I love how all finance-y type people discuss example companies as being in the widget business. That really confused me when I was at uni for an embarrassingly long time.

I’m trying to win an iPad 2 in the iSave, iWrite, iPad competition from PlayPennies.com!

Unfortunately, not everyone is a millionaire. I know this may surprise you, but it is in fact true. The cast majority of people consider themselves to be in the ‘squeezed middle’ category, implying that those people are worried about their personal finances.

And its hard not to fret, with rising energy and fuel, food and travel costs, and the price of consumer goods always going up.

But I am here to help you through some of those concerns! By following my expert¹ advice, you too can find a few more pennies to spend at the end of the month.

My first tip is a bit of a big one, and can be a difficult to get it going.

Make a budget.

Use Excel and make it as basic or as complex as you like. The point is, having some way of easily tracking your spending makes saving a breeze once you see where your money is draining away.

My budget is broken down by month and includes an overview page. In each month, I have a ‘Predicted’ section and an ‘Actual’ one. This way I can see how I’m doing compared to my expectations (always a bonus, trust me). On the Overview, I have two tables running alongside each other, showing my income, outgoings, and my balance,  again broken into predicted and actual accounts. The aim (yes, it’s now a game!) is to always be better than your prediction.

Second tip: Get an ISA. Got one already? Move it to the best rate. If you find yourself saving too much money, move it into the ISA. From personal experience, if I have more than £1000 instantly accessible to me, it will be burnt away on useless tat.

Now that you’ve got to grips with your money, we can get down to the nitty-gritty that no-one likes: watching your spending.

There are two key areas here.

The first is: Do you need it?

If you’re buying something big to make you feel better, the chances are you’ll feel worse. If you really feel you need to buy to feel better, get something small. I used to buy myself a £1 toy if I was feeling down. That cheered me up for a week. Compare that to a TV, or a laptop, or some other big ticket item. I’d be too racked with consumer guilt and worry to truly enjoy my gift (to myself).

The second area boils down to: Save where you can.

Normally this applies most to grocery shopping. I spend £40 a week on my groceries, and no doubt people with larger households pay more.

Normally the price difference between the brand names and the value items is about 50p or so. If you buy 50 items (for example) that’s a £25 saving…every week! I know you may scoff at the idea of eating value - I did! But, by and large, there is no difference between the brands. Admittedly, I can taste the difference between McVitie’s biscuits and the lesser biscuits, as well as Coca-Cola and the cheap stuff, among others².

But take your fruit, veg and cooking ingredients. Do you care if you have a slightly less sweet apple? Or an orange that is a bit more difficult to peel? Most taste comes down to your skill in the kitchen, so check out the wonderful epicurious or any other source of recipes for help.

Also, try and shop as late as you can. I often go to Tesco after work (which means not getting there till 9pm) but that’s when all the best stuff is about to be thrown away. Last night I bought 4 vine ripened tomatoes for 14p, a pack of (locally sourced!) carrots for 10p, and a pack of hot cross buns³ for 10p. And there were loads more to be picked up. I just don’t have anywhere to store them.

Finally, apply this to bigger purchases. If you’re looking to buy something for £100, psychologically we don’t care about paying £10 in delivery charges, or adding a £15 accessory to it. This is a huge mental con.

Would you begrudge paying that £15 on a packet of sweets? Of course you would. So find the best deal all of the time. Use Amazon, Pricerunner, eBay every time. And check to see if you can get a better deal on your TV, broadband, and energy. It can all be found cheaper!

My last, and probably most important tip, is MoneySavingExpert. This website is a God-send, and is basically the Bible of saving money.

Now that I’ve given you the best of my knowledge, feel free to thank me or give yourself to an extra (value) treat at the end of the week.

1. My writing is neither expert, nor to be taken as advice. Anything which could be labelled as expert advice is completely accidental. ↩

2. Which I’m not exactly proud of. ↩

3. Which I’m devouring right now. And not exactly proud of. ↩