What's the biggest single thing you've done to improve your finances?

[OldMotherHubbardsBigBottom]

I'm starting to get control of my finances and I'm curious as to what others have done to improve their relationship with money.

I almost feel like I tell my money what to do rather than the other way round- still a bit of ground to cover before I'm finally there though.

What did you do/are you doing?

We withdraw the cash for our usually spends each week. That’s all we can spend that week except in an emergency. It’s enough for food shop, any gifts we need, one takeaway and fitness classes. It’s easy to under estimate what you spend on your debit card.

Monzo!!

We used to withdraw cash for spending but this is much easier as you just transfer it straight over to the card and use it like a normal debit card but it keeps ‘spending money’ ie for food shop, petrol etc separate from ‘bills money’.

Do my professional exams.

Means my salary is about 60% more than without

I got rid of the cash card for my savings account. Having to use the pass book to go into the branch means we don't just randomly withdraw £20 here and there and only use it for the big things now like holidays or new household appliances etc.

Get married

Download the fudget app. It allows you to list all your income and expenses for the month. You could obviously do this on a piece of paper too but I like the app. Include extra money for expenses like heating oil / Christmas which do not occur every month but cost a big chunk when they do.

I also opened sub accounts with my bank account so I have an account for bills that are taken out by DD each month. I put $800 into that. Another sub account that I put $400 a month into for less frequent bills. Another for extra cash.
Groceries and petrol are ideally paid for from another account.

So once I put in my $1200 that's bills taken care of (ideally) and I can buy food without it interfering with bills

I left my cards at home all week the other week as I really didn't need anything but knew I would probably end up popping into shops on my lunch break and paying with my card , it all adds up but if you haven't got your cards the temptation is gone .

4 accounts!!.

1st a savings account money comes into: money for ALL next months bills and direct debits gets transferred into account 3 as soon as it comes in. Spending money transferred into current account. Really important if you have multiple sources of income (or benefits) as its easier to check whats in.

2nd account: current account for day to day spending. bills go out of first on the month (or near enough).

3rd account holds money for next months bills (only transferred to main account on first day of the month) and savings which i need to access in the next month.

4th account for long term savings holidays Christmas etc.

I actually run a 5th account just for child maintenance coming in. Makes it easier to track and gives me a bit of privacy (money goes in and out thats it) if i need to provide statements ever.

Run it through Excel on the computer. Have all the Direct debits and bills recorded on that. As times gone on i use it to keep track of whats in the big savings account how much ive saved for hplidays and how much holidays are expected to cost (food accommodation spending money transport)

Moved to a much cheaper (but still nice) area. Originally lived in a house half the size of our previous house, but then moved even further and was able to get a big house again for even less and have enough to invest in a rental.

A friend at school had a sister who went off to uni and her parents had given her £400 and told her to treat it as a zero balance so that if she ever went over she wouldn't have to pay to be in overdraft. I have operated that system ever since.

Divorced a financially abusive gambler and heavy drinker/smoker.

All of a sudden I felt very rich without earning more or spending less.

5 years on I keep a budget that is based on a years expenses including predicted expenditure on holidays/christmas and car maintenance.

I also set up savings goals through my banking app which helps me put money in rather than spend it because its there.

I also have a rewards bank account so anytime we want to go to the cinema there are free tickets available, and my mobile phone contract gives me discounts against certain meals out on all days of the week.

Gave up a 14 a day smoking habit.. after 25 years
Withdraw cash.. it's so easy to use a debit card without realising how much you're spending

Spreadsheets ALL of our expenditure including monthly amounts for glasses, prescription charges, TV license, presents for kids parties etc...then calculated what we wanted to save, what we thought was reasonable and realistic for groceries etc and spending money was worked out at the end.

When I am being very frugal I work out what x would take me to work. So for instance xx is 3 hours work. I don't like my job so I say it would take me 3 hours graft in that toxic place to earn enough to buy that. Is that worth it. Normally the answer is no.

I also now resent making others rich at the expense of me. So no needless buying. I will pay for experiences but tend to be very careful these days of buying stuff I don't need, because I am low, need a boost.

I stay away from shops at weekends. Bought a NT card and walk instead. There might be cake involved in the tea room though.

I used to be in debt, now I am not.

Property record all in's and out's using some proper book-keeping software so you can see your finances at a glance and then "drill down" to see exactly what the transactions are within each analysis heading, i.e. all the individual payments making up that £900 spent on house maintenance or hobbies or "on the go" drinks/snacks or whatever. Until you know what you're spending, you can't even start to control it. Do it for the entire household, i.e. both your own accounts, your OH's accounts and joint accounts so it shows the full picture.

Shopping at Aldi/ Lidl really reduces my bills.

I definitely agree with withdrawing cash instead of using a card.

I also cancelled my Amazon Prime and cleared cookies/passwords from my laptop so that I need to actually type in my card details every time. I struggle with believing that online shopping is spending money

And a real biggie- making your own lunches. Yes a sandwich and piece of fruit is boring but it's perfectly healthy and it's soooo cheap. Also saves time.

I leave my credit cards at home. If it has to come out of the real life money pot then most of the time I don’t buy it.

Using You Need A Budget. Been two years now and it's changed my life completely.

Bought property at the right time and paid off mortgages early.
Never had any other loan apart from a mortgage.

I'm recently new to this but it's utterly addictive

I have a Lloyd's current account and that allows me to have numerous little bolt-on savings accounts. These are easy access / instant transfer so the money's not locked away.

We have ones for the car, holidays, freeloaders pets, groceries, heating (we have big deliveries of logs and coal periodically) and so on.

I've worked out what we need monthly from our wages to survive comfortably, everything else gets removed immediately to a savings account as soon as we're paid. There's also monthly SO's into the savings accounts, currently there's about £500 each for the pets and the car which should cover any smaller expenses we have.

I also note everything I spend. The biggest surprise was the amount we spend monthly in "renewals" , so not new clothes, presents etc but essential things like a new kettle, cartridges for the printer, filters for the jug etc. There's rarely a month goes by where I don't spend around £200 on these things

Oh, and meal planning and online grocery shopping.
Once all your regulars are saved in your account it's ridiculously quick and saves me trekking round Waitrose buying junk we don't need.
I never go over my budget now and I've managed to build up a good store cupboard of basic ingredients as well.

Shop at aldi/lidl

Give up buying pointless things...coffees, magazines

Mine were in a complete mess ended up using stepchange for a debt management about 4 years ago, I now have one full payment pus about £40 to go and I will be debt free for the first time in my adult life. I will save the money I have been paying off each month so I never get into debt again.

Only had one child.

I often pick up and item in a shop and ask myself if I really REALLY need it. Half the time it gets put back down and it’s amazing how much small purchases add up.