Making and sticking to your budget is never easy, especially when you’re faced with unexpected outgoings. However, budgets can help us save money long-term, giving access to expensive holidays, new cars, or other big-ticket purchases.
If you need some assistance with sticking to your budget, here are some useful strategies to set you up for success.
Downsize your car
Cars can be one of the largest drains on your finances. Insurance payments, road tax, MOTs, and fuel can all add up, and that’s without taking unexpected damages into account. A breakdown can easily set you back several hundred pounds.
Instead, consider downsizing your car or swapping to a more reliable, sustainable model. If you live with your partner, you might both choose to sell your cars and purchase a fuel-efficient used car together, reducing any payments even further.
Stick to a lower credit limit
Credit cards can give us quick access to cash when we need it, but if you’re in a pinch it can be easy to spend more than you can afford to repay. Instead of falling into that trap, reduce your temptation by keeping the limit as low as possible.
You should also try to pay off any balances as quickly as possible, to prevent high interest rates from growing your initial loan beyond your control.
Home cook, don’t takeaway
Takeaways can seem like a great idea; you pay someone to cook a delicious meal for you and it’s delivered straight to your door. Apps like Uber Eats, Deliveroo, and Just Eat have made it even easier to get food brought to you.
Unfortunately, this can be very expensive and quickly drain your bank balance. Instead, try to replace your favourite takeaways with a home-cooked version. Purchasing the ingredients yourself and cooking in bulk means you can also freeze extra portions, perfect for when you want to have a quick meal.
Find cheaper entertainment
Before streaming services exploded in popularity, there were a few limited options and you could watch what you wanted relatively cheaply. Now, it feels like there’s a new service for almost every major upcoming show, which can quickly cost a small fortune.
Instead of forking out for each service, think about how you could get free or cheaper entertainment. Services like BBC iPlayer, ITVX, and other UK television broadcasters have access to a wide variety of on-demand programmes, all for free.
Alternatively, you can look for free days at national parks and museums, or see if there are any local community events.
Hopefully, the tips above have helped you to save money and stop it from draining away as soon as it’s in your bank account.