Control my day-to-day money

Whatever stage you’re at, setting yourself manageable goals to get on track can help give you back that control.

Even if everything was under control, perhaps you’ve recently experienced a sudden or unexpected change which has affected your finances. This could be illness, divorce or needing to stop work to care for a loved one. Or perhaps there’s an unexpected bill to fix the car or replace the washing machine.

If it feels like your mental wellbeing is suffering because you’re worried about money, you're not alone and there is free help available for you. Visit our Wellbeing hub for useful links to charities and other organisations that will be able to help you.

Write a budget

As a first step it’s important to make sure you understand how much you have coming in, what has to be paid from your income (like rent, mortgage, bills, debts) and what else you are spending your money on. We've put together a four step plan to help you write a budget - and you can use our interactive budget planner to give you a clear picture of your monthly spending.

Manage your debt

If you're in a debt emergency right now, there is free support to help you. A debt emergency could be court or bailiff action, threat of disconnection or eviction.

If you have debts but they’re under control, it's worth checking whether you're paying them off in the best order, have the right debt solutions for your situation, the best interest rates and if you can pay them off more quickly. Visit our Manage your debt page for more support. 

Cut costs

Now that you know what you’re spending, you can start to see where you might be able to make cost savings and set a budget you can work with.

You can look at reducing spending on your bills, your debt, subscriptions and your shopping. Take one area of spending at a time and work through it.

Sometimes saving money does mean cutting back on the things you enjoy for a while until you get yourself back in control. 

Government Help for Households

If you’re struggling to make ends meet, the government's Help for Households website has lots of useful information to see what support you could be eligible for:

• help with household bills and childcare costs (including free school meals)
• Universal Credit and other income benefits
• transport costs

Save for a rainy day

If you have used our budget planner, you will have thought about irregular but planned costs that come up throughout the year like birthday presents, Christmas, a holiday or the car MOT. But there will also be times when an unplanned cost happens - like a car repair. Or you might be out of work because of sickness.

It's best to have savings that will cover three months of outgoings like your rent, bills and debts in case you were unable to work. This may feel like a lot of money to save, so start small and once you’re in the savings habit you may be able to increase your savings and your rainy day fund will start to grow faster.

Keep track of your progress

Congratulations! You’ve made it this far and have already taken so many positive steps to getting back in control of your day-to-day money. If you haven’t actually started yet, don’t worry – just reading this is a positive first step.

It’s important not to treat this like a ‘once and done’. Keep track of your planned budget, adjust along the way and don’t let any set-backs get you down too much; learn from them and try again. 

Most importantly, make sure that you give yourself credit for all the milestones you are passing on your road to getting your money under control.