Kerry, Author of Money Saving Journeys Shares her Money Wisdom - joleisa (2024)

Would you say you have been thrifty since childhood?

No, definitely not. As a child, I had no concept of money except for the fact that my parents wouldn’t buy me everything I wanted! They never discussed money with either myself or my brother, so we had no idea of the value of things.

As a parent myself, I also have two people who sometimes can’t understand why they can’t have everything they want – or that their friends have got. However, I do discuss money with them. They know how much money we have coming in and how much our mortgage and bills cost.

We recently paid a lump sum for my son’s driving lessons to get a better deal. He paid a quarter of the price and we paid the remaining three quarters. I was secretly really pleased when he asked me whether we could actually afford to do this and whether it would mean we had to miss out on our summer holiday, as it proves that money management is slowly sinking in.

Have you had lessons on money management in Secondary school?

No, there was nothing like this when I was a school all those years ago!

What would you say are 2 or 3 epic money fails you have had since becoming an adult?

Travel is the one thing that I will spend money on now, although these days I always save and pay for every trip when I book it.

In the past, we applied for extra credit cards just so we could book flights for a return journey to America. We had no concept of the overall cost of the credit and the interest.

For many years we did not budget. The money came in, we always paid our regular bills and then we spent the rest on whatever we wanted – travel, restaurants, cinema etc. It was great – until a bill landed on the doormat that we weren’t expecting or had forgotten was coming. We had no emergency fund either. It makes me shudder to think back now.

Did you have a frugal epiphany? What caused it, or how did you decide to develop the frugal habit?

My husband decided to train to be a driving instructor. Once qualified, he had two options – pay a big lump sum for a franchise, or to go self-employed. He went down the self-employed route. This meant that we had to come up with a sustainable budget, using just my salary, almost overnight.

He took care of his business finances and I took care of the household finances. I was surprised to find that I loved the feeling of being in control.

What are some of the things you practice now as part of a frugal lifestyle?

I have a monthly budget, a sinking funds account (which I call my reserve budget) which is for more long-term financial planning like annual insurances etc. I also have my emergency fund, because you never know what is around the corner!

What is the biggest saving you have made as a result of being frugal?

I can’t actually think of one major saving. Each year, I now check all of my payments and try and negotiate better deals for things like insurances, broadband, breakdown cover, utilities etc. I have had a range of savings from as little as £50 to more than £200. Any savings I make go straight into my savings account.

Now that you are more money savvy, what 3 pieces of advice would you give to others about handling money?

Clear your debts – to rid yourself of interest payments

Budget – set yourself a realistic budget that you can stick to and will cover everything

Save an emergency fund- when you can, put some money aside for those times when you need a little bit more

What about frugal fails? We’d love to hear a few of those too.

Buying cheap socks for the boys that then shed all over.

We also once bought a car, from a private sale, which we then ended up having to spend more on it than we’d paid for it. In the end, it had to go, but we had to get a loan to buy another car.

Kerry blogs over at Money Saving Journeys (https://moneysavingjourneys.com) all about money saving, money making and travelling on a budget.