What’s the best money habit you’ve picked up? £200 voucher to be won

[geemumsnet]

When it comes to managing money, sometimes it’s the small habits that can make the biggest difference over time.

Perhaps you’ve discovered a budgeting app that keeps you on track, picked up a great money-saving tip from a friend, started investing little and often for your long-term goals, tried a savings challenge, or found new ways to enjoy days out and activities without spending a fortune.

Whatever works for you, we’d love to hear about the money habits you’ve picked up along the way.

So tell us, what’s the best money habit you’ve ever picked up?

• How did you get into the habit?
• Has it made a noticeable difference to your finances?
• What did you do with any extra money you made?
• And is there something you wish you’d started doing years ago?

Share your experiences, tips or money habits with other Mumsnet users in the thread below. In return, one poster will be selected randomly by the Mumsnet team to win a £200 VEX voucher.

The lucky winner will be contacted by Mumsnet by Friday 6th November. T&Cs apply.

Comments are the views of contributors, do not represent AJ Bell's views and should not be relied upon as financial advice.

If people want to save then they will. I save as much as possible every month and it goes into fixed rate monthly savers, paying the highest interest.

I also overpay my mortgage every month, and then once a year pay off the rest of the allowed 10%. So far I have cut almost 5 years off my mortgage.

My tip would be to just save as much as you can each month.

The thing that made the biggest difference to us is to treat savings as a bill that leaves our account on pay day: we work out the budget for the month, give ouselves an amount to keep in our own accounts for our own spending, then whatever is forecast to be left is saved on pay day.

Waiting to see what's left for savings at the end of the month never left us with as much as expected: yet saving on day 1, we manage to stay within budget.

Treating savings like a bill to be paid - so on payday money gets allocated into savings as well as to bills and regular outgoings. At the end of the month I might have money left in my current account which can be swept into savings too but there’s always at least something going into savings each month.

Receipt scanning. There are a couple of receipt scanning apps out there. I've been able to redeem around £100 in supermarket gift cards over 2 months which has saved us a lot.

Set aside a direct debit for savings every month. Not choice, essential.

When I get to the end of the month, any money left gets transferred into my savings account.
Sometimes it hundreds, sometimes it's way less when there have been unexpected outgoings.
I start the next month with my wages in the account, not a penny more.
I also use the round up facility on my debit account.

Every pay rise, add half of it to a savings direct debit.
So, get a payrise that results in an extra £50 a month, keep £25 for spending, and £25 goes to savings.
If you get payrises most years, it all adds up.

Name your savings pot It focuses the mind a lot more. So mine are 'holidays', 'winter bills' and 'rainy day' and every month I put some in each. It's really nice watching savings add up.

Also, opening a saver app account like Plum, chase etc, I've saved quite a bit without really noticing. Just set up a direct debit and forget about.

My salary is allocated to various pots at the beginning of the month including bills, groceries, general savings, saving towards future spending eg birthdays, christmas, holidays etc . I log all of my day to day spending on a monthly spreadsheet and try never to go over my income.

I save a little every month as a direct debit and change my savings aching every year as I get s higher interest rate that way.

What is receipt scanning ? I’m gong to do that and also the plum
app. Putting small amounts away is a great idea. Saving for me also means waiting at least 48 hours before checking out a basket by which point the urge to buy has usually gone

I don't budget too strictly but I roughly keep track month by month so my level of spending and saving is more of a conscious decision. That works for me to see the savings go up.

I make packed lunches every Friday for us to take out on weekends, so we never need to buy lunches out and often end up spending nothing all weekend (going to free places like parks or museums).

Zero budgeting really helped me - every £ having a job. It makes me see where I should make sensible choices like I didn’t used to

Cashback and coupon sites have helped out a lot, especially since it's money back for things I'm buying anyway.

Another good tip, use Top Cashback or a similar service to get cashback on your shopping. I have had hundreds of pounds over the years from this, and have used it to buy Christmas presents, or get vouchers to give to DD.

We also started selling our old stuff on vinted rather than give it away and DD made a few hundred pounds for spending money for Uni.

As a mum on UC as a top up to my job, I’ve found that meal planning and shopping with a strict list has made the biggest difference. I check what we already have, plan meals around offers and batch-cook where I can, which has really helped stretch the budget. Any money left over goes towards the next week’s food shop or into savings for those unexpected expenses. I only wish I’d started doing it years ago. We eat well, and I feel in control of my finances. It can be very overwhelming at times - so I try not to think about price rises coming our way.

I really like the Jam Doughnut app for my weekly shop.

It gives me 2-3% back on Tesco, so I can save £200 in the year and use it to splurge at Christmas.

My only bug bear is that you need to upload the gift card when at the til and it can take a minute, and I get flustered! I sometimes use the self checkouts for this reason :)

I've also come to the realisation thay I can stop buying new clothes every season. I don't care much for fashion and I find most clothes over priced. I'm trying to only buy essentials this year (few pairs of socks or some bras when mine get worn).... although I have succumbed to some new Ugg slippers and a japanese style dressing gown

Savings on a standing order every month, credit cards for rewards protection only.

Another who treats savings as a bill. I get my wage in, I look at the amount, delete the various bills I know I’ll have plus the amount I stick in my two savings account (who is general saving, other is for a dedicated thing), settle my credit card bill and the remainder is my fun money. The alternative of just paying bills then spending and saving what was left over tended to end up with me saving less.

Agree with many others that setting up direct debits for savings is the way to go. If you think you'll transfer any leftovers at the end of the month in to savings than you are kidding yourself.

But equally having enough financial security to be able to do that is a privilege.

Using round up can really help to put small amounts aside which can add up to make a surprisingly big difference. I have a savings account which is high interest but you are limited how much you can put in each month. However, my back allows you to set up "round up" and add the extra to the high interest account above the limit. So every day my card spending is ruined up to the nearest £ and the pennies put in my savings account. It is both a way of saving without thinking but also a good warning about spending because I get a notification congratulating me on how much I've added to my savings using round up and some weeks I do think "bloody hell" because it's all been pointless spending.

I don't impulse buy or at least I don't anymore. I always give myself around a week to think about non-urgent items and then I always look for the best deals on hukd or other deal sites.

I meal plan every week, do an online delivery so I’m not tempted by the supermarket shelves and every item of food is accounted for in the weekly meals. I also batch cook and leftovers are frozen and repurposed. My bank does cashback on some supermarkets so I check which ones are on their list that week.

My good habit was paying into a personal pension from my early 20s, I paid in every month by direct debit and increased the amount as I got older and earned more.
My regret is that I never paid into a work pension as I thought, with it being theatre work, that I would move around a lot - I wish I had known I would stay in the same job for 23 years!

Tracking all spending on a spreadsheet - I have a tab for each month with spending broken into categories and then a master sheet that shows how much I have spent in each category each month and also contains a. record of all money coming into the house. I have another sheet that tracks all the annual known expenses - eg car insurance

If I can see I am hugely overspending on something like groceries I will cut down for a month

My aim is that at least nine months a year my income exceeds my expenditure