How to control your spending without budgeting

If you feel you’re not good at budgeting or the thought of budgeting makes you yawn or break out in a cold sweat this blog is for you.

We’ve got  some easy ways to kickstart and build this skill - and it IS a skill you can learn -  without too much extra effort

Install an app

Use your smartphone to help you manage your money. Apps such as Money Dashboard and PocketGuard, for instance, allow you to set a budget and give you suggestions for how to manage your money based on your spending habits. They also often allow you to keep better track of your bills by seeing them all in one place and many will also send you alerts for upcoming payments so that you can avoid late fees. Your banking app might do so too - Monzo allows you to set budgets for various types of spending and will alert you when you get near the limit.

Follow the Smart Spending System

Split your accounts into a current account for your essential expenses, an emergency fund,  a spending account for fun stuff and a smoothing account for irregular essential and fun spending like car servicing and holidays. 

As a rough guide:

• Allocate between 40-60% of your income on essentials such as accommodation, food, utilities and other bills. 
• Allocate between 15-25%to your financial priorities. These might be pensions and other investments, but also includes any debt repayments and putting money aside for a rainy day. Make it easier for yourself by setting up a standing order. Or, take a look to see if Salary Finance could help - if you have Save available to you, you could set your savings up to be automatically deducted from your salary. And a salary deducted loan might help you get out of debt faster.
• Finally, allocate around 15-25% to fun spending, like evenings with friends and family, holidays and clothes end on fun things! 

By partitioning your money, you’ve automatically created a way to easily discern what you’re spending on. To learn more about the Smart Spending System, click here.

Adjusting your shopping habits

Retailers and other companies are fighting harder than ever to get us to spend money with them. With sites such as myvouchercodes.co.uk and hotdeals.co.uk you can sign up for often get a discount or cashback with a wide range of brands, all in one place. Your employer might also offer employee discounts - check on your intranet or benefits platform for deals. Plus, if you spend a little more time thinking about whether you need it and whether it’s worth the price, you might find that you don’t want it after all!

It might be a struggle at first, but persevere and you'll break your bad shopping and savings habits. Doing things that avoid excessive spending will soon become second nature.