It is essential to draw up a list of income and outgoings. Taking your outgoings away from your net income will give you the figure you have left to meet other needs; it may not be a lot but it gives you a starting point from which to work, and can highlight areas in which you can economise. For example, on a working day, you may wish to buy lunch from the nearest supermarket but this could cost around £5 per day. You could reduce this significantly, actually saving over £1,000 a year, by making the effort to prepare sandwiches at home.

Paying regular utility bills by direct debit saves money because most companies will give you a discount for paying by this method.  Equally, paying bills on time will prevent extra charges being made.  Certain bills, unfortunately, just cannot be avoided because we all need to live to a decent standard

A great way of ensuring that you waste as little as possible is to keep your shopping trips to the minimum; this reduces the temptation to waste money on non-essential items but also cuts down on fuel and transport costs.

You work hard for your money so make it work hard for you.

1. Bring your own lunch instead of buying sandwiches. This will fatten your wallet and thin your waist. Shop sandwiches are often unhealthy and always more expensive. Try keeping an empty water bottle with you that you can fill up from the tap to avoid paying a pound for mineral water.
2. If you a big coffee addict try keeping sachets of instant coffee with you at work. Microground instant coffee can be almost as nice as the real deal and certainly its cheaper than Starbucks.
3. Walk or cycle to work, or into town if you are going shopping. This way you can save heaps of money from bus fares and parking machines.
4. If you are a big texter try signing up to online services which offer free text messages to UK mobiles. This will save you money on texts and its much easier to write a message on a proper keyboard.
5. If you need to send somebody a card, try making one. Use a funny picture from a family holiday, or draw one of your own. People will appreciate the homemade touch and you can save the money from the card to get them a better present or send it first class!

Most of the time we can save money with just a little bit of effort and if done regularly enough this can make an impact! You don’t have to stop leaving tips for the waiter in restaurants to save money on a daily basis!

When they get pocket money, encourage them to save a little each week. Then tell them about bank accounts; make it fun, tell them “when you put pennies in the bank, then you get more pennies back.”

Explain about savings accounts and where they can find the best rates by checking newspapers or online. Explain how their money will earn interest. And especially tell them about the sense of security if they have some money saved.

You’ve told them the good news about interest on savings, now is the time to explain how interest works the other way ….. when someone is in debt. Tell them how interest is added …… and at a much higher percent than on a savings account ……. and how the debt can spiral out of control.

If you instil in your children the need to save, put some money aside, then they should be off to a brilliant start.

There are many things that you can do to get you started.

• How about looking at the interest rates on credit cards. Is it possible to switch these over to something that is 0% and stop you wasting money on just paying off the interest which can take years to clear off the balance?

• Earning more money is also a good way to chuck some extra money at the debts to get them paid off quicker. How about extra shifts, a second job or even selling unwanted items on the internet. It can be hard work but remember your aim – to be debt free. It can help setting yourself a goal and give yourself something to work towards.

• Something that is definitely worthwhile doing is drawing up a list of all your incomes and out goings. This way you can pin point areas which may need a bit of work and help to save any money which you can throw at the debt. A budget for food etc can stop any wastage. Also it is a good idea to work out which debts need the most attention, these are usually the ones with the high interest.

The first thing you need to do is set a realistic household budget. List all things you have to spend money on i.e. Gas – Electric, mortgage, then list all the things you want to spend money on. The goal is to separate between ‘Need’ and ‘Want’ for example you ‘need’ to eat or you ‘want’ that new CD. I would also thoroughly recommend using an online money management program to track your spending and help you get a bigger picture of your finances. Read my post on Kublax if you’d like more information.

The idea is to look at you outgoings and see where you can make cut backs, set yourself a shopping budget for food. Some examples of how to save money on groceries and household bills are as follows:

1. Ask your supermarket what time they mark down there products, and purchase these when they are cheaper. Most things can be frozen to restore the sell by date.

2. Grow your own vegetables and fruit allot cheaper than buying.

3. Use price comparisons sites to check you are not paying to much for your gas – electric or mortgage.

4. Check with your energy supplier to see if you have an economy setting, do you washing etc in the evening as it is cheaper.

5. Take a shower instead of a bath, its cheaper.

6. Do you really need the heating on? Can you just put on another layer of clothing?

7. Hang clothes to dry on a rainy day indoors over the bath or use a clothes airer, it’s cheaper than the tumble dryer or radiators.

8. Use natural products for cleaning its cheaper and better for your health!! eg. Vinegar for cleaning windows.

Overall just think about ways to do things on the cheap. Research is rewarding and you will be saving money and getting out of debt. I’m always reading brilliant blogs on frugality such as Almost Frugal.

As my wise mother told me as a kid – If you look after the pennies, the pounds will loook after themselves.

This doesn’t necessarily mean giving your child the rights to their university fund before they are ready, or even letting them take money when they want – as this would no doubt start a bad habit that is very likely to lead them into debt. Instead a good idea would be to set up a child account with a bank such as Nationwide or HSBC that gives the child a card to use with their account (a debit card, of course) with a monthly limit on how much they spend. This way they can see their savings grow over time – if they choose to save that is. Pocket money can even be added to this account monthly by standing order straight from your account.

As for schools, It is my personal opinion that ‘citizenship’ and the such should be kept out of schools as it interferes with the teaching of traditional subjects. However an introduction to Economics for children to young to study it may help the country out of the financial grave it is digging in future generations.

If you’ve got an opinion about ways to teach kids to save, let MoneyStand know. From my experience, frugality, managing money and money saving is something valuable to learn as a child, and I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Many people are struggling to keep their heads above water in the current economic downturn. Some have even had to take cut in pay, while their financial commitments have gone up and up.

One solution to the problem is to try and increase your income with extra work. If you already work full-time, you may be able to find a part-time evening job, say, working behind the bar in a pub, stocking supermarket shelves, or, perhaps, office cleaning; these are all jobs that can be carried out in the evenings, and will supplement the money already coming into the household.

Selling unwanted items via an online auction site, is one way of increasing your income. First of all, look around your own home to see if there are any unwanted items. Most families have things stored in attics and spare rooms that will probably never be used again. Start listing them, then research the auction sites to find out what is selling, and the prices they sell for. Of course, no-one has an inexhaustible supply of goods, so you could try asking around other family members, to see if they have items they no longer need.

For those people who are skilled at crafts such as knitting, crochet, sewing, card-making and so on, there are sites available nowadays that enable you to open your own online shop, to sell the items you make like Etsy. There is usually a small fee for selling, but you will not have to find premises or staff, so the earnings could be quite considerable. Similarly, if you are good at writing verse and poems, or drawing and painting, you may be able to offer your work to greetings-card companies. You will generally have to write to ask the company for their guidelines first, then submit a sample of your work.

All these are ways to potentially increase your income. By trying one that suits you, you may be surprised at how much extra money you could earn.

Kublax Expenditure Graphs

I’ve been looking for a way to monitor my expenses online to help me see the ‘bigger picture’ of my finances for a while now. Despite budgeting and generally being quite frugal, I started looking for a program that could take some of the work out of budgeting for me so I can spend more time actually figuring out where I should be cutting back. That’s when I found Kublax.

I’ve tested the site and have to say, I’ve enjoyed using it. I found it more user friendly than Wesabe (I got frustrated just trying to upload my account!) and particularly like their ‘people like you’ functionality that gives you an idea of what other people spend on the same expenses.

Kublax is a free to use online money management platform that basically aggregates all your bank accounts in one place. Using bank level security, Kublax pulls together bank, credit cards and building society accounts and then divides all your purchases into an expense category. It’s a lot easier than other desktop accounting tools I’ve tried, and really easy to read, as you can view your finances in bar graphs and pie charts.

I started off by adding my accounts and setting my budgets and alerts to let me know if I start spending more than I would like to in a certain area. Once I’d gone into the transaction section and categorized my expenses, the magic started happening. I could then see my budget against my spending and revelations where made. I spend a lot more on shoes than I thought I did.

Kublax Money Management Tools

By using the ‘compare me’ function, I also discovered that I spend a lot more on shoes than the average other Kublax users. Another revelation.

The other feature of Kublax I think is great is the alerts function. At first I thought it would probably be an annoying function, telling me that I’ve overspent on shoes each day, and lets be honest, I already have my partner to tell me that. However, what this function could really be good for is alerting you to any unusual account activity.

If you’ve ever got that dreaded call from the bank, asking you if you’ve just spent a ridiculous amount on car rental in the Maldives on your credit card while you sit in dreary ole England, you’ll know that sick feeling in the pit your stomach. The alert function means that Kublax will tell you of any irregularity, most likely before your bank has called you.

Overall, I like it. I like that it makes me more aware of my spending habits, and that it makes me actually want to log in once a week to see how I’m going financially. Now, I just have to make myself cut back on shoes.

Charges for essentials, like insurance, and utilities, such as electricity, telephone, and gas, have increased a great deal over the last two years. Now is a good time to find out if you are paying the lowest prices possible. Today, there are many websites which compare the different tariffs and charges of major energy and insurance providers. By simply inputting your current details, you will be able to find out if it is worth switching to a new company. At the moment, all the well-known companies are fighting for your custom. You may find only small savings with each one, but the overall amount per year could be significant.

The cost of basic food items has also increased considerably recently. Although the supermarkets make some effort to provide bargains to tempt you to spend, there are ways of reducing the amount you pay at the till. For instance, for every big-name brand you currently buy, try a lower-priced item, say, the supermarket’s own-brand, or their ‘value’ range. By saving a few pence per item, over the course of a week, you will have saved a few pounds – far better kept in your pocket than in the supermarket’s tills.

Another tip is to plan your meals for the week ahead, list all the ingredients needed on your shopping list, and shop only for those particular items. Stick to the list, and you will not be so easily tempted to overspend. You will also be surprised at how little you throw away at the end of the week.

By following these frugal tips, you will see a real difference in your spending habits, as well as the amount of money you have left at the end of the month.

Insure your income
Insuring your income is a great idea during a recession as if you lose your job the insurance can cover payments on your mortgage for up to a year. The Government will also help homeowners who lose their jobs by paying the interest on mortgages of up to £200,000 from the 13th week after being made redundant. Mortgage protection can cover your repayments but make sure you check the small print as they have very specific terms.

Get a good credit card
Card issuers are pushing up their prices and also reducing their interest free periods so it is vital that you pay off consumer and credit card debts. Switching to a cheaper card is normally the best option and if you’re not in debt then have a think about switching to a cash back card that will give you back a percentage of the money you spend. If you are getting squeezed by those credit card companies and in need of debt help then make sure you shop around wisely for the best options as the recession is limiting them and debt help can be harder to come by.

Overpay your mortgage
If you can afford it then try to overpay your mortgage, Not only will this cut the term of your mortgage considerable and save you lots of money in the long run but will also means that if you do run into difficulties then you can take a payment holiday.

Change your savings
Savings rates have dropped dramatically with them being at the lowest in the history of saving, but there are still accounts that give you more than the base rate. There are still accounts out there that give 4% which is not too far away from the 6-8% we were getting last summer.

Get better insurance
Insurance is a necessity and you can always get cheaper and better insurance for your home/car. All you have to do is not accept that renewal quote, use comparisons sites or call your insurer and tell them you’re leaving as you’ve found a better bargain. They will offer you a better deal, and you can always haggle with them a bit more to get that low price. The same works for Sky TV and mobile phones just call them up and say you don’t want it anymore and they will lower their price to keep you.