Let’s talk about saving money! - Some tips for saving your pennies.

Hi Everyone,

I hope you’re all well! I thought I’d talk to you about saving money. Not many people like to talk about their finances but this more about saving for things such as a wedding, birthdays, Christmas or a family holiday.

It’s hard to save money isn’t it. Something always comes along unexpected that you need to fork out for which means it takes even longer to save for the things you REALLY want.

For us personally we would like to save up to get married as we have been engaged for quite a while (kids are expensive you know!). We would also like to save up to go on holiday, especially abroad as we have never been abroad with our children before. – Even better if we get to have an overseas wedding, a holiday and a wedding rolled into one.

Some things I like to do to save money include;

Meal Planning – Checking the fridge, freezer and cupboard first to see if there are things to use up. Borrowing my mums cook books or looking online for some meal inspiration for the week ahead.

Bargain shopping – I tend to shop around either in store or online to see where I can get the best deals. I love a good sale and if I can find a discount code then I’m a happy mama! For food shops I alternate between Aldi, Tesco and Costco. Costco is great for bulk buys as it often works out cheaper to buy it this way. I always get good deals from Aldi and also Tesco. Keep an eye out for the yellow or red stickers, you could bag even more of a bargain. Amazon is good for saving money and if you choose something from Amazon warehouse deals you can get some brilliant products at a fantastic price – similarly, eBay is also great for grabbing a bargain especially if you can find an eBay promo code on the Raise website.

Using cash back websites – In the past few years I’ve made over £500 of extra cash just by shopping through cash back websites. You can get some really good cash back deals on things like mobile phones, insurance, utilities and tv and internet packages. As well as cash back for small purchases such as clothes or takeaways.

Putting money away in ISA’s or saving accounts – If you’re like me then you might have quite a few accounts linked to your card for rent, holidays or savings. It’s always good to have a little bit put away for a rainy day or for something special.

Pigly – Now I’m not the best at maths so I have found a free to use website that can help you figure out your finances. It has some really great calculators that can help you decide how much to save per month and how long it will take you to achieve your goals. Whether this be for a car, a wedding, education, for the home or to pay off debts.

I’ve found their Savings Calculator particularly helpful as it tells you exactly how long you need to save for, how much to save each month and you can edit all of the numbers on the calculator to figure out what’s right for you and your family.

You simply enter in your savings info and click on the calculate button. The results will be below and I like that you can keep editing to adjust your calculations. This is such a helpful tool and I have saved the link to this on my home screen on my iPhone so I can get to it quickly.