Do you ever find yourself thinking ‘ How can I save on my bills?’.

If there’s one thing that causes more anxiety in most people’s lives than just about anything else, it’s money. Whether you like it or not, we live in a world that is pretty much dominated by money, and your finances are going to have a huge impact on the kind of life that you’re able to live.

When you’re in the position of not feeling as though you have the money that you need, it can make your life very stressful. Even if you’re scraping by, the fact that you’re right on the cusp of not having enough money can make life much harder than it needs to be. With the current cost of living crisis, many of us are feeling the pinch more so at this moment in time, and it’s possible your family budget is having to be tightened more then usual. 

The ultimate goal for most of us is to have a budget that works for our lifestyle, but also allows us to save a little. Whether you are saving towards small treats like holidays or Christmas gifts, or for bigger financial goals like purchasing a house or towards your future retirement. Using a savings calculator can help you see how much you need to free up from your budget each month to reach your goal.

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Please note: OK I am not a financial planner, I have no accountancy qualifications and I do not pretend to be any sort of authority on family budgets and finances. I am simply a mum on an average income (or even below average tbh!) and this post is about what I have learnt, how I save on my bills and what has seriously helped us over the last few months during covid. If you have any tips you would like to add please do leave comment as I would love to expand this post further in the future.

Why I changed my Money Mindset

In July last year, I started following the Dave Ramsey Total Money Makeover Method, and I joined the Dave Ramsey UK groups on Facebook and they have been amazing. We have never been big spenders luckily. We don’t have huge incomes and never have, but things like food and little treats when out shopping (especially when you have kids) add up fast when you aren’t thinking about it. We had a few large debts from purchasing things for our home and business and really weren’t the focused on paying them off, instead we were just letting them roll along, which is what the majority of us do. But when Covid lockdowns meant we had to close our business for a while, I realised we needed to get a better grip of our finances, and really start budgeting so we could ease the financial pressures on our family budget, while we were unable to work like we were used to.

I’m not going to explain the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps as that would be a whole other post, but if you are interested in getting serious about your finances, then you can check out the UK version of his steps on Charlotte Musha’s Blog as she breaks them down well.

With that in mind, here are a few things that you can do which can immediately take some of the pressure off your family budget and make your money go a little further.

1. Track Your Spending

This is the starting point for anyone trying to get their finances straight, in order to reduce outgoings and really see where your money is being spent. You might think you know how much you are spending on things like food, but until you really write every purchase down through the course of a month you will miss the few little bits you spend without thinking, and these really can add up.

Now a family budget is personal to each individual family, there is no standard family budget and no set rules. But you need to get out a pen and paper and go back to basics. You can start by tracking all your outgoings for a month. Literally write down every penny that you spend! Dont miss anything out, even that £1 you used for parking or the 50p on an ice lolly at the park, make sure its written down. Then separate it all by category (bills, food, clothing, random spend, etc) so you have a starting point to see where your budget is going. It will surprise you honestly!

2. Make a Family Budget

Next you need to make yourself an actual budget! Write down all your incoming funds (earnings, benefits, etc), then all your bills and regular outgoings (electricity, water, gas, phones, internet, rent/mortgage, insurance, subscriptions, kids classes, debt minimum payments, pension, savings, etc!) Then you should be left with a sum of money that you can allocate to your day to day life, important things first like food, petrol/transport for work etc. but also any extras for clothing, gifts, going out etc. (Although if you follow the Ramsey method all extras should be but on hold or strictly budgeted until you are debt free)

I have been using an app called I Save Money which allows me to track all my outgoings, and create a budget for each category. I know a lot of the Dave Ramsey group use an app called You Need A Budget also. Or you can use a financial planning calculator to help.

Your aim is to allocate all your income so it has a place and a use! This is called a zero based budget and means your figures should add up on incoming and outgoing each month. So when you get the urge to spent on something if you don’t have enough in the budgeted section for it that month, you cant buy it, but you could roll that money into the next month or save it towards an item. Or you have to move money from another pot to allow you to purchase it.

Some people find using Cash Envelopes works better for them, others use pots in online accounts like Monzo. Again its trial and error to see what works best for you, and what method you find easier to stick to. If you’re interested in finding out more about online only banks have a read of this post about the pros and cons of Monzo and Starling Accounts to help get your started

What if they don’t balance

This is a problem lots of people suddenly realise when they start properly looking at their finances. You might find you simply don’t have enough income to cover your outgoings at the moment, and this is usually what leads people into debt. But don’t panic, there is lots of things you can do to help make that family budget add up. Yes it might mean some major cutting back in certain areas but it can be done.

What Next!!

Well now we have a few options, first we can start looking into how we can reduce our outgoings to bring our family budget within our income amount, and we can also start looking at how to increase our income (even temporarily so we can get rid of debts or save for something specific that is needed)

3. Reduce your outgoing – Save on my bills

When I say outgoings at this point I mean your monthly bills. For most of us reducing our mortgage or rent isn’t really an option (although if your coming up to a remortgage point you may be able to reduce that!) so we need to tackle our utilities, insurance and subscriptions.

First of all take a good look at things like your TV subscriptions, gym subscriptions, magazines subscriptions, even meal subscriptions…do you really need them, could you make do without them, even for just a few months! Check you’re not paying monthly for apps you’re not using also as this is a sneaky one you often forget about. If you can live without them, or you can get a free version, then cancel them! Be strict on yourself, making these sacrifices now can free up a large amount ion money in your monthly family budget to allocate to other areas. As I said it may just be for a few months while you get yourself sorted.

Next is your utilities and insurance! Are you getting the best price you can, can you switch providers to get something cheaper. Use a site like Money Super Market to compare tariffs and such. Personally we switched to Octopus Energy over a year ago and have found them great. We still check our tariff on comparison sites every few months, and for us they are still the cheapest. Plus if you use our link to sign up you can get a 50 bonus (and we do too!)

Don’t forget to look at sites like Top Cash Back and Quidco to see if you can make even more savings when you switch by getting cash back on your purchases!

4. Cut down your food bill

Reducing your food bill (or at least having a realistic budget on how much you should be spending) is a great starting point for anyone trying to budget for the first time. It is shocking how our food costs add up so quickly. Again this is very personal to each family due to dietary restrictions, cooking ability, time management, what is available to you local, but if you’d like to start somewhere then this article gives you the average UK grocery costs depending on household size.

I personally budget us £100 a week (usually £400 across the month) for all our groceries, toiletries, cleaning supplies, nappies and pet food. I try to include a take away/meal out (when covid allows!) every other week in this budget also, as that is simply something we personally enjoy as a treat. I find that this is a manageable amount for our family at this moment in time (2 adults, 1 – 4 year old on packed lunches at school, 1 – 10month old exclusively breast fed, so not needing formula, but in nappies, and a spaniel)

How to reduce your food bill

There are a few ways to reduce your food bill. First is where you shop – some supermarkets are more expensive than others. Second is to meal plan. Lastly is to downshift your brands when shopping,

Where to shop

Now this is a bit of a debated subject as certain supermarkets will be cheaper in certain areas, some people will find the products they buy are cheaper in certain places, or the quality is superior so you are willing to spend a little more. The best thing to do is do a normal shop in each supermarket over a few weeks and see what works best for your family.

At the moment I shop between Tesco and Lidl (although we are about to have an Aldi built closer to our home so this may change soon) But don’t go driving miles to a different store as the money spent on fuel may outweigh the few pounds you save in store. You may also find shopping online is a cheaper option if stores aren’t close!

Meal Plan

This is such a basic way to lower your food bill, but so few people really do it. Make yourself a meal plan every week before you go near a supermarket! Every Sunday evening I sit down and plan all our meals for the following week. I usually shop online Sunday or in store Monday or Tuesday mornings (unless we have enough in to get us through a few days then I will push it later in the week).

Go through your fridge, freezer and cupboards and see what you already have in, what needs using up (this is also a good chance to clear out anything that is out of date!) Then see what meals you need to cover, and for how many people (are you at work, kids at school etc) Base as many meals as you can around items you already have in or items you need to use up.

Only buy items for meals you need and have planned (although I wouldn’t ignore offers if they make sense to your family as they can be money saving in the long run. Just don’t stock up on lots stuff as they often end up wasted, make sure you use any extra items bought towards your meal plan the next week) Make your shopping list and stick to it!!

There are a number of great cookbooks that could help you with cheap meals. Feed your family for £20 a week, Tin Can Cook, Cooking on a bootstrap, Fast and Fresh £1 Meals and Eat Well for Less Family Meals on a Budget. You could also consider batch cooking as an option to save money and time, check out The Batch Lady cookbook for ideas.

Downshift your brands

What this means is not buying branded products but going for an alternative one below brand, or supermarket own version. This simple downshift of brands can add up to huge savings over the course of your shopping. And you may well find that you rather a cheaper product! Obviously this might not always work…if you genuinely dislike the taste/smell of something that is fine, but its all a bit of trial and error.

Take baked beans for example…Heinz is the known go to brand for many, but we’ve now tried most options and know we actually rather Tesco own brand, coop simply and Newgate from Lidl…we don’t like Branstons or Stockwell (which is also a Tesco line) And the price difference is around 40p a tin!! Say 1 tin a week (although lots of family use more than that!) thats £20 a year difference, just on a tin of beans! Imagine doing that with all your groceries!

5. Get Rid of Debt

This is one of the main focuses of the Dave Ramsey method. Getting rid of debt is so important to financial freedom and getting a grip of your family budget! So many of us just feel that debt is a normal part of life these days, and it is normal, but it doesn’t have to be! Having a mortgage or student loan is fine and expected, but consumer debt just isn’t needed, and getting rid of it should be a priority, especially if it is accumulating interest.

Now is the time to get honest with yourself, write down all your debts, minimum payments, interest rates (or interest free term deadlines if you have them), you need to really see how much you owe, you almost need to shock yourself into making a change. Even if you only have a small amount of debt, just get rid of it! Think of how much you will free up in your monthly family budget if you weren’t paying for any debts!

If you are paying interest the first thing is to try moving your debt to an interest free card so at least the money you are paying off is coming off the balance. Then just start throwing any extra cash you have at paying that debt down, getting rid of it.

There are 2 ways to approach your debt payoff plan, Snowball Method (which Dave Ramsey suggests) or Avalanche Method. One goes smallest debt to biggest and one goes biggest to smallest, each have their own benefits – You can read about them here and decide what works for you personally. Whatever method you chose I would suggest you get the Debt Payoff Planner App as it is brilliant for tracking your progress and I find it a huge motivator to keep me pushing forward when I feel a bit deflated

If you’re in the states and you have a student loan, you should take a look at a student loan repayment calculator to see how soon your loan end date will be. You can check it out . American student loans are completely different to UK student loans so they will have a different impact on your families overall finances and it is important to understand your repayment and interest amounts

6.Increase Income

Lastly you should consider increasing your income! If you have more money coming in then obviously you have more budget to work with. You can either look at ways to increase your income long term if you want a permanent bump in your incoming budget or you can look at quick income boosts and side hustles which are great for immediate payments to help pay off debt or towards a savings goal.

There are so many ways for you to make more money. Maybe you’re in a job where you can do over time or pursue a promotion, or even take on a second job around your main one. Maybe you have a creative talent and can start an online shop selling your products on etsy, or you can offer tutoring in your skill set.

There are also dozens of side hustles you can do online to make extra money. Surveys, Matched Betting, Affiliate Marketing, Blogging or micro job sites like Fiverr. Then there is good old second hand selling! Have a clear out, organise your home and sell your unwanted item online….Facebook Market Place, eBay or Vinted are great.

There are loads of great money making bloggers out there, so it is worth checking them out if your looking for some inspiration on how to earn money from home, or how to start a side hustle. Some of my favourites are Reinventing Neesha, Katy Kicker and Mama Fur Fur

A lot of people tend to try and bury their heads in the sand when it comes to their finances because there’s a certain degree of shame connected to not having as much money as you would like. However, it’s always better to talk to people about your money problems. Whether it’s a debt based charity or just your family and friends, being able to share your issues can make them much easier to deal with. Simply taking that first step to admit you need to reevaluate your finances, and think how can I save on my bills can make a huge difference.

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