Showing posts with label budgeting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label budgeting. Show all posts

Monday, 12 August 2019

Ways to use your Smartphone to create a better Financial Future for Yourself

Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

Most of us spend hours on our smartphones. We have become very reliant on them. So much so that smartphone separation anxiety has become an actual condition. We love these little devices and would find it hard to live without them.

Yet, most of us are only scratching the surface when it comes to what our phones can do for us. As you will see below, with the help of the right apps you can start to build a more financially secure future for yourself and your family. Sounds good, right?

Invest on the fly
Using this investment app, you can keep track of the investments you already have. But, perhaps more importantly, it also enables you to invest on the fly. So, for example, if you get a bonus from work, you can immediately identify a way to invest that cash. This will stop you from frittering that bonus away over the weekend.

Track what you are spending
Managing your day to day spending is critical if you want to stay out of debt. Knowing how much the essentials of life cost and budgeting accordingly can easily be done using a money management app. One of the best ones on the market is Mint.

As well as letting you set and stick to a budget, the Money Dashboard app has several additional features built-in. For example, alerts that tell you when your bills are due.

Monday, 19 June 2017

Scottish Friendly's Money Saving Diary Challenge


It was with good timing that Scottish friendly got in touch with me and asked me to join in with their Money Saving Diary Challenge. Whilst I am so much better at being thrifty nowadays I know that there is still some money being wasted and I could do a better job.

So with this in mind, I kept a record of my spending habits for a week, so see where I could cut back or where I was already saving some money.  Here is how I got on -

Monday 
We have just returned from our holiday and Hubby is still on a days leave so we decide to have lunch out amongst the washing and catching up on work.  The plan is to eat at the local college restaurant where you can get a really lovely 3 course meal for £9.99 and then use your Taste card too to get 2 for 1! It normally means we end up spending around £16 for us both for 3 courses and a soft drink.

However when I called the College restaurant they were closed and we headed off to a local fabulous burger joint and ended up spending £25.48 for our meal and thus I totally failed on this first opportunity to save money. I have a Taste card and local TownCity Card so I really should have used one of those and for a 2 for 1 meal - oh well, next time! Overspent by £9.48

On the way home we do go into Lidl though as I want to get the kids some yogurts and again I am reminded just how good their pricing is. I spend £19.79 and this is comparison to buying the same goods at Sainsburys is a saving of around £7, so I really must shop there more often. Saved £7

Wednesday, 3 December 2014

Sharing my Top Tips on Managing my Household Budget

My current beautiful home

My husband and I bought our first house back in 1997 and I have to be honest and say that he taught me everything I know about managing a tight household budget. I was always a 'live now and forget tomorrow' kind of spender and whilst that was lots of fun it often led me back to my parents and getting bailed out whilst I was at University. Of course, once you are in that spending mentality it is pretty hard to break it and it was only because my husband said we would not combine our finances until I showed him I could be trusted with money that I started to work hard to change my ways. I'm really keen that my kids don't go down the same path as I did and I am avidly teaching them about financial literacy