I’ve shared many tips of how to stay on top of personal finances. Some I use, some I don’t. The idea is that you can’t do everything but that the options are there. Here’s a breakdown of what I do. These are habits I’ve adapted over the last seven years:

Tracking every penny I spend: I’ve written down everything I’ve spent money on for seven years. This was the first step that I took in managing my personal finance. It helped at the start of my journey because it gave me the real figures of my spending. It highlighted areas of problem spending and helped me realise that lots of things that I spent money on didn’t contribute to my happiness but were making me feel out of control with my money.

Monitoring yearly budget: It’s a little bit embarrassing to admit that after a year of tracking every penny I spent I input all of the data into a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet allows me to account for every penny. It also allows me to input my income as a measure of comparison and way to keep track of whether I regularly overspend. With this data I’m able to set new financial goals for the year that follows.

Packed lunches: I’ve had packed lunches throughout school, university and my working life so far (2 months in). This isn’t to say I don’t eat out at all but that I pack my lunch about 90% of the time so that I can save £5-7 on eateries each day. What’s great is that I know what has been put into the food and can therefore monitor the healthiness of my meals.

Set goals: This is something I mention regularly but without these I’d have no reason to write about personal finance at all. If you have nothing to save for then how can you find the motivation? It’s almost impossible to say that no one has anything to save for. At the very least I would say each person needs an emergency fund with 3-6 months of expenses tucked away in case of an unexpected redundancy or injury which could leave you with no disposable income.

Actively search for the best deals: First, I look for the best deals when buying anything from food to laptops to presents. Second, I look for the best savings accounts that are on the market. In recent years the return has been abysmal but this doesn’t keep me from ensuring my savings are at least not being eaten away at by inflation.

These have all worked for me but there’s no guarantee that these will work for you. The key is to try everything out and find out what suits you. For example one area of weakness is presents. I love to buy really nice presents for my friends and family but admittedly I spend a lot more than I realise.