How To live Frugally in 2023 : #004

Hi friends, with the cost of living crisis as evident as ever, I'm gonna share a few quick tips I've been applying to my life to pinch the pennies.

😅 WHY I NEED TO SAVE

I’m in my final year of University and am now looking at near £50,000 of student debt.

My main goal throughout my twenties is to get Into a position of financial freedom for myself. I want to be able to do a job I enjoy because I want to continue pursing it and developing the skills from it.

I need money for investments that are going to provide me long term sustainable wealth such as index funds or property or even starting my own business. Not to mention having a pool of savings for travelling and rainy day money. 

And as for the people that know me, I have a lot of dental issues unfortunately and the cost of care is extremely high. A large portion of everything I’m doing and working towards in terms of my side projects, is to help me fund my dental care!

💸 TRANSPARENCY WITH BILLS

This first point is about keeping your bills, direct debits and general financial obligations organised to one particular time, ideally the start of the month And like many people, say you’re paid at the end of the month.  Then on the 1st of the month your rent, phone bills, utilities all come out and you’re left with your disposable income. 

Photo by Chanhee Lee on Unsplash

I’d recommend setting up a separate account perhaps one with a cash back return for spending such as chase, and transferring what needs to be paid for that particular bill into this new account on the 1st of the month. Leaving your main account clean and organised with your financials. 

This sets you up in giving transparency about what you have for the month and how you allocate it for food, luxuries and how much you can put away for savings and investments.

👨🏼‍🍳 LEARN TO COOK

Learn to cook and learn what it takes to cook high quality, tasty cheap meals. The majority of people’s main expense outside of rent and mortgage payments stems from food. Take out, or meal deals, snacking when at work all accumulate to large amounts. Just spending £10 a day on food outside of your food shop will set you back £300 a month, learning to reduce this by 60% Is the sweet spot in allowing your self some luxury without being completely deprived of temptations. 

Photo by Victoria Shes on Unsplash

I’ll spend £30 at Lidl each week setting me up for 3 meals a day for 7 days. Having pre-thought out meals before you go is useful to stop you reaching for unnecessary items AND DON’T GO HUNGRY

⏳ TELL EXPENSIVE FRIENDS NO

It’s likely people around you influence a large proportion of income you spend on unnecessary  things. Transparency with your position may make them more understanding and less likely to put pressure on you to buy the round, or go for a weekend away or even just shopping for clothes in town. 

There will be people that don’t understand but staying mentally strong and turning down nights out now and again will all add up at the end of the year. 

🚂 COMMUTING COSTS

When living in cities it’s the obvious option to use public transport, if your in the process of moving this is certainly a factor to consider. With heightened UK  rental costs it’s deceiving to think moving further out of the city well save your money on rent when in reality the additional transport will set you back cash and time. 

The London standard suggests 2/3 of London’s pay £20 or more a week to commute with averages of £64.19 being the normal for a lot of people. Timesing this by 48 for an average work year, you’re looking at around £3081 which in my current house in Norwich is around 9 months worth of rent ! 

🎶 DON’T BE A SUBSCRIPTION HOARDER

With countless apps, streaming platforms and education packages you can be subscribed to almost every type of content out there for a fee, ad accumulating them is very easy todo. Taking an active role and looking through your direct debits on your online banking will catch out any unnecessary accidental app purchase you may have made 7 months ago which secretly chips away at your pot of money. 

In addition to this tip, share subscriptions. I’ve recently made the move from Spotify premium to family premium and with all 6 users being active we’ve reduced our Spotify bill from £60 a month to £16 a month.  £528 over the course of the year 

Have a great weekend!

Woody xx

📚 RICH DAD POOR DAD

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