Victoria Sully, 33, is a full-time, self-employed blogger who writes about money and lifestyle at lyliarose.com. She lives in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, with her husband Ben, an IT service manager, and their two children, six-year-old Bella and three-year-old Reuben.
My approach to money has drastically changed over the past few years. I used to be a spender, but having children has made me more responsible and I’m becoming a saver. Being in my 30s has also been a wake-up call, as I realise I need to save for retirement. My New Year’s resolution this year is to save for an emergency fund, and I’ve also recently started putting money away towards a pension. I’m starting to think about the future and be more sensible with our income by budgeting and putting money aside.
One way we’ve simplified taking care of our finances is by having a joint “master” bank account, where all our income goes into and all our bills are debited from. Previously, all the bills came out of Ben’s account, and at the time I worked less or was on maternity leave, so we relied solely on Ben’s income. I had no access to his account and had to constantly ask Ben to tell me what had gone out, how much money we had left and get him to transfer me money whenever I needed it. Our finances were all over the place and Ben wasn’t the best at keeping track of it all. When we got a joint account, I took over the finances by tracking our income, bill payments and budgeting for our spending.
Our largest monthly outgoings are our mortgage payments, food shopping, fuel for both our cars, loan repayments and the rest of the household bills. We switched to a renewable energy company this year and saved £264 per year in comparison with our old supplier – we even got £50 cashback. We also save money on energy bills by using solar panels, which also provide a small income each year from the excess that we don’t use and sell back to the grid. To keep our heating bills down, we source free wood to use in our log burner instead of always switching on the radiators during winter.
Budgeting also ensures we stick to our monthly income and save money, too. I use a spreadsheet to list our income and monthly outgoings so we can see what’s left once all our direct debits have gone out. Our outgoings list will also include a payment to our savings account to ensure we save some money each month. We treat this like a bill, in order to stick to our savings goals. Previously, we would spend whatever we had and save anything left at the end of the month, which would be virtually nothing most of the time.
I always budget a total amount for food and then we divide this between however many weeks there are until the next payday. After the important things are budgeted and saved for – the mortgage, bills, food, fuel and savings – we then deduct anything that’s needed for the house, such as repairs, maintenance and so on. Next, we deduct anything that’s needed for birthdays or clothes that month. Then what’s left – if anything – is family spending money for days out, entertainment and things such as haircuts. It helps to get as many direct debits as possible going out on the same date, so that the most essential bills are accounted for right away. Throughout the month, I regularly check my online banking app to make sure bills have gone out as expected and ensure we stay within our budget.
I also save money by getting cashback on as many purchases as possible. We saved more than £800 cashback in two years on our regular household shopping, including things such as insurance, grocery shopping and MOTs. Being eco-friendly also saves me a lot of money each year. For example, washing clothes using eco-friendly laundry balls that last a whole year, instead of using detergent, saves us a small fortune.
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