Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Money matters

Find financial and money-saving discussions including debt and pension chat on our Money forum. If you're looking for ways to make your money to go further, sign up to our Moneysaver emails here.

I can't seem to make my money last

20 replies

MamaEs · 17/09/2021 12:03

I am in the fortunate position where we have a decent household income. All our bills are covered by a separate account but I can't seem to make our spending money last. We don't live particularly extravagantly.

Does anyone have any hints or tips

OP posts:
lightand · 17/09/2021 12:06

I was only thinking today of someone telling me that to lose weight, apparently a person has to want to do so at a rate of at least 7 or 8 out of 10. Else it wont happen.

How much do you really, hand on heart, want to make spending money last, out of 10, if you see what I mean?

Gardenwalldilema · 17/09/2021 12:08

You need to work out where its going as a first step.
I use a Monzo card for my personal spends, with pots for kids, car, clothes, diesel etc. Might something like that help?

BarbaraofSeville · 17/09/2021 12:14

How much spending money are we talking about and is this truely after all bills, including those beyond monthly direct debits, eg Christmas, holidays, insurance, repairs to cars, pets, household appliances etc?

What about food and travel, is it separate to this too, or does this come out of your spending money?

Have you looked at your accounts and added up what you spend where?

Different people have different definitions of 'extravagantly' so without any figures it's impossible to say whether you're running out because the amount you have is very small, or you're somehow managing to piss hundreds or thousands of pounds up the wall every month without having anything to show for it.

If you're serious about getting a better handle on your money, have a look at Moneysaving Expert.

Start with the money makeover and do as many things as possible, then get the weekly email and take all the tips in over time. Eg you can get yourself a free £100-150 at the moment by switching your bank account. Some people do this over time and have 'burner' accounts to facilitate this, making hundreds of pounds in free money.

Depending on what you get up to, areas to look at are food and drink out of the house, if you do this a lot, it costs a lot, and is far more expensive than eating at home.

Also cutting down your TV, broadband etc. Absolutely no reason at all to pay full price, there's always a discount available.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/money-help/

Fluffandbubbles · 17/09/2021 12:51

It’s an old one, but use cash wherever possible ..take out a set amount each week or month and use that, not your card. Handing over the notes and seeing the amount in your purse dwindle makes it all real.

BarbaraofSeville · 17/09/2021 13:13

Using cash doesn't work for everyone and isn't practical when a lot of places don't accept cash any more.

Plus with many accounts using a card means that all your transactions can be automatically categorised in an app, or you can download transactions into a spreadsheet to analyse yourself. Either way, using a card automatically produces the data that can be used to quickly identify where your money is going.

Lookwhoseinsideagain · 17/09/2021 13:16

Depends how much spare cash you've got, and what you're currently spending it on.

Struggling to make £100 'spare' last the month - possibly understandable.

Struggling to make £3000 'spare' last? That's a while different issue!

MamaEs · 17/09/2021 14:20

Thank you so much for replying. I think we just waste it on rubbish. I don't really understand but I do think the first step is to write it all down and check exactly where it is going.

I don't really want to say how much I'm talking about but I have got plenty of money for my bills, food etc.

I should have plenty but it just seems to dwindle away!!!!

OP posts:
OneRingToRuleThemAll · 17/09/2021 14:25

Stop shopping for fun. If you go out to places where the sole purpose is to spend money, money will be spent.

BarbaraofSeville · 17/09/2021 14:25

Can you split your money into different accounts?

Some into an account for bills, which you're already doing.

Some into a savings account that's not easily accessible. Pretend this money doesn't exist.

A different account for spending on a when it's gone it's gone basis, no overdraft or credit cards.

There's been some TV programmes featuring people with the same problem. See if any of the solutions suggested are helpful to you?

www.channel4.com/programmes/secret-spenders

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08gfdzg

HollowTalk · 17/09/2021 14:26

I think writing a list every single day of everything you have bought and how much it cost should sort you out here, OP.

BananaPB · 17/09/2021 14:28

Go out without your wallet sometimes (and get rid of Android Pay/Apple Pay on your phone)

BarbaraofSeville · 17/09/2021 14:30

Do you have lots of stuff? Is your house very full of clutter? We hardly buy anything and our house always seems cluttered, so I can't imagine how bad it must be if you're 'constantly buying rubbish'.

Can you focus your energies on decluttering and discarding, donating or selling excess things, so you're reducing the money you spend and stuff you have?

SylvanasWindrunner · 17/09/2021 14:33

There's a budget planner on MSE website that might be useful.

I think where a lot of people fail when looking at their budgets is by not accounting for things like haircuts, birthday and Christmases, MOTs, clothes, beauty treatments, and other stuff that you don't necessarily think of as monthly spends, but the money has to come from somewhere. The MSE budget has categories for all those things and breaks it down to a monthly value, so you can get a more realistic 'monthly' figure.

BarbInCarriage · 17/09/2021 14:43

The only way I did it and got money under control was logging everything. I used an app but pen and paper is fine or excel is fine.

The app I used (Toshl) starts off with what is in all your accounts, you put in all your direct debits, all your regular outgoings and then every time you spend anything, anything at all - cash or credit card or out the bank account. You tag it when you spend it into categories.

It made me realise how much mindless spending I was doing at a lunchtime, popping to the shop on the way home, on the internet.

I started off with never having any savings at all to easily having £8K in savings a year - and more.

Pemba · 17/09/2021 14:56

There's an app called Youneedabudget which people say is good, not tried it myself. Maybe there's a free trial?

Anyway, app or not, sounds like you do need a budget!

I do understand, it's so psychologically satisfying buying things, especially online, it is so easy to click 'buy now'. But remember Martin Lewis's mantra which I think is something like 'Do I need it, Can I afford it, Could I get it cheaper?'

MamaEs · 17/09/2021 16:32

Ok so I've just tracked my spending over the last month.

We spend A LOT on groceries.

So my plan for this month is to try and reduce that... any more tips send them my way!

OP posts:
katplva · 17/09/2021 16:53

There is a free trial of the You Need A Budget app - it’s free for a month and then if you like it you can pay per month or for a year. I have found it very useful to see the reality of all our outgoings and where we are spending. I’m hoping that it will help me to start saving at some point too Smile

ivykaty44 · 18/09/2021 16:50

Does anyone have any hints or tips

live on weekly amounts, its so much easier

I have weekly amounts now paid into my second account and thats it for 7 days, once its gone I have to wait a few days

but that easier than trying to wait to the end of the month

I work on £25 per week per person in the household for weekly money for supermarket shopping and then £20 for sundries

anything left over at the end of the week can stay

Snoods · 19/09/2021 06:38

I find sticking to one of the cheaper supermarkets, even for top ups, really helps. It means I have to go every 5 days or so but it keeps me out of the local shop where prices are higher and I buy things I don’t need

Snoods · 19/09/2021 06:42

How much do you spend on groceries? As a family of 3 we spend approximately £70 a week if I stick to the cheaper shop’s and that includes a bottle of wine and cleaning products, and plenty of fresh meats

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread