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.