Category: Finances

6 Steps to Financial Success as a Graduate

On By Mr WayIn FinancesLeave a comment

Top Financial Tips for New Graduates 

In my place of work I come across a lot of new graduates joining our company, fresh from University. 

This is such an exciting time in their life, as they finally start to earn their own money and create their own lifestyle. It can really be a make or break time in their financial journey. 

I’m writing this post in the hope that it helps people in this position. I wish I’d had some guidance at that stage in my life. I would have been much further ahead by now! Seeing some of the decisions made by our current graduates, I wish I could give them a helping hand with their finances!  

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Misunderstanding the FIRE Movement

On By Mr WayIn Finances, FIRE12 Comments

There has been a steady increase in the mainstream media coverage for Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE), especially here in the UK.  

While it’s a really good thing that our message is being spread to more people, this also brings a lot of frustration with it. Almost every time I have seen FIRE covered in the press, there appear to be severe misunderstandings about the principles by which us ‘followers’ live. 

The most recent example of this was an episode of Money Box Live, aired on 6th November 2019. Money Box Live is a radio programme on BBC Radio 4, covering all areas of money.

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Monthly Spending – October 2019

On By A Way to LessIn Finances, Monthly Spending2 Comments

Summary 

Our spending was almost spot on our target monthly amount in October! We aim for around £2,000 so this was a good result for us. A very low month in the transport category helped us balance out some big items elsewhere. 

We break our main expenses down into broad categories starting with the big 3; housing, food and transport. Everything else falls into the entertainment category, with any large inclusions explained in detail.  

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Africa Trip – What We Spent!

On By A Way to LessIn Africa, Finances, TravelLeave a comment

Africa Series – Part 3

We gave a rough estimate before we left that the trip would cost us in the region of £5,500 each. Was our estimate right?!

A lot of the costs were already known before we left. We had paid for the flights, the tour with G Adventures and some extra hotel nights at either end of the trip. The tour costs also included a lot of food and transport etc.

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Monthly Spending – September 2019

On By A Way to LessIn Finances, Monthly Spending3 Comments

Summary 

Back to reality this month as we tried to settle back into our routine. If you didn’t know, we went to East Africa for all of August and got engaged in July, so it has been all change!!

We break our main expenses down into broad categories starting with the big 3; housing, food and transport. Everything else falls into the entertainment category, with any large inclusions explained in detail.  

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How We Cut Our Food Shopping Bill In Half

On By A Way to LessIn Finances, Frugality, Optimisation1 Comment

Over the last few years we have gone through the process of optimising almost every aspect of our spending. One of the biggest changes has been to our food shopping bill. We managed to cut our bill by more than half! 

Food shopping is one of the biggest items in most people’s budgets. If you can manage to cut this in half like we did, it can have a huge impact on your ability to save more. All of these savings can really add up and help you to retire earlier!  

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Frugal Four – Episode 1!

On By A Way to LessIn Finances, Frugal Four, Frugality, Optimisation2 Comments

Welcome to the first in the series we’re going to call the Frugal Four! We wanted a way to share the frugal tips and tricks we’ve picked up over the years. The aim is to provide a brief summary of a few little hacks we’ve enjoyed using in the hope it inspires you to save some money yourselves!  

Without further ado, here goes! 

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Monthly Spending – July 2019

On By A Way to LessIn Finances, FIRE, Monthly Spending1 Comment

 Summary 

There was a lot going on this month – we even got engaged!!! Excluding the engagement ring and the £500 spend on US dollars for our Africa trip this month’s underlying spending was very much in line with our monthly averages. An annual insurance premium increased our usual housing spend slightly but we were broadly in line with our expected totals. 

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