Help me be more frugal

[MsNemo]

I'm looking for resources (books, sites, podcasts) and also seasoned advice on how to be frugal. I'm currently a SAHM. I'd like to be good at family finances, but I don't know where to start! I'm very ignorant on money matters but I'm eager to change that. I come from a very chaotic family of origin regarding money (not at all wealthy, but not very financially intelligent) and I haven't recieved any kind of good financial example.
Where should I start? Thank you in advance!

Could you list your outgoings? Monthly housing cost, childcare, petrol, various insurances, food cost, services, subscriptions etc. how much is left at the end of the month currently.

If you are a sahm do you have control over family finances or is it more on your oh?

Tips:

Compare utilities, make sure you're getting the cheapest deals.
Check WIFI deals and change to PAYG for your phone, mine is £5 a month for unlimited calls and texts

Check out Money Savings Expert https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/

Also, Hot Deals UK for bargains.
https://www.hotukdeals.com/

Start by jotting down absolutely every penny that you spend, do this for three or four weeks. Once you know where your money is going, you will be able to see what is unnecessary spending and what is essential spending.
List all your household outgoings, again you will be able to see what is essential, and you can then look at where savings could be made on the non essential items.

If you spend a lot on clothes, consider a three months moratorium on clothes purchases. Perhaps your food bill could be reduced by reducing meat consumption, or by changing to own brand goods?

• Meal plan and stick to it
• Use vinted and charity shops for clothes
• Buy in bulk when there's a sale on something you would normally get, like toilet roll
• Do picnics instead of eating out with kids
• Never buy drinks or snacks when you are out bring your own that you've bought in your weekly shop
• If your partner works away from home, make them lunches rather than eating out
• use a thermal flask for hot drinks on the go rather than buying brews at a coffee shop

The easiest way is to simplify your finances. Spreadsheets help by writing down all your income and outgoings and noting your spending.

Being frugal is simply getting the best price possible for your needs and limiting your wants.

Always price compare and know when your contract end dates are for mortgage rate, tv/ broadband deal, insurance, utilities etc and price compare a month before. Replace clothing only when needed, one in- one out. Sometimes bulk buying cleaning products and regularly used foods are money saving, check the £per kg/ packet etc.

Streamline your monthly finances, set all DDs, SOs and regularly payments to 4 days after your payday. Everything left is what you have to spend that month. If you can transfer a % of that to savings to build up a savings fund.

Why do you think there is an issue? What are you worried about?

Track spending, create a cashflow plan (budget).
I use a tracking spreadsheet from Meaningful Academy Financial Foundations - it's a free online course about budgeting and money mindset.

Last winter my floor got cold... so for this winter I intended to have another rug.
It's August, rugs at Argos are 25% off, so I am getting one now, instead of later on. Buying out of season can get you savings.

Thank you all for your advice! I'm taking notes!
For more context, we are in a good enough economical situation as a family. DH has a new job and we want to take advantage of the "new energy" (and better salary!) to start a plan to increase our savings (now we have a little). We eventually want to buy a house, but that's years to come.
We have a shared account (always have) and we both manage it. I'm a SAHM by choice, because we can afford it for the moment. We have always rented, but after having children, we want our own home so we've decided to save for it.
The reason I posted (first thread ever!) is because I'm hungry for learning and didn't know where to start.
In my view, the way he contributes to our project is by earning the money, and the way I'd like to contribute is by managing it wisely, hence why I'm in search for wisdom ;)

Regarding finances "gurus": who'd you recommend?

Take a look at www.moneysavingexpert.com

Have a look at https://ukpersonal.finance/flowchart/ which is a flowchart for what you could do with money. Look at pension provided via the new job and also a personal pension for you (without earned income up to £2880 can be paid to pension in your name per tax year, which gets tax relief added).
Save towards an objective - emergency fund, buying a home.

Moneysavingexpert.com weekly newsletter and advice on everything

Martin Lewis podcast

Meaningful Money podcast

Financial flow chart
https://ukpersonal.finance/flowchart/

Review your budget

Maximise income

Question and minimise every expense

Spend less than you earn and put a decent chunk in interest paying savings every month

Thank you @nannynick @Bjorkdidit and @Radionowhere !!

When you've worked out what you can spare, set up a direct debit for that amount on pay day. Put the spare money into a savings account before you've even got it.

This is really clever, thank you!

Do you recommend having different saving accounts or just one? For example, a savings account for our DC specifically: I like the idea of slowly putting money away for them in the future, regardless of our main savings for the house. DH doesn't find this useful at the moment. What are your experiences?

You should secure your family’s financial future by saving for and buying a house before you start saving for your kids because renting is dead money.

Aw thanks @MsNemo . I've been doing payday saving pretty much all my life. Even whe I first started work on not much cash, I saved £12.50/.month, which is £150 a year, for my MOT.

For payday savings, DH and I have:
An ISA each
A "holiday" account
An instant access savings account fur things like replacing broken appliances and other unexpected bills

We also save £50/month into Junior ISAs for the DC.

It makes sense, indeed: that's DH's opinion too. Thank you!

I very much like the idea of compartmentalize our savings (I like how you have set it up), but I have to agree with PP and DH that in our particular situation, our priority must be becoming owners and escape rent first. I guess I see it as an overwhelming goal!

If you can save long term , go for stuff with higher interest.
i have a longer term savings, short term, easy access, and save the change on Halifax, which rounds up my £s on direct debits and debit card spending, at least £300 a year, which I use as hol spending money ( family abroad).
Things such as soap nuts, much cheaper for lightly soiled clothes, I add stain remover and Eco bleach as needed.
Swaps great, do what suits you tho

Break it down into smaller goals. Say working up to saving £1k first. I love a spreadsheet to keep track of savings - I find it really satisfying to track my progress, or to see how much difference it makes if say I up the savings amount by £50 a month.
Remember the Dickens quote on money:
“Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.”
You might just be saving the equivalent of those 6 shillings each year but every step in the right direction is a good one.

I hate to be that person but..... probably the most financial/home owning savvy thing you can do is work. So what can you do to secure employment, or at least well paid employment in the near future?

Maybe save into a help to buy ISA, to maximise top ups off government- seeing as home ownership is your goal anyway.

The YNAB app is incredible for managing our money. There's loads of videos on YouTube that talk you through the process but basically you link your accounts and then set up categories for EVERYTHING so bills, monthly groceries / fuel, holidays, annual insurances, Christmas, kids birthdays, General birthdays etc, MOT, savings.

Then you put your 'inflow' that comes in every month and assign the relevant amount to every category. So when bigger bills come in you have a pot already set aside.

Then the app pulls in every transaction from your account and you match it to a category.

It's life changing!!!

Takes a while to set up and then a few months of tweaking to get all the categories right but it's totally worth it!

It really makes you consider every pound you spend really carefully.

This. Can you not work OP? Many hands and all that...

We are a couple and generally spend 50% on core bills like mortgage etc, save 20%, 30% for holidays and discretionary spending, clothes, eating out, birthdays etc. That has flexed dependant on ages of our kids and disposable income.

Within savings we have several buckets - 'house' (renovations, decorating, boiler repairs) 'car' (obvious - insurance, repairs, replacement) and isa's for longer term savings (including junior isa's for kids). A little gets dropped into every bucket each month. And sometimes moved between them..

But 2 salaries inevitably gives you more headroom for your plans.