Business & Investment

How To Manage Your Finances During Uncertain Times

Money isn’t always easy to come by, and the current state of the living crisis isn’t helping matters for most people. A lot of people are turning to alternative methods of funding when they’re in an emergency too. Options like instant payday loans and overdrafts can sometimes be enough to see you through. But there are ways you can manage your finances more effectively and ensure that you’re ready for anything life throws at you. So, keep reading and discover our top tips on how to manage your finances during uncertain times.

Review Your Current Spending Habits

One of the first things you need to do is review your current spending habits. You may be going way over your income without even realising it, leaving you short each month. Although it’s nice to have treats, they should only be now and then, ensuring that you don’t splurge all of your wages in one go. Spend some time gathering all of your recent receipts and get your bank statements from the past three months, then take a look at how you’ve been living and if it’s beyond your means. You don’t ever want to be spending more than you have coming in, so knowing your finances inside and out will really help you stay on track.

Make A Budget

Following on from reviewing your spending habits, the next step is to make a budget based your actual income and expenses. Make a list of everything you have going into your account and then compare it to everything that goes out. Once you know how much money you have left to spend each month, you can then budget it out into the relevant spending areas. For instance, you’ll be able to see how much you can spend on groceries, how much on petrol etc and make the right decisions when it comes to using what you have left on nights out and treats. Although budgeting may seem tough at first, within a few weeks it will become second nature and you’ll find managing your money so much easier!

Save Little And Often

Saving money is a great way to manage your finances, but it can be tough when you don’t have heaps of it to spare. But you can actually save a great deal of money without putting yourself at a disadvantage by saving little and often. The idea of doing it this way means you don’t put away hundreds at the beginning of the month and instead, put away a little bit when you can, as often as you can. One really easy way to do this is by rounding up your shopping. For example, if your total is £32.40, you could round it up to £35 and put £2.60 into savings. It may not seem like much at the time, but it will soon add up. Putting away smaller amounts of money on a regular basis is a much more sustainable way of saving money. It also prevents you from eating into your savings, as your funds won’t be too low as you’ll only be saving within your means.

Always Pay Your Bills

Although you may think that missing out on one bill won’t do any harm, it can really put things in motion to destroy your finances. Just one missed bill can have a late fee, that then makes your bill even more unaffordable. This then forces you into a bad position as you’ve either got to leave it and keep increasing the late fees on it or go into debt to pay it off. Paying your bills on time will help you to keep your debt down and prevent you from losing more money than you planned for. So, if you’re thinking about skipping out on a bill, don’t do it! It’s better to be a little bit short for one month than have a huge bill that will ruin you financially.

Manging your finances isn’t as easy as people make out, but it can be done if you really want to do it. Living by a budget and not overspending is one of the best ways to do so, and you’ll soon find that you can even put money away into your savings pot. Before you know it, you’ll be a budgeting wizard with a stack of savings nicely tucked away, ready to tackle any sort of uncertain times!

 

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