Having poor mental health can make managing your money harder, and worrying about money can worsen your mental health. It is important to always have your money organised so you can feel in control, we have put together 5 quick tips to organise your finances.
Make a Budget
A budget is a money plan, which can help you determine how much money you should be spending and saving.
To start a budget, you need to look at your monthly incomings, such as your salary, HMRC payments and many others. You then need to look at the monthly outgoings you must pay such as rent, insurance, phone bills, etc. Once you have figured out both, take away your outgoing payments from your incoming payments to see how much you have left to spend each month.
You can now make a budget as you can see your payments. Look at your finances and see if they are any outgoing payments that you no longer want/need such as certain TV subscriptions or a gym membership that you never use which can be cancelled.
Budgeting each month can allow you to be in control of your money and what you spend.
Set up Direct Debits
To ensure that your regular payments do not pile up and cause you to stress, set up Direct Debits so that the money will exit your account on a set date each month.
Direct Debits can help you save both time and money, as you will not need to remember to pay a bill, which can often lead to fines for paying late.
Direct Debits are safe and secure, any bank or e-money payment provider will pay any incorrect payments back to you.
Put Time Aside to Focus on Money
Managing your money may seem like a tough task but if you make time daily, weekly or even monthly to focus on your finances, it will not seem like such a big task. Use this time to pay bills, look at your spending habits or even transfer money if you owe any.
If you set a date each month to look through your statements to see what you are spending, you will be able to be in control of what you need to stop spending money on and even what you should be saving.
Take a look at the 50/20/30 Rule
The 50/30/20 rule allows budgeting to be straightforward and easy. The method looks at dividing your monthly incomings into three different categories, 50% for needs, 30% for wants and 20% for savings or paying off debt.
As there are only three different categories for you to manage you will save time and even stress as there is less to track as you will not have to look at all your outgoings on a whole. Here is an outline of each category:
- 50% – Spend 50% of your money on necessary costs, this could include: Monthly rent, food shops, insurance and bills
- 30% – Spend 30% of your money on wants, it is important that you treat yourself! Wants can include: Eating out, clothes, holidays and entertainment subscriptions.
- 20% – Save 20% of your money, your savings can add up quickly if you stick to this rule!
Put a plan in place so that you do not overspend
Your spending habits can change when due to the state of your mental health, for example, it could lead to an individual going out on a shopping spree and spending money to try to cheer themselves up.
Put a plan in place to distract yourself from spending money when you are down or even happy such as going out for a walk or spending time with friends and family.
Struggling with your mental health?
If you are struggling with your mental health, don’t suffer alone contact a charity for help, here are a few: Rehab4addiction, Mental Health Foundation, Mind, Mental Health UK, SANEline and Samaritans.
