Living Life on a Budget in 2020

Ever since I became officially an adult, I’ve lived life on a strict budget, apart from the years I was age 21-23. For my first three years in adult hood, I was at university. Due to my parents income I didn’t qualify for much extra so I had to take a job. Of course university is all about the social life so I remember having £6 to feed myself for a week so I could still go out when I wasn’t at work. After I finished University I had a few care free years of shopping sprees and trips before I fell pregnant and then the excessive budgeting started all over again. Once I became self employed and I could splash out on trips, we started to go to Disney, so back to the budgeting we were. Over the years, on the whole, I’ve become quite adept to living on a budget, and if it means we can go to Disney, I don’t mind too much.. however if you don’t have a fully-pledged strategy in place, the likeliness of failure of sticking to that said budget spirals out of control especially when there is an unexpected expense. And I can’t even pretend I haven’t had a few of those before!

Of course 2020 is a whole other ball game. Money is tight and I can’t use my budgeting system because I’m relying on ordering groceries and spending money on keeping my kid entertained, but not only that, the work flow just isn’t the same. And I know that isn’t just me. So many of us are feeling it.

This year I have been using a site called Pigly and their budgeting calculator. This has been a great help because my usual systems haven’t been working during this unsual time. It’s been fantastic because I can adjust it depending on how my month is going to ensure I don’t end up in a negative financial situation. It’s also helped me work out how much I can realistically afford to put away for retirement, something I have regretably stopped doing over the last few years. Pigly breaks everything down easily for me and honestly I’m thankful for that.

Anyway, today, I’ve made some assessments on how those extra savings can come in handy if something like that was to occur.

Travelling
I’m not a driver, however I know from family members who are, diving is a huge expense that often comes with extra surprise expenses that you haven’t budgeted for. Did you know that the average motorist in the UK will spend an astonishing £168880 over their lifetime. Ouch. When it comes to payments across the year, petrol costs a driver £1052.04. Servicing a vehicle costs can add up to £441 over a twelve-month period. MOTs can cost up to £168.46 annually. Cost of parking is on the rise, and with more vehicles on the roads, there seems to be a higher demand. Over the year, a motorist can find themselves paying £145.80 on parking, and that doesn’t include any expected parking tickets.. When it comes to insurance, this can sway dramatically as younger drivers will find themselves paying a higher cost to be on the road but on average, insurance costs an experience driver £436 every year. Tax can equate to £116.35 on a yearly basis. Car supplies can cost a driver £29.61 and if you were to go abroad and wished to drive, holiday rental cars can leave you £180 out of pocket. Speeding tickets equal £25.12 for the average driver here in the UK. This would cost a driver £2594.38 in total where commuters find themselves paying considerably less for a significant service.

Using a megarider ticket, you will be able to travel as much as you want and can tailor your own needs to the ticket type. Whether you’re in need of a weekly bus pass for your travels, or a monthly one — you will find yourself making a huge saving in comparison to buying a ticket every day.

Lifestyle
First up, coffee. According to research carried out by MyVoucherCodes, people in the UK visit coffee shops at least three times per week. This means that Brits visit coffee shops around 156 times a year with an average spend of £8.52. If you spend an average of £8.52 per visit, it makes your yearly total of £1329 on coffee! I’m so glad I work from home and I don’t have the temptation to walk a few miles to do this! Anyway, branded coffee company, Douwe Egberts, has said that a 250g pack of ground coffee can make up to 30 cups. When looking to see how much a 1kg pack would cost, Amazon has priced the coffee at around £15, meaning that each cup of coffee would cost close to 13p. Try taking a flask to work and even purchasing an on-the-go coffee cup that will see you through your day.

Onto smoking.. a bad habit I’m so glad I kicked prior to LM’s existence. If the rise in prices for cigarettes hasn’t already put you off, knowing that you could save a whopping £3796 (if you smoke 20 a day) should be the driving mechanism for you to quit. MoneySupermarket.com has also stated that non-smokers pay around £6309 less for life insurance, which could be something worth investing in for the new year. An alternative that many smokers are trying to save money is vaping. 10ml bottles of liquid cost around £5 on average, saving those who turn to vaping around £1900. Check out the latest stats on vaping in the UK, to get a better idea of facts and figures, I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

Now this one, I am so guilty of. Like many people I find it easier to just buy lunch while I’m out an about. But what if we told you that, on average, forking out for lunch every day could cost you £1288 PER YEAR according to research carried out by VoucherCloud. Evidently, you could make a huge saving by preparing your lunch at home. When we looked at the total working days in 2017, there was 252 — if we went by Poundland’s price of tomato soup, which is 50p, you would find yourself paying £126! A massive saving for anyone looking to cut down on costs. Not buying lunch while out alone could nearly afford me another holiday!

Unexpected Expenses
Then of course, the unexpected expensive we’ve all been victim to, with 54% of 2000 people asked saying that they suffered from an unexpected expense within the household. When your washing machine goes and you feel sick in the pit of your stomach knowing you have to find the money to buy a new one. 47% of these issues happened in the kitchen, a room which is essential to the day-to-day running of any home, and if you don’t have the money to pull out instantly, it could cause an everyday stress. Using the savings you would have made by taking your own lunch and coffee to work, quitting smoking, and travelling smarter, you will be able to make life easier. It was also found that 35% of people had to use a credit card to cover the costs of unexpected expenses. With 18% of them not being able to pay more than £100 on their own, 17% had to borrow from friends and family! If you want to sure you’re on top of any unexpected expenses and irregular payments, Pigly also has you covered.

Thinking smarter for 2020 is a must, how will you be changing your ways to save money?