Top Savings Tips for 2024

Set yourself a goal

Create a budget

It’s important to know your monthly outgoings, and how much money that leaves you with. One easy way to cap your spending is to set a budget and stick to it. Here’s our quick guide to getting started…

1. Gather your bank/credit card statements and make a note of your fixed monthly bills, including subscriptions.
2. List your variable expenses such as groceries, eating out, transport and clothing. Everything you regularly spend money on that isn’t a bill. Try to be honest.
3. Record all sources of income including pay slips, and any other regular income per month.
4. Compare your total income with your total expenses – both fixed and variable. Are you spending more than you earn every month, or do you have money left over?
5. If you have money left over, you could add this to your savings. If you’re spending a bit too much, now’s the time to review your subscriptions and variable expenses to see where you could start saving money.

There are plenty of budgeting tools available to help you track your monthly spending, including Money Helper.

Manage your subscriptions

Signed up to a free trial and forgot to cancel the subscription? Paying for a streaming service you barely use? You’re not alone. We all love our films and music, but those subscriptions can add up. Cancelling just one monthly £10 direct debit could save you £120 over a year – that could pay toward summer holiday spending or begin a longer saving journey.

If you need some help along the way, apps such as Bean can help you find, track and manage your bills and subscriptions. Many of them are even available for free!

Save little and often

Rather than focusing on large lump sums, think about saving smaller, regular amounts which can build up over time. You won’t notice the impact as much and after a while you won’t even miss the money in your account.

Here at The Cumberland we usually believe in real people over robots, but there are some occasions when automation really can help. Have you considered automating your savings? You can set up a regular monthly payment to your savings account, meaning the money is safely stored away before you’re tempted to spend it!

Keep it interesting

1p a day, £1 a week or £10 a month, there’s a host of savings challenges out there to help make saving fun. Savings challenges are a great way to build up your savings, remain focused on your goals and see your savings grow over time.