Money-saving tips to help you spend less - YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Sign in Welcome!Log into your account Forgot your password? Password recovery Recover your password Search Sign in Welcome! Log into your account Forgot your password? Get help Password recovery Recover your password A password will be e-mailed to you. YOU Magazine Fashion Beauty Celebrity Health Life Relationships Horoscopes Food Interiors Travel Home Life Money-saving experts share their top tips for easy ways to save money By Sophie Hines - March 8, 2022 As anyone who’s done a big supermarket shop, bought train tickets or paid a heating bill recently will know, prices are going up. While this is awful for news for those on the poverty line, it’s pretty alarming for almost everyone on a normal salary, and as a result many of us are look for ways to cut back and be smarter with our money. Luckily, there are plenty of money-saving gurus out there, offering practical, relatable advice when it comes to our finances. We spoke to three top money experts to find out easy ways to make your cash go further. Getty Top tips for spending less and saving more Clare Seal, author of Five Steps to Financial Wellbeing If you shop too much… Identify your spending triggers. Do you shop mindlessly when you’re bored or lonely? When you’ve had a terrible day at work? If you can work out WHY you’re spending, you can start to put barriers in place, like a phone curfew or deleting your card details from your devices. Avoid late payment or overdraft fees… Automate as much as you possibly can – we all have a lot on our minds and it’s so easy to miss a payment on your credit card or forget to transfer money to savings, both of which can be costly mistakes. Set up direct debits and standing orders, or even look into using an autosaving app to set money aside Get money back on your purchases Always see if you can get cash back, especially on things like insurance. Use apps like Quidco or TopCashback for purchases you were going to make anyway, and you can build up big sums in no time, which you can then withdraw to spend or save as you want to. Makala Green, author of The Money Edit (available for pre-order) Try to save first spend second Pay yourself first. If you do this simple trick, it will surely set you on the path to financial freedom. Ideally, you want your savings to form part of your essential expenses, so saving before spending becomes a natural habit. Try setting up a standing order for a set amount each month, ideally the day after your pay date and just watch your savings stack up! Getty Remix the 50 20 30 rule A popular flexible approach to budgeting follows the method of 50% towards essential expenses (mortgage, rent, bills and debt), 30% goes towards enjoyable expenses (eating out and socialising) and 20% towards your future (building an emergency fund, pensions and investing). Instead, if possible you can flip it and focus on 30% towards your future and 20% for fun. Just watch how quickly you achieve your goals, and your future self will thank you. Avoid paying interest on your credit card debt If you’ve got debt that needs clearing, you can put this simple strategy in place to help you get rid of it. Don’t panic if you haven’t got a handy lump sum tucked away to pay off your debt in full. You can achieve the same result by transferring the debt to a 0% balance credit card (*some cards charge a balance transfer fee). This way, you avoid paying interest for a fixed period (normally up to 30 months). You can most certainly clear your debt a lot quicker, and it won’t cost you as much, which means you can clear debts and save money at the same time– it’s a win-win! Laura, blogger at Thrifty Londoner Shop second hand Opting for second hand clothing, furniture and homeware can save you so much money. Charity shops and second hand stores can often offer a boutique-like experience. Give it a try! Getty Share out your skills Swap skills with friends and family members. Maybe your friend is great with a sewing machine and your a dab hand at cakes? They can take up your curtains while you bake a cake for their child’s birthday party. If you live in or around London… … And have a railcard, add it to your Oyster card to save a third on off-peak tube services. 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