Are you tired of being in debt?
Are you struggling to make ends meet each month because your spending is outweighing your income?
If any of these statements resonate with you, then read on.
If cutting back on your expenses feels like a daunting task, then we’ve put together some of our top tips in this post to help you curb your spending, even when it feels like it can’t be done.
Track your spending
The first step in stopping overspending is to track your spending. For many people, tracking their spending is an eye-opening experience.
In many cases, people discover that they’re spending too much on certain things that they can easily cut back on.
Those daily coffees for a few pounds soon start to mount up, and the numbers can be pretty astounding sometimes.
There are many ways you can go about tracking your spending with simple pen and paper, a digital spreadsheet, or even a dedicated budgeting app.
Whichever way you decide to track your spending, make sure you record all your expenses – even the small ones you don’t think make a difference.
Commit to a budget
Once you’ve tracked your spending and seen where your money is going, you can begin creating a budget. Creating a budget is the best way to ensure that you’re spending less than you earn each month.
A budget is an estimate of your income and expenses for a given period of time, such as a month, quarter, or year.
The key to creating a successful budget is to make sure it’s realistic. It’s important to take your current financial situation into consideration when creating your budget. If you’re in debt, you may want to consider creating a debt repayment budget. This will allow you to funnel extra money towards your debts so that you can pay them off faster, and leave you more available cash each month.
Stop paying unnecessary expenses
This step is all about being honest with yourself. It’s about identifying your unnecessary expenses, because there are bound to be quite a lot.
One way to identify your unnecessary expenses is to write down your current expenses and compare them to your past expenses. What has changed?
For example, are you still paying for a gym membership even though you haven’t been in months? Are you still paying for the highest Netflix tier, even though you only need the lower one?
If you can identify your unnecessary expenses, you can eliminate them and free up some extra money.
Consolidate your debts
If you’re in debt, you may want to consider consolidating your debts.
This is when you combine all your existing debts into one monthly payment.
You have the new consolidation loan repaid over a set period of time, and then you pay off your other debts with the money you save from having a lower monthly payment.
If you’re looking for more help or advice on budgeting or dealing with the increased cost of living, our friendly, professional team are on hand to answer any questions you have.
Alternatively, if you need advice specific to your situation, get in touch with us today, and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you have.
