISAs are exempt from income and capital gains. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and tax law may change in the future.
  • Contributions: Once the JISA is set up by a parent or guardian, anyone may deposit money in a child’s JISA, so rather than overwhelming small children with birthday and Christmas gifts, why not get all those generous spinster aunts and Godparents to pop some money in their JISA instead? Compound interest – the gift that keeps on giving…

*Haha! You’ll never be able to save up that much surely??

Tomorrow I’m continuing the theme, and talking low-cost holidays for families. Then on Monday I’ll go back to being less dull.

Follow: