This is a collaborative post. For the past few months, Gareth and I have been discussing ways that we can cut back and save money for a deposit for a house over the next few years. We decided to put a list together on creating a strong budget and I thought I would share with you our top 3 tips, which have really helped us get a grasp of our finances.
1. Make a list of your monthly expenses
Grab a coffee, get comfy and make a list of your monthly expenses. The necessary items such as rent, phone bill, council tax, electricity, transportation, food shop etc. Also, make a list of lifestyle expenses such as: date nights, cinema, gym membership, vacations etc. Once you have made this list, you can determine what things you can cut back on. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying for you to not enjoy yourself on a date night and head to the cinema but maybe just choose one leisure activity for the month. This way, you will be able to see where you can save some extra money.
2. Take a look at any loan repayments or any outstanding debt
We have all been there and it’s nothing to be ashamed of if you have taken out a loan or needed to pay off a credit card. Many people have student loans or taken out a credit card for a wedding, vacation, lifestyle events etc. If you are worried about any debt, you can find some more information here. Make sure to add this into your budget list and make it one of your first priorities to pay any outstanding debt off.
3. Time to put together your budget list
I went on the hunt for a budget list that would really save Gareth and I time. I came across Clever Girl Finance where she talks about 7 of the best budget templates and tools – this would be a great site to look at if you wanted to put together a template. Once you have chosen a template or designed your own, you can start inputting your yearly income and how much money you would like to save each month. Make sure it’s something you can stick to and make it realistic.
Now that you have these tools in place, you can start to put them into action. There are so many ways that Gareth and I can cut back and I am so thankful that we created our budget list, as it has allowed us to see that cutting back slightly each month, means we will be one step further to reaching our goals of buying a house within the next few years.
Have you found this blog post helpful? If you have any tips that you would like to share, please feel free to add them in the comment box down below as I would love to check them out.
