Top Tips for Budgeting
Yvonne, Alison, and Nina provide some useful tips and resources for helping you with budgeting, managing your finances, debt and energy consumption.
Numbers Are Everywhere: Managing your Finances (30 minutes)
This episode provides guidance and support on budgeting and managing your finances, and features people who share their personal struggles with maths and numbers and what they have done to overcome the issue.
Top Tips
It is important to prioritise your finances and know how much you spend. Some of these tips might help you on the first steps to stay or to get back in control of your finances.
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1. Create a Budget Planner
The Money Saving Expert, Martin Lewis, has a great resource featured on his website which has a downloadable or printable planner that may help you plan out your finances, know how much you spend and how much you might be able to save.
Create a Budget Planner
Often when people are struggling, they do not know how much their bills are or how much they are spending.
To create a budget, have an up-to-date record of how much you typically spend each month on:
- Household bills:Â such as rent, council tax, energy bills
- General living costs: including food, toiletries
- Insurance: house, car
- Travel: Â fuel, car maintenance, public transport
- Leisure/Personal: subscriptions, socialising, memberships
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2. Have an Emergency Fund
An emergency fund sounds good in theory, but this may not be possible for everyone.
Once you’ve budgeted for essentials, if you have any income that is left over, once all of your outgoings have been paid, it would be sensible to put some income aside for unexpected bills. For example, for your car MOT, boiler or house repairs.
If you have no income left over once all of your outgoings have been paid and are struggling to pay for essentials – you might not have enough money to do this.
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3. Set Yourself a Savings Goal
Having a goal(s) that you are working towards can help you plan out your finances and prioritise. For example, if you are planning to buy a house, get a new car, book a holiday, etc.
It is helpful to have a separate Savings Account that you can put as little or as much as you want into each month, such as a through a Credit Union or to set up a direct debit from your salary into the savings account. Over time it will start to build up.
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4. Energy Savings: Heating
Having your heating scheduled.
Smart heating systems makes this a simple process to control, but if you have an old-style boiler or heating system, you can use the tabs on the thermostat to control the heating to come on at certain times. It is important to note that boilers have a half hour cooling down period, so rather than setting your heating to end at 06:00, set it to end at 5:30.
That way you still have the benefits of the heating, and overtime will help to reduce your bills.
Support Services
To support you with managing your finances, accessing support for debt, credit unions, and energy advice, please use the links below to access services available in your council area that Yvonne, Alison and Nina discussed:
Citizens Advice Bureaus (CAB)
Citizens Advice is a service that can provide confidential information and advice to assist you with debt, housing, legal, consumer and other matters.
Staff there can help you understand your rights and support you to take action.
To find your nearest CAB visit Citizens Advice Scotland and enter your postcode.
Credit Unions
Credit Unions are non-profit financial institutions. They differ from banks in that those who have accounts with a credit union are the members and owners. Credit Unions are defined as not-for-profit, and their purpose is to serve their members.
You can find a list of local Credit Unions here
Community Links Programme
The Community Links Programme run by the Alliance Scotland, of which Energy Outreach is a part, covers the Glasgow City Council and West Dunbartonshire Council areas. The Energy Outreach workers can assist with all fuel poverty related matters including liaison with suppliers to renegotiate fuel bills, debt amelioration, energy efficiency advice and advice and support in understanding your energy consumption.
To access energy support, the list of participating Deep End GP Practices which you can be referred to can be found here: Community Links Worker Directory
Alliance Scotland also work closely with referral partners based in Trussel Trust foodbanks across the City of Glasgow, Home Energy Scotland and the Local Advice and Energy Partnership (LEAP).
