Always carry cash

You pay for all your everyday purchases by card.

Get cash out each week and use it to pay for small purchases to keep everyday spending in check. The risk with contactless cards is that you don’t track your spending. With cards, you don’t need to know the cost, so you don’t process it. But finding the right change forces you to engage with the transaction, so you recall what you spent. Also, if you are going to put a big purchase on a card, imagine what that cash would look like. If you had £300 in your hand, would you want to spend it?