5 Small Tweaks That Will Help You Be Less Broke By Payday

7 January 2019, 15:28 | Updated: 18 August 2022, 15:51

It's a struggle but you can make it work if you follow these tips. Picture: getty

Making your wage last the entire month is one of the most difficult skills of adult life to master. But it doesn’t have to be!

Promoted by Barclays

Here’s 5 small tweaks to help you get to payday:

1. Budget

It really does make all the difference between a care-free month and a stressful one. Sit down and work out exactly how much money you have left over once you’ve covered the costs of you household bills, travel and direct debits. Then work out how much you can afford to spend on things like going to the pub or eating out per week and stick to it. You have to be strict but you’ll thank yourself when your card doesn’t get rejected when trying to buy a bagel the day before payday.

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2. Change your cash machine limit

This is totally a thing - who knew?! So next Saturday when you’re heading out on the tiles with the gang and you know the chances of you withdrawing an extra £50 to spend on Jägerbombs at the club are 100/1, do yourself a favour and make sure the cashpoint will give you no more than £20. You may not be able to get in a round of shots for strangers you’ve just met (just imagine how thankful you’ll be in the morning, though!) but you will be able to get yourself a kebab and a taxi home. Winner.

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3. Take your lunch to work
Cooking lunch the night before is a bore, I get it. But spending £5 on a meal deal every day when you could have bought 5 loaves of bread for the same price is so much worse. Plus, just think of all the extra clothes you could buy or the holiday you could book if you boiled some pasta during the ad break of your fave soap.

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4. Keep an eye on your balance
If you’re anything like me, you treat your debit card more like a gift card and have a “I’m not actually sure how much is on this, but we’ll give it a try” attitude. However, it’s now easier and quicker than ever to check your balance via the app so don’t make life difficult for yourself and keep an eye on how much you actually have left. It will make it less shocking when you get rejected for that bagel.

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5. Buy a travel card at the start of the month

This is my number one tip, especially if you live in a city and use public transport every day to get to and from work or college. You have to pay it no matter what so surely it’s better to do it at the beginning of the month and then no matter what you buy you know you can always get to where you need to be without stressing out about it.