August 14, 2024 • 15 mins
With higher living costs, it can be hard to feel in control of your budget. But there are clever ways to rethink your spending and save cash.
Here to the rescue is financial educator Charlotte Jessop from Looking After your Pennies. Charlotte joins our host Kia Commodore to talk through easy ways to trim your day-to-day spending, good budgeting habits and what to do if you overspend.
Cutbacks big and small all make a difference and will help get you get a little bit richer.
You can play the podcast and find other useful content on Legal & General’s website:
https://www.legalandgeneral.com/podcasts/a-little-bit-richer
You can follow Charlotte for more budgeting tips on social media:
Instagram @lookingafteryourpennies
TikTok @lookingafteryourpennies
A Little Bit Richer is taking a short summer break and will return with more great content on September 12th.
Kia and her guests share their own personal thoughts and opinions in this podcast. These might be different from Legal & General’s take on things. They give financial guidance for a UK audience that’s relevant at the time of recording. It’s general best practice, not the kind of personalised advice you’d get from a financial adviser.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kia (00:02):
Hey, Kia here. The cost of living has made everything
so much more expensive. Not just the price of things
that we buy regularly, but our more significant outgoings too.
Energy bills, rent and mortgages have seen some huge increases.
With everything seemingly on the rise, knowing how you can
cut back to make your money stretch even further is
(00:22):
something that we all need to know. Welcome to another
episode of a Little Bit Richer, brought to you by
my friends at Legal & General. Here to help us with
the top tips to trim your spending is Charlotte Jessop.
Charlotte is a financial educator, writer and vlogger, and the woman
behind the Looking After your Pennies platform. While working as
(00:42):
a maths teacher, Charlotte noticed a gap in the education
system around personal finance skills. She shared her own experiences
with money online, which led to a recognition that poor
financial education is a national, even global problem. Welcome, Charlotte.
Charlotte (00:57):
Hello. Thank you for having me.
Kia (00:59):
Thank you for coming on. I'm really excited to delve
deeper into how we can trim back our spending. So
first things first, let's touch on day- to- day spending.
So, can you share some ideas on trimming your spending
when it comes to food?
Charlotte (01:13):
I don't think there's any other part of our lives
where you get this intersection where you are dealing with
your finances, your health, and also your time management as
well. Because when you go food shopping, you're looking for
things that are going to nourish your body, but they
also have to stay in budget and they also have
to not take too long to cook because you're busy.
(01:35):
Then yes, it is one of those things that we
can control a little bit more with our spending. We
have a choice about how much it costs, but also
it is a mammoth task. So, some of the things
that I recommend people do are things like meal planning.
So, sit down and decide what you want to eat
for the week, and sometimes that restriction, that can be
(01:57):
a little bit controlling for some people. Actually for me,
I just like the freedom of going, " What we're having
today? Oh look, we're having chicken nuggets and chips," or
whatever it is. And the benefit of doing this is
you can think about what you need to buy. You
can also think about what time constraints you might have.
So, if I go out to the shops and I
buy something that's going to take two hours to prepare,
that's going to sit in the fridge and go to
(02:17):
waste. Whereas if I go, actually this needs to be
a quick in the oven, 15 minute (inaudible) , then
I know I've got that on the menu. So, that
really helps reduce things like food waste and keeps the
cost down. Other things like just choosing your supermarket wisely.
Some supermarkets are cheaper than others and this is widely
acknowledged. Do a little bit of shopping around. I also
(02:39):
do want to acknowledge that I live in Norfolk and
sometimes you don't get a choice about what supermarket you
can shop. But yeah, I think just being a little
bit of aware of things like the pricing. All the
tickets these days have to have how much it costs
per kilo or per hundred mil, or whatever it is.
So, you can make a little bit of a comparison
when you're in the shops itself. The things on the
(02:59):
end aisles might look cheaper, but they're not necessarily, they're
just the promotions. So, take your time with some of
these things. I'm a big fan of having my shopping
delivered, and this is mostly because I then have the
freedom to shop around and compare prices. And one trick
that I really like, and I use this when I'm
(03:19):
doing my meal planning, is I will go online and
look at the supermarket's pricing and go, " Oh actually, what's
on offer?" Because sometimes chicken might be on offer that
week and that's a really good price, whereas I was
thinking about having pork chops or something, but actually the
chicken might be cheaper. So, I can combine the two things
and create meals around what's cheaper that week. So, just
(03:43):
tweaking some of these things can help shave off a
few pounds off your food bill each week.
Kia (03:48):
Absolutely. I think one big thing that my dad got
me into before I went to university and that I still
do today, and that he loves to do is the
yellow stickers. Because it does feel like sometimes everything's always
on the rise, but there are so many different ways
that you can bring down that spending.
Charlotte (04:01):
Absolutely.
Kia (04:02):
When it comes to treat spending, because I think this is
a big thing, as people life is very stressful. You
want to spend some money and treat yourself, but what
are some ways that we can make sure that we're
not just splashing the cash, but we're actually being a
bit more measured with our treat spending?
Charlotte (04:20):
So I think one of the things that I love
to do here is actually pre- determine what I want
my treats to be, because we can get caught up
in the moment. So, I like to set a list
of things that actually mean something to me. So, I
have various hobbies like paddleboarding and I like eating out,
(04:40):
and I like travel. So, I'm trying to make sure
that if I'm going to treat myself, it's on something
that actually is meaningful to me and I'm not just
trying to fill in a gap and an emotional splurge,
but also budgeting that in, allowing that to be part
of your spending. So many people that I see when
(05:01):
they are preparing a budget or they're sitting down there,
they've got a spreadsheet or they've got an app, and
they've planned out what they want to spend their money
on, they remove all of the fun, and that makes
it hard work to stick to a budget, instead if
you allow some of those things to be in your
budget. So, if you want to takeaway, put a little
bit of a takeaway buffer in there. The point of
(05:23):
life isn't just to sit in your house bored.
Kia (05:26):
No, it's not. I completely agree. I've had a treat
yourself fund, that's what I call it, for ages now. So, when I
see something I don't feel bad. I can spend and say, "
Okay, it's within my budget. I've got X amount set
aside. I can buy this." So, let's talk more about
budgeting then. What can people do when it comes to
making more significant cutbacks to their spending and their budgets?
Charlotte (05:46):
Yeah, so we've talked about things like food shopping. We've
talked about those treats and reducing those things, but actually
these are smaller tweaks. What we want to do is
look at some of the more significant purchases we are
making in our lives and see what changes we can
make there. So, I have a budget spreadsheet, I have
(06:06):
all my outgoings, all my income. And what I do
is I look, and I'll highlight maybe a category on there.
So, it might be like my electricity bill and I'll
be like, I'm coming for you electricity bill, and that
month I'll work on how I can reduce that. And
that might mean I switch my provider or it might
mean that I look at ways that I can reduce my
(06:29):
spending around the house. Look at those big expenses that
we have in our lives, rent, mortgage, all of our
utilities. Here is where we can make the big difference.
So, things like if your mortgage is out of your
fixed deal, go speak to a mortgage advisor, speak to
them and try and get a deal that maybe lowers
some of those payments. All of these things are very
(06:49):
much worth looking at and trying to reduce. Because ultimately,
if my mortgage costs me less, I still get the
same quality of life. I'm still living in the same
house, it's just my mortgage is costing me less. Same
with my electricity. So, these are less about lifestyle choices
and just significant financial changes, and they can make a
(07:11):
real difference to your budget.
Kia (07:12):
I think there's a key thing that you said there,
is that to speak to someone. So, I drive and
I have my car. Every year, I do not renew
my insurance or go over new insurer without picking up
the phone and see if I can get the best
deal. I think that is a very key one that you mentioned
there. Just pick up the phone and speak to someone.
And if they don't give you one, you're no worse off.
Charlotte (07:30):
Yeah, absolutely.
Kia (07:31):
And I think often a lot of people have this
consensus that, oh, I'm just bad with money, because they
feel as though they have no control over how they
spend their money. So, what would be some of your
tips when it comes to actually controlling how much you spend?
Charlotte (07:47):
I think you need to start with an awareness of
what you're spending. A lot of people jump straight in
with trying to just cut out all unnecessary expenditure. And
what there needs to be is a period of reflection.
What are you currently spending your money on? And I
can speak to this, because a couple of months ago
(08:08):
I realized that there was certain areas I was like,
how is this costing me this much? And so, I
reflected a little bit on where my money was going
and I'm shifting in my seat, because there was some
almost embarrassing, there was some online shopping that came in
to 400 pounds. It wasn't like I was like, " Oh,
(08:29):
I have 400 quid's worth of stuff." Off the back of
it, it was, " Oh, well where did that go?" And
there were little trips down to the local shop for top-
up shops. This was not my grocery shopping, this was
just the odd, we'll need a pint of milk and
a chocolate bar, and this and that. So, I needed
to start from the point of, this is where my
(08:51):
money is going and why is that happening? What am
I not doing? So, things like those top- up shops,
I was like, well, what is it that I'm getting?
What is it that I'm not getting on my weekly
shop that I feel the need to go down to
little Tesco for in order to get every couple of
days? And then, I was able to make a change
(09:12):
to my habits. I wasn't able to make a change to
my grocery shopping and go, " Oh, okay, I need to
buy more milk." I was like, I'm running out of milk,
but if I just got six pints a week rather
than four, that's going to fix my problem and then
I don't have to go down the shop. So, control
and spending isn't about completely eliminating some of these things
that you're doing. It's about just having an awareness of
(09:34):
why, and that's when you start feeling a little bit
more in control. So, I don't recommend that anybody goes
cold turkey on changing their financial habits around their spending.
Instead just reflect, go through this period of understanding where
you're at now and looking for areas where you can
(09:54):
make improvements. And it might be that I allowed myself,
for example, one trip down to the shop and then
that change was enough to let me go, "Well actually, I
don't need to go anyway." It was just a little
outing. And making those smaller steps is much better than
trying to make one huge leap to something that feels
(10:14):
a long way off.
Kia (10:15):
I think those small steps just feel more achievable and
more attainable and they keep you motivated on that journey,
and it gets you building up that good habit. So
speaking of habits, I want to ask you, what are
some good or positive spending habits? We've spoken about things
to be aware of, but what are some good ones
that we can make sure that we're enforcing?
Charlotte (10:37):
Yeah, so I think when it comes to positive habits, having
a budget, any budget is a great place to start,
because this isn't just about your own financial awareness. It's
about knowing what you have coming in, and income is
just as important as spending, but also things like seeing
(10:57):
where your money is going. Knowing it's so easy to
get those little subscriptions crop up. So, having a budget
that is all encompassing with your spending is an absolute
place to start. The next habit that follows on from
that is making sure that you actually bother to look
at it.
Kia (11:14):
That's a crucial one. Don't just make it and leave it,
make sure you're referring back to it.
Charlotte (11:17):
You need to be able to check in with that. It
needs to be a functioning document, something that adapts and
changes. I think another one is to just have that
knowledge around your own wants and needs as well. So,
when it comes to spending, I always sit there and go, "
I know I want this, but does it align with
my bigger vision for myself?" Do I want this meal out
(11:40):
because I can't be bothered to cook, or can I
just shove a pizza in the oven and then actually
that can go in my holiday fund, because I want
the holiday more than I want this meal out today."
So, just knowing what you're trying to achieve, and having
goals and being clear about where you're trying to head
with your finances, can really help you keep on track
with your spending. And this was huge for me. I
(12:01):
went traveling with my kids a few years ago, and
that was literally knowing that we were going away and
knowing that we needed some money for that really helped me.
Kia (12:10):
I agree. I think having a clear goal keeps you
on track and just keeps you focused. But let's talk
about when things don't always go to plan, especially when
it comes to budgeting. What would be some easy ways
that we can correct that and get back on track
with our budgeting and spending?
Charlotte (12:27):
I think one of the key points here is not
to be too hard on yourself. If you're hard on
yourself because you've overspent, normally that leads to further overspending.
It's so easy to draw parallels with the world of
health and fitness. You have a cheeky muffin and you're
trying to lose weight, and then you're suddenly like, " Oh
well, I've messed that up. I might as well have a McDonald's."
(12:49):
And it's the same when it comes to our money,
so just be like, " Whoops."
Kia (12:53):
It happened. We can draw a line under it.
Charlotte (12:55):
Exactly. So just be gentle. Be kind on yourself. And
I think then the next thing is to actually think
about your budget in terms of monthly or longer term
progress. So, let's say you set a budget, week one
of the month it all goes wrong and you've overspent
a little bit. You don't need to go like, " Well,
next week I've got to spend nothing." You just take
(13:17):
what you've got and you get your calculator out and
you divide it by three and spread it out over
the next three weeks. But actually, that will get you
back on track.
Kia (13:26):
Charlotte, you've been incredible. You've given us some of the
top tips that we need to trim back our spending
and ace budgeting. But before you go, I want to
ask you, what are your top three budgeting hacks?
Charlotte (13:37):
So the first one is to just be gentle on yourself.
We mentioned this already, don't try and over- restrict yourself.
Your budget should be about creating freedom in your life,
and you need to start from a place where you
feel like you are going to actually achieve it. You
don't want to set any rules in your life or
(14:00):
cut back so much that it's not going to be
successful. So, that's the first one. So, the second one
is I love to team up with my friends. So
I had a neighbor, she's moved now, and I'm not going to hold
this against her, but we used to team up on
that bulk purchasing. So, if there was a deal that
was two for one on toilet roll or something, I'd
be like, " Mate, I got you some toilet roll." And
(14:21):
then we'd split the cost, so then-
Kia (14:23):
That's great.
Charlotte (14:23):
... we were getting the benefit of the deal and
actually seeing a reduction in some of our spending. And
we also did things like pressure washers. We both went
halves on one of those, because we knew that we
could share a bit. We wouldn't need it that much.
So, look at big purchases, even look at those little
things like toilet roll and see if you can share
those between family and friends. Now, we started off talking
(14:45):
about food spending as well. One of my favorite things
to do is use food waste apps. So, there were
some examples like Olio and Too Good To Go where
you can either get free or reduced priced food. And
what I love about this is not only the monetary
benefits, you're stopping food waste. And there's a real sense
of community, like local cafes giving away cake or something,
(15:09):
and it's just nice to be a part of that process
and save some money along the way.
Kia (15:13):
Charlotte, you have been an absolute gem on this episode.
Honestly, so many tips that I'm going to go away
and write down and start implementing from today. So, thank
you so much for coming on and blessing us with
your tips on this episode.
Charlotte (15:26):
You are absolutely welcome.
Kia (15:29):
Some great advice there. Thank you so much, Charlotte. So
many ways we can trim our spending and beat the
budget. Next time, we're talking cryptocurrencies. Where to start and
what to be careful of. I'd love it if you
could review the podcast, spread the word, and help others
get a little bit richer too. Keep up with the
show on TikTok and Instagram at Legal & General. Thank you for listening.
(15:52):
See you soon.
Hey, Kia here. The cost of living has made everything
so much more expensive. Not just the price of things
that we buy regularly, but our more significant outgoings too.
Energy bills, rent and mortgages have seen some huge increases.
With everything seemingly on the rise, knowing how you can
cut back to make your money stretch even further is
(00:22):
something that we all need to know. Welcome to another
episode of a Little Bit Richer, brought to you by
my friends at Legal & General. Here to help us with
the top tips to trim your spending is Charlotte Jessop.
Charlotte is a financial educator, writer and vlogger, and the woman
behind the Looking After your Pennies platform. While working as
(00:42):
a maths teacher, Charlotte noticed a gap in the education
system around personal finance skills. She shared her own experiences
with money online, which led to a recognition that poor
financial education is a national, even global problem. Welcome, Charlotte.
Charlotte (00:57):
Hello. Thank you for having me.
Kia (00:59):
Thank you for coming on. I'm really excited to delve
deeper into how we can trim back our spending. So
first things first, let's touch on day- to- day spending.
So, can you share some ideas on trimming your spending
when it comes to food?
Charlotte (01:13):
I don't think there's any other part of our lives
where you get this intersection where you are dealing with
your finances, your health, and also your time management as
well. Because when you go food shopping, you're looking for
things that are going to nourish your body, but they
also have to stay in budget and they also have
to not take too long to cook because you're busy.
(01:35):
Then yes, it is one of those things that we
can control a little bit more with our spending. We
have a choice about how much it costs, but also
it is a mammoth task. So, some of the things
that I recommend people do are things like meal planning.
So, sit down and decide what you want to eat
for the week, and sometimes that restriction, that can be
(01:57):
a little bit controlling for some people. Actually for me,
I just like the freedom of going, " What we're having
today? Oh look, we're having chicken nuggets and chips," or
whatever it is. And the benefit of doing this is
you can think about what you need to buy. You
can also think about what time constraints you might have.
So, if I go out to the shops and I
buy something that's going to take two hours to prepare,
that's going to sit in the fridge and go to
(02:17):
waste. Whereas if I go, actually this needs to be
a quick in the oven, 15 minute (inaudible) , then
I know I've got that on the menu. So, that
really helps reduce things like food waste and keeps the
cost down. Other things like just choosing your supermarket wisely.
Some supermarkets are cheaper than others and this is widely
acknowledged. Do a little bit of shopping around. I also
(02:39):
do want to acknowledge that I live in Norfolk and
sometimes you don't get a choice about what supermarket you
can shop. But yeah, I think just being a little
bit of aware of things like the pricing. All the
tickets these days have to have how much it costs
per kilo or per hundred mil, or whatever it is.
So, you can make a little bit of a comparison
when you're in the shops itself. The things on the
(02:59):
end aisles might look cheaper, but they're not necessarily, they're
just the promotions. So, take your time with some of
these things. I'm a big fan of having my shopping
delivered, and this is mostly because I then have the
freedom to shop around and compare prices. And one trick
that I really like, and I use this when I'm
(03:19):
doing my meal planning, is I will go online and
look at the supermarket's pricing and go, " Oh actually, what's
on offer?" Because sometimes chicken might be on offer that
week and that's a really good price, whereas I was
thinking about having pork chops or something, but actually the
chicken might be cheaper. So, I can combine the two things
and create meals around what's cheaper that week. So, just
(03:43):
tweaking some of these things can help shave off a
few pounds off your food bill each week.
Kia (03:48):
Absolutely. I think one big thing that my dad got
me into before I went to university and that I still
do today, and that he loves to do is the
yellow stickers. Because it does feel like sometimes everything's always
on the rise, but there are so many different ways
that you can bring down that spending.
Charlotte (04:01):
Absolutely.
Kia (04:02):
When it comes to treat spending, because I think this is
a big thing, as people life is very stressful. You
want to spend some money and treat yourself, but what
are some ways that we can make sure that we're
not just splashing the cash, but we're actually being a
bit more measured with our treat spending?
Charlotte (04:20):
So I think one of the things that I love
to do here is actually pre- determine what I want
my treats to be, because we can get caught up
in the moment. So, I like to set a list
of things that actually mean something to me. So, I
have various hobbies like paddleboarding and I like eating out,
(04:40):
and I like travel. So, I'm trying to make sure
that if I'm going to treat myself, it's on something
that actually is meaningful to me and I'm not just
trying to fill in a gap and an emotional splurge,
but also budgeting that in, allowing that to be part
of your spending. So many people that I see when
(05:01):
they are preparing a budget or they're sitting down there,
they've got a spreadsheet or they've got an app, and
they've planned out what they want to spend their money
on, they remove all of the fun, and that makes
it hard work to stick to a budget, instead if
you allow some of those things to be in your
budget. So, if you want to takeaway, put a little
bit of a takeaway buffer in there. The point of
(05:23):
life isn't just to sit in your house bored.
Kia (05:26):
No, it's not. I completely agree. I've had a treat
yourself fund, that's what I call it, for ages now. So, when I
see something I don't feel bad. I can spend and say, "
Okay, it's within my budget. I've got X amount set
aside. I can buy this." So, let's talk more about
budgeting then. What can people do when it comes to
making more significant cutbacks to their spending and their budgets?
Charlotte (05:46):
Yeah, so we've talked about things like food shopping. We've
talked about those treats and reducing those things, but actually
these are smaller tweaks. What we want to do is
look at some of the more significant purchases we are
making in our lives and see what changes we can
make there. So, I have a budget spreadsheet, I have
(06:06):
all my outgoings, all my income. And what I do
is I look, and I'll highlight maybe a category on there.
So, it might be like my electricity bill and I'll
be like, I'm coming for you electricity bill, and that
month I'll work on how I can reduce that. And
that might mean I switch my provider or it might
mean that I look at ways that I can reduce my
(06:29):
spending around the house. Look at those big expenses that
we have in our lives, rent, mortgage, all of our
utilities. Here is where we can make the big difference.
So, things like if your mortgage is out of your
fixed deal, go speak to a mortgage advisor, speak to
them and try and get a deal that maybe lowers
some of those payments. All of these things are very
(06:49):
much worth looking at and trying to reduce. Because ultimately,
if my mortgage costs me less, I still get the
same quality of life. I'm still living in the same
house, it's just my mortgage is costing me less. Same
with my electricity. So, these are less about lifestyle choices
and just significant financial changes, and they can make a
(07:11):
real difference to your budget.
Kia (07:12):
I think there's a key thing that you said there,
is that to speak to someone. So, I drive and
I have my car. Every year, I do not renew
my insurance or go over new insurer without picking up
the phone and see if I can get the best
deal. I think that is a very key one that you mentioned
there. Just pick up the phone and speak to someone.
And if they don't give you one, you're no worse off.
Charlotte (07:30):
Yeah, absolutely.
Kia (07:31):
And I think often a lot of people have this
consensus that, oh, I'm just bad with money, because they
feel as though they have no control over how they
spend their money. So, what would be some of your
tips when it comes to actually controlling how much you spend?
Charlotte (07:47):
I think you need to start with an awareness of
what you're spending. A lot of people jump straight in
with trying to just cut out all unnecessary expenditure. And
what there needs to be is a period of reflection.
What are you currently spending your money on? And I
can speak to this, because a couple of months ago
(08:08):
I realized that there was certain areas I was like,
how is this costing me this much? And so, I
reflected a little bit on where my money was going
and I'm shifting in my seat, because there was some
almost embarrassing, there was some online shopping that came in
to 400 pounds. It wasn't like I was like, " Oh,
(08:29):
I have 400 quid's worth of stuff." Off the back of
it, it was, " Oh, well where did that go?" And
there were little trips down to the local shop for top-
up shops. This was not my grocery shopping, this was
just the odd, we'll need a pint of milk and
a chocolate bar, and this and that. So, I needed
to start from the point of, this is where my
(08:51):
money is going and why is that happening? What am
I not doing? So, things like those top- up shops,
I was like, well, what is it that I'm getting?
What is it that I'm not getting on my weekly
shop that I feel the need to go down to
little Tesco for in order to get every couple of
days? And then, I was able to make a change
(09:12):
to my habits. I wasn't able to make a change to
my grocery shopping and go, " Oh, okay, I need to
buy more milk." I was like, I'm running out of milk,
but if I just got six pints a week rather
than four, that's going to fix my problem and then
I don't have to go down the shop. So, control
and spending isn't about completely eliminating some of these things
that you're doing. It's about just having an awareness of
(09:34):
why, and that's when you start feeling a little bit
more in control. So, I don't recommend that anybody goes
cold turkey on changing their financial habits around their spending.
Instead just reflect, go through this period of understanding where
you're at now and looking for areas where you can
(09:54):
make improvements. And it might be that I allowed myself,
for example, one trip down to the shop and then
that change was enough to let me go, "Well actually, I
don't need to go anyway." It was just a little
outing. And making those smaller steps is much better than
trying to make one huge leap to something that feels
(10:14):
a long way off.
Kia (10:15):
I think those small steps just feel more achievable and
more attainable and they keep you motivated on that journey,
and it gets you building up that good habit. So
speaking of habits, I want to ask you, what are
some good or positive spending habits? We've spoken about things
to be aware of, but what are some good ones
that we can make sure that we're enforcing?
Charlotte (10:37):
Yeah, so I think when it comes to positive habits, having
a budget, any budget is a great place to start,
because this isn't just about your own financial awareness. It's
about knowing what you have coming in, and income is
just as important as spending, but also things like seeing
(10:57):
where your money is going. Knowing it's so easy to
get those little subscriptions crop up. So, having a budget
that is all encompassing with your spending is an absolute
place to start. The next habit that follows on from
that is making sure that you actually bother to look
at it.
Kia (11:14):
That's a crucial one. Don't just make it and leave it,
make sure you're referring back to it.
Charlotte (11:17):
You need to be able to check in with that. It
needs to be a functioning document, something that adapts and
changes. I think another one is to just have that
knowledge around your own wants and needs as well. So,
when it comes to spending, I always sit there and go, "
I know I want this, but does it align with
my bigger vision for myself?" Do I want this meal out
(11:40):
because I can't be bothered to cook, or can I
just shove a pizza in the oven and then actually
that can go in my holiday fund, because I want
the holiday more than I want this meal out today."
So, just knowing what you're trying to achieve, and having
goals and being clear about where you're trying to head
with your finances, can really help you keep on track
with your spending. And this was huge for me. I
(12:01):
went traveling with my kids a few years ago, and
that was literally knowing that we were going away and
knowing that we needed some money for that really helped me.
Kia (12:10):
I agree. I think having a clear goal keeps you
on track and just keeps you focused. But let's talk
about when things don't always go to plan, especially when
it comes to budgeting. What would be some easy ways
that we can correct that and get back on track
with our budgeting and spending?
Charlotte (12:27):
I think one of the key points here is not
to be too hard on yourself. If you're hard on
yourself because you've overspent, normally that leads to further overspending.
It's so easy to draw parallels with the world of
health and fitness. You have a cheeky muffin and you're
trying to lose weight, and then you're suddenly like, " Oh
well, I've messed that up. I might as well have a McDonald's."
(12:49):
And it's the same when it comes to our money,
so just be like, " Whoops."
Kia (12:53):
It happened. We can draw a line under it.
Charlotte (12:55):
Exactly. So just be gentle. Be kind on yourself. And
I think then the next thing is to actually think
about your budget in terms of monthly or longer term
progress. So, let's say you set a budget, week one
of the month it all goes wrong and you've overspent
a little bit. You don't need to go like, " Well,
next week I've got to spend nothing." You just take
(13:17):
what you've got and you get your calculator out and
you divide it by three and spread it out over
the next three weeks. But actually, that will get you
back on track.
Kia (13:26):
Charlotte, you've been incredible. You've given us some of the
top tips that we need to trim back our spending
and ace budgeting. But before you go, I want to
ask you, what are your top three budgeting hacks?
Charlotte (13:37):
So the first one is to just be gentle on yourself.
We mentioned this already, don't try and over- restrict yourself.
Your budget should be about creating freedom in your life,
and you need to start from a place where you
feel like you are going to actually achieve it. You
don't want to set any rules in your life or
(14:00):
cut back so much that it's not going to be
successful. So, that's the first one. So, the second one
is I love to team up with my friends. So
I had a neighbor, she's moved now, and I'm not going to hold
this against her, but we used to team up on
that bulk purchasing. So, if there was a deal that
was two for one on toilet roll or something, I'd
be like, " Mate, I got you some toilet roll." And
(14:21):
then we'd split the cost, so then-
Kia (14:23):
That's great.
Charlotte (14:23):
... we were getting the benefit of the deal and
actually seeing a reduction in some of our spending. And
we also did things like pressure washers. We both went
halves on one of those, because we knew that we
could share a bit. We wouldn't need it that much.
So, look at big purchases, even look at those little
things like toilet roll and see if you can share
those between family and friends. Now, we started off talking
(14:45):
about food spending as well. One of my favorite things
to do is use food waste apps. So, there were
some examples like Olio and Too Good To Go where
you can either get free or reduced priced food. And
what I love about this is not only the monetary
benefits, you're stopping food waste. And there's a real sense
of community, like local cafes giving away cake or something,
(15:09):
and it's just nice to be a part of that process
and save some money along the way.
Kia (15:13):
Charlotte, you have been an absolute gem on this episode.
Honestly, so many tips that I'm going to go away
and write down and start implementing from today. So, thank
you so much for coming on and blessing us with
your tips on this episode.
Charlotte (15:26):
You are absolutely welcome.
Kia (15:29):
Some great advice there. Thank you so much, Charlotte. So
many ways we can trim our spending and beat the
budget. Next time, we're talking cryptocurrencies. Where to start and
what to be careful of. I'd love it if you
could review the podcast, spread the word, and help others
get a little bit richer too. Keep up with the
show on TikTok and Instagram at Legal & General. Thank you for listening.
(15:52):
See you soon.
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