5 Actions to Start Your Financial Detox

Just like a detox is a way to rid the body from all the nasties that can harm us, a financial detox is taking action to improve our financial health. It’s beneficial to everyone, but especially useful if you are already in debt or living from paycheck to paycheck.

Try these five things to kick-start your financial detox if you have debts or money worries.

1.     Create a Budget

The first step in your financial detox journey should be to create a budget for your spending. The best way to do this is on a spreadsheet because it allows you to track what you spend and save over time. The biggest issue with budgeting is that people don’t stick to them or lose interest. Using a spreadsheet combats this because it does the heavy lifting (maths!) for you.

2.     Prioritise Your Bills

Everyone should be prioritising their household expenses like mortgage payments and energy bills before new clothes or designer coffees, but how do you prioritise one bill against another? If you are struggling financially, there is a way to prioritise bills sensibly.

There are some great insights on prioritising your bills here that we recommend checking out, such as paying bills with the highest rate of interest before those without interest added. For example, repaying your mortgage should come before paying a bill that has more wriggle room. Read the guide to learn more!

3.     Start Using Cash

Remember cash? Those metal coins we used before we started paying for everything online and tapping our debit card in the supermarket? Well, reverting to a cash-only spending routine will help you avoid unnecessary spending and help you stay on track. It’s easy to forget about a card payment, but it’s less easy to forget about handing over physical money to someone.

4.     Take a No Spending Challenge

Tyr to boost your finances with a no-spending challenge where you only spend money on necessities, even if it’s just for a few days or a week. You can make it into a game with friends and family who also want to save for their own reasons. By including more people in on the challenge, you increase accountability to succeed, and it will consequently increase your motivation not to spend money on things you don’t necessarily need. And you could build up to a no-spend month, or even a no spend-year like this woman vlogged about.

5.     Switch Your Suppliers

It is common for homeowners and renters to stick with utility suppliers out of convenience. Picking up the phone, listening to some awful hold music and trying to find out if there are better deals available doesn’t sound like a good way to spend your Saturday morning. But by comparing suppliers in energy, internet and other bills you can save money every month. Do this often to save the most!