Are you creating a budget and getting your personal finances in order? When breaking down your monthly expenses, most of us are shocked at how much we pay on bills, food, transport and so on. However, there are a number of different ways in which you can cut back these monthly expenses and provide yourself with extra resources. Here, we are taking you through our top tips on how you can save on your monthly expenses.

Saving Money on Transport

A good way to start reducing your monthly expenses is to look at how much you are spending on transport. For the majority of us, a car is a necessity for both work and pleasure but they can be a big drain on our monthly expenses when you factor in financing the car, petrol and other maintenance work. All of this added up can work out to be thousands every year! One of the first things that you can do is take public transport to work instead. You’ll save lots of money on both fuel and maintenance doing this and for most people, it is actually more convenient as you can miss the horrible rush hour traffic.

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I last stayed at the Travelodge Glasgow Central in 2012. At that time I thought that the hotel was in need of refurbishment. When I booked a room at the Travelodge Glasgow Central for £25 for a Sunday night, during a recent Travelodge promotion, which offered £10 a night off rooms for Friday and Sunday night stays in Spring 2018, I was hoping that the refurbishment had been carried out.

Travelodge Glasgow Central is in a fairly central location, just up from Sauchiehall Street, around a 15 minute walk from Glasgow Queen Street station. The hotel doesn’t have a car park. In most of Glasgow you can park free on Sundays, except in the area around Travelodge Glasgow Central, where you have to buy a voucher which is only valid for one hour. I decided to leave my car further along Sauchiehall Street (in the Kelvingrove Park direction) where it’s free all day on Sundays. It took me around 15 minutes to walk to the Travelodge Glasgow Central from there.

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I recently received the renewal letter for our SSE central heating cover, which includes an annual boiler service and breakdown cover, with zero excess payable on call outs.

I was astounded that the price had increased from £19 to almost £22 a month. We hadn’t had any breakdown calls outs over the 12 month period

That £3 increase in price for our central heating cover equated to a percentage increase of 15%. That’s ridiculous when the rate of UK inflation is under 3%, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

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I am beginning to question our habit of visiting several different supermarkets.

At present, I’d say that we do around 50% of our food and household items shopping at Tesco. The rest of the monthly spend is split between Aldi, Lidl, Farmfoods, Home Bargains and B&M Bargains.

The problem is that visiting various shops takes up a lot of time. You could argue that if you have the free time, then why not spend an extra couple of hours a week doing shopping to save money?

It’s hard to quantify how much more money we’d spent in a month if we did all of our shopping in Tesco.

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While having kids, saving money for their future and for all other responsibilities can sometimes feel impossible. Once the bills keep piling one on top of the other, they don’t just seem to end. You keep trying to remind yourself about how important it is for you to save money for emergencies but once you get your paycheck, you wait desperately to spend it on things that you need and that you don’t need. Once you fall short of funds, you seek help of loan lending companies like Lendgreen which gives you the most affordable loans.

Nevertheless, you’re lucky enough to note that codes, algorithms and data analysis have always helped increase the number of personal finance apps which takes all jobs in their own hands and helps the user save money and stay on track. If you’re someone who is not acquainted with some of the best financial apps, here are few that you should consider.

#1: Mint

If there is something called the ‘Beyonce’ of all apps, this is definitely the one. It is more like a small powerhouse which allows you to track all kinds of financial activity from all accounts, savings, checking and retirement. You name a transaction and it is recorded and categorized at the right place. The app takes note of your budget and your spending behavior in accordance with your budget. This app is password protected and you can always deactivate the access from your phone via the website of Mint. The best thing is that the app is free.

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I am getting increasingly furious with UK banks and building societies for reducing the interest rates paid to customers, despite no change in the Bank of England Base Rate.

I don’t remember receiving a letter from Bank of Scotland (part of the Lloyds Banking Group) about the rate reduction, I read on a finance website in mid April that the rate of interest paid on the Bank of Scotland Current Account with Vantage was being reduced from 2% to 1.5% on 1 July 2018.

On 24 April 2018, I received a letter from Lloyds Bank, informing me that the rate of interest paid on my Club Lloyds Account was being reduced from 2% to 1.5% from 1 July 2018.

The following day, I read on the BBC website that Lloyds Banking Group’s annual profit had increased by 23%.

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When I was driving home on a Monday afternoon after a Sunday night stay at Perth Central Travelodge, I reluctantly decided to a detour to do a big shop at Tesco in Stirling.

I knew that we were getting low on basics such as milk, bread, fruit and veg. I didn’t fancy having to take the car out the following day just to do food shopping. Plus, heavy rain was forecast for the next day.

I spent £39.60 in Tesco.

After putting the shopping away at home, I opened my mail to discover a Tesco Clubcard £6 off a £40 shop voucher. The voucher was valid from that day.

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I recently got caught out by not reading the change in terms and conditions to my Tesco Bank Internet Saver accounts. The change which would have the biggest impact on me was the end of the being able into a Tesco Bank Internet Saver account by direct debit.

In order to fulfil the requirement for two monthly direct debits to be paid from each of my Bank of Scotland Vantage current accounts, I had set up three direct debits for £1 from two of my Tesco Bank Internet Saver accounts.

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There are many different things that you should take into consideration before getting a credit card. While it’s true that a credit card can be very helpful in certain situations, it can also be a source of crippling debt. If you want to get the best deal on a new credit card, you will need to be careful when going through this process.

We highly recommend that you use the following tips and advice when searching for the right credit card so that you can avoid any disastrous results later on. The more careful you are when shopping around for a credit card, the more you will benefit as a result.

What is Your Credit Like?

The first thing that you should do before applying for any credit cards is to check your credit. By taking a close look at the state of your credit, you will be able to get a better idea as to what your chances will be like of getting approved. You can check your credit score for free. Read through your credit report to check for any mistakes, and if you find some, contact the agency to have them removed.

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Today for the first time in ages, you can earn the same rate of interest on a fixed rate Cash ISA as on a standard fixed rate savings account.

UBL is paying 2.65% on their five year fixed rate Cash ISA. The highest rate which I could find for a standard five year fixed rate savings account is the same 2.65% with Vanquis Bank Savings.

In the recent past, standard fixed rate savings account have paid an interest rate of around 20% higher than fixed rate Cash ISAs.

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