A FIVEPOINT PLAN WE CAN ALL FOLLOW

I work from home, and live in the city in which most of my meetings happen, but if I am going to keep my spending below £20 this week, even my Tube and bus fares are going to have to give.

I reorganise my first meeting for Skype instead. Conversation is stilted and all I can see of one participant is his left ear. This is less than satisfactory and – unable to speak even to the barista at my local coffee shop – I am growing lonely, so I check to see if I can get to my next meeting by bike.

I can, the journey comparison website tells me, and it will only take five minutes longer than the Tube. I leave the house feeling smug. I arrive feeling shaken and looking sweaty. This too is less than ideal, and becomes even more so when others at the meeting suggest retiring to the pub.

Twenty pounds won’t stretch to a round, but networking seems important to my career prospects and thus my path to financial independence. I go, let others pay, and then wobble back home on my bike. I may have made a fiscally prudent decision, but it was physically perilous.

I decide to take the Tube and bus to my next meeting, costing me £8.

SLASHING MY BILLS

I arrange to meet Orall Cornelius, a man who bought a house in my neighbourhood, saved carefully, then wrote a book called Murder Your by Lynn James, personal finance expert and author of the blog Mrs Mummypenny Focus on your biggest monthly costs and reduce them to the smallest amount you can negotiate. Switch all of your essential bills, from energy to broadband to TV to mobile phone. Ensure that you are on the best deal for your mortgage. Move your weekly food shop away from expensive supermarkets over to budget ones. We saved £40 per week by moving from Tesco to Aldi. Have a no-spend week – or month – if you can manage it. You can spend on groceries, commuting and essential bills but nothing else. It is tough, but worth it. I have done this twice, saving £300 each time. Make the most of free fun with the family. We spend a lot of time at the park. We go running, we head out on our bikes, we love walking through the woods. We download free printables from the internet and do colouring, and we do lots of home baking. Set up a savings account for big annual events such as Christmas. I have an app called Chip, which moves money from my current account to a savings one, depending on how well I have saved or spent that week. I hardly notice it going out, it builds up nicely and the interest rate is a good three per cent.