How to Stick to Your Monthly Budget?

When it gets to the end of the month, do you get a sinking feeling about how much cash is left over? Sometimes, that wait until the next payday might only be a few days but it can seem like weeks. Let’s face it – Britain is an expensive country to live in. No wonder so many of us are turning to short-term loans (including short-term loans for poor credit) to make ends meet.

If you need a short-term loan, then please find out more about how Oyster Loan can help you at the end of the article. However, the team here want to talk to you about the ways we’ve all found here at Oyster Loan of sticking within our own monthly budgets. We love feedback so please do share your thoughts.

What is discretionary income and why is it so important?

Discretionary income is the amount of money you have left to spend after taking off the cost of taxes and the cost of living. Cost of living expenses includes mortgage/rent, insurance, utilities, clothing, and so on.

Think of discretionary income as a mixture of “fun” and “future” money. It’s “fun” because it’s the money that we use to treat our partners and the kids with. It’s that extra £21 a month you spend to get all Sky Sports channels. It’s that Chinese takeaway you got in because you looked in the freezer and nothing jumped out at you.

It’s also “future” money because you don’t have to spend it all. This is money that you could be putting aside for a rainy day. And not many of us are using our “future” money because, according to the Financial Conduct Authority in 2017, millions of Brits would struggle to meet an unexpected bill of £50 at the end of the month (source: BBC News). That’s worrying.

So, what can we do about it? We can budget a bit better and we’re going to look at how.

Getting down the cost of living

There’s nothing we can do about the taxes we pay – unfortunately. Income tax, National Insurance, council tax, and the TV licence are things we just can’t bargain down.

There are things you can do though including:

use comparison sites to bring down the costs of insurance and your energy bills
ask your landlord for a discount or switch your mortgage provider
shop at cheaper supermarkets and be disciplined about what you buy
use a debt consolidation loan
if you use public transport to get to and from work, think about buying a monthly pass
prepare your own delicious packed lunches at home to take into work

You’d honestly be surprised just how much taking care of these little things makes a massive difference.

Having more fun on less money

Right, we’ve brought the cost of living down. The things you do in that list could be equivalent to a £3,000 or £4,000 a year pay rise or more if you do everything we suggest and you stick to it.

You can cut down on the cost of fun but still enjoy life by:

cancelling any direct debit on your account where you don’t really need or want what you’re paying for any more
take the kids on free days out down the beach or to the park instead of to expensive adventure parks
only subscribe to the TV you actually want to watch
go for cheaper versions of the alcoholic drinks you like
quit smoking if you can. It’s great for your health but my God, it’s difficult. You will feel much better though (trust the author, I’m a non-judgemental ex-smoker who took a few attempts but got there in the end myself)

Living on a budget is not about denying yourself pleasure. In fact, it’s all about the pleasure of time you spend with your loved ones.

Money is the thing that we Brits worry about, perhaps more than anything else. If we’re short of money, it makes us sad. Lack of money is often the reason behind many relationship break-ups. Imagine a future when you’re not worrying about money all the time and there’s that rainy day fund you’ve always wanted but never quite had.

Your rainy day fund is something you can dip into for the occasional treat. It’s also there to stop you getting into debt when unexpected bills arrive. And that’s something we all know about because it’s happened to us all from time to time.

Short-term loans the online UK

If you’ve just started budgeting but there’s been a surprise bill that’s come along which means you need to find the best short-term loan offer (including short-term loans for poor credit applicants), then let Oyster Loan do the hard work of searching for the very best deal.

Short-term loans can be more manageable than payday loans. After all, with a payday loan, you have to pay everything back, including in the interest, all in one go. Although you pay more in interest with a short-term loan than you do with a payday loan, your monthly repayments are smaller so they can fit into your disposable income at the end of the month more easily.

Oyster Loan is not a lender, we’re a broker. What we do is match up borrowers looking for short-term loans with lenders who want to help. Each of the lenders on our panel has told us the type of borrower they like to work with so, when you fill in your application form, we’ll match up your details with the ideal lenders.

Within just a few seconds, we’ll get offers back from each of them and we’ll present them with the very best offer we’ve found. We’ll tell you how much the interest rate on the loan is and tell you what your monthly repayments are going to be. If you’re happy with that, simply sign the lender’s online application form and, normally within a few hours (depending on who you bank with), the money will appear in your account.

If you don’t like the offer we’ve found you, you don’t have to proceed – you’re under no obligation whatsoever. Whatever you do, Oyster Loan never charges you for our service.