ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SAVING MONEY & THE COST OF LIVING CRISIS! MONEY MINDSET, FINANCIAL WELLBEING 2022

hi guys everyone welcome back to my channel and to a money saving video i've got 15 hacks for you for how to save money at the moment we're in a global cost of living crisis it's an absolute disaster at the moment to be frank with you but i've got some money-saving tips for you and some advice for how to deal with the rising cost of living i really really hope that it's helpful for you if you do find it helpful then please do give it a like so that other people can find it and maybe share it if you can or subscribe to the channel if you're new i do upload videos to help you guys live your best life on a budget so everything from money mindset to financial well-being and lots of lifestyle homey videos as well obviously we have just moved into our new home which is something we'll get on to but it's a very long time coming and there has been quite a lot of home content here recently but obviously i want to go back to my roots we are all struggling at the moment and it is a very very difficult time for so many people so i want to be able to share hopefully some really helpful money-saving ways that can help you guys cope with the rising cost of living so with all that being said let's get into the video [Music] all right so this one might be a long one so please do listen to me at 0.5 speed this has been an absolute game changer for me it's boosted my productivity levels no end essentially you can just put me on like a sped-up version so i speak like there's a little but you get so much more done so this is going to be quite packed out full of tips so keep on watching till the end so that you can make sure you don't miss any of them some of them we may well be recapping a couple of things if you are a long time viewer but i find like just listening to things again can really help me refresh my mindset and remember those things that i might have listened to a couple of years ago that i've forgotten about so hopefully there's something here for everybody if you're new to my channel then i'm lara it's so nice to have you here in this community so first of all i guess like my first thing would be about mindset so i want to kind of talk about one of the mindset ways that i live my life and that is to spend less than i earn live below my means and save and invest the rest so if potentially i get like a bonus like i get an extra job that i wasn't expecting that money it doesn't need to be spent i'll put that money somewhere to let it grow with maybe investments and i've done videos on my investments here on this channel or i'll just put it into my emergency fund or my sinking funds or some sort of a savings account because i don't need to spend that money so that's like one of the big mindset shifts i've taken on in my financial financial wellbeing journey and if you do get a bonus from work or maybe get some extra shifts or you get you just get some money somehow then the mindset shift is you don't have to spend it spend less than you earn and invest and save the rest i work with sinking funds i've done a video on that before which is essentially guilt-free spending if i have like a sinking fund for a holiday when i take that money out that money is all accounted for and budgeted for and i can spend that money and not feel guilty because that was a huge issue that i had when i was when i was coming to my spending that i was so into saving that when i actually spent money it felt really weird and i couldn't do it and finally if i can't afford it then i just don't have it i never borrow more than i can afford to repay obviously if you are in severe debt and you need to borrow money to pay your food bill then these are the things that we're gonna work through in this video but it can't be helped but if it's on something that you don't need you just really really want then unless i have the money and i can afford to do it i just won't borrow it i want to talk about the mental effects of this financial crisis that we're in the cost of living crisis and that is that kind of mindset of what you own can value your worth what you what you're worth can value your worth if that makes sense and that does not need to be the case we are all struggling we are all in a really crappy position and that's not our fault there are things outside of our control that we cannot change if we were the best frugal or savvy with money or well-educated or in a really well-paid job we would still be facing these issues outside of our control so don't let that damage your wet mental well-being because you're feeling like you have failed or you are and you've caused this i don't want you to feel any shame around this and what your bank account value is doesn't equate to your value as a person so lots of people here follow me because they're trying to buy a house uh but i guess the kind of message is if you can't afford to pay your electricity bill at the moment you might need to readjust your goals and your ambitions and your expectations for the year if you want to buy a house that's great but if you need to prioritize spending on things day-to-day living then it might just be a chance it it hurts because you feel like you're so close to your goal or maybe that's the goal you've got in your mind but it is just a chance just to reset those expectations for the year it took us years and years to save for our house way longer than i was documenting it for and there were lots of downs on that journey so you may well follow me and you'd be like you live in a beautiful home thanks as i'd say so myself but you may well be feeling like these things you can't have but that your journey is different to someone else's so just stay in your own lane you're not going to judge yourself against someone else this is your own journey and your time will also come so being vigilant with your bills this is this is where it comes down to the granular detail of knowing what comes in and out of your bank and i've talked about this before but if you have got subscriptions or bills like your phone bill they're just gonna keep on running if your contract is up you're probably not gonna be told about it you're just gonna be kept on going with this contract for example maybe your car insurance or your i mean they'll send you a letter but you've just gotta be vigilant that they will keep on charging you this amount and you may be able to get it better for a better price so just be really vigilant with what's coming out of your bank and be really granular with all of this information it really really does help if you don't know what you've been spending then the chances are you're probably spending too much because you're not tracking it so just be really hyper aware of your banking what's in and what's out and what's left in the middle next is convenience costs money so so many things have been invented since i was even like old enough to use them so things that are going to maybe take longer will actually cost you less money so for example you might not want to walk it might be too far to go to work or to come home from work but instead of grabbing an uber that's the convenience saying think about taking a bus yes it's going to take you longer you'll still get home but you would have saved a lot of money or if you can't be bothered to cook then delivery is just an app away just a couple of taps away but maybe use your energy when you have it say on a sunday night to batch cook loads of meals so that they're there in the freezer when you want to grab something when you can't be bothered to cook or for example if you want to get some money out of a cash machine walk that bit further to get to the cash point that's free rather than going to one that's going to cost you money these are just little changes and it's all about convenience you're going to pay more for things that are more convenient so make that extra effort go the extra mile and actually get things cheaper and these are like micro things that will definitely add up to save you money by all means get a takeaway we sometimes have one like once in a blue moon because it's a treat but if you're doing these things every day they are not a treat they're just part of like day-to-day life and as such you then don't appreciate them so save it for like once a month or once every friday night it's your thing as a family you sit down you have a takeaway that's okay but just do it throughout the week when you could just be batch cooking or cooking something simple it just saves so much money i'm really sorry about the light in here i had this blind up uh and it was like creating quite a horrible back shadow so i sit here see what that looks like is that any better okay so this one is a bit left filled but could you move in with a friend or if you're a single mom moving with another single mom and combine things like this is a bit crazy but honestly like we're just conforming to this normal thing like normal you have to do it this way you you can save you could rent out your current place and live with and split the money that you're earning in the rent and then split everything as well like all the electricity all the food bills all the day-to-day house running bills you could split that with the person you're living with make the money out of what your your place that you own already or that you rent already if you're allowed to sublet and you you could actually do this for six months or like airbnb or something for like the weekends this is actually gonna save you so much money i feel like this is a genius idea that no one does because we're all stuck in the rut of like no this is how life should be we live with like we live on our own or we live with a flatmate but actually combine flats with someone and like maybe four into one you could save so much money just sometimes thinking outside the box and doing something that we would never do normally so if you are thinking that you're missing out on things like social events maybe festivals and gigs then why not consider volunteering at these events so you get to work for half of it and you get to go to the gig for the other half my brother did this for glastonbury like years ago and places like oxfam places like that will recruit people to volunteer at these events so you still don't you don't have to miss out on these experiences and these fun things but you actually can get it for free as well as volunteering which might hopefully give you that nice warm fuzzy feeling that you're helping out look into that see where you can volunteer maybe it's an event or a gig or something like that but there's definitely things that you can get for free by giving your time for part of it if you feel like you want a pamper maybe you want your hair done or some beauty treatments but you don't want to spend on it it's a way to save money here or you just want to like keep up with your like your hair appointments or something you can go to a local technology college or beauty school and you will get a student to do it for you for free as a model but you will be overseen by the lecturer you'll never be left to walk out with like half your hair missing because they'll always be overseeing yes it might take a bit longer but you're getting a treatment for free so if this is something that you really want to make you feel better look you know look how you want to look without spending the money then definitely look into getting free haircuts as models in fact salons do this as well with apprentices and trainees so just look around do some research or maybe ask on facebook if anyone needs models or something like that this is a great way of saving money on your beauty treatments the next tip is to pay outright for things so monthly payments can cost a lot more money so if you can pay for it in one lump sum at the beginning of the year like your car insurance or your tv license or something like that it's a way of saving money obviously you may not be able to afford to do that but why don't you spend this year putting maybe like two three four pounds extra into a sinking fund so when it comes to renewing next year you can pay it off in one go and you can save yourself the interest make sure you're using a comparison site when you are doing your annual bill changeovers as i said insurance companies will just roll that over like literally you'll just be paying the same price where you can get it for cheaper make sure you're not missing out here by using a comparison site i know that's a simple thing but you believe me so many people don't do this i'm not gonna do it on this one because it's an obvious one and i've spoken about it before but meal planning don't just go into the shop and be like what can i buy literally just plan what you're gonna eat for the week use what you've already got in the cupboards you've got some potatoes great you're gonna make something with potatoes you've got a sack of potatoes you can make fish cakes you can make cottage pie you can make mashed potatoes you can make something with potatoes in it like a gnocchi or something like that like there's so many ways of doing this but just meal plan meal plan that's enough that's as much as i'm going to say because you guys know and if you don't know there's heaps of videos on my channel about meal planning and how to save money on your food shop i will link them all below for you heating now we all know that the energy crisis is causing a huge uplift in people's bills and unfortunately i can't change the price that you are paying for your energy bill but there are ways that we can kind of manage how it's going to be in in the winter sadly there will be another price hike by then as well and it's i like i could be here all day talking about why the government aren't stepping in here and helping us obviously we have just had the grant and i did a real on that over my instagram lara jenna jarvis but there's there are ways that we can kind of like protect ourselves as we go into winter at the moment we won't be having our heating on so our bills are going to be less so why don't we use that money that we were paying in the winter this year when they first went up and keep that um like ongoing increased payment but keeping it in your account so that when it does come to it then you don't have this like huge amount of money to find so we actually changed our tariff on our electricity bill i think it was about march time so the price hikes had happened or we moved and then we lost our tariff and so we went up and i literally i got home from cornwall and it was a nine pound ninety a day staggering amount it would like triple the amount that we were paying before obviously yeah we did move house it was a bigger house bigger house to heat but nine pound ninety ten pound a day like this is a joke so we went on to a variable rate tariff now i can't say this would work for you but for us we were a bit unsure but we had two friends that worked at the energy company that we are provided by and they both said like they won't offer this they're not going to publicize this but you can ask to go on a variable rate tariff and it has reduced it down to about three pounds 50 a day obviously we're now not heating the place but we just like can't believe the difference so just look into whether you are actually allowed to do that as i said like you need to do your own research if it it might be that you pay more doing that but for us it saved us so much money if you're gonna find it really really hard to put that extra money aside for your winter energy bills then set up something like plum where you can actually have savings pots uh i actually have i think about eight different pots and this money just comes out of my account it just i'll put a link for you in the description i think we might get 15 pound each if i refer you actually i worked with them year like ages and ages ago and i really love them still and loads of you guys say you love plum as well essentially it's like not a banking app it's like a finance app so it knows how much you're spending where you're spending it can help you like see exactly where you're overspending things like that but one of the really helpful uses of it is that you can put in say you want like a pot for your holiday a part of your car expenses a pot for your energy bill in the winter a pot for your clothes a pot for your debt management or whatever you want to do and you can have like this amount coming out so it will automatically take out an amount of money that it knows you can afford that knows how much you're spending and where you need to take like if you need to save money it will go less and less but it will put this money in these pots so you could put like one two pounds a day into your energy pot for the winter and then when it comes to winter you won't have noticed you losing that money but it will be there ready to pay for your electricity bill it's not sponsored but you can sign up for free it's a free app um and i know loads of people absolutely love it next tip is to rotate things i feel like we're getting on quite a long video here but this is a this is like i've still got loads of tips to go so the next thing is to rotate things so things like toys for your children if you've got children they mine are like if they have the toys out and they've played with them forever they're like nothing what should we do i'm bored but you put those toys in the loft and then six months later you get them down the best toys i've ever had honestly and you can do this with your clothes as well i do this every year with seasonal changes and you get it down and i sometimes give them a couple of years like i just got down a load of stuff and i was like ah it's like christmas it's like i've been on a shopping spree this dress three years old i bought this for california in like 2019. i haven't worn it since i got out laughed i was like yes chef's kiss this is my outfit now so there's loads of ways you can like rotate things and also with your friends if you've got other friends with children your a your own children's age then do a toy swap and then after a few months swap them back it will be like they've got brand new things without having to spend the money the next tip is to learn a frugal mindset now there's a huge difference between being frugal and being cheap and i've got a video on this so i'll link it below for you in a playlist you'll have to look for it within the playlist but it's a mindset so being frugal frugal people can actually end up spending more money on something than they need to definitely more on the cheapest thing because they know it might last them longer it might be better for them it might be nicer to use they choose to spend their money wisely and they don't waste their money that's the difference and unfortunately people kind of have and i won't call out the comments i'd like to feel like they aren't being intentionally unkind to me but some comments of you know like why'd you buy that you're meant to be frugal like we've got ourselves to a good position financially because we've done the groundwork we've done so much work to get to this point i believe me like such a huge change changing my mind towards my money and how i spend money and how i think about money has completely improved my financial well-being in fact i've got money mindset videos here as well if you'd like to watch them um we won't get into it too much in this video just like doing a meat-free monday doing blackout days can really help with your electricity bills so instead of having the tv on as a matter of habit when you get in from work think about like turning it off but at the wall so it doesn't keep charging it when you don't need it and read a book do a puzzle go for a walk do some baking like literally anything else and it's not just tv obviously that's not gonna like suddenly make you a millionaire overnight or get you out of debt or be able to pay for your food bill but just little changes so perhaps you don't do a wash every time you use your clothes like i if they don't smell and they don't have even if they've got marks on them i'll just like dab them off with a cloth you don't have to wash them every day i'm sorry if you feel like that's disgusting but if it doesn't smell and it's clean then i don't i wouldn't put it in the wash um stu does he is like a man and he's a burly man and he would sweat more than me i literally i'm prince andrew guys i do not sweat like i literally don't sweat it's really weird but what i was gonna say this has gone off on a really weird tandem is that um you don't have to do wash every time you use your clothes you don't have to do a wash a day wait until you've got a full load you don't have to use your dishwasher every day wash up for a week literally like these sorts of things like if you're gonna make a cup of tea put it in a pot keep it warm like then you've got three cups of tea for the price of one boiling of the kettle some of the most coffee things we do we just do buy habits so just changing up these habits and changing the way you do things can really save you a load of money impulse purchases now we just gotta mention this one guys i know you long-term viewers i love you all so much um you will know about this one but at least sleep on these things changing my like have your own rules but having mine as like a 30-day rule changed so much and it saved me so much money and a really nice thing to do is and a powerful thing to do is write down every time you want to buy something write it down how much it is and at the end of the month if you've managed to not buy anything tot up those amounts my friend hundreds of pounds you could have wasted on things that you probably still don't want you still don't need like you've got over the impulse of it and you've saved loads of money that money can go into a pot for your emergency fund or like to have there if you need it for an unexpected bill or invest it or just something other than spending on stuff you don't need next one is to couple up i know i don't mean love island i've never seen it have you um let me know if it's something i should need in my life i've never watched it but coupling up on things like netflix on driving on parking on hotels there's so many things like on a national railcar like if you go to london with the same people all the time on like nights out or you know day work or whatever like that just couple up on a national railcard and and save the money going in with someone to half the cost so maybe if you need or you really want a netflix subscription get a family one pay half each use it together there's ways in which you can save money your spotify account family membership there's just ways of coupling up and saving money in the long run and i don't want to dwell on this one because i know i talk about it a lot but that's because i'm so passionate about it and that is never shop without checking if there's cash back if there's a voucher if there's a discount there's just like i have a process of when i shop and it always involves those three things and it pains me that makes my heart hurt if i have to buy something with no cash back on it or there's no discount or there's no voucher code i literally will search and search until i found something before i buy that thing because it's literally money that is for things that you're buying anyway and that doesn't have to be things like i say it might be your electricity bill your phone bill something that you have to pay for your trains your hotel or something like that this money just adds up it just sits in my account until i have a birthday or christmas or a holiday and i take the money out and i spend it guilt-free or i can put it into my emergency fund if i need it for electricity bill food bill things are outside of my control that are increasing in price but please the amount of people that have signed up with my link and then never used it i will link it for you below i think we get 15 pounds each i'm not sure there will be a sign up bonus for you but just don't waste this opportunity just earn money for buying the things that you're gonna buy anyway as i said i've worked with topcashback in the past a long-term partner of mine this could be any cashback site i just don't want you to miss out on the cashback guys yeah check my link in the description bar but also there's chrome extensions so i have voucher codes which is called deal finder top cashback quid co um minty i have loads of chrome extensions that when i'm shopping it not only tells me like which shop's got the best back it'll also when i go to buy it will say like run run vouchers and then it will choose me a voucher that i won't know is out there in the world and it will apply to my basket and it's free and it's free to use and it's just extra money off and honestly i just think it's that mindset shift and like loads of people say to me oh i signed up with your link and then i never used it i'm like once you get into the habit of it like i was in the town shops the other day and i went to buy something i was like oh i'm not sure about that and i was like actually i'm just gonna buy it online when i get home because i will get my cash back there obviously i work with curve as well who are a card so every time i'm shopping like in aldi or ikea or something that isn't like an online thing that i can get cash back on i'll always get my cash back and in fact i double up so when i buy online i also use my curve card and get my cashback it's just a whole happy place to be because my cashback amount just goes up and up and i'm actually not doing anything to get that money other than spend on the things i would be spending on anyway i really hope that you listen to that on half extra speed because we're coming up for half an hour now and this is like maybe one of my most comprehensive money saving videos to date i really hope that this has helped if you are dealing with rising cost of living and trying to make ends meet is really really crap and i just my heart goes out to anyone that is really really struggling do share this with anyone that you think might find this helpful give it a like so that other people can find it here on this platform of youtube and subscribe to the channel to see more videos like this from me there's loads of money saving videos down in the description bar so don't forget to check those out thank you for being here i've been laura and i will see you guys so soon take care bye

Channel: Lara Joanna Jarvis

Views: 42,711

Keywords: personal finance, how to save money, frugal living tips, ultimate guide, money saving tips, money saving, financial wellbeing, wellbeing tips, financial, financial education, financial management, financial literacy, lara joanna jarvis, guide to saving money, money mindset, cost of living, cost of living crisis uk, cost of living crisis, cost of living crisis usa, money tips women, money tips uk, money tips from wealthy people, 2022, personal finance management

Id: yTOxQmXQqTc

Length: 22min 16sec (1336 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 10 2022