Your finances are something that you will need to manage throughout your lifetime. Increasingly in the current economic environment we live in more and more of us are having to plan how we use out money more thoroughly as banks continue to lower interest rates and inflation continues to rise for a variety of goods and services across the UK.

Calculating Your Income And Monthly Spend

One of the best things you can do prior to making any purchases is calculating your income and monthly spend. This is because planning is essential in order to ensure that you are able to make the most out of your money overall.

A good way to calculate your income is to take into account any external sources e.g buying and selling online as well as any standing orders from other accounts etc. Calculating your overall monthly spend can also be done in a similar fashion. A great way to do this is to categorise different costs e.g: food , clothes , rent, transport costs , social costs etc.

When you have established your incoming and outgoings from your bank account you can then look towards budgeting your finances overall and calculating what you can spend and what you can save. The first real step to managing your finances is knowing your overall total costs and how much you spend on average each month.

Budgeting Your Finances

One of the most important and crucial things you can do is budgeting your finances. Budgeting your finances give you the ability to take more control of your finances overall. This means that you can save money as well as cut your overall costs and typical spend on goods and services.

One great way through which you can begin managing and budgeting your finances is through the use of a spreadsheet. Using a spreadsheet and dividing up your different costs is important to ensure you can keep track of what you spend and are likely to spend each month overall.

Budgeting can also help you to do less impulse buying and become more savvy with your spending overall.

Choosing The Right Bank

An important part of managing your finances effectively is also about choosing the right banks. Bank’s often have varying policies , interest rates and account types that can affect your finances overall and how much money you may have at your disposal.

If you are intending to save money it is well worth considering a bank with good interest rates as well as account types that are accessible. Increasingly these types of banks/accounts are becoming more and more difficult to come by due to tough economic market conditions as well as increased overall financial uncertainty across the world.

Conclusion

Overall to conclude it is clear that due to the economic and market conditions in the UK at the moment it is more important than ever to save whatever money you can where and when possible. Doing this will help you to be able to make larger purchases in the future. Additionally you can earn extra money through earned interest.