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Original poster

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

187 replies

OldMotherHubbardsBigBottom · 15/10/2019 13:01

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?

OP posts:
DisneyMadeMeDoIt · 15/10/2019 15:04

For me it was getting a joint account with DH! He’s a high earner but pays no attention to spending - now I can see his transactions 😬 Silly stuff but I realised he was spending £2 a day on a bottle of pop when I can buy multi packs at supermarket for 50p each.

That’s over £300 a year and he has no preference for buying them at work- actually prefers taking them with him! Same with bags of crisps and bars of choc...etc

We are having a baby and moving to a larger home so actually several hundred pounds makes a fair old difference!

shearwater · 15/10/2019 15:05

Gone full time and got a pay rise.

CuteOrangeElephant · 15/10/2019 15:12

Setting up a joint account and spending money with my DH. We each get 200 pounds per month for our phone bills/gym/any other personal expenses. This is great because I don't feel guilty about getting a haircut and I don't feel annoyed when my DH buys his umpteenth computer game.

Getting into minimalism/Marie Kondo. It's surprising how often the answer is 'no' to the question Do I need this?

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General money
jackparlabane · 15/10/2019 15:17

Remortgaging. Always ensuring we have a new deal in place with time to spare before a SVR kicks in. I thought this would be obvious to anyone with a mortgage but friends prove it clearly isn't.

And getting together with a partner with a similar cautious but not tight approach to money.

JoxerGoesToStuttgart · 15/10/2019 15:18

Went self employed. I can work as many hours as I want and I’m in control of my rates. Prior to this I was on a min wage retail contract where I was only every guaranteed 12 hours a week and had to pay childcare. Now I can arrange my own hours to fit in with school and can work evenings and weekends too.

Breathlessness · 15/10/2019 15:19

Gotten divorced Grin

JudyDenchsBloomers · 15/10/2019 15:22

Moved abroad to work.

You don't save anything for the first two years as you're paying out on getting yourself set up but after that you really see a difference.

Nixee2231 · 15/10/2019 15:34

We started using YNAB (You need a budget) after reading about it on this forum and it has completely transformed our lives.

I was very hesitant at first because you have to pay to use it so it seemed counter productive to buy it. But in the 1 year that we've been using it, it's transformed the way we think about money and has allowed us to pay pay nearly all our debts (will be finished in December) except out mortgage.

I won't go into detail about how it works but it's basically an "envelope based" budgeting system where instead of forecasting for the money you don't have yet, you only budget the money you have right now.

There is an extensive support system through live workshops, articles, videos, forums, books etc and the the customer support is excellent. They let us extend our free trial twice because we hadn't gotten the hang of it yet.

I would highly recommend it to anyone who is feeling overwhelmed or like they are always catching up on past expenses. We went from burning through our savings to living one month ahead: aka we already have all our expenses budgeted for next month, including monthly contributions to upcoming big expenses like car repairs etc.

Purpleartichoke · 15/10/2019 15:38

Moved somewhere with cheap housing, but great free schools. A low mortgage and lack of school tuition changes the entire financial picture.

JoxerGoesToStuttgart · 15/10/2019 15:39

I love that one person here has said “got married” and another said “got divorced” Grin

PickAChew · 15/10/2019 15:39

Divorce my ex.

LifeBeginsNow · 15/10/2019 15:39

I'm not close to be sorted yet, but I've done the following:

  1. Worked out what my bills are each month and written down the day they come out (I aim for everything to come out after payday). Whenever my bill is less than budgeted, I move this 'extra' money into savings. Some months it can be good, like the 2 months I don't pay council tax and other months it'll just be £2 less on the phone bill

  2. Put the monthly budget for food onto my Monzo account. This means I don't have lots of little transactions cluttering up my statement and making it difficult to read. It's also easy to see how much is frittered away on food shopping/ takeaways

  3. Worked out how much left we will have and transfer that to another account

  4. This 'fun money' account is where we can spend from but ideally this is where my debt repayment comes from. At the end of each month I take what's left and move it into a savings account

  5. The saving account at the moment is there to repay debt. Once I get to the figure where the card/ loan can be paid off in full, I make that happen. I realise I'd be paying less interest if I did what I could as and when, but this has never worked for us and my new way is finally seeing results. It gets quite addictive topping that account up and getting closer to paying things off. I'm not far off paying a loan off and I can't wait!

Itsrebekahvardysaccount · 15/10/2019 15:39

@Nixee2231 would be really interested to hear a bit more about how it works if you don’t mind?

isabellerossignol · 15/10/2019 15:41

Best thing I've ever done is pay myself first. Move money to savings account on payday, then transfer back to my current account as I need it. There is always, always some left at the end of the month, whereas when I used to keep it in my current account with a view to saving what was left, there never was any left.

userxx · 15/10/2019 15:47

About 5 different e-saving accounts split into different categories. I use my santander credit card for making purchases and have downloaded the Santander Wallet app which shows the breakdown of all purchases, this is massively helpful and helps my cut back.

I've always been a saver but life seems to have gotton expensive so its good to keep a check on it all.

LifeBeginsNow · 15/10/2019 15:50

Isabell - that's right actually and a better way than I'm doing it. I think I'll amend my last point and as of next payday, move most of the money into savings. It'll be harder to take it out and really, after bills and food are sorted, I shouldn't have much more I need (although I may want)!

raspberryk · 15/10/2019 15:50

Get on the housing ladder early before any responsibilities.
Get divorced.
Stay on the housing ladder.

But if I had to pick one it would be studying a degree so I will be able to start a proper career with an OK salary.

userxx · 15/10/2019 15:53

Get on the housing ladder early before any responsibilities

This. I left it till quite late but luckily its turned out fine. Living in the North of England is much cheaper and doable as a single person.

Daphine2004 · 15/10/2019 15:55

All my direct debits and standing orders come out on pay day, as do my savings which go into different accounts. Some of the accounts are locked for a year to take advantage of higher interest rates.

I don’t have a spending credit card, just a 0% one to pay off debt from maternity leave.

Very really pay full price for anything (Electronics, clothes etc.) - there’s no need, unless it really can’t be found cheaper elsewhere! 😫

Meal plan and online shop. It usually comes to less than £40, but always need to spend up to £40 for delivery. I know that’s not the point but I don’t have time to go to the shops so just buy more loo roll.

CampingItUp · 15/10/2019 15:59

Got on housing ladder as soon as I could, in a glorified shoe box.
Never relied on C Card or ran up debts that didn’t have a budgeted payback plan
Switched to repayment mortgage but continued to pay the endowment and pension vehicles that were set up on first two properties
Never fussed about the latest, newest, nicest of everything
Modest cars, never more highly specced or sized than we needed
Got a smart mortgage, paid it off early.

DinosApple · 15/10/2019 15:59

Before you blow any money on anything (clothes, night out, holiday etc) work out how many hours you had to work to earn that money.

That was my brilliant mum's tip when I first left school and I still use that as a guage of whether I really need or want something before buying it.

Also, I was encouraged to save half of what I earned from the start. I can't do that now, kids, car etc but back when I lived at home that was a great help.

DinosApple · 15/10/2019 16:01

Yy, to no credit card and not needing the latest gadgets.

tectonicplates · 15/10/2019 16:04

Bothered with Ebay again. I went through a couple of years where I couldn't be bothered any more and gave all my old clothes to charity shops. Since I started selling again, I've been making up to £50 a month just selling my random stuff that I don't want any more. Don't do auctions - just list everything as Buy It Now and wait until the items sell whenever.

Dowser · 15/10/2019 16:08

I use cash for all my spends
I keep better control that way

Dowser · 15/10/2019 16:12

My aunt did have an envelope system
It must have worked as she had a good nest egg to pass onto her favourite niece 👍