It’s easy enough to feel like all your money problems are sorted once it comes to payday, but are things really as smooth as they seem?  It’s fine when you feel like you are ‘in the money’.  But in times of economic uncertainty, what are you exposing yourself to, with no money buffer?

Those carefree spending habits could be robbing you of a healthy savings account and much more:

1. You fund your lifestyle with a credit card, putting your monthly expenses on a credit care is definitely living beyond your means.
2. You can’t cover a ‘money emergency’, like the freezer breaking down, without borrowing to cover the cost of a replacement and you have to borrow from friends, family…..or put it on a credit card.
3. Keeping up with the Jones. A bit of a cliché, but are your spending habits influenced by your friends/acquaintances spending/lifestyles?
4. You don’t know when your direct debits are going out and sometimes miss the payments as the money has already been spent.
5. You buy more than you need. A weekly shop somehow isn’t enough and you find yourself doing a ‘top up’ shop here and there during the week.
6. You get seduced by ‘special offers’ but are they really that special and you do need to stockpile cans or boxes of something because it seems cheaper than usual?
7. You don’t deviate from your favourite branded items. You like what you like without thinking anymore about it.
8. Your daily caffeine hit is punching you in the pocket. That morning pick-me- up could be costing you up to £80 a month, that’s up to £960 a year.
9. Those ‘convenient’ lunchtime treats could also be hitting you where it hurts too, that could be around £1,200 on just popping out for a sandwich, when sometimes you don’t even fancy what’s on offer.
10. Another money leak is not shopping around for the best offer on subscriptions and contracts.  Are you really getting the best deals?  Saying you don’t have the time to shop around online, using comparison sites, or even simply calling your existing supplier to see if you are on the best deal could be costing you the cash too.

It may feel a bit boring having to think about the practical side of your spending, but a few tweaks here and there really could make a difference.  Even something as simple as starting a savings account or you may already have one sitting there feeling abandoned!  You wouldn’t be the first and you won’t be the last, if that’s the case.  But taking small steps add up even if it feels a bit pitiful at the moment, putting a seemingly minimal amount in consistently pays off and is a financial and psychological boost once you commit to it and get going.