Saving money can feel like a real uphill struggle.
That’s especially the case if you’re already struggling to make your income meet the demands of your outgoings.
However a savings pot is essential for a number of reasons, including:
- It means you can manage your annual costs for bills such as insurance and car tax.
- You’ll have money set aside for one-off annual costs such as holidays and Christmas.
- You’re less likely to get into debt if you have money set aside for emergencies.
I can’t begin to explain how much peace of mind it has given me knowing I have savings in the bank. It’s a safety net that feels better than any shopping spree I’ve ever had.
If you’re struggling to save right now I can completely sympathise, because I spent years neglecting my savings and promising that “one day I’ll get round to it”. The truth is I was not budgeting for my savings in most months, while in others I wasn’t bringing in enough money to set cash aside.
My income has fluctuated in recent years, as I went from a full-time job to being on maternity leave and then to redundancy and trying to build up my own freelance work.
I was able to save £10,000 in one year thanks to my freelance work, and I hope to increase that in the coming 12 months.
I’m going to share how I overcame my own struggles with savings and a few tips for hitting your savings goal.
Struggling to save money
There were two big problems that stood in my way when it came to putting more money into savings.
First of all my income – that has been patchy over the seven years after my kids were born and when I was made redundant following my second baby’s birth. I live off of my redundancy payout for a year, but once that was all gone my income wasn’t enough to cover the basics of my spending. This meant I was more likely to be overdrawn than able to set any money aside for savings.
The next issue was my spending habits. I’m not one to frequent my nearest town centre to shop for clothes but thanks to internet shopping (and the constant pressure to spend from Instagram) I was buying to much new stuff every month. It’s not that I couldn’t afford to, it’s that doing so left me with nothing leftover to set aside for a rainy day.
For me my savings struggles really turned a corner when I addressed these two issues. I worked on building up my freelance work and increasing revenue streams so I had money coming in from several places, and I got serious about my spending.
Changing a long-term habit can be tricky, especially as shopping can be addictive. Getting new stuff gives us a nice adrenaline rush, and saving is just not quite as fun has being sent something brand new.
But I’ve got some strategies to share that worked for me to address this.
How to save money when struggling
To get started you need to come up with a strategy that addresses exactly why you’re struggling to save and gives you a plan for creating extra space in your budget for savings.
Start at the beginning and get your financial situation down on paper. That gives you a starting point to work out how much you can afford to save and where you can make savings.
Write down all of your income and all of your outgoings. Consider everything, including treats such as takeaways, daily takeout coffees and beauty treatments.
Now consider what your savings goal is. I always try to strike a balance between being realistic and ambitious with my goal. If it’s unrealistic you can lose motivation early on, however an ambitious goal will encourage you to push yourself and ultimately the rewards will be higher.
Decide on a deadline for your savings goal. Doing this can help to motivate you and means you can work out how much you need to save each month, or week, to stay on track.
If you’re struggling to find enough money in your monthly budget to top up your savings then you can try taking one or both of these approaches:
- Reduce your spending
- Boost your income – there are some great ideas for how to make money fast here
There are various ways you can approach both of these things, and there are lots of ideas detailed in the rest of this article.
Some ways to save money when you’re struggling to keep on track include:
Adopt the 30-day rule
If you struggle to control your spending then adopting a 30-day rule can be a big help.
It involves not pausing a decision to purchase something new for 30 days. During that time you consider whether this is something you actually need or if it’s something you just want. It also gives you a chance to shop around for better prices or cheaper brands making the same product.
For example something you need might be a new winter coat if your old one is faulty and something you want would be a new pair of boots to add to your shoe collection.
Delete your card details from your phone
Having your payment details saved on your phone makes it much easier for you to make quick impulse purchases when browsing online.
Delete your saved card information from your phone to help force you to pause and think before you spend.
Keep a record
Track your savings progress alongside your spending to keep yourself on target.
You can track your savings progress either by writing it down as you go in a list – recording your total saved each week plus your cumulative amount – or use a more visual tracker. I have a free one that I send out to new subscribers to my mailing list. You can sign up below!
Monitor your spending every week to keep an eye on places where you could cut back and top up your savings fund.
Try a money saving challenge
A money saving challenge can help to motivate you, and there are lots of different ones out there to choose from.
It’s a great way to make savings fun, and gives you a clear process to hitting your goal.
If you would like to save £5,000 this year then you could try the 100 Envelopes Challenge. Check out my guide to 12 great money saving challenges here.
You could also try a no spend month – I have a free printable tracker!
PRO TIP: Don’t forget to create an emergency savings fund
If you’re trying to turn your fortunes around when it comes to savings then a good place to start is building up an emergency savings fund.
This will pay for last-minute and unexpected emergencies, such as a broken boiler or if you were to experience a sudden loss in income.
I like to have enough money in savings to cover my living costs – the basics including mortgage, bills, food, and essential extras such as clothes for the kids – for at least three months.
This gives you a safety net.
Alongside my emergency savings fund I have a sinking fund. My sinking fund pays for regular expenses that I know are coming every year – for example my car MOT, Christmas, holidays and birthdays.
Distinguishing between the two really helps because I know I have that safety net there just in case, but my sinking fund means I never struggle to pay annual bills.
So I have savings pots for:
- Emergencies
- My tax bill – I’m self-employed so pay my tax annually
- Our next house move – we would like to buy up at some point so I have a money pot for costs of the move and hopefully getting something bigger
- Christmas and birthday costs, car tax and MOT, insurance renewal
- Fun stuff – holidays, and a new kitchen for example
Ways to save money on a tight budget
Cut your grocery spending
If you want to find some extra cash in your budget to set aside for savings then look to cut your weekly spend. One of the biggest areas – for me anyway – is food.
I’ve saved money on food in recent years by switching supermarkets, choosing in season veg and cheaper cuts of meat, ditching branded goods, shopping for yellow label discounted products and bulking out meals with beans and pulses.
There are lots of tips for cutting your food shopping bill here.
Check to see what benefits you are owed
You could be missing out on hundreds of pounds worth of payments a year if you aren’t claiming benefits which you are entitled to.
If you’re on a low income you could be eligible to claim universal credit – this is a means-tested payment so double check you’re getting everything you can claim.
Find help paying your energy bills
Energy bills have been on the rise and this may be seriously eating into your monthly budget.
Look for schemes that could help with your costs – such as the warm home discount, and cold weather payment, winter fuel allowance.
Speak to your energy supplier about your bill if you are in debt with them as you may be able get a grant to help you pay this off.
There are more details for getting help with paying your energy bills from Citizens Advice.
Claim cheaper prescriptions
If you spend regularly on prescriptions then double check whether you could be eligible for cut prices.
You can check to see if you’re eligible for cheaper prescriptions on the gov website.
If you live in England you can purchase a prescription prepayment certificate that can help you save money if you have regular prescriptions.
Find a cheaper mobile phone package
If you’re out of contract then you could find a cheaper deal somewhere else. Look for a sim-only deal – which could be as little as £10 a month.
Cut the costs of your TV and streaming services
You could save hundreds of pounds a year on your regular TV and streaming bills by taking stock of which ones you need and cutting back on your package deal.
First of all if you have Sky TV or similar you could haggle down the cost of your bill. Do some research on what other providers are offering and then call your provider and tell them you’ve seen you could get a better deal elsewhere.
You could also look to trim down your package from Sky, for example do you need Sports and Movies or will a basic package do?
Then take a look at what other streaming services you have – Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime etc – and consider whether you could cancel any of these. With Netflix you could downgrade your package to save a few pounds a month – a premium package is £13.99 while a basic is £5.99.
Don’t want to give them up? Rotate your streaming services, so you switch between them regularly and are never paying for more than one at a time.
Cut back on takeaways
Eating out is pricey and I’ve saved a lot by switching Dominos pizza for homemade.
Ditching some or all of your regular takeaways can free up £20 to £100 a month in your budget to put into savings.
Check out my list of cheap and delicious family meal ideas here.
Ditch beauty treatments
Cutting back on regular facials, manicures and hair cuts is a great way to boost your savings.
When I switched from getting my hair highlighted in a salon to using at home hair dye I saved hundreds of pounds a year.
Start a side hustle
A side hustle is something that you do alongside your regular job to bring in a little extra cash.
It can be absolutely anything that you can squeeze into your spare time. Some good examples including working as a delivery driver for companies such as Just Eat, Deliveroo and Amazon, and selling your own products such as jewellery.
My favourite side hustle is blogging, which now makes me a full-time income. Find out more about starting a blog here.
You may also like: Frugal living tips
How to save £1,000 in one month
What if you need to save money really quickly? You’ll need to focus on more short-term strategies in this instance.
Many side hustles take a few days or weeks or more to start bringing in cash, so only go for money-making ideas that actually payout quickly.
Survey sites such as Prolific are good for this, as you can get started right away and the payout threshold is relatively low compared to other sites.
The best way to bring in extra cash quickly is focus on cutting your food shopping bill if you can, axe unneeded subscriptions that you can cancel right away and boost your income.
To do this quickly you could look around in your own home and have a thorough clear out. Decluttering and selling on your stuff is a great way to make money quickly.
Sell your stuff through online auctions on Facebook Marketplace, where you won’t have to pay any fees for listing your items.
I’ve got lots of tips for selling your old clothes for cash in this article.
Another quick win is to switch your bank account and take advantage of cash incentives offered by banks for opening a new account. You could make £100 or more by doing this.
Finally if you need to save £1,000 in just one month why not challenge yourself to a no buy month? This means you don’t spend any money on unnecessary items, such as new clothes, going out, day trips and takeaways.
Depending on how much you would usually spend in this category it can be a great way of quickly boosting your savings pot. Look for free family fun to keep yourselves entertained for the month and cook your own versions of takeaways, such as this yummy pizza recipe that I use regularly.
Final thoughts on how to save when struggling
The journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step and the same can be said of embarking on a savings journey.
Start by taking stock of your financial situation, make a plan for how much you can afford to save, look for ways to cut costs from your budget so you can meet your savings goal and stay on track by motivating yourself.
If you have a particular thing in mind for your savings – for example a holiday or new kitchen – then it can help to keep a daily reminder of this around your home. Stick a photo on your fridge of a beach or your kitchen inspiration to keep you motivated.
Happy saving!
