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?

I went back into education and got a well paid job.

Not have children!

For those of you that went back to education and retrained...what did you retrain in?

Got on the housing ladder
Got divorced
Remarried, to someone who is careful with money too
Quit teaching and went back to industry £££££ better paid!
Direct debits for everything, standing order for savings as soon as wages come in
The rest is mine!

I refuse to do direct debits. I watch my outgoings like a hawk. I do one gigantic shop every month, one top up shop a week and avoid buying any other food on other days. I eat out locally only. I allow one treat for myself a week. Thats it really. For the first time in years I don't need to be too strict with my finances.

Never, ever buy anything on credit. If I can't afford it I can't have it and have to make do until I can. This makes saving possible, as it reduces monthly outgoings and overtime reduces costs by avoiding all the finance charges.

I read Marie Kondo and while I haven't followed it to the letter it has made me far more conscious about what I buy and whether I need it, will use it etc.

Online shopping, I leave stuff in my basket and think about it for a few days. Also I never buy anything full price except essential food like milk.

Online food shopping/meal planning to cut down on wasted food.

I think it helps that neither dh or I are bothered about having the latest gadget. Our tv is 10 years old and the on/off button broke 6 years ago, it's been on standby ever since! Admittedly we have probably spent more on electricity as a result

Support husband to become very high earner.
Moving into tied accommodation that was very cheap, so we could pay off mortgage by renting out our own house and then buying another.
Avoiding expensive holidays when children were young. Living within our means.
Hard work and wise decisions.
Good relationships so we had free support and help - babysitting, ironing, a house gifted to us, free holiday accommodation, hand me downs, free/cheap social life.

Now sharing produce, free vegetables, nuts fruit, chutney, jam, meat, fish, logs, Christmas wreaths, Christmas trees.
Not following fashion. A simple life.

I use my partner's card.

That probably sounds absolutely stupid - but we carry each others' cards instead of our own. We both find it much easier to spend less if it is not our money. Like, if I had my card, I'd be putting all kinds of things in the shopping trolley, but when I have his, I make the effort not to. Same with him.

We spend much, much less (and also if we might want a meal out, we would have to use the other's card to pay for it, so it's much less tempting to say let's go out with your card than sod it, let's put it on mine).

No idea if that makes even the slightest bit of sense, but it works.

Set up a direct debit into my savings account. It goes on the day I get paid, barely notice it, and it builds up so quickly! I just wish I'd started years ago

Writing downeverything we spent for several weeks. Really boring, but shows exactly where money goes, and where savings can be made.
Got rid of the car.

@GOODCAT I have always operated a £1000 zero in my current account. It works brilliantly. Ad hoc household expenses never put me into overdraft.

I'm really disciplined about money despite appearing frivolous. I shop around for everything, buy clothes in the sales and keep a monthly spreadsheet.

I splash out where I feel most benefit - trips away and a lovely home, but don't splurge on things like my nails or dinner in expensive restaurants.

JoxerGoesToStuttgart

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

^^

Yup

A house gifted to you?
Very wise decision there CherryPavliva, think I'll follow your example.

7Days Sounds better than the reality. It’s was a tiny little Victorian cottage in an area with subsiding ground that was my husbands first boss’s. Nobody could get a mortgage on it and as it had been his mothers he was reluctant to sell. When the children were young we used it for summer holidays and then when he became ill he gave it to us. It wasn’t worth much but we’ve done it up a bit. The land is stabilised. It’s now a nice retreat, overlooking the sea, which the children use for weekends away and we work from a bit in the summer.

It came to,us because my husband was a good employee and we had a good relationship with the boss.

Having a direct debit for saving account/share ISAs at the time DH's and then my salary come in. Money is gone without realising and grows nicely.

It took a couple of months checking how much we have over comfortable each months and I put 75% of that on the direct debit, the other 25% stay on the account for emergencies, extra payments and if there is anything left this is also then transferred to a saving account.

I took a risk and massively stretched our finances to get our first mortgage. It was a 95% mortgage, 10x our joint income and interest only. It was a tracker and we took it out in 2006, interest rates went through the floor soon after and we had years of paying almost nothing for the mortgage. Sold in 2013 having made nearly £200k on the house. Nearly completely free money - other than the £100 a month or so we were paying in interest for that period.

Join finances and split accounts into DD, current and savings.
Every month I transfer a set amount to cover monthly DDs, keep a small amount £100-£200 in the current account to take out in cash if we need it and transfer everything else to savings.
All our monthly spends are on the credit card which is paid by DD in full out of the savings account.
It's great to see the savings grow and is encouraging to spend less on the C/C.

Went to moneysavingexpert.com and followed all the advice that was relevant to me step by step.

Changed bank accounts, changed utility companies, changed insurance companies, switched credit cards to 0% interest, stopped spending on lunches/coffees, got a saving strategy, the list goes on and on.

I still go back and check every now and then.

It's a work in progress. I have a spending tracker app on my phone where I log all income and expenses. DP and I have a joint bank account so I can easily log into our banking app and then log any spends in the spending tracker.

I'm trying to cut down on unnecessary purchases while only popping into the shop to buy milk or nappies. I do find it difficult not to get extra things and before I know it I've spent £10 on drink and snacks.

I've unsubscribed from marketing emails so I don't get drawn into sales and deals. I love clothes shopping, but right now I have a good, small collection of items that will see me through winter so I absolutely don't need to buy anything else and be tempted by marketing emails! I've unfollowed high street stores on social media too so I'm not tempted by anything.

I also track spending, everything is noted and categorised. It started when I wanted to budget and then became a challenge to 'beat' last month by spending less.

Why can’t I be like you people?!?!

I think much harder now about whether or not I need something.

I set my email account so that all “promotions” go in one folder and I only look at it if I need to buy a gift.

I try to never buy clothes at full price, sales are so frequent that it’s really not necessary. I also started to think of the environmental impact of buying “stuff” eg a t-shirt with pineapples on it because they “are in” when last year it was stars.

I almost always do online shopping for groceries. This week, because of bad planning and dd likes to go to the shop, I went to Sains with her and spent £148 when a usual order is £100.

Instead of ordering Papa John’s on a Friday night we get Northern Dough, grated mozzarella, Sains own pizza topper, other toppings and make our own. We all prefer them!

I take a packed lunch to work at least 4 days out of 5.

These are not big changes but I think they have made a difference.

Live near work and schools. Saves in fuel and parking. We even coped for a while with one car

Dumped my boyfriend.