HELP - Shit with money - what's your tips?

[Ohwonderful]

For context, family of 4 left with around £1500 disposable per month after essentials are paid for. At the moment we save nothing.
Not so long ago out disposable was about £500 per month and honestly I don't know that our life is any different but we seem to piss away 1k and I don't know where!
I want to sort that this year. We worked hard to get to this and I want us to enjoy it by spending what we have on meaningful things and investing in the future for us all.
I'm hoping you money savvy will share some tips to get me going!

Sorry OP, I didn’t mean my reply to sound flippant.
What I meant was you clearly have sufficient surplus income to be able to save, but for some reason you haven’t. I’m thinking it’s not difficult to move money to a simple savings account or even save cash in a jar. The fact you haven’t started makes me wonder if it’s not actually money tips you need, and if it’s more to do with a mental block, or anxiety about tackling money matters that’s at work? If so lots of tips might make it appear even more overwhelming…

Make note of all your outgoings and income. It sounds so basic but you never know where your money is going until you can see it presented in front of you.

I started doing this when I was 19. Good old pen and paper method. I'm in my early 30s now and have a spreadsheet every single month. Trust me, when you start typing in a lot of outgoings and it's only mid-month, it'll make you stop and think about whether you REALLY need that nice new top you've just seen.

When it comes to grocery shopping, look at the reduced items. If you like a particular fruit, say grapes, go for the reduced ones. Fruit and veg keep longer than what it says on the label. As do a lot of foods.

And spend in cash. When you're physically parting with the money, it makes you more aware of your spending, as opposed to when you're just tapping away with your piece of plastic.

Close the thread, the answer has arrived!!!

😂😂😂

Hi @Ohwonderful, thanks for a useful thread.

As mentioned above, 'pots' have been game changing for us. I got a Monzo card and have pots for:

-car
-christmas
-dogs
-emergency fund
-hair
-house
-presents

And I put £100 in each. So that's £700 'gone' every month but it means not looking for money at the end of a month if there's a haircut needed, dog groom, birthday present etc.

Also, Amazon is my biggest weakness. So we made a rule up where we can't buy anything over £10 the same day- we add to basket, discuss it together, and if we still want it the next day then we get it. Stops impulse spending!

Probably repeating a lot but.....
I use starling as my main bank account. I have the main pot but then have side pots for Christmas, birthdays, haircuts, clothes adults, clothes kids, kids clubs, car Etc. I save each month into those. That is how much I have to spend on each area - Christmas and birthdays is obviously down to choice, car and kids clubs are known costs so I calculate their cost for thr year and split it by month. Clothes are similar, uniform costs (depending on school and year) plus other clothes split the year.
But you REALLY need to sit and go through your bank accounts, transaction by transaction and group them together to understand where you're spending your money. If you've money in yours and DHs then go through them both. Check whether anyone is using cash, add that up to. Do it for March and then April. It really will highlight what you're spending on.
Money saving expert is a great website and another on Instagram - moneysavvymumuk (note the spelling)
It does take time, you will drop back at times and you'll find it restrictive but there will be the point when you know you can afford something fun or exciting, because you've changed your way of working.