My money-saving resolutions for 2014

What are your resolutions for the New Year? Will you shed some pounds, run a marathon, clear your credit card debt? I’ve certainly got my finances firmly at the front of my mind.

I'm always looking for ways to save money, but it's all too easy to drift a bit. The New Year is a chance to review how I’m managing our family finances and whether or not I could be doing better.


First, I decided to review how much money my resolution saved me last year, and then consider how I can best save money in 2014:

Success in 2013

While I’m pretty dreadful at sticking to resolutions about diet, exercise and finishing War and Peace, I have had some success with last year’s resolution.

In January 2013 I made a decision to dramatically cut the amount of food my family of three (now four) waste.

And it turned out to be a pretty timely resolution. Just a few days into the year a report from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers revealed that half the food we grow globally is wasted. Thrown away. Discarded.

That was morally and financially shocking and I was even more determined to fix it, in our home at least. Using meal planners, online leftover recipe sites and being less squeamish about best before dates (although still very hot on ‘use by’ deadlines) I aimed to reduce our food bills by £520 a year.

It’s hard to be certain of how much we’ve saved as my growing toddler is eating more and I’ve weaned our new baby, so the amount we spend on food has changed for several reasons. However, I think we’ve easily saved more than £10 a week; I wouldn’t be surprised if it was as much as £15 some weeks. That’s between £520 and £780 saved over the year.

[ Get rid of these accounts and cards to have a wealthier 2014 ]

[ Give yourself a £4,000 cash boost ]

My 2014 resolutions

• Reduce waste further

I’m going to cut back on all use-once items, such as baby wipes. After our success with cutting back on food waste, I’m keen to reduce waste more generally. We’ll save money and cut down on the stuff going to landfill.

• Keep on top of vouchers

I’m also planning to be more careful with vouchers. We’ve been given a number of vouchers for Christmas, but I all too often put them somewhere safe and forget about them. Over the last year I’ve found several out-of-date vouchers, which is just an irresponsible waste of money.

• I’ll set aside some money ‘me’ time

My main resolution is to set aside a regular time to manage my money each week.

I’ve been looking for ways to save money for two and a half years now, ever since I left my steady job to have my first baby.

And I have done some widespread penny pinching; I’ve cleaned my bathroom with lemons, I’ve reviewed baked beans, I’ve driven an electric car and I’ve experimented with cloth nappies for my newborn. 

But I also accidentally let my car insurance auto-renew, wasting more than £100.

[ Could you pay less for your car insurance? Compare policies now ]

And that was ridiculous; to save that much money I’d have to do more than clean my home with a lemon and some scrunched up newspaper. It’s stupid to go pinching pennies and missing the big potential savings.

So 2014 is going to be the year I ensure that never happens again. I’m going to set aside an hour a week to manage my money. Instead of relying on reminder letters, I’m going to get proactive.

Each week, I am going to spend an hour on our family finances. I’ll check the interest rates we’re earning on our savings and look for more competitive accounts. I’ll check when our various insurance products run out and add reminders to my calendar. I’ll compare and switch household bills – something that only a minority of Brits do regularly.

Setting aside a regular hour will mean I’m forced to go looking for ways to save money on our bills and I hope it will give me far greater oversight and control over our cash – and save me more than just a few pennies.

Managing your own money

If you’re in the mood for some financial fitness in 2014, the government-funded Money Advice Service is packed with useful budgeting resources. It even has a free money health check, which is a great place to start.

What are your 2014 money-saving resolutions? How could you best transform your finances? Share your plans with other readers using the comments below.

[ 10 steps to a debt-free life ]