This time of year, as exciting as it is, comes with its own
selection of anxiety inducing issues. The worst of which is money, how are we
expected to stretch our normal wage over all the extra food, events and gifts!?
At times it can seem impossible and can even make you start to resent a time of
year you should be celebrating.
To help you get the much needed relaxation you all deserve
this Christmas, I’ve come up with five simple steps that will keep you from
falling into the big black pit of money despair! If you’re on a low income, on
a student budget or are just looking to save a quid or two this Crimbo then
these easy tips will help you get your finances on track!
Step one: Plan – Firstly you’ll a need a plan of action. The
first thing I do when I see my payslip each month is sit down and write down
all the things I need money for that month e.g. phone bill, travel, friends
birthday. Then I order them from most important to least and work out places
where I can make cut backs, such as car sharing instead of getting a train, or
buying smart price goodies to lower my food budget.
By doing this you know exactly how much money you have left
over to play with. After you’ve sorted out the most important parts of your
list, pay for them first and then there’s a load off your mind straight away.
Step two: Paper money – What is paper money I hear you ask!?
It’s those weird note things and bits of metal that no one uses anymore. Yep in
this plastic card era it’s easy to forget that we have one really easy way of
limiting our spending, taking out cash before we can blitz through it with our
credit cards!
The first thing you should do after paying off all your
bills and ensuring any direct debits are paid out of your account, is take out
exactly the right amount of money you’ll need for the next month. For example:
£30 for a girl’s night out, £150 for your daily commute, £20 for that friend
you keep saying you’ll pay back and so on.
You can even separate each chunk of money into its own
envelope and seal it so you’re not tempted to spend it before its time! Just
remember to write on each envelope what the money is for, so you don’t end up
spending your £150 commute money on your night out (we’ve all done it).
Step three: Bad habits – Something you need to rid yourself of
if you ever want to save any money! Whether it’s smoking, drinking, junk food
or Starbucks hazelnut hot chocolates (guilty) everyone has that naughty little
habit that bites off a big chunk of budget each month!
Sorry to say but it’s time that you waved goodbye to bad
habits! And what better time to do it than Christmas!? Get a head start on all
the ‘New year, new me’ sheep and change yourself for the better starting now!
Cut out those cigs, mochas and cheeky Nandos – it’s time to make a change! Cheaper
replacements like a free quite smoking pack from the NHS, home made coffee in a
flask and delicious packed lunches will all help save the pennies.
Step four: Recycle – this could technically be classed under
bad habits as we are all guilty of refusing to wear an outfit because we were
wearing it in our last tagged pictures on Facebook! It’s time to swallow that
pride and start recycling your old outfits! Try adding a belt or statement
necklace to an old dress to make it new again, you could even mix and match
outfits with a friend if they’re on the budgeting hype!
We live in an age where thriftiness is chic so you would
even have a go at making your own skirt, adding embellishments to an outdated
dress or you could even give the good old charity shop a browse for a bargain –
pennies saved for you and a donation to charity at the same time!
Step five: Be flexible – you could stick to every one of the
steps I’ve given you and still have to fork out a tonne of money for some
unexpected reason. You can’t account for everything in life: you could get a
damp wall that needs fixing, or your phone could break and need repairing, or
if you could get a fine for something – all of these things will take a chunk
of money out of your budget that you hadn't anticipated.
But that’s okay! Try not to worry about it too much and work
out a way around it, knock your £30 party budget down to ten and tell your
friend you’ll give them their £20 next month. We can’t anticipate everything in
life, we only do our best to deal with things when they do happen. Saving a
spare £10 each month for ‘unforeseen’ circumstances could help you a lot –
think of it as insurance for when something in your life goes t*ts up…..failing
all this I hear the bank of mum and dad has really good interest rates.
I hope this post has helped you all a little bit and I hope
that you’re all feeling a little more confident about the coming months! If you
liked this post let me know in a comment below, also if you have any other
budgeting tips then feel free to share them also!
