10 Minute Money Challenges to Get Your Finances in Order

Auditing your finances can sometimes feel like a huge chore, and jobs can often get pushed to the bottom of the to-do list. If you’ve started to lose track, this guide goes through some of the really quick things you can do to start getting your finances back in order. All of these small tasks are quick and easy to do, so they won’t take up much of your time or effort.

Check your direct debits and standing orders

A great place to start is by checking through all of your direct debits and standing orders to make sure there’s nothing you’re paying for which you shouldn’t be. You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to miss some payments coming out of your account, especially if they’re small and you’ve got a lot of them, but it’s so important to make sure you’re aware of every single one.

Go to your mobile banking app and go through the lists of direct debits and standing orders. Look at every payment and ask yourself three questions:

• do you need it?
• can you afford it?
• is it worth it?

Bills are obvious, you must pay them. But do you have a gym membership which you only use a couple of times a month? In which case, it may be worth researching into whether you can buy a day pass or pay for gym classes as you go – this could work out much cheaper if you don’t go very often.

Subscription services are another category to look at. Are you paying for three streaming services that all do the same thing? If so, can you live with just one or two of them?

This task shouldn’t take you very long at all, and you’ll be surprised at how much money you can save.

Check for any recurring payments

Another important thing to check for are any recurring payments – otherwise known as Continuous Payment Authorities (CPAs). They work essentially like a direct debit, but they’re different in the fact that they use your long debit card number instead of your account number and sort code, and the debiting company can take money whenever they think they’re owed.

The reason you need to do this separately is because they won’t appear in the lists of direct debits or standing orders, they will appear on your bank statement as if they’re a debit card payment. Most will be taken on a monthly basis, so just have a look through the last few months of bank statements and see what’s coming out regularly. However, it is best to take the time to look further back, as some of these payments may be set up as a quarterly, six monthly or quite often as an annual payment.

You may have purposefully set some of these up, Amazon Prime and Spotify are examples. In which case, apply the same three questions as mentioned in the point above and cancel any that you can live without.

However, you may have set some up by mistake and these are important to get rid of. This may have been a free trial that you forgot to cancel, or some retail websites have in the small print that you will be signed up to a monthly CPA after making your first purchase and you didn’t realise. You do have the right to cancel any CPAs that you no longer wish to pay.

Compare your bills

If you’re not somebody who compares suppliers and just let your bills roll over every year, then this task is a must.

In some cases, the difference between the cheapest and most expensive tariffs for products like gas, electricity, and insurances can be hundreds of pounds a year. So, a quick check through a comparison website could make a big difference to your finances.

This should be done just before each of your current tariffs/policies come to an end, so you don’t end up paying any early exit fees. You’ll normally just have to fill out some personal details and any information required for the specific product, then you’ll be given a list of all the providers where the cheapest one is normally at the top. With most comparison websites, they will do a lot of the work for you when it comes to switching, so you just have to select which product you want and make any relevant payments.

This won’t necessarily have any immediate effects on your finances, but it could significantly benefit you in over time.

Switch bank accounts

Switching bank accounts sounds like a massive job, but most of the major banks now offer an online 7-day switching service where they do everything for you, so actually it doesn’t take much time at all and it’s definitely worth the effort.

All you have to do is go to a comparison website which lists all of the available current accounts and compare who’s offering the best interest rates, perks, and functions. It’s important to do this every once in a while and especially when you have a change in your financial situation, for example, an increase in income or a big change in the amount you have saved.

Once you’ve decided on the best current account for you, simply go to their website and say you’d like to open an account with them and then they’ll do the rest. They’ll swap over all of your regular payments like direct debits and standing orders and the only thing you’ll have to do is give your new account details to your employer.

Remove your card details from websites

Most online retail stores give you the option to save your card details after you’ve purchased something in order to make the payment process faster next time. Whilst it’s convenient that you don’t have to fill out the details manually every time, it can actually make you spend more when all the effort is taken out of the process.

If you struggle with spending too much and you’re a bit of an impulse shopper, take some time to go through the websites where your card details are saved and remove them. Then, next time you come to purchase something from that website, having to get your card and fill out the details will just give you a little extra thinking time to decide if it’s something you really need.

This isn’t something that will dramatically change your financial situation, but it is something that will help towards curbing your spending if that’s something you struggle with.