Seven Ways To Organise Your Finances

When things get overwhelming it’s a good time to sit back, assess and organise things. The new year is my favourite time to declutter and simplify my life, and that includes my finances. There’s a lot you can do to organise your finances and make your life easier. And each of these ideas shouldn’t take longer than 15 minutes to do.

Change your bank account

You could be missing out on a better deal by not changing your bank account. Just because you opened that Halifax account when you went off to university for it’s great overdraft doesn’t mean it’s the best one for you now. Some banks will even offer you deals for switching to them.

I recently switched a bank account from Halifax to HSBC and we got a £120 reward for doing so, and we didn’t have to do a thing. You can apply online and get the new bank to do all of your switch. This includes changing direct debits and notifying your employer.

Organise your finances by checking your banking app

I’m pretty sure most of us having banking apps on our phone. Most of us probably have multiple ones for different accounts and savings pot. If you don’t then download it now, this is especially important if you’ve done the idea above and changed bank. There’s no need to worry about security as most apps use bank level security so your money and data are secure.

If you already have your banks app explore it and make sure you know all of its functions and what you can and can’t do via the app. There are plenty of things you can do in app which can save you having to go into a branch like depositing a cheque.

Set up Air time rewards

Did you know you can get money off your phone bill just by shopping? Once you register you’ll get cashback on spending at certain retailers which you can then you use to get money off your monthly phone bill. If you use my affiliate code (9FXGC6KJ) you’ll get an extra reward when signing up.

To ensure you organise your finances and keep on top of it check out the app every few months to send any rewards to your phone bill. Don’t do what I did and totally forget about it then have rewards time out (oops!)

Organise your finances by sorting out your loyalty cards

Do you ever get to a store and realise you have a loyalty card for them but it’s not in your purse as you can’t fit the 60 cards you have into one purse. Download the app Stocard and you can scan all of your loyalty cards into one place and just show them in store to be scanned. I’ve done this and it saves me carrying so many things around and means I won’t lose out on points.

When you’re loading your loyalty cards into the app it’s worth logging into your various accounts to see how many points you have. Then check out if they have expiry dates so you don’t miss out on any rewards.

Check your council tax band

Council tax bands were set in 1991 and based on house values at that time (2003 in Wales). So there’s plenty of room for errors and mistakes. You can check what band you are on through the Valuation Office Agency in England and Wales. Then you can compare to see what bands your neighbours are on. Make sure y0u only compare properties that are as close as possible in both size and value. You can check out Zoopla for some of this info if you’re not sure. If you are on a higher hand to them you may be able to make a claim by challenging your band at gov.uk.

This was the bane of my life for a number of months as when we moved into our house we were the only property in a particularly high band. We contested it as there were loads of other properties with the same number of rooms, and the same or higher value, but we were denied a change. Can you tell I’m still a bit bitter about it?!

Organise your finances by shredding some paperwork

Having too much paperwork can make organisation really difficult. I did a whole post about how long to keep your paperwork for so check through your financial paperwork and get rid of anything you don’t need. Make sure you have a shredder to get rid of anything with your name, address or financial details. If there’s anything you want to keep look at backing it up digitally. If you have an iPhone you can scan documents through notes by using your camera.

Sort out your wallet

I’m sure we all carry things in our purse or wallet that we don’t really need. You can organise your finances by just sorting it out and getting rid of anything you don’t need. Chuck out old receipts you know you don’t need and put aside loyalty cards that you’ve added to Stocard.

How do you organise your finances?

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