I wonder how many people have said, when I start earning more money I will start budgeting or start saving? I can imagine quite a few people to be honest. 

I’m going to share my 10 easy ways to save money using your current paycheck.

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Remember even the janitor can leave the rat race and become financially free in Robert Kiyosaki’s Cashflow board game, so there’s no reason why you can’t. It’s just about following some simple strategies: 

1. Budget; Work out all your incoming and outgoing expenses. 
2. Create saving goals
3. Decide what your ‘necessities’ and ‘nice to haves’ are.
4. Review and re-evaluate all your outgoings
5. Open several check and savings accounts 
6. Pay yourself first 
7. Review your Annual Calendar
8. Set yourself No Spend Days or Weeks
9. Use Cashback, Voucher and Money Saving Apps and Websites
10. Observe your behaviour

I have gone into further detail below, so continue reading for some fantastic life and saving hacks. 

Budget!

Workout what money you have coming in and what money you have coming out.

 Download our Annual Budget Template to help you with this step. You can start using a spreadsheet but if you are more comfortable with a pen and a piece of paper then use that. There is no right or wrong way of doing it. I prefer using the spreadsheet as I can play around with the figures and the spreadsheet will instantly update the total amount as I go. You can also use a YNAB or Every Dollar.

Create Savings Goals

What do you want to achieve, financially? Do you want to save £20,000 over the next 5 years to save up for a deposit for a house? Do you want to save some money to take your family to Disney World? 

Once you have figured out your why, you can then break that goal down into bite sized pieces; so you will need to save £333.33 per month for the next 5 years to hit your £20,000 goal. It doesn’t sound so bad when you put it like that, does it?

Decide What Your ‘Necessities’ and ‘Nice To Haves’ Are

In an ideal world, we could afford to live the best lifestyle possible and we don’t have to worry about budgeting, but as it currently stands, we are not million or  billionaires, we must live within our means, which means, we sometimes have to decide what we really need from what we really want. Like we don’t NEED to buy a new outfit every week, or we don’t need to order a takeaway every Friday night, but what we must do is pay for things like rent or mortgage, gas and electric bills, council tax, home insurance and any debt repayments, the ‘necessities.. Anything in the flexible lifestyle category is a ‘nice to have’. 

Review and Re-evaluate All Your Outgoings

 If you only earn £2,500 per month but your current outgoings/savings etc are £3,000 then you must start cutting things down or out. Do you use that gym membership you have been paying for, for the past 6 months? Can you cut down how much you dine out? Can you switch your £40.00 per month phone contract to a SIM ONLY £20.00 per month tariff? Continue reviewing every expense going out until you are within budget.

Check out Look After My Bills, successfully featured on Dragons Den (the UK version of Shark Tank),  they offer a free auto switching service on your energy bills .. forever! They make the switching super easy for you, you can sign up, even if your current deal hasn’t ended. Once your deal has ended, they will automatically find the best deal for you. You’ll never have to think about switching ever again, it’s brilliant.

Open Several Checking and Savings Accounts 

This is something a lot of people on their financial independence journey does. Jordan Page from Fun Cheap or Free recommends having at least 7 different bank accounts… yes that’s at least 7!

For the best currents account deals visit moneysupermarket.com. 

Gone are the days were banks give you money for switching but most banks offer incentives for switching. There are so many banks that will reward you for using their bank. 

Set Up Standing Orders To Savings and Investing Accounts

This is also known as paying yourself first. 

As soon as your paycheck hits your bank, a standing order of 5-15% of that paycheck needs to automatically be sent to your saving and investing accounts. This way you can guarantee you hit your saving and investing goals.

Review Your Annual Calendar

A great way to get ahead is to review your calendar. Write down all social occasions, people’s birthdays, when you car insurance, MOT, car tax etc is due. Don’t forget to include Christmas. These are all called sinking funds.

Set up standing orders to cover your sinking funds and like your savings and investing account(s) you also need another bank account.

Here is a great calendar for you to plan your weeks and months of occasions and bills coming up.  

Set Yourself No Spend Days or Weeks (or years)

Setting yourself no spend days is a great way to save some extra cash. At the beginning of each week review your calendar and decide which days of the week you are going to have a no spend day. Start with a no spend day for guaranteed success, then you can work up to a no spend week or even month. There are thousands of people who do no spend years … I am not one of those people, I could do a no spend week but not a year. It’s too extreme in my opinion. 

Use Cashback, Voucher and Money Saving Apps and Websites

Gosh, there are countless cashback, voucher and saving apps and websites available. Refuse to pay for anything in full, unless you really have to. 

I use apps like Quidco, Topcashback and Honey.

Quidco and Topcashback offer a percentage of your money back via cashback for any of your online purchases. Can you also do it with most of your utility bills and car insurance. I received £25.00 cashback on an annual car insurance policy via Quidco. 

Another great hack is to use company referral programs when possible. I switched energy suppliers when I moved house a few months ago, my dad recommended me to So Energy and we both received £40.00 credit in our accounts. I was going to go with So Energy anyway as they had the best deal on the market and the fact that I could receive money for signing up was simply a delightful bonus. 

I could dedicate a whole article on this topic alone. 

Observe Your Behaviour 

Figure out what triggers you into emotionally spending money and tackle it head on. 

Is your Achilles heel shopping online after a very stressful day at work, or do you order a takeaway after a long hard week? Once you know your triggers you can prepare and plan for when it happens again. 

We often aren’t aware of our triggers until we put our focus and attention onto our actions.

A Little Bonus Tip

A great way to manage your money is by using Dave Ramsey’s Cash Envelope System.

Each envelope represents a category in your budget, for example, you will have  grocery, fuel, beauty and a ‘fun money’ envelopes. This is a very basic but effective way of tracking your spending. 

So there you have it, my 10 ways to easily save money using your current paycheck.

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When trying to stick to a budget and your financial independence journey, occasions like Valentines Day or even date night can feel a little stressful. You don’t need to cave into peer pressure and do these overly expensive lavish things to show your partner that you love them. A nice meal and a trip to the cinema (including drinks and snacks) could end up costing you over £75.00, plus anything gifts you buy each other. It’s insane.

You don’t need to bankrupt yourself to show others how you feel and if you think you do … maybe you’re not with the best person for you.

Emma Woodhouse

Here are my 19 cheap and frugal date ideas

Going Out

1.Go out for breakfast or brunch. A large breakfast at Wetherspoons will cost you £5.29pp, and that includes a drink. So a meal out for two will only set you back just over £10.00.

2. Rent a rowing boat. It’ll be funny as hell, especially if you end up rowing in circles, which is something I would end up doing, and you can bring a picnic. 
 

3. Go for a walk. Visiting a local park and walking in the country is not only a romantic date idea but also great for your spirit. 

4. Go for a run together. This might sound like an odd one, and I used to think that. My boyfriend told me that he had a running date as the first date with a girl before he met me. If someone asked me to go for a run on a first date, I would say hell no. I can’t look all pretty sweating and gasping for breath. But if you have been with your partner a while, I think it’s a lovely thing to do together. You can encourage and motivate each other. For an added bonus, once you’ve completed your run, you can go out for breakfast together. That’s two ideas in one!

5. Go camping. Need a little quiet time away from the kids? Camping can cost as little as £15 at a campsite per night. 

6. Visit an open garden. Visiting an open garden is a lovely thing to do, especially in the Spring and Summer. You get to walk around a strangers garden for free and get inspiration for your own garden. 

7. Go feed the ducks. Spending time in nature is always good for the soul. You can buy a bag of seeds for as little as 50p.

8. Go to the cinema. Compare The Market offer 2-4-1 cinema tickets for a whole year when you buy a qualifying product through their website. This could be car or home insurance, travel insurance, switching your tv and broadband provider and even switching energy suppliers. There are so many products to choose from comparethemarket.com.  

9. Go out for a meal with meerkat movies (2-4-1). Depending on where you live in the UK, you will have access to countless restaurants that offer 2-4-1 on starters, mains and desserts using Meerkat Meals. Another alternative to Meerkat Meals is buying a tastecard

A quick tip:  if you buy a tastecard through Top Cashback you will receive up to £8.00 cashback. Tastecard currently has a promotion on where you can try it out for 60 days for just £1.00. Imagine all the yummy low-cost meals you could have within that 60-day window. Once the 60 days are over, you can choose to renew or cancel. 

Staying in together

1.Cook your better half breakfast in bed. There’s nothing more romantic than waking up to breakfast in bed. and guys you will get a lot of points from your special lady if you do this … trust me.

2. Make a meal together. Cooking a meal with your better half is a great way to spend quality time together. You can try a new recipe or split who cooks which course and you can surprise each other. 

3. Have a floor picnic. You don’t need good weather to have a floor picnic. You can have one on the floor of your living room. 

4. Make cocktails together. It’s SO much cheaper than going out to a cocktail bar. 

5. Have a BBQ. Weather permitting, depending on where in the world you live.

6. Strip poker. Fun and a little naughty. 

7. Binge watch a series on Netflix or Amazon Prime. Gosh, there are so many series available on Netflix and Amazon Prime. You will have hours of fun readily available for a minimum of £8.99 per month. Already cheaper than going to the cinema.

Quick Tip: To get a 30 day FREE trial on Amazon Prime Click Here (UK)

Double Dating

1.Have a dinner party – Come Dine With Me style cooking or everyone brings a dish. Everyone can either chip in £10.00, and you buy the ingredients and cook, or everyone invited to the dinner party brings a dish for a selected course. You will get a three-course dinner for a fraction of the cost.

2. Play on the Wii, e.g., Wii bowling, golf etc. I do this regularly when other couple friends. It’s such a laugh and a great way to spend a Saturday night. 

3. Play board games. OMG, my current fave is Articulate. We had friends round at the weekend and OMG, it was so much fun. A complete icebreaker as well.

Remember you don’t need to spend a lot of money to have a fun and memorable date night. Remember these suggestions are cheap and sticking to your budget if the number 1 goal. So doing something cheap and fun doesn’t have to be boring. I have offered plenty of fun and guilt-free suggestions.

Looking to start a budget? Simply download our FREE Budget Template or sign up to YNAB if you are looking for another alternative.

Let me know in the comments your favourite low-cost date night activity.

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